Each week, you can try to predict the perfect fantasy lineup on NFL.com for a chance to win $1 million. Never played before? Don't worry, it's super simple and it's completely free. All you have to do is select who you think will be the highest scoring player at each position in a given week. Easy. And it gets better, as starting from now on, each week I'll collect the perfect lineup from each of our fantasy experts to try and help guide you all to the $1 million prize. Haven't joined NFL Perfect Challenge yet or bothered to play? Don't worry, you can get started in just a few seconds **RIGHT HERE**.
Now, before we get to our analysts picks, I feel that I must mention that three people were within two picks of winning the $1 million prize last week. THREE! So if you didn't think this was possible, think again. Who couldn't use an extra $1 million with the holidays coming up? I know I sure could. Anyway, let's take a look at the top scoring player from Week 8 and see what went right, and what went wrong in his quest for the grand prize.
TroyHeinrich84's Week 8 lineup
Man, hats off to Troy for coming thisclose to taking home that $1 million. Heading into Sunday night with Aaron Rodgers and Randall Cobb still to go, he had to be feeling pretty good about his chances, too. Especially after they connected on a 70-yard touchdown on the opening drive. He rode with some top options in Arian Foster, Matt Forte and Rob Gronkowski, but was also bold enough to pick Jeremy Maclin as one of his receivers. Alas, this was just another example of how hard it is to predict the perfect fantasy lineup. So, with that in mind, let's see what our crop of "experts" have pegged for Week 9.
Week 9 analyst picks
Marcas Grant
Marcas is off to a solid start after Mark Ingram ripped off 100 rushing yards and two touchdowns on Thursday Night Football. Then again, we all are as each of us picked Ingram as one of our running backs. Marcas is hedging his bets at quarterback on Colin Kaepernick, who lit up the Rams secondary when the teams faced off earlier this season. Ronnie Hillman isn't a bad choice at running back against the banged up Patriots front seven, and Andrew Hawkins is a frisky play at wide receiver. Ultimately if Marcas' team gets close to the $1 million here it will be because Andy Reid has finally realized what an asset Travis Kelce is and feeds him the ball on Sunday.
Matt Franciscovich
In Franchise's (our nickname for Franciscovich) defense, I made him submit his lineup to me earlier in the week, so he was unaware that Gio would be out. I'll let him update it later, but otherwise he made some great early choices with Ingram and Jimmy Graham both putting up excellent numbers. His Kelvin Benjamin pick will ultimately spoil his chances, however, as Benjamin was blanketed by the Saints all night and dropped what would have been a touchdown. Oh well. Better luck next week for Matt!
Alex Gelhar
Once again, we'll wrap this up with my own picks for the perfect fantasy lineup for Week 9. I know Lynch's touches have been down recently, but you have to think the Seahawks eventually return to the ground game that made them such a force in recent years. I'm going to ride or die with my wide receiver picks, though. Maclin isn't too crazy given how the Texans secondary has given up gobs of points, but Hopkins is the riskier play. I have him rostered in most leagues and have been keenly watching him in most games. I know Ryan Fitzpatrick is the ultimate barrier to his success, but let's just say I think Hopkins is due for a mosnter game, and the matchup against the porous Eagles secondary could be the perfect opportunity for Nuk to explode in fantasy football.
Anyway, that's how our perfect lineups lined up (see what I did there?) for Week 9. I'm doubting any of us will win the $1 million dollars, but that's OK, we're here to help YOU win it after all. So what are you waiting for? Sign up for NFL Perfect Challenge and prove that you're indeed smarter than all of us. I'll gladly celebrate with you if and when you take home that grand prize. So keep me posted.
-- Follow Alex on Twitter @AlexGelhar.
