It’s bye-maggedon week with six teams on bye, leaving fantasy football managers reeling. These are my favorite starts and biggest fades for Week 8.
▶ Quarterback
Start: Bo Nix, Broncos
Nix put together one of the best quarters of football ever in Week 7 to turn a dud game into the highest-scoring fantasy performance of the season by a quarterback. He won’t need fourth-quarter heroics to get home against Dallas. The Cowboys are allowing 25.1 fantasy points to opposing passers, over three points more than any other team. Dallas ranks 30th in EPA per dropback allowed. Vegas is also sold on the Broncos’ offense, assigning them the fourth-highest team total of the week at 27 points.
Start: Joe Flacco, Bengals
The Bengals traded for Flacco and immediately let him do his thing. They posted a +3% pass rate over expected in his first start with the team. That number jumped to +11% in his second start.
Flacco ranks 10th in EPA per play and 14th in CPOE since joining the Bengals. He has 551 yards and five scores in Cincy. Now he gets a Jets defense that is missing Sauce Gardner and ranked 29th in EPA while Gardner was healthy. Flacco is a volume passer facing a defense that gets torn apart by almost anyone.
Sit: C.J. Stroud, Texans
Stroud is currently the QB20 with one week as a QB1. He has finished outside the top 22 quarterbacks three times. His second-best week has been a QB15 showing, which he has done twice. Stroud is not getting the job done through the air. He is 20th in EPA per play and 19th in CPOE. As expected, he isn’t bringing much to the table on the ground either with just 3.3 carries per game. The low floor plus unlikely ceiling combination has Stroud buried in the QB2 ranks, even on a week decimated by bye weeks.
Sit: Michael Penix, Falcons
The Falcons might not throw the football once this week. They are 7.5-point favorites at home versus the Dolphins. Atlanta’s -4% pass rate over expected is the ninth-lowest in the league. Miami’s -4% PROE against is the third-lowest. Penix has attempted more than 32 passes just three times this year. All three were losses. He only has one multi-score game through the air this year and has topped 250 passing yards twice. Without any rushing production to speak of, Penix needs his opponent to push him for fantasy purposes. That won’t be happening on Sunday.
Ranking and evaluating all of Week 8’s top plays at quarterback.
▶ Running Back
Start: Jaylen Warren, Steelers
Warren reclaimed the Steelers’ backfield in Week 7, commanding 84 percent of the carries while running half of the routes. He and Bijan Robinson are the only running backs who rank top-10 in both yards after contact per carry and yards per route run. Even if he doesn’t get there on the ground versus Green Bay, his passing game prowess should come in handy. The Packers have allowed the 10th-most targets to opposing running backs this year.
Start: Isaiah Pacheco, Chiefs
The Chiefs don’t care about running the football all that much, but blowout game scripts have been enough to get their ground game rolling this year. They have won three games by 13+ this year. Pacheco has averaged 9.3 fantasy points per game in those contests compared to a dismal 5.8 in all other games.
His carry total goes from 7.3 to 11. None of these are elite numbers, but Pacehco is at least a viable fantasy option when his team gets up big. That is almost a given this week with the Chiefs hosting the Marcus Mariota-led Commanders
Sit: Jacory Croskey-Merritt
JCM ranks outside the top 40 running backs in target share (five percent) and targets per route run (.12). He has peaked at two catches in a game and is averaging exactly one grab per week. His only path to a successful fantasy day is on the ground. Chris Rodriguez was healthy last week and cut into Bills’ role enough to drop his carry share below 60 percent for the first time since Week 4. The Commanders are now 12.5-point underdogs on the road to a Chiefs team allowing the third-fewest carries to opposing running backs. Setups don’t get worse than this.
Sit: Tony Pollard, Titans
It’s over for Pollard and the entire Tennessee backfield. No one saw more than half of the total carries in Week 7. Pollard’s measly six attempts led the way. Pollard has two carries inside the five-yard line all year and Spears is still waiting to see his first goal line look. Pollard saved his day in PPR leagues last week with six receptions for 43 yards. He earned four of them consecutively on the Titans’ final drive while down by 18 points. Fantasy managers shouldn’t count on that happening again in Week 8.
Ranking and evaluating all of Week 8’s top plays at running back.
▶ Wide Receiver
Start: Michael Pittman, Colts
The Colts’ 31-point team total is the highest of the week. It’s one point higher than the Chiefs and over three points higher than any other team. It will be a smooth sailing day for Daniel Jones and Co. with Titans DT Jeffery Simmons expected to miss Week 8. Tennessee already ranked 25th in pressure rate and now they are going to be without both PFF and ESPN’s No. 1 defensive lineman in pass rush win rate. Jones locks on to Pittman from a clean pocket. On non-pressured dropbacks, Pittman has a 25 percent target share and a 23 percent air yards share, both of which are above his season-long rates. He also averages 2.1 yards per route run compared to when Jones is not pressured, up from 1.7 on the year. To no one’s surprise, Pittman looks great when the Colts’ plays go as planned. We’ll be seeing a lot of that on Sunday.
Start: Stefon Diggs
Diggs gets a Cleveland defense that is more bark than bite for fantasy purposes. Despite facing the sixth-fewest pass attempts per game, Cleveland still allows an above-average number of fantasy points to wide receivers every week. This is partially because they have given up an above-average rate of both explosive passing plays and passing touchdowns. Their issues will be exacerbated on Sunday by their reliance on man coverage. The Browns run man coverage at a 41 percent clip, the highest rate in the league. Diggs has averaged 4.65 yards per route run with a 30 percent target rate versus man this year. He and Rhamondre Stevenson are the only Patriots averaging more than 1.43 YPRR against man looks.
Sit: Xavier Worthy, Chiefs
Rashee Rice returned in Week 7, was targeted on an absurd 47 percent of his routes, and Xavier Worthy set a season-low in target share at 12 percent (excluding a Week 1 game that saw him exit on the first drive). That could be a total coincidence, but I’m more than a little concerned. Rice was targeted four times inside the 10-yard line. That is already twice as many targets inside the 10 as Worthy has all year. Rice looks like a superstar who will hog enough volume to be a problem for the pass-catchers around him.
Sit: DJ Moore, Bears
It’s not happening for Moore. He ranks 59th in yards per route run, 73rd in targets per route run, and 49th in PPR points per game. Moore has topped 10 PPR points once this year and has a season-high of 12.8 points. By almost every metric, this is the worst year of Moore’s career, and it’s coming off a 2024 season in which you could have said that as well.
Ranking and evaluating all of Week 8’s top plays at receiver.
▶ Tight End
Start: Tucker Kraft, Packers
Kraft was already one of the best YAC producers in 2024. He led the league with 9.3 YAC per catch this year and is doing so once again at 9.2. The difference this year is that he has increased his target-earning potential. Kraft was targeted on 14.8 percent of his routes last year. That is up to 18.1 percent in 2025. Now he gets a Pittsburgh defense that is giving up the second-most fantasy points to opposing tight ends.
Start: Dalton Schultz, Texans
Why does Schultz lead the Texans in receptions this year? I don’t know. Will that continue with Nico Collins expected to be out this week? Probably. Collins only ran half of the routes in Week 7 before exiting with a concussion. Schultz, in turn, racked up 10 targets. He turned that into nine catches for 98 yards. This is a textbook PPR scam in the making.
Sit: Pat Freiermuth, Steelers
Feriermuth exploded with a 5/111/2 line in Week 7. It was his first game with more than 31 yards or a touchdown of the 2025 season. He logged an 18 percent target share, which was also a season-high. That season-high for him is a mark several tight ends available on waivers routinely hit. Schultz, Harold Fannin, and Juwan Johnson all have target shares of at least 18 percent this year and are available in over half of Yahoo leagues. Their baseline is Freiermuth’s ceiling.
Sit: Travis Kelce, Chiefs
Much like Worthy, Kelce was clearly impacted by the return of Rice. Kelce’s nine percent target share is tied for his lowest mark of the season. He was targeted on 10 percent of his routes, clocking in one point higher than his worst mark of 2025. He has been completely useless as a fantasy option when Rice has been active over the past year and a half.
Even the Chiefs’ lofty team total might not be enough to save him. Kelce does not have an end zone target this year and is tied for third on the team in targets inside the 10.
Ranking and evaluating all of Week 8’s top plays at tight end, kicker, and defense.
First Appeared on
Source link
