My Week 8 NFL bold predictions weren’t along the lines of, “The Jets will beat the Bengals in Cincinnati” or “Miami QB Tua Tagovailoa will throw 4 touchdowns and rack up 24.4 fantasy points,” because there’s boldness and there’s absurdity.
Welp, last week, absurdity reigned.
The Jets did beat Cincy, and Tua did toss 4 tuddies, and fantasy football predictors all over the world were like, “Seriously?”
All of which makes me want to get ballsier than ever in my NFL Week 9 bold predictions for fantasy football. Because if the Miami Dolphins can win a game, anything’s possible.
NFL Week 9 Bold Predictions for Fantasy Football
1) Lions RBs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery Could Each Rack Up 125+ Rushing Yards
Lions vs. Vikings: 1:00 p.m ET, FOX
Coming into the season, some pundits (not me, but some) had the Minnesota Vikings equaling or improving upon last season’s surprise 14-3 record. Me, I had them landing around .500, because surprise isn’t sustainable.
Heading into the halfway point of the season, the Vikes (3-4) are in the NFC North’s cellar with a middling defense that allows an average of 130.4 rushing yards per game, 20th-most in the league.
Taken in a vacuum, 130.4 isn’t terrible, but it is vulnerable, and if there’s any current NFL backfield that can take advantage of vulnerability, it’s the Detroit Lions, as Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery have combined for 881 rushing yards, an average of 125.8 per game.
I’m so bold that, as the above H3 headline tells us, I have them all but doubling that. But if Tua tossed a quartet of TDs, anything goes.
Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs PrizePicks Projection: 70.5 Rushing Yards, 20.5 Receiving Yards
2) Packers QB Jordan Love Could Throw For 425+ Yards
Packers vs. Panthers: 1:00 p.m. ET, FOX
Let’s stay in the NFC North for a sec.
Last Sunday night, facing a not-too-shabby Steelers D in Pittsburgh, Utah State product Jordan Love tossed for 360 yards. And to reiterate, that was against a not-too-shabby D. And to further reiterate, that was on the road.
This coming Sunday afternoon, the Pack host the Carolina Panthers and their middling pass defense (15th in the league, dead center), and Love is on a heater, and the Cats D isn’t — the Bills hit them with a 40-burger last Sunday — so Love’s single-game career passing yardage high of 389 might just be in jeopardy.
Packers QB Jordan Love PrizePicks Projection: 245.5 Passing Yards
3) We Might Finally See the Caleb Williams Game
Bears @ Bengals, 1:00 p.m., CBS
The Cincinnati Bengals defense, in a word, stinks.
In their last two games, they’ve allowed, respectively, 39 and 33 points, and save for their opening day 17-16 win over Cleveland, they’ve yet to keep a team below 27 points. They’ve given up the most points in the league (253), and allow the seventh-most fantasy points to opposing QBs.
Enter Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams.
The former Heisman winner hasn’t had a bad season — he’s QB15 in fantasy, and his 4 TD outing in Week 3 was a thing of beauty — but it’s not really worthy of a top pick. Making things more frustrating for Williams, the Bears front office, and Chicago fans throughout the land, Denver’s Bo Nix and New England’s Drake Maye — a pair of quarterbacks selected after Williams in the 2025 NFL Draft — both rank in the top-20 in the MVP race, as per pretty much all of Las Vegas.
But facing the Bengals, that whole we-should’ve-drafted-Nix thing could go out the window, and we might just see 350+ passing yards, 50+ rushing yards, and 3+ passing TDs from the highly-touted USC standout.
Bears QB Caleb Williams PrizePicks Projection: 230.5 passing yards, 18.5 rushing yards
4) Bills QB Josh Allen Could Have the Statistical Game of His Life
Bills vs. Chiefs, 4:25 p.m. ET, CBS
If you’re a calendar-circler, I’m 110% certain you have Sunday’s Bills-Chiefs clash marked with 11 Sharpies. Maybe 12.
This has become one of the most enjoyable rivalries in the NFL — unless, of course, you’re a Buffalo native, in which case you despise the team that’s booted your team out of the postseason four times since 2000.
Admittedly, Allen hasn’t been super-great against the Chiefs, with combined regular-season and playoff numbers that look a little somethin’ like this:
- Passing Yards: 1,261
- Average Passing Yards: 252.2 per game
- Passing Touchdowns: 10
- Interceptions: 3
- Rushing Yards: 267
- Average Rushing Yards: 53.4 per game
- Rushing Touchdowns: 2
Not awesome, not terrible, just solid. But after watching Buffalo dismantle Carolina on Sunday, it seems like Allen et al found their mojo after a wobbly 4-2 start. So facing a Chiefs team that hit the road after a short week, Josh might go bonkers and make wife Hailee Steinfeld really, really proud.
Bills QB Josh Allen PrizePicks Projection: 238.5 Passing Yards, 34.5 Rushing Yards
Will this batch of nutty prognostications come to fruition? Who the heck knows, but one thing we do know is you can win real money on PrizePicks with your NFL predictions.
Just pick More or Less on at least two player projections and potentially win real cash with your picks every week.
And follow Playbook for the entire NFL season, where you'll always enjoy boldness galore.
