Seven weeks in, and we’re officially heading into chaos season. Injuries continue to pile up, veteran QBs begin eyeing the retirement home, and some blockbuster moves dominated the headlines. If last season was the year of unmatched mayhem, this season is the understated sibling that might just be gearing up for something wild.
Week 8 Game Notes
- Rumble Wrinkle 1, Baltimore @ Tampa Bay: We’ve got another interesting Thursday nighter this week, with both teams in flux. The Ravens have looked badly out of sorts the last few weeks, despite their victory against the Browns. Tampa Bay is floundering. After a horrible loss to the Steelers in Week 6, it seemed like Tom Brady would invoke the wrath of, well, Tom Brady after a bad loss. Instead, the Bucs got flattened by Carolina, one of the worst teams in the league, mere days after trading their franchise cornerstone. Games like this are hard to predict, but if I was a betting man, and I am, I’m erring closer to a lower scoring affair than a shootout. If you told me the final score ended up 24-20 with no player having a particularly noteworthy night, I wouldn’t be shocked.
- Rumble Wrinkle 2, Denver @ Jacksonville (London): Hard pass.
- Miami @ Detroit: This game has the highest o/u on the week at 51.5 points, but the Lions are officially in panic mode, despite an entertaining Hard Knocks season. The Dolphins continue to feed Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill, Tua is back, and the Dolphins aerial assault could pay dividends. Until recently, running it back with the Lions would likely have been a solid choice, but the team has looked out of sorts of late, with Jared Goff reverting to the Jared Goff of yesteryear, rather than earlier-this-year.
- Cardinals @ Vikings: The matchup is offensively intriguing on paper, but the Kyler-Kingsbury combo has become so hard to trust of late. DeAndre Hopkins immediately slotted in as a high-volume WR1 but is without an ALL DAY Moment. The Cardinals did put up 42 points last week, though largely a function of their defense. Expect Justin Jefferson to have huge ownership once again next week, and if you believe in a stack that will undoubtedly be low-owned, you could hold your breath and pair him with Kirk Cousins.
- Giants @ Seahawks: Could have some major upside for Saquon Barkley, and I expect he’ll be near the top of the leaderboard. Unfortunately Kenneth Walker is still ALL DAY Moment-less, but Tyler Lockett looks tasty and Will Dissly or Noah Fant could be sneaky options given New York’s inability to cover the tight end and DK Metcalf’s likely absence.
- Green Bay @ Buffalo: Must have looked great when the schedule-makers slotted it for SNF many moons ago. Green Bay is now in a tailspin with 3 straight L’s and a passing attack that is without a reliable pass catcher. While the GB Defense is certainly not their issue, Buffalo stacks will undoubtedly be highly owned.
- Cincinnati @ Cleveland: Can Burrow and Chase make it three straight weeks anchoring our winning lineup? I’m not betting against them, but this is likely to be the week the field goes all in and there are other ways to get different.
Week 8 Other Stacks and Sleepers
- Jalen Hurts + A.J. Brown – Here’s a weird one for you. Despite some great performances and a very strong rushing floor, Jalen Hurts has not seen his ownership reach double digits yet this season. Pittsburgh will almost certainly try to slow things down, the same way they did against Miami with a methodical ground approach, but the high-flying Eagles offense could be a lot more difficult to stop than the Dolphins. This game doesn’t have a particularly robust o/u total, which could make it even more appealing for Hurts and Brown owners.
- Davis Mills & Brandin Cooks – Want to go way off the board? Well, here you go. Davis Mills was actually the QB7 last week, surpassing the 300-yard mark for the first time this year. Tennessee is vulnerable through the air, giving up the 2nd most passing yards/game, and both players will likely have extremely low ownership. There are questions swirling around Malik Willis, and it wouldn’t be a shock if this game turned into a sloppy, low-scoring affair, which is what Vegas is projecting in their 40.5-point total. But, if you want to get super contrarian, you might as well go all in.
- Jonathan Taylor – It’s been a tough start for last year’s rushing leader, and the Colts have looked bad all season. Apparently, Frank Reich and company are aborting the Matt Ryan mission while still on the launch pad, seemingly giving the keys to the castle to Sam Ehlinger, not just this week, but for the rest of the season. With jobs on the hot seat, look for the Colts to lean heavily on their best player, Taylor, especially while Ehlinger adjusts to NFL-speed. Taylor’s ownership was a fraction of what it used to be in Week 7, dipping below 10% after a previous low pre-injury of 27%, and we expect relatively similar projections this time around.
- Rhamondre Stevenson – We’re just going back to the well until it dries up. Stevenson badly outplayed Damien Harris, and while the Patriots aren’t known for bequeathing bellcow status upon their RBs, it’s getting harder and harder to justify keeping Stevenson off the field. A QB controversy is brewing after another awful Mac Jones start, and Stevenson is clearly their best offensive weapon, able to both run and catch the ball. He’s been the only RB to best Austin Ekeler in any week since Week
- Taysom Hill – No, this isn’t a replica of my Bestball strategy (ok, maybe it is). But with Jameis Winston apparently benched, the Saints seemingly figuring out that it makes sense to scheme the ball to Hill more, and TEs having serious success against the Raiders, Hill is worth considering. Yes, he’s not a typical TE, but his upside is still very appealing, especially because he could throw a few balls.
Week 7 Recap
Joe Burrow does it again. Despite a porous offensive line, the pride of Ames, Iowa continued his gutsy play, and the Bengals once again look legit. Yes, they played the lowly Falcons, but Burrow went wild, obliterating the QB field. Of note, former Bengal QB, the Red Rifle himself, Andy Dalton, took home the runner up spot in one of those games where the fantasy value strongly outperformed the eye test.
After a mere 2.31% ownership in Week 6, Burrow was once again adorned the top of the winning Rumble Roster from Cedpilon80, though ownership approached 13% for Week 7. Along for the ride came Ja’Marr Chase, who is quickly putting his sluggish sophomore start behind him as the Bengals heat up. Cincinnati has a juicy matchup with interstate rival Cleveland this week, so expect to see high ownership once again for the duo.
One of the most noticeable things from Week 7 was Josh Jacobs’ continued dominance. After being largely written off by the fantasy community and Raiders front office alike, Jacobs has racked up a ridiculous 441 yards and 6 TDs over the last three weeks. During that span, he hasn’t had less than 140 yards on the ground. Oh, and he’s been catching the ball, too. Despite two fantastic weeks against strong defenses coming into a cakewalk against Houston, his ownership was still relatively low, just 22%. This week’s matchup against the Saints isn’t as alluring, but Eno Benjamin did just recently shred them. We’ll have to see if our Rumble contestants believe Jacobs is a contender or pretender once and for all.
But before we take a look at Jacobs’ compatriots, let’s go position-by-position for some insight. At QB, Burrow was the 2nd highest owned QB, barely ahead of Dalton following his strong Rumble Wrinkle showing on Thursday night. The only QB that had a higher ownership clip was Lamar Jackson, who disappointed once again. Owned in over 28% of lineups, Jackson sputtered to a QB21 showing against the hapless Browns, as the Ravens backed into an accidental win. Daniel Jones and Justin Fields both showed up, taking home the QB3 and QB5 positions, respectively, despite a cumulative ownership of just 0.73%. Rushing upside was the name of the game for Jones and Fields, while Patrick Mahomes finished as the QB4 with another dominant performance.
At RB, there weren’t many surprises. Austin Ekeler continued his dominance, finding himself the most owned back on the slate, more than 43%, en route to yet another spectacular finish. Since Week 4, Ekeler has finished as the RB1, RB1, RB2, and RB1, a truly ridiculous showing. Jacobs finished as the RB2, while Aaron Jones, Rhamondre Stevenson, and Nick Chubb rounded out the top 5.
After weeks of chalky WR plays, Week 7 proved to be an outlier. Ja’Marr Chase dominated ownership at over 41%, partially a function of Cooper Kupp and Justin Jefferson being on byes, but things got weird after that. The WR1 and WR2 were from the same team, Chase and Tyler Boyd, while the WR3 and WR4 were also from the same team, Mecole Hardman and Juju Smith-Schuster. The likelihood of a roster playing two WRs from the same team is exceedingly low, and Kansas City’s WR uncertainties led to very low ownership. Between Boyd, Hardman, and Smith-Schuster, no one had above 1.82% ownership, with Boyd and Hardman both ending below 0.30%. Notable busts included Tyreek Hill, Deebo Samuel, CeeDee Lamb, and Amon-Ra St. Brown, who left early due to injury.
At long last, Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews didn’t dominate the TE leaderboard! Well, Kelce was the TE2, but that counts! Instead, George Kittle took home the TE1 prize, while Pat Freiermuth, David Njoku (lost to injury) and Hayden Hurst rounded out the Top 5. Andrews, who had absolutely dominated this season, turned in a massive dud, posting a goose egg on the receiving line and a mere 4 yards rushing. If you faded Andrews in Week 7, chances are you probably did alright, as 37% of the field got a whopping 0.4 points.
Defensively, Dallas did it again, leading the pack against the reeling Lions. Tennessee also may have ended Matt Ryan’s career, and a bird in the hand proved to be worth two in the bush, with Arizona’s uneven but fantasy-relevant performance Thursday night landing them in the DST3 spot. New England and San Francisco turned in the most disappointing performances, with the 49ers getting shellacked by the Chiefs and the Patriots getting crushed by the Bears – a sentence not said since 1985.
Week 7 Prediction Grades
Tom Brady & Mike Evans – We said it was now or never…apparently it was never. Evans faired decently well, the WR7, but the Bucs imploded once again, and Brady flamed out. Grade: C-
Justin Herbert & Mike Williams – Williams put up a big game and likely would have finished even better than his WR5, but got injured in the second half. Meanwhile, Herbert finished as the QB6: Grade: B+
Breece Hall – ☹ It was looking so good! Grade: N/A…it would have been an A!
Josh Jacobs – Pure dominance once again. Grade: A, but the field was in on this one
Hayden Hurst – TE5 in a barren wasteland with less than 2% ownership? Not bad, except that Kittle, the TE1, had more than double the points: Grade: B+