Week 9 of the 2025 NFL season was full of surprises. Last week’s action-packed slate of games, paired with Tuesday’s flurry of moves at the NFL trade deadline, should have plenty of fantasy football managers confused heading into Week 10.
Sometimes it can be difficult to separate the message from the noise. In this case, that means telling which disappointing fantasy games actually mean something, vs. which ones are just random happenstance.
So which fantasy players simply had a bad game in Week 9?
Below we will explore three fantasy football players who struggled in Week 9 who you shouldn’t worry about moving forward.
Jonathan Taylor finally has a bad day against the Steelers
Robert Goddin-Imagn Images
Jonathan Taylor has been one of the most dominant players in fantasy football this season.
Now only does he have a high floor, but Taylor also routinely delivers huge knockout punches than can win a game for you. In fact, Taylor has scored three or more touchdowns in four games so far this season.
So what went wrong in Week 9 against the Steelers?
Taylor only managed 14 carries for 45 rushing yards in one of Indy’s two losses on the season.
Part of the problem was the game script going against the Colts’ usual style. The Steelers scored 17 unanswered points in the second quarter, which put the Colts behind the eight ball for the rest of the game.
It also didn’t help that Daniel Jones threw three interceptions, making the game even more difficult.
You should trust the talent with Taylor. He has already proven that he can dominate with the Colts this season and could easily get back on track in Week 10 against the Falcons.
Start JT and don’t look back.
Patrick Mahomes was under an absurd amount of pressure vs. Bills
Believe it or not, Mahomes is the number one quarterback for fantasy football after Week 9. I know it is shocking considering his awful Week 9 game against the Bills, but it is true.
Mahomes went 15-of-34 for 250 passing yards with one interception against the Bills. It was a shocking performance that only netted him 10.5 fantasy points according to ESPN’s PPR scoring. Only eight quarterbacks were worse than Mahomes in Week 9, which is wild considering that list is padded with guys like Tyson Bagent and Davis Mills.
One reason why Mahomes struggled so much in Week 9 was because he was under constant pressure. In fact, he was under pressure on 52.6% of his dropbacks. That is the highest pressure rate Mahomes has faced in any of his nine matchups against Buffalo going back to 2020.
There’s no other way to slice it. Mahomes was completely terrible in Week 9 against a motivated Bills defense.
But that does not doom him to repeat that performance during the rest of the fantasy football season.
Mahomes has thrived throughout the 2025 fantasy season because of his low turnover ratio (four interceptions in nine games) and his scrambling ability. He has four rushing touchdowns and almost 300 rushing yards so far this season.
While Mahomes will not give you many monster games that singlehandedly win you the week, he is the steadiest quarterback in fantasy football right now.
Mahomes is a high-floor, high-ceiling QB1 who is a must-start after Kansas City’s Week 10 bye.
Jahmyr Gibbs had season-low touches during brutal loss to Vikings
Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Perhaps no Week 9 performance was more surprising than Jahmyr Gibbs.
The superstar running back has dominated Detroit’s backfield ever since joining the Lions back in 2023. But he had a truly terrible game after Detroit got dismantled by Minnesota.
Gibbs only managed nine rushing attempts for 25 rushing yards against the Vikings. That made it his worst rushing performance since Week 1 and his worst overall fantasy performance of the season. Beyond that, it was Gibbs’ worst fantasy performance of his entire career.
The reason why I’m bringing the historical context in here is to show how rare a performance like this is for Gibbs.
No player on Detroit’s offense gets the ball more than Gibbs. He has 113 carries and 31 targets in the receiving game through eight games. That puts him healthily above even Amon-Ra St. Brown, who has 74 targets and three carries.
If you drafted Gibbs, you almost certainly did so in the first round. So it is impossible to move on from him. And it would be foolish if you tried.
Gibbs is an incredible RB1 for the rest of the season. Better yet, he has a fortunate schedule for the rest of the fantasy football season that makes him an ideal player to have.
Detroit faces off against the Commanders in Week 10, Giants, in Week 12, and Cowboys in Week 14. All of these teams have weak run defense units, which should mean massive games for Gibbs.
Stick with Gibbs and he could help you win a fantasy championship.
The post Jonathan Taylor, Jahmyr Gibbs and other Fantasy Football bad beats not to stress over appeared first on ClutchPoints.
