Best Week 9 Moves From Our Experts: Grab the Right Kicker To Win This Week

Best Week 9 Moves

Whether you're playing redraft or dynasty, knowing what moves to make is crucial to success.

That's why we're having each of our fantasy football experts give you one move to take advantage of this week.

Take your Team for a Loop 

Alex Korff 

See what I did there? 

Kickers are often an afterthought in fantasy football, but not for me. I developed a kicker model in 2023 that has consistently helped Draft Sharks produce some of the best kicker rankings in fantasy football. I spend way too much time thinking about kickers, so you don’t have to. Here are some guys that I believe could replace your current kicker for this week:

Tyler Loop - Loop is rostered in 72% of Sleeper leagues, but he should be at 100% this week with a great matchup at Miami. The weather looks great, and Lamar should be back and (hopefully) healthy. The Ravens started this season strong, but the entire offense has been disappointing without Lamar. I like Loop as a top 4 option this week.

Eddy Pineiro - Pineiro is 69% rostered on Sleeper and looks to be a top 3 option this week. One of the metrics in my model examines offensive strength and the tendency to stall in the red zone. San Fran has the best offensive model score through the last 4 weeks. Houston was a tough matchup last week. I expect Pineiro to be a top option vs a much weaker Giants team.

Joshua Karty - Karty is rostered in 13% of Sleeper leagues and is in a great position this week. The Rams are playing in a dome, 14-point favorites, and have an implied total of nearly 29 points. Karty scores below average in the model as a kicker, but not enough to warrant concern about his output this week. He is a great plug-and-play kicker for Week 9.

Buy Rico Dowdle

Jared Smola

Dowdle owners have watched their once-dominant producer turn into just a RB3 over the last two weeks. That creates a buying opportunity ahead of an incoming rebound in volume.

Dowdle has clearly been Carolina’s best RB since Chuba Hubbard returned. Dowdle has turned 26 touches into 150 yards over the last two weeks, while Hubbard has produced just 89 yards on 28 touches.

The advanced metrics favor Dowdle, too.

And it sounds like the Panthers are about to shift work back toward their more effective back. 

“Wanted to give Chuba the opportunity to go out there and to continue to impact our team in a positive way. We can not ignore the fact that Rico has been exceptional in a couple of games,” HC Dave Canales said Monday. “In the opportunities he’s had over the last two weeks, he’s made some excellent plays. And these are all things that we’re talking about and working through this week as we look back on these last four games and really taking a snapshot of what’s been successful for us. These are conversations that we do definitely have to have.”

The Athletic’s Joe Person came away from that press conference believing that Dowdle will get “the lion's share of carries” going forward.

If that’s the case, we could be looking at a top-20 fantasy RB in an offense that has leaned heavily on the run over the last four weeks.

Stash Tre Harris

Jody Smith

Keenan Allen, Ladd McConkey, and Quentin Johnston are all regular fantasy contributors, but Tre Harris has quietly led the Chargers receiving corps in snaps in two of the last three games. 

Greg Roman has used 22 personnel on 8.9% of his plays. That’s the third-highest rate in the league. Harris is often the single WR on the field for these snaps. Harris has caught multiple passes in LA's last three games while playing 60.6% of the snaps.

Meanwhile, Quentin Johnston just played a season-low 38 snaps and wasn't targeted against the Vikings.

The Chargers also have the seventh-easiest remaining schedule for WRs, which includes a Week 16 playoff matchup against a Dallas defense that has allowed the most fantasy points to WRs. 

View Harris as an ascending depth target who can be stashed in deeper leagues. 

Start David Montgomery Against the Vikings

Shane Hallam

This season has been a struggle for Montgomery, ceding more work to Jahmyr Gibbs. In 2024, Montgomery averaged 15.8 touches per game. This year, it has dropped to 12.7. In Lions’ wins, that increased to 13.8. Against teams outside the top 10 in rush defense DVOA, that increases to 14.75. This week, the Vikings rank 15th in defensive DVOA.  

This week against the Vikings, the Lions are 8.5-point favorites and are implied to score 28.5 points. That sets up a favorable game script for Montgomery. The high implied total bodes well for Montgomery having an opportunity to score a goal-line TD. If the Lions get ahead, they can lean on Montgomery to control the clock.

He certainly isn’t an every-week fantasy starter, but this week I’m comfortable taking the risk in any scoring format. 13-15 touches and a TD should be enough for high-end RB2 numbers this week. 

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Shane Hallam, Writer

Shane has over 20 years of experience creating content and playing every fantasy football format, including redraft, dynasty, devy, C2C, IDP, CFF, and more. He is a multi-year winner of $500 dynasty leagues on the FFPC and a King's Classic Champion. Shane utilizes deep film and scheme study to enhance his fantasy performance. He led the industry in 2024 preseason Kicker Rankings and ranked second in preseason QB Rankings. He also ranked eighth in preseason IDP rankings.