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John Laghezza's fantasy football bold predictions for Week 9 of the 2025 NFL season. Expert predictions for Kyle Monangai, Cam Ward, Caleb Williams and more.
Friday can only mean I'm fresh out of an A.I.-inspired boldness quote wormhole, and Big John's got a new favorite — "The mind, ever the willing servant, will respond to boldness, for boldness, in effect, is a command to deliver mental resources." Whoa. Deep philosophies aside, forget the boring mean projections for one second; we're here to move the needle. Place security over freedom, and you'll lose both while deserving neither.
Welcome back to yet another edition of my RotoBaller bold predictions for the upcoming Week 9 Sunday slate. I'll help put a bow on every workweek with a handful of high-risk, high-reward takes and outlier calls to give you an unexpected boost. At the end of the season, there's only one winner.
A few of the more important fantasy teams, like Philly and Tampa, are on bye, adding extra stress to the waves of injuries taxing our rosters. At this point, daring moves make the difference. No guts, no glory.
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Bijan Robinson Flops Again...
Why not kick off the Halloween season with a nasty trick? Bijan Robinson hung a measly 7.8 fantasy points against the woeful Dolphins in last weekend's mega-flop of the century. Honestly, I cannot remember a player finishing a game healthy, yet still nearly 100 yards short of projected scrimmage yards. Ouch. Did Miami's defense suddenly figure it out? Well, Thursday Night Football already provided our answer — not even close.
Atlanta's in a tailspin offensively, beyond the single-game disaster with Kirk Cousins under center. We're two full months into 2025 with the Falcons sitting in the bottom five in scoring (17.1) and the bottom 10 in EPA/play (-0.04). Every good defense or road matchup throws the entire operation off kilter — and this weekend, they'll see both. ATL averages just 10.7 PPG away from Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It's been a brutal watch.
Penciling Drake London back into the lineup should theoretically add a boost to ATL's ecosystem, but since Christian Gonzalez returned for NE, few teams allow less production to opposing WRs — only Chris Olave eclipsed 70 receiving yards in their last six games. That's a decent stretch.
Is Michael Penix even going to return, and if so, is he healthy? Mike Vrabel's doing a fantastic job pushing all the right buttons with New England's defense — Milton Williams and Christian Barmore don't get the credit deserved for being such impactful game disruptors, particularly by creating constant pressure without necessitating a blitz.
The Patriots rank in the top three in EPA/rush (0.14), yards before contact/carry (0.71), and fantasy points allowed to RB/game (11.6). No easy matchup here.
Hard to fade this smile... but fortune favors the bold, right?
Bijan Robinson makes it a 3-point game against SF 🫡 pic.twitter.com/7dLR0rjS85
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) October 20, 2025
Kyle Monangai Racks Up Second RB1 Finish In Three Weeks
Stars are aligning for Chicago's Kyle Monangai, the far less popular seventh-round rookie RB heading into this weekend. D'Andre Swift continues to impress for the (4-3) Bears, though it hasn't earned him an increasing share of touch load. Monangai's shown true versatility from the backfield, producing as both a runner and pass-catcher — and maybe most importantly, he's earned half of the team's goal-to-go carries this season.
Somewhat out of left field, Swift happened to pop up on the injury report with a bum groin during the week. With Swift now ruled out, it's all bullish for Monangai in a dream matchup versus Cincinnati — the league's stone-cold worst defense in terms of success rate (46.9%), EPA/carry (-0.14), rushing yards allowed/game (151.9), and RB fantasy points/game (28.2). Wheels up.
#Bears Friday Injury Report pic.twitter.com/yltDoeilf5
— Bears Communications (@BearsPR) October 31, 2025
Caleb Williams Delivers QB1 Deep Dish Treat
It's always hard to ignore the most recent data points — but when you're backing a fantasy roller coaster like Caleb Williams, it comes with the territory. So far this season, Williams either finished inside the top ten or outside the top 20 every single week... with nothing in between.
We can pick up the spreadsheet argument where Monangai's left off — these Bengals may be even worse defending the pass than the run. How is that even possible? And just in case you planned on reaching for the positive regression argument, I'd pump the brakes. Cincinnati's lone redeeming star on defense, DE Trey Hendrickson (hip) is out.
We may not have seen the worst of this unit yet.
Last time Chicago faced this poor a defensive secondary versus Dallas, Williams went (298-4-0; 5-12-0) as the week's QB2. Did I forget to mention CIN's also dead last defensively in snaps/splash plays (4.0), +20-yard receptions (30), and yards after catch/reception (6.7)? With time to operate, Ben Johnson should have all types of goodies dialed up to get this Bears offense back on track.
All I know is there's going to be a lot of angry Chicago fans if they fail to light up the scoreboard Sunday.
Caleb Williams making magic happen
NOvsCHI on FOX/FOX Onehttps://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/HusY407pYT
— NFL (@NFL) October 19, 2025
Cam Ward Posts His Very First QB1 Finish
Generally, when I'm doing bold predictions or outlier calls, a big piece of me genuinely believes it's going to hit. We study the data, grind the tapes, and make a call that could cash in a +90th percentile outcome. Sometimes, a lot of work goes into being wrong. That said, Cam Ward breaking out this Sunday for the first QB1 finish of his career is coming purely from the oversized gut.
I just watched (and re-watched) every dropback from the number one pick's rookie campaign so far... and it's bad. Separate from my issues with the lackluster play-calling, anytime Ward seemingly gets things going on a drive, it feels destined to end in either a back-breaking sack or a pick. However, the NFL is so incredibly hard a game that even all-time greats struggle at times.
Long story short, it's about the greater body of work, and any progression warrants attention.
After getting summarily embarrassed in a 26-0 shutout at Houston, at least OC Nick Holz decided not to go down without a fight. Since Week 5, Tennessee has adopted a more aggressive approach, vaulting to fourth-highest in terms of pass rate (70.0%) with an average depth of target increase of over a full yard (8.2). Beyond that, the results are still pretty horrendous — though consistently entering games as double-digit underdogs should provide the necessary game script for this miracle breakout.
The positive trend in EPA is encouraging, but still far from great.
Ward's 1,001 passing yards rank eighth over the last month, helped along by the emergence of rookie WR Chimere Dike. Impressive enough from the slot to force Tyler Lockett's release, the third-round rookie out of Florida led all Titans' pass-catchers in every major category in that same timeframe. Creating more high-probability throws is something we probably should've seen much earlier from Tennessee, but better late than never, I guess.
Jim Harbaugh's going to be in his defensive bag as always, looking to add to the Bolts' top ten sack total despite a bottom ten blitz rate. Another red flag for our rookie's chances, though, like they say, when the fantasy gods close a door, they open a window — Los Angeles' every-down CB1 and passes-defended leader Tarheeb Still banged up his MCL last weekend, hasn't practiced, and is listed as doubtful.
Fellow TEN rookie WR Elic Ayomanor gets a boost as a consequence, another important element in getting Ward this top-12 finish.
So in conclusion — if Ward flops, don't look at me, but if he goes totally bananas, expect a massive victory lap. Fair deal, right? Happy Halloween! And please be safe!
Starting to see some slow progression re: EPA from Titan's rookie QB Cam Ward
Keep the sacks down & TEN's second half could be relatively bright#Titans pic.twitter.com/llktjBmUxA
— John" data-id="25333">John" data-id="25333">John" data-id="25333">John Laghezza MLB / NFL Moving Averages (@JohnLaghezza) October 30, 2025
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