It is time for the bye weeks to take a toll on fantasy football with the arrival of Week 9 of the NFL season. Here is how you can use those bye weeks to make some money on DraftKings. This time of year is tough for season-long fantasy football players. Week 9 features six teams on bye. Those six teams are the Indianapolis Colts, Cincinnati Bengals, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals and Jacksonville Jaguars. That is a big hit for the fantasy community. Not only in terms of productive players but there are talented defensive groups that have been used for fantasy. Regardless of the teams missing action, this is a good week to use your knowledge to take home some cash on DraftKings. Just like in the NFL, it all starts with the quarterback position. Quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs @ Cleveland Browns $7100 The leader in the club house for MVP started off slowly a week ago but rebounded on his way to throwing another four touchdowns. Patrick Mahomes is taking the NFL by storm in his first season at the helm. Kansas City this week travels to Cleveland against the pesky Browns, who just fired their head coach. Cleveland’s defense ranks in the better half of the league in surrendering points to quarterbacks. There is talent at every level and a pass rusher in Myles Garrett that can take over a game. The defense leads the NFL in interceptions with 12. Mahomes will likely continue his hot streak and pay dividends even on what could be considered a tough matchup. Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers $6600 Quietly Cam Newton is having his best statistical season of his career. New coordinator Norv Turner has the Panthers utilizing Newton’s ability to run and taking the patented shots that the big play quarterback thrives on. This week they are at home against the Buccaneers in a NFC South battle. Tampa Bay is the friendliest fantasy defense to opposing quarterbacks. Newton and the Panthers offense should have another big day in a much easier test than the faced last week in Baltimore. If Newton can do what he did against the Ravens this game could get ugly in a hurry. Deshaun Watson, Houston Texans @ Denver Broncos $6300 Another player that is showing his wide range of talents on the football field is Houston’s Deshaun Watson. After recovering from a knee injury, Watson is playing elite football despite a porous offensive line. Things will get tougher with the loss of Will Fuller but Houston is sniffing around the wide receiver market leading up to the trade deadline. Watson has a tough test with the defense of Denver. The Broncos still have an elite pass rusher and corner to give the Houston offense trouble. This matchup does not look as good as some other top priced options. Kirk Cousins, Minnesota Vikings vs Detroit Lions $6200 Statistically Kirk Cousins had a fine game last week against the Saints. However, the Vikings are not looking for fine from the highest paid free agent signing in the NFL. Sunday night’s game was the game that Cousins was supposed to win in Minnesota. Another positive matchup awaits this week in Detroit. The Lions defense ranks 11th in points given up to the quarterback position. Cousins will find success moving the ball this weekend. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints vs Los Angeles Rams $6100 The other quarterback from Sunday night’s game, Drew Brees, is in the midst of running the NFC gauntlet. After defeating Minnesota he gets the best team in the conference in Los Angeles. Brees is humming along with 14 touchdowns to only one interception. He’s asked to do much less with Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram carrying the offensive load. However, he is going to be needed against a Rams defense that is vulnerable through the air. Los Angeles is an elite team but their back end can be had, and Brees may be the guy to do it. If the Saints give him time with Kamara, Ingram and Michael Thomas as weapons, New Orleans may give the Rams a run for their money. Value Quarterbacks Jared Goff, Los Angeles Rams @ New Orleans Saints $6000 Right from Drew Brees to the opposing quarterback. Jared Goff has been criminally under priced for most of the season. Goff may be the sixth highest priced quarterback but his upside represents value. He’s coming off a three touchdown game in a close game. There is no signs this offense is going to slow down. Until Goff is priced inside the top five consistently, he will offer value. He gets a Saints defense that has been up and down most of the season. The dynamic Rams offense will score points and Goff is the best bet to out perform his price point on that unit. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Carolina Panthers $5500 One of the cheapest options at the starting quarterback position is Ryan Fitzpatick. Now that he is once again the starting quarterback, he takes over a prolific passing offense. No team in NFL history has thrown for more yards as a team than the Buccaneers through seven games. With the team needing points, Fitzpatrick is the perfect flyer at the position.<doc-sep>Week 9 of the NFL season is here, and Cortana is back to make picks in a head-to-head showdown with Elo. Advertisement We looked at two popular systems used to pick NFL games: Cortana , Microsoft's digital assistant, and Elo , the modeling system used by Nate Silver's data-journalism site, FiveThirtyEight. In both cases, the computers are picking outright winners and not against the spread. However, each gives a likelihood that a team will win - which, in theory, could help measure the strength of certain lines.Cortana is off to a strong start this season, correctly picking 74% of the games over the last five weeks - including 11-3 last week - and 70% overall. Elo has nailed 70% over the last five weeks, was 11-3 last week, and is at 63% overall. Here are the picks for Week 9, with each model's percent chance of winning in parentheses. Point spreads are for reference, via Vegas Insider as of Thursday morning.<doc-sep>While the Pittsburgh Steelers returned from the bye-week in convincing fashion, the same cannot for said about the BTSC staff picks. As bad as Jeff Hartman’s selection after going 8-5 against the spread and 6-7 versus the totals, my picks were even worse at 7-6 ATS and 5-8 versus the totals. If we were depended upon our winning bets to live, we would clearly both starve. Having seen five games split by a spread of more than 8-points last Sunday, only three games feature a line higher than 6.5-points in Week 9. A number of expected close contests has six games showing a spread of three points or less and there are several road teams that look good value to win their matchups this weekend. Pittsburgh maintained their position at the top of the AFC North with a convincing win over the Cleveland Browns and gained some daylight over the Baltimore Ravens after they lost to the Carolina Panthers. If the Steelers cannot take care of business against the Ravens (-3) at M&T Bank Stadium in their rematch, the Cincinnati Bengals on a bye-week would take the lead in the division once again and Baltimore would pull within half a game of Pittsburgh. Selections have been made using the consensus Las Vegas odds from VegasInsider.com as per Friday night and we encourage you to play along with us by adding your picks below.<doc-sep>
The Telegraph Two of the surprise packages of this clay-court season have been British – initially Dan Evans, who made a deep run in Monte Carlo, and more lately Cameron Norrie, who played his second final in three weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, Norrie wasn’t able to land a maiden ATP title in Lyon. But then he was up against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been the dominant force of 2021 outside the slams, and now stands at No 1 in the table of most rankings points gained since January 1. Nevertheless, it had been a hugely creditable effort for Norrie to go this far, especially when you consider that he took out top seed Dominic Thiem on Thursday, and then trounced big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov in Saturday’s semi-final, losing only two games in the process. Norrie has come to clay late in his career, but it feels like this is developing into his favourite surface. He has one of the heaviest left-handed forehands in the game, loaded with top-spin, and uses it like a miniature version of Rafael Nadal. The result has been a tally of 14 wins and only four losses since he began his European clay-court swing in Barcelona. So while the French Open, which starts next Sunday, has traditionally been a graveyard of British hopes, there are reasons to hope that this year’s event could deliver some more positive results. Norrie’s previous final in Estoril had been a nervewracking affair which he eventually lost on a deciding-set tie-break to the more experienced Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sunday was more straightforward for Tsitsipas, who needed only 69 minutes to hammer home a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It was Tsitsipas’ second title of the clay-court sequence, after he won Monte Carlo in mid-April, taking out Evans in the semi-final along the way. He has become a serious contender to upset the establishment – specifically Nadal and Novak Djokovic – at Roland Garros over the next few weeks. “I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament,” said Tsitsipas afterwards. “I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron, who has been showing great tennis this week. He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. “It was not an easy match today. I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focused towards my goal.” On this year’s results, meanwhile, both Evans and Norrie stand among the world’s 20 most successful men. Evans is at No 16 and Norrie No 14. The next challenge for them both is to convert that ATP Tour form into a deep run at a major.