Biggest Week 8 Studs and Stinkers (Fantasy Football)

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With Week 8 mostly in the books, The Fantasy Footballers review and react to the Studs & Duds performances on the latest episode. Here, I’ll highlight the best and worst fantasy finishes from Week 8 and list their upcoming schedule.  Note that all fantasy points are in the 0.5-point scoring format. To get the full breakdown of Week 8 performances, don’t miss Week 8 Studs & Stinkers + Weekly Rewind, Angels in the Endzone.

Biggest Studs

Mike Evans, WR Buccaneers

Week 8 @ TEN: 11 receptions for 198 yards & 2 TD

Upcoming Schedule: @SEA, ARI, NO

Evans had a monster game this week, logging the 13th best fantasy performance by any offensive player so far this season.  He now has two of the best six wide receiver performances this season (Weeks 3 & 8). He has at least 16 points in four of seven games and fewer than 8.2 points in the other three (including a goose egg).  Coming off a big game, Evans is now averaging 17.6 points per game through seven games (Chris Godwin is averaging 18.9). I can personally admit that I was thinking about selling Evans due to concerns with consistency, Godwin’s emergence, and my lack of faith in Jameis… However, I think it’s safe to say that Evans is a solid cornerstone of your fantasy team.

Daniel Jones, QB Giants

Week 8 @ DET: 28/41 for 322 passing yards & 4 TD | 4 rushes for 13 yards

Upcoming Schedule: DAL, @NYJ, BYE, @CHI

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Daniel Jones has his second solid outing of the season versus a decent Detroit defense in Detroit.  So far in his six starts, he’s excelling in away matchups versus teams not named the Patriots. Daniel Jones is capable of putting up solid fantasy games, but he remains unpredictable.  He has some decent matchups throughout the rest of the season, but I am personally staying away until we see whether there is a consistent trend that allows him to be a predictable streamer.

David Montgomery, RB Bears

Week 8 vs LAC: 27 rushes for 137 yards & 1 TD | 4 receptions for 12 yards

Upcoming Schedule: @PHI, DET, @LAR, NYG

Welcome to the David Montgomery (pronounced Mopportunity) breakout party.  Matt Nagy knew he needed to run the ball more after 7 team rushing attempts last week because he is, after all, “not an idiot”.  Enter David Montgomery, highly drafted rookie. Montgomery puts up his best performance of his young career versus the Chargers in a game that they could have won if they had more luck in the kicking department (I feel for you Bears fans).  Montgomery has a pretty solid schedule coming up, so hopefully, this is a sign of things to come. While Matt Nagy is a schemer that puts Montgomery’s usage at risk of being inconsistent, Montgomery has proven he should be started moving forward despite this only being the third double-digit performance of the year.

Patriots Defense

Week 8 vs CLE: 1 TD, 1 INT, 2 FR, 5 Sacks

Upcoming Schedule: @BAL, BYE, @PHI, DAL

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The Patriots Defense deserves to be mentioned as a stud performer, especially since they haven’t been highlighted in this article series yet this season.  The Patriots have scored at least 20 points in five of eight weeks and only fewer than 14 points once. Same with Christian McCaffrey. Desean Watson, the overall leader in fantasy points this season, has the same number of 20+ point games and more games with fewer than 14 points.  The Patriots are exploding in real life and in fantasy and deserve to be targeted in trades due to the significant positional advantage they provide. While their easy schedule so far has helped, they deserve to be in the league winner conversation.

Biggest Stinkers

Le’Veon Bell, Rb Jets

Week 8 @ JAX: 1 reception for 6 yards

Upcoming Schedule: @MIA, NYG, @WSH, OAK

Lev Bell only touched the ball 12 times this week.  Why would the best player on the Jets be so limited in a pretty easy matchup against the Jaguars?  He’s matchup proof since he’s both an elite runner and an elite receiver. Due to his limited touches, he logged his worst performance of the season, now with two weeks in a row with single-digit points.  Like many Fantasy Football minds, I am fully on board with buying Lev Bell low. I’m still willing to do so with such a juicy schedule coming up. I admit there is some risk involved after such a surprising stinker performance, but I expect this to be an outlier week.  Part of Lev Bell’s lack of production is related to two straight weeks of QB Sam Darnold recording 3+ interceptions. I also expect there to be better days ahead for Darnold, which will help boost Bell.

Chase Edmonds, RB Cardinals

Week 8 @ NO: 7 carries for 8 yards | 2 receptions for 5 yards

Upcoming Schedule: SF, @TB, @SF, BYE

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After exploding onto fantasy radars due to a Week 7 breakout (126 rushing yards, 3 TD, 24 receiving yards), Edmonds disappointed in a big way this week.  I know, I know – he got injured, which is not usually something you can predict. However, he only scored 2.3 fantasy points before exiting late in the third quarter.  Despite playing a stout Saints defense, Edmonds was expected to put up RB2 numbers due to volume and talent. The Cardinals’ RB situation just got a whole lot murkier as their next matchup is against an excellent 49ers defense on Thursday night.  The latest news is that Edmonds is not expected to play Thursday after a short week of practice. Monitor the situation closely as the week progresses.

Zach Ertz, TE Eagles

Week 8 @ BUF: 2 receptions for 20 yards

Upcoming Schedule: CHI, BYE, NE, SEA

For the third straight week, fellow TE Dallas Goedert outscored Zach Ertz.  Ertz is on pace for 74 receptions for 848 yards and 2 TD halfway through the Eagles season.  If this pace continues, he’ll only achieve 60% of the fantasy points that he achieved in 2018 when he was considered elite.  Ertz is currently TE9 on the season in terms of fantasy points per game (8.4), just ahead of Darren Fells (8.2). Ertz was drafted in the third round by fantasy owners this season.  By comparison, last year Trey Burton (largely considered a bust) was drafted in the sixth round and scored an average of 7.5 points per game. If you can sell Ertz based on his name value, I’d do it.  He’s been a disappointment this season…although he remains a better option than many due to a murky tight end landscape.

Other Week 8 Studs

QB

  • Deshaun Watson vs OAK — 27/39 for 279/3/0 — 10/46/0 rushing
    • @JAX, BYE, @BAL
  • Aaron Rodgers @KC — 23/33 for 305/3/0 — 6/29/0 rushing
    • @LAC, CAR, BYE, @SF
    • Has same # of passing TDs in past two weeks (8) as first 6 weeks combined
  • Matthew Stafford vs NYG — 25/32 for 342/3/1 — 2/-3/0 rushing
    • @OAK, @CHI, DAL
  • Derek Carr @HOU — 18/30 for 285/3/0
    • DET, LAC, CIN
  • Gardner Minshew vs NYJ — 22/34 for 279/3/0 — 8/28/0 rushing — 1 fumble
    • HOU, BYE, @IND
  • Drew Brees vs ARI — 34/43 for 373/3/1
    • BYE, ATL, @TB, CAR
  • Jared Goff  vs CIN (London) — 17/31 for 372/2/0
    • BYE, @PIT, CHI

RB

  • Tevin COLLLLEMAN vs CAR — 11/105/3 — 2/13/1 on 2 targets
    • @ARI, SEA, ARI
    • Breida exited shortly into the 2nd half with an ankle injury
  • Aaron Jones @KC — 13/67/0 — 7/159/2 on 8 targets
  • Jamaal Williams @KC — 7/22/1 — 3/14/1 on 3 targets
    • @LAC, CAR, BYE, @SF
  • Latavius Murray vs ARI — 21/102/1 — 9/55/1 on 12 targets
    • BYE, ATL, @TB,
  • Dalvin Cook vs WAS — 23/98/1 — 5/73/0 on 6 targets
    • @KC, @DAL, DEN, BYE
  • Christian McCaffrey @SF — 14/117/1 — 4/38/0 on 5 targets
    • TEN, @GB, ATL
  • Saquon Barkley @DET — 19/64/0 — 8/79/1 on 10 targets
    • DAL, @NYJ, BYE
  • Miles Sanders @BUF — 3/74/1 — 3/44/0 on 3 targets
  • Jordan Howard @ BUF — 23/96/1 — 1/15/0 on 2 targets
    • CHI, BYE, NE, SEA

WR

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  • Cooper Kupp vs CIN — 7/220/1 on 10 targets
    • BYE, @PIT, CHI, BAL
  • Kenny Golladay🎷 vs NYG — 6/123/2 on 8 targets — 1 fumble
    • @OAK, @CHI, DAL
  • Julian Edelman vs CLE — 8/78/2 on 11 targets
    • @BAL, BYE, @PHI, DAL
  • Michael Thomas vs ARI — 11/112/1 on 11 targets
    • BYE, ATL, @TB, CAR

TE

  • Chris Hern…Ryan Griffin  @JAX — 4/66/2 on 4 targets
    • @MIA, NYG, @WAS
  • Darren Fells vs OAK — 6/58/2 on 6 targets
    • @JAX, BYE, @BAL, IND
  • Jonnu Smith vs TB — 6/78/1 on 7 targets
    • @CAR, KC, BYE, JAX
  • Austin Hooper vs SEA — 6/65/1 on 7 targets
    • BYE, @NO, @CAR, TB
Other Week 8 Stinkers

RB

WR

  • Robert Woods vs CIN — 2/36/0 on 2 targets — 4/6/0 rushing
    • BYE, @PIT, CHI, BAL
  • T.Y. Hilton vs DEN — 2/54/0 on 6 targets
    • @BUF, BYE, NYJ
  • Larry Fitzgerald @ NO — 2/8/0 on 4 targets
    • SF, @TB, @SF, BYE
  • Keenan Allen @CHI — 7/53/0 on 8 targets
    • GB, @OAK, KC, BYE
    • fewer snaps than usual, but was still on the field for 68.9% (31-of-45 snaps)
  • John Brown vs PHI — 5/54/0 on 8 targets
    • WAS, @CLE, @MIA
    • @JAX, BYE, @BAL
  • Marvin Jones vs NYG — 4/22/0 on 5 targets
    • @OAK, @CHI, DAL
    • From 4 TDs to 4 catches

TE

    • BYE, @PIT, CHI, BAL

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