Fantasy Football, What We Learned Week 8

With the NFL Fantasy Football action basically in the books for another week, it’s about that time to unpack everything that happened and talk about What we Learned this week!

Since we’re right about at the halfway point of the NFL Fantasy Football season, we’ll do things just a little different this week. The recap and takeaways will be normal but they’ll be a few spots where we talk about what the fantasy landscape might look like next year with some of these players. It won’t be every team but it’s never too early to take a little bit of a sneak peek to next season here and there. Let’s get to work and take the tour around the league!

AFC East

New England Patriots – TBD 

The Patriots play tonight and it might be a little hard to take much from this game. If they trounce the Bills like they should, that’s just them doing their job. If they don’t there’s no need to push the panic button aside from injuries.

Buffalo Bills – TBD 

The only thing noteworthy with this team the rest of the way might be if LeSean McCoy does wind up staying in Buffalo through the trade deadline.

Miami Dolphins – Loss vs Houston Texans, 42-23

It will be very interesting to see gif DeVante Parker is still a Dolphin come Tuesday at 4:01 PM. If he’s been healthy for most of the season like his agent claims, coach Adam Gase looks pretty foolish right now. Parker looked smooth and like a legitimate playmaker in this contest. The stat line is buoyed by a video game glitch style catch but that doesn’t take away from how he looked and his other catches here. It also shouldn’t be surprising that Gase might not have the best eye for talent. After all, Kenyan Drake can barely get 10-12 touches a game despite being explosive all over the field. Is he a perfect running back? Not at all but he’s proved to be a workhorse last season and he’s maintained that talent this year. He’s just not touching the ball enough and you can’t bank on Danny Amendola throwing him touchdowns every week. Amendola himself is still a perfectly fine option in PPR leagues this week, even with Brock Osweiler at quarterback. I think one of the funnier moments this week came from Troy Aikman being flabbergasted that Brock Lobster didn’t look good. Uh, ya Troy, he’s Brock Osweiler. He’s not good. Everyone knows that, despite his “good” previous two games.

New York Jets – Loss vs Chicago Bears, 24-10 

Well, this might be rock bottom for the Jets offense this season. It’s been a steady downward turn for them but I can’t think of too much that I want out of this offense right now. Sure, Elijah McGuire is worth a stash because Isaiah Crowell was terrible today. McGuire could bring little bit of juice to this running game but this is just a terrible offense. There’s no weapons for Sam Darnold to use and even Chris Herndon was just barely passable in this game. He saw two targets so he’s a deep league target at best. Darnold could be a great fantasy asset moving forward into next season, but it doesn’t appear likely for this season.

AFC North

Pittsburgh Steelers – Win vs Cleveland Browns, 33-18 

Pittsburgh’s offense didn’t need to o much other than find Antonio Brown for a couple of key touchdowns and then just fed James Conner the rest of the day. He rolled up over 200 total yards and two touchdowns and it makes plenty of sense why the team hasn’t really flinched with Le’Veon Bell sitting on the sidelines. Conner has done a fine job and we’ll see if Bell reports after the trade deadline on Tuesday of this upcoming week. Pittsburgh continues to be basically exactly what we thought of before the season started with Brown heating up. JuJu Smith-Schuster has taken a bit of a back seat but will continue to be a high-end starter, especially when the Steelers encounter more competent offenses.

Cleveland Browns – Loss vs Pittsburgh Steelers, 33-18 

As a Steelers fan, I was plenty happy with this result for the Browns. As someone who unabashedly loves Baker Mayfield, this offense mystified me. The Browns have a lack of talent surrounding Mayfield for various reasons. They aren’t scoring points. So that somehow translates to players like David Njoku not seeing one single target and Duke Johnson touching the ball four times. That makes absolutely no sense and it will not be a surprise to see a coaching shakeup upcoming this week. The Browns have to get these guys more involved. About the only positive thing was Nick Chubb didn’t see his volume dip at all even in a tough matchup. You can bank on 15+ touches for him every week as things stand. We’ll have to wait and see what happens with the coaching situation. Mayfield has promise and is a bye week fill in but that’s about it right now. Jarvis Landry is too easy to cover with the offense rolling as is so he’s a low-end WR2.

Cincinnati Bengals – Win vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 37-34 

The Bengals almost went full Cincinnati Bungles in this one and you never go full Bungles. They kicked a last second field goal to survive a frantic comeback effort and produced a lot of fantasy goodness on the way. Tyler Boyd and Joe Mixon carried the water and Boyd was really set up well since the Bucs are just gouged by slot receivers. Boyd was well over 100 yards and a touchdown and Mixon totaled 138 yards and scored twice. A.J. Green was the “third” banana and still went for 70 yards and a touchdown. The Bengals offense did exactly what we thought here with the potential exception of Andy Dalton. Still, 280 and two is tough to complain about and the Bengals just didn’t need him to throw it all over the yard. C.J. Uzomah likely wrecked a lot of DFS lineups with a goose egg on four targets. That’s very surprising and unfortunate if you played him. Those games crop up for the best tight ends, let alone fringe ones thrust into a starting role.

Baltimore Ravens – Loss vs Carolina Panthers, 36-21 

The Ravens got scorched in this game and I tend to throw these games out for the most part. Most teams have at least two or three of these a season and the Ravens offense doesn’t change much in my opinion. Alex Collins is still an RB2, John Brown is always going to be at least a flex no matter the matchup and that’s about it. Guys like Michale Crabtree and Willie Snead might have a floor but it’s nothing special, especially since receivers are a dime a dozen.

AFC West

Denver Broncos – Loss vs Kansas City Chiefs, 30-23 

If this was supposed to be a showcase game for Demaryius Thomas to make a trade work, it didn’t go well. Three receptions for 30 yards isn’t going to get too many teams excited and the passing game was mediocre all the way around. Emmanuel Sanders is clearly the best option but is sometimes going to be held hostage by the offense. It’s almost like Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen in Minnesota helped make Case Keenum last year instead of the other way around. I’m still very interested in Cortland Sutton this week on waivers if one of the receivers does get shipped out. He’s making plays in limited chances.

Phillip Lindsay is emerging as a star in real life and fantasy. Sure, Royce Freeman missed this game which does help the volume for Lindsay. It’s also irrelevant to the fact that Lindsay turned 21 touches into 112 total yards and a touchdown. I don’t know how you can take the ball out his hands to any major extent at this point. I wound’t put any stock in Devontae Booker‘s 101 yards from scrimmage in this one. The Broncos were shorthanded and they weren’t giving Lindsay 30+ touches.

Kansas City Chiefs – Win vs Denver Broncos, 30-23 

It’s truly crazy that Patrick Mahomes can throw for 300+ yards and four touchdowns and it’s just basically considered another day at the office. The Machine continues to roll on with Travis Kelce and Kareem Hunt being the safest players and Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins being the players that could boom or bust every week. Having said that, Hill has a much safer floor and higher ceiling but Watkins is obviously capable of massive games like he had against Denver. This and the Rams offense are the best two to be a part of and it will be very fun to see how high Mahomes goes in 2019. If Deshaun Watson was generally the QB2 through much of draft season this year off a very short sample, Mahomes has to hit at least that value as things stand now. I’ll admit I might break my normal rule of not taking a quarterback early.

Oakland Raiders – Loss vs Indianapolis Colts, 42-28 

Derek Carr responded to those calling him out a bit with a big fantasy day, totaling four touchdowns. He’s making due with a piecemeal offense right now with Doug Martin, Seth Roberts and Martavis Bryant as cogs to compliment Jordy Nelson and Jared Cook. Jalen Richard was a huge help in PPR formats with eight receptions for 50 yards and that should be relatively safe going forward. Martin performed better than I thought but I remain unconvinced that he will keep it up thought he rest of the season. Jordy Nelson was a ghost in this one and this isn’t an offense you can trust or want to be a big part of right now. There’s likely to be a lot of changes coming during the offseason for this team.

Los Angeles Chargers – Bye Week 

The biggest story for the Chargers will be the health of Melvin Gordon. The Chargers treated the hamstring injury like it was a minor deal so hopefully he’s ready to go this upcoming week.

AFC South 

Jacksonville Jaguars – Loss vs Philadelphia Eagles, 24-18 

This team has fallen apart in all facets fo the game after their huge win against New England earlier this season. Did they forget they had a lot more games after that one? The backfield is going to be hard to predict since they now have Carlos Hyde, T.J. Yeldon and Leonard Fournette should be back come Week 10 after their bye week. I would guess Fournette is going to lead but he might not be in line for his normal monster workload coming back from a nagging hamstring injury.

The dichotomy between Blake Bortles as a real life quarterback and a fantasy quarterback continues to shine. Bortles was awful today by a lot of measures. Still, he scored a boatload of fantasy points with his rushing yards and almost 300 passing yards. Between his limitations and how many receivers are fighting for targets, there’s not a player you can ever start with a good feeling. It’s just receiver roulette. Jacksonville might finally have to pull the plug on Bortles after this season given his uneven to terrible play this year. That would shake up the value of every Jaguars player in 2019.

Tennessee Titans – Bye Week 

Can the Titans muster up any reliable offensive production for fantasy coming out of the bye week? They have players that are interesting but there is zero consistency or trust with them at all.

Houston Texans – Win vs Miami Dolphins, 42-23 

I’m not sure there’s too many players that are more disappointing to see suffer a major injury than Will Fuller. This guy has had terrible injury luck all through his career and tearing his ACL in this game is just the latest for him. It’s a shame because he, DeAndre Hopkins and Deshaun Watson all work off each other so well. Watson made me look a fool by labeling him as a sit but five touchdowns on 20 passing attempts isn’t a normal so I’ll just have to take my lumps there. Hopkins is an unquestioned top-5 receiver the rest of the season with the amount of targets he should see and Keke Coutee is a priority add off of waivers. Lamar Miller smashed for the second straight week and gets Denver, a third straight solid matchup. Can the perpetually mediocre Miller make it three in a row? We’ll see as we go through the week.

Indianapolis Colts – Win vs Oakland Raiders, 42-28

Frankly, I’m getting tired of Marlon Mack stealing all of the yards from Andrew Luck. Dude, quit going over 100 yards and let Luck throw for more, alright? Mack has been incredible since coming back from his hamstring injury and could be a huge piece that owners scooped off the waivers a couple of weeks ago. Luck was of course great for fantasy as well with another three touchdowns even if the yards were lower than you would like. Perhaps the most interesting facet of the offense was Jack Doyle walked back into the lineup and out-targeted Eric Ebron 7-3. Doyle caught all seven of his targets for 70 yards and a touchdown. Hopefully you were proactive and had him on your roster before the game started this week. Indy heads into the bye as a great fantasy offense to be a part of and sports a QB1, TE1, WR2 in T.Y Hilton and touchdown machine in Ebron. Hilton will have better days and Ebron may not be quite as useful with Doyle back but still. You can’t ask for more than what Indy brings to the table.

NFC East

Philadelphia Eagles – Win vs Jacksonville Jaguars, 24-18

Alright, I may have gotten it wrong when I told you to sit Deshaun Watson but I sorta made up for it with starting Carson Wentz…right? He came through for almost 300 yards and three touchdowns. Even though he had a couple of turnovers, he’s an auto start coming out of the bye week in Week 10. Alshon Jeffrey and Zach Ertz were both a little quiet in this game and that’s probably not the biggest shock. Ertz did pay off with a touchdown and Jeffery will usually not be great without a touchdown. Nelson Agholor and Jordan Matthews might have just been a matchup thing. It was easier to complete passes to them instead of the big guys.

Josh Adams is going to have to be on some waiver wire articles this week. He ran hard and saw double-digit touches, but the main takeaway is the Eagles backfield is just a giant pain. Adams, Wendell Smallwood and Corey Clement are going to see touches although Clement did literally nothing in this game. It’s realistically a spot that you don’t want a piece of, but Adams is at least worth a look in deep leagues.

New York Giants – Loss vs Washington Redskins, 20-13

Is it fair to just say start Odell Beckham and Saquon Barkley and move on here? Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram are going to be hit or miss since the offense is so dreadful(300+ yards for Eli Manning not withstanding) that secondary options from it are not going to be reliable. Engram was awesome for a tight end…because he scored a touchdown with 17 seconds left. If that’s something you want to hang your hat on, be my guest. Barkley is always going to have the safety of dump offs in this offense and I wish Beckham had a better quarterback.

Washington Redskins – Win vs New York Giants, 20-13

Adrian Peterson in 2018 is something that I didn’t think I would type very often, if at all. He’s got old man strength or something because he continues to churn out big game after big game. Chris Thompson only touched the ball five times in his return from injury which left Peterson 27 touches for two touchdowns and over 150 yards from scrimmage. He capped his day with a 64 yard touchdown jaunt and is the unquestioned player to own from this offense. The passing game is just dead on arrival right now with Alex Smith being under 200 yards yet again. Jordan Reed was useful in PPR formats with seven receptions but 38 yards is ghastly. Every facet of this offense is a hard pass other than Peterson as an every week starter and holding onto Thompson to see what happens as he works his way back into the offense. They’re eerily similar to the Cowboys offense from a fantasy perspective, although Dallas has a little more hope now.

Dallas Cowboys – Bye Week 

In case anyone forgot, Amari Cooper is a Cowboy now. I’m curious to see if that matters for his production and maybe he smashes from minute one. Just remember that it’s hard to move halfway across the country and learn a new playbook in the middle of the season. Then again, the Dallas playbook likely isn’t that convoluted.

NFC North

Detroit Lions – Loss vs Seattle Seahawks, 28-14

This was more like the Detroit offense that we know and love. The Lions on ran the ball 13 times because they got stung for 21 points in the second quarter and were behind the eight ball the rest of the day. It was a Marvin Jones week, as he led with 117 yards, two touchdowns and saw 10 targets. Somehow, Matthew Stafford threw the ball 40 times and only targeted Kenny Golladay once. I’ve been one to say that the separation between Jones and Golladay wasn’t as wide as some make it out to be but my goodness. That ratio is odd, to say the least. That’s likely the way it’s going to be in Detroit. All the receivers including Golden Tate are going to rotate who has the best game every week.

Kerryon Johnson still managed a hair over 90 yards because he was so involved int he passing game. The eight targets might not continue if Theo Riddick gets back into the mix but Johnson continues to prove he’s worthy of workhorse status. The Lions offense is best served continuing to make him the man and hopefully it’s finally starting to click for the coaching staff.

Chicago Bears – Win vs New York Jets, 24-10

Just when you though it was safe to start Tarik Cohen every week, Matt Nagy decided to play with our heads. Yes, Cohen still was a fine play since he took his lone reception 70 yards to the house. The problem in that sentence is his “lone reception”. Cohen oddly only got seven touches in this game and I don’t have an answer. Jordan Howard was the man with his 22 carries and that’s a little scary to be honest. You can’t start a running back gettin seven touches a game, even though Cohen is electric with the ball in his hands.

The Mitchell Trubisky is a top 10 fantasy quarterback tour continues. The passing yards were average but he threw two touchdowns and basically tacked on a third with his 51 rushing yards. No player in the passing game stood out since Trubisky only passed for 220 yards but the main takeaway was Trey Burton went right back to his normal target level. I tried to take his monster game last week with a grain of salt since the 11 targets were so out of character and that’s pretty much what happened this week. I’m fascinated to see the snaps from this game to compare what Howard and Cohen both got. We already know that Trubisky is a starter but the pass catchers are volatile with his limitations.

Green Bay Packers – Loss vs Los Angeles Rams, 29-27

Man, Ty Montgomery cost the football world a really fun chance at Aaron Rodgers with the ball in his hands to try to beat the last undefeated team in football in a two-minute drill. He fumbled the kickoff but let’s talk about the fantasy end of this one. The Aaron Jones Express might be getting ready to leave the station with 86 yards on the ground and a touchdown. More encouraging was the lack of Jamaal Williams. He scored a touchdown but also only touched the ball four times. Jones added two receptions although they didn’t go anywhere. Hopefully this continues to be the normal in this offense.

Rodgers wasn’t great for fantasy but Davante Adams continues to be one of the most consistent players week in, week out. He went for 133 yards and if not for a certain receiver in purple within his own division, he’d get more of the love he deserved. The rest of the receivers were interesting. As someone who pumped up Geronimo Allison, seeing him only get one target was discouraging. I wonder if the Packers will consider phasing Randall Cobb out of the game more. At the very least, Marquez Valdes-Scantling is proving his worth and might be worth a look. It’s going to be frustrating if we can’t use a second receiver other than Adams in the Green Bay offense.

Minnesota Vikings – Loss vs New Orleans Saints, 30-20

The Vikings are one of the easiest teams in football. Kirk Cousins, Stefon Diggs and Adam “Mr. Automatic 100 Yards” Thielen are starters every single week. Both Diggs and Thielen got theirs this week and that’s going to happen more often than not. Kyle Rudolph is barely hanging onto relevance because tight end is so bad and that’s all you need to know from the passing game. Until Dalvin Cook makes it back, you start Latavius Murray as a volume player. He did much better than I thought in this game but some garbage time dump off passes helped that a little bit. He looked rock solid and is slated for 15 touches a game every time out.

NFC West

Los Angeles Rams – Win vs Green Bay Packers, 29-27

There’s simply not stopping Todd Gurley as long as that man is healthy. 195 total yards and a touchdown later, he puts up another massive day. If you’re complaining because he didn’t take the touchdown at the end to run out the clock, just stop. You have Todd Gurley. You got lucky enough to have a fantasy cheat code all season. He made the right play and still crushed for you. Some of us are dealing with trying to figure out which Eagles back to start.

The passing game did a lot of work and Josh Reynolds plays the troll pretty well. He scored twice a week after doing exactly nothing. We though he wouldn’t be viable while Cooper Kupp was out but maybe there is something to him. Five targets in this offense is nothing to sneer at. I would much prefer Kupp just come back soon. Jared Goff is always going to be in the running to start but you’re just gambling on who gets the touchdowns every week. Brandin Cooks still hasn’t had a signature big game yet. Maybe he’s saving them for the fantasy playoffs.

San Francisco 49ers – Loss vs Arizona Cardinals, 18-15 

You know what Matt Breida, as WWE superstar Braun Strowman says – you can get these hands. Seriously, how does this guy go from questionable all week with a litany of injuries and talked about as being limited in the game to his SEASON HIGH in carries? Now, it’s not like he did anything with them(maybe he’s you know, hurt) but that led plenty of people to start Raheem Mostert. The netted you a set 18 yards on two carries. Unfortunately, as long as the backfield has all three members active, it’s a total avoid for me. You have no idea what the split is on any given week.

The passing game isn’t much better. George Kittle is a worthy start every week and then it’s like trying to dig for oil in your backyard with your bare hands. I’m not throwing Marquise Goodwin out there in the hopes he catches exactly one pass for a 55 yard touchdown. Anything else is a total guess. Maybe next year, we can see this offense as it was meant to be.

Arizona Cardinals – Win vs San Francisco 49ers, 18-15

Welcome back to the fantasy world, Larry Fitzgerald! The goat himself has resurrected into a viable option once again and maybe it really was all Mike McCoy‘s fault. I have been bashing McCoy plenty but he goes out the door and suddenly, Fitzgerald sees a season high 12 targets and easily turns in his best fantasy game of the season. New OC Byron Leftwich also took a bunch of positive steps with David Johnson, actually lining him up as a wide receiver and using him in the screen game. Christian Kirk might still be a fringe starter depending on byes and matchups and there’s still not much else to this offense but it was an overwhelmingly good step in the desert.

Seattle Seahawks – Win vs Detroit Lions, 28-14 

It would appear that me and Russell Wilson just aren’t going to get along this season. I keep ranking him around middle of the road for quarterbacks because he’s not running much and he’s throwing so few passes. Wilson must read the ranks because he continually goes out and throws three touchdown passes and it makes absolutely no sense. The touchdown rate has now climbed over eight percent on the season and I continue to trust the process of why Wilson shouldn’t be this good for fantasy, not the results. Quarterbacks aren’t going to throw three touchdowns on 17 attempts very often. Doug Baldwin is suffering alongside the passing game as well. Three targets today. That’s just not going to cut it and I fear for Baldwin the rest of the way. If Seattle imposes their will, he needs to score every game to be worth starting.

Hopefully Chris Carson has now seized this backfield for good. He’s the best running back on this roster and I don’t think it’s all that close. He took his 25 carries and ground out the tough yards to rack up over 100 and a touchdown. Mike Davis spelled him and Rashaad Penny didn’t record a touch. Let’s keep it that way for us fantasy players so we can deploy Carson with confidence.

NFC South

New Orleans Saints – Win vs Minnesota Vikings, 30-20 

There really isn’t a ton here to unpack for the Saints. If you were able to get Alvin Kamara cheaper than you should have last week, congratulations because he’s still among the fantasy elite. Michael Thomas might have gotten a little lucky to get credit for his 44 yard reception because replay seemed to show he might not have caught it but hey – points are points. Drew Brees has taken a bit of a backseat but this game was a little weird. He could have been given credit for a touchdown pass to Kamara but he got marked out at the one yard line and they just plunged it in.

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While we’re on the red zone for the Saints, can someone tell Sean Payton that Taysom Hill doesn’t actually need to be a thing? You have one of the best quarterbacks ever to play football and good weapons like Kamara and Thomas and yet you want to get cute and use Hill for trickery when the stakes are highest at the doorstep. That makes no sense and it’s going to come back and bite them at some point. Brees is already seeing a little bit fewer opportunities with the run game going with Mark Ingram. Don’t take points away for Taysom Hill. Run the regular offense, for Pete’s sake.

Carolina Panthers – Win vs Baltimore Ravens, 36-21

Cam Newton is beast when he’s running touchdowns in. The passing is always going to be a little scattershot but the rushing floor is there to hold you up basically every single week. 11 points came just from that and then Newton “added” in 219 yards and two touchdowns. Christian McCaffrey hasn’t been very good yardage wise for a while now and that is a reasonable concern at this point. If he’s only getting 60 or so yards, you had better hope he finds the end zone or catches a lot of passes to make up the difference. I’m interested to see how many snaps D.J. Moore played and if he’s starting to emerge in this offense. Newton trying to feed Moore, McCaffrey, Devin Funchess and Greg Olsen won’t end well for fantasy as it will turn into a dart throw situation. I had said that Greg Olsen had to earn his way back into your lineup and he did it this week with 50+ yards and a touchdown. You won’t feel great about his foot but he’s a starter now for sure as long as he’s active.

Atlanta Falcons – Bye Week 

Will Julio Jones ever score again? Yes, Julio has been fantastic but…a touchdown every once in a while wouldn’t hurt either.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Loss vs Cincinnati Bengals, 37-34

I hope everyone is ready to hear about a quarterback controversy all week long this week. Jameis Winston has 14 turnovers in two full games and portions of two others and that’s just too egregious to be a starting quarterback. Now, is it a matter of time before Ryan Fitzpatrick has the same type of game? Probably but the Bucs have a lot of tough choices this upcoming week. Regardless of who’s under center, I’m not sure it changes a ton. Mike Evans is a WR1, DeSean Jackson is a very risky flex and Chris Godwin needs a touchdown to make his day. Peyton Barber is the totally unsexy option who should see some work and O.J. Howard is a TE1. This offense is relatively easy to figure out. What the Bucs do with Winston this week and for the future is the biggest question moving forward.

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