NFL Week 8 Preview: Early Slate

  • We’re back with the weekly fantasy previews, this time in tandem! I’ll be tackling the early slate while Anthony focuses on the afternoon and primetime games of Week 8’s stacked lineup in his return. Check out his piece in the link below! With no teams on bye this week, there’s plenty to cover so let’s dig in!

    Related Article: Week 8 – Late Window and Primetime

    Don’t forget to read Larry Vannozzi’s weekly weather report to make sure you’re prepared for last minute alerts about mother nature’s plans in NFL cities across the country. Also, check out Brian Shade’s projection model to help you predict and prepare for this week’s slate of fantasy football!

    Last Week’s Results: I was 5-8 in my picks for Week 7, and we move to 12-14 through two weeks of reviews. Here’s to better weeks ahead!

    Picks: Odds are from DraftKings. Picks are for entertainment purposes only. Check out the Wager Pass for legit gambling talk.

    Start Sit Decisions: Start your studs. Otherwise, these are yours and yours alone to make. Hopefully my previews help provide context to assist you in making an informed, matchup winning decision.

    Week 8 Positional Rankings: QB’s courtesy of Jacob Dunne, RB’s courtesy of Jon Mosales, WR’s courtesy of Robert Szolosi, TE’s courtesy of Max Silveira, and DST’s courtesy of Brandon Furtado

     

    BYE WEEKS: NONE

     

    Matchup: Baltimore Ravens at Cleveland Browns

    Location: Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland, Ohio

    Date: Sunday, October 27, 2024 at 1am EST

    Nate’s Lock: Jameis Winston OVER 234.5 Passing Yards (-110)

    The Quarterbacks: (CLE) Jameis Winston will be filling in for the injured Deshaun Watson, who saw his season cut short in Week 7 after suffering a gruesome achilles tear. Watson was the subject of some poor quarterback play, and the switch likely would’ve come under different circumstances, inevitably. Winston could easily come into the Browns’ offense and breathe life back into the fantasy outlook of their best pass-catchers, namely TE David Njoku and WR Jerry Jeudy. It’s a great matchup for Winston to step in and air it out, as the Ravens are allowing the third-most fantasy points to QBs on the season, and are the only team allowing over 300 yards passing a game. (BAL) Lamar Jackson is the fantasy QB1 this season, and that becomes more and more apparent with each passing week, topping it off with five touchdown passes in Week 7. Baker Mayfield has been the only quarterback keeping pace with him, and he just lost his top two targets for an extended period of time. Cleveland has been a middling pass defense so far this season, but Jackson seems to be virtually matchup-proof, and he is never leaving lineups until his Week 14 Bye.

    The Running Backs: (CLE) To everyone’s delight, Nick Chubb is back playing real NFL football for the first time since suffering a season-ending knee injury in Week 1 of last season. He entered the lineup as Jerome Ford was out with a hamstring injury. Despite the poor rushing averages, Chubb looked solid in his first game back, and even found his way to the end zone on a goal line run. It’ll be interesting to see how the team operates on offense with Chubb and QB Winston entering the fold at the same time. In his return to the lineup, Chubb appears to be the primary ball-carrier, leaving no room for fantasy appeal elsewhere in the RB room, depending on how Ford’s workload sizes up upon his return to the lineup. Ford is yet to practice as of Thursday, and is trending towards missing a second-straight game. Chubb can be sat in his second game back in action against a tough Ravens run defense. (BAL) Derrick Henry continues to be an anomaly at the RB position, doing things with the ball at an astronomically efficient rate, averaging 6.5 yards per carry and 22.4 half-PPR fantasy PPG as the RB1 through the first seven weeks of the season. He is doing all this despite not once playing more than 65% of snaps on the season, and is apparently both matchup-proof and game script-proof, as one of, if not, the most consistently great pure runners in recent NFL history. He is a lineup lock for the rest of the season. The Browns have allowed the sixth-fewest fantasy points to RBs on the season, but nothing has gotten in the way of Henry so far. Justice Hill got home last week with a receiving touchdown, but this week doesn’t project to be a good environment for his routes to fantasy success.

    The Wide Receivers: (CLE) Jerry Jeudy should get a big lift from Jameis Winston entering the starting lineup instead of Watson, but in Week 7 it was Cedric Tillman who made the most of the removal of Amari Cooper, who was shipped off to Buffalo ahead of Week 7’s matchup with the Bengals. Tillman hadn’t played more than 37% of snaps at any point this season, before getting slotted heavily into the rotation, jacking it up to 82% in Week 7, and he got sprayed with targets. He caught 8-of-12 balls for 81 yards in his first shot at real action this season, and could build that momentum to rise up the pecking order in a group of wideouts who have failed to make the most of the opportunities received in their young careers. Tillman is a great stash, and could even be spot started in the plus matchup, and the same goes for Jeudy, though the needle isn’t pointing as high after Week 7’s dud. (BAL) Zay Flowers is still missing practice as of Thursday, after suffering a hamstring injury in Week 7’s MNF matchup with the Buccaneers, and is trending to miss Week 8’s matchup with the Browns. Rashod Bateman has been spectacular over the last month or so of the season, and could be in line for a bit more opportunities if Flowers has to miss this week’s contest. Bateman would be a fringe-WR2 in that scenario against a Browns defense that allows the fifth-most fantasy points to WRs on the season.

    The Tight Ends: (CLE) David Njoku has emerged as the team’s top pass-catching option in the wake of the Amari Cooper trade to the Bills, and the change converges with a QB change that elevates Njoku even further as a potential stud fantasy TE. Njoku was the TE2 last week, catching 10-of-14 targets for 76 yards and a touchdown, which came from Winston after the veteran came in for relief duties. Baltimore gives up the seventh-most fantasy points to TEs on the season, and Njoku has a great chance at finishing near the top of the rankings for a second-straight week. (BAL) Mark Andrews is back baby, netting seven catches for 100 yards and three touchdowns across his last two performances. It’s still a shaky floor for the veteran TE, but it’s been great to see him get to an elite TE finish at this stage of his career. His back-to-back TE3 overall finishes have lifted him to the TE9 overall on the season, and he should be a fine start against the Browns. Isaiah Likely has had a couple of down weeks as the Yin to Andrews’s Yang, but he could see increased usage with the potential absence of Zay Flowers in Week 8.

     

    Matchup: Tennessee Titans at Detroit Lions

    Location: Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan

    Date: Sunday, October 27, 2024 at 1:00pm EST

    Nate’s Lock: Sam LaPorta OVER 33.5 Receiving Yards (-110)

    The Quarterbacks: (DET) Jared Goff has been playing lights out football for the last month of the season, completing a whopping 83.5% of his pass attempts across his last four performances. He’s got three-straight QB1 finishes, including two top-five weekly performances at the position. He loses Jameson Williams for a couple of weeks to a PED suspension, but he’s got plenty of weapons to turn to on this offense. This will be one of his tougher tests of the season in the Tennessee Titans, who allow the second-fewest passing yards per game in the NFL, and the 19th-most fantasy points to opposing QBs on the season. Goff will be a fringe-QB1 in Week 8. (TEN) Mason Rudolph has played better than Will Levis, but isn’t offering much more upside for fantasy purposes. Levis is slated to miss another week as he nurses his way back from a lingering shoulder injury. Rudolph shouldn’t be expected to contribute much once again this week, as he faces a Lions defense that gives up the 10th-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks in 2024. He’s a desperation 2QB play, at best, but with no teams on bye week, hopefully there are better options available to turn to.

    The Running Backs: (DET) Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery continue to be one of the most formidable rushing duos in NFL history. Gibbs finally struck gold in Week 8, finishing as the fantasy football RB1 on the slate with over 150 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, David Montgomery had his touchdown streak snapped against the Vikings simultaneously. Both backs remain different types of back end RB1s, even against a Titans defense that surrenders just the 11th-fewest fantasy points to opposing RBs to date. (TEN) With Tyjae Spears a bit banged up in recent weeks, Tony Pollard got the workhorse treament last week against the Bills, playing a season-high 89% of RB snaps. Still, Pollard had his worst game in weeks, despite the volume increase in Week 8. Spears is still limited ahead of the matchup with the Lions, but perhaps it’s best to keep both Titans running backs out of starting fantasy lineups with a tough Lions matchup on deck.

    The Wide Receivers: (DET) With Jameson Williams suspended for a pair of games for testing positive for performance enhancing substances, the Lions are vacating a large part of their offensive target share, meaning a sizeable door for opportunities opens for the pass-catchers on the roster. While Amon-Ra St. Brown should definitely see a couple extra his way, he’s already locked in as an obvious WR1 on a weekly basis. Tim Patrick has operated as the team’s WR3 so far this season, and has made some cameo catches here and there in his first season with the Lions. He’s made a handful of 20-plus-yard catches over the last couple weeks, and given how well QB Jared Goff is playing, Patrick could be an intriguing flex play in the increased role and opportunities vs. the Titans. Kalif Raymond is still in the mix, as well, with double-digit PPR fantasy points in each of the last two weeks, though he’s been playing significantly less snaps than Patrick, as a step lower in the rotation.The Titans allow the sixth-fewest fantasy points to WRs on the season. (TEN) With DeAndre Hopkins shipped off to Kansas City ahead of Week 8, Calvin Ridley got even further cemented as the should-be top wideout of the offense, if it was good enough to employ one. He’s been arguably the most frustrating fantasy player when considering the disparity between talent and production this season, as the WR67 in FPPG through seven weeks of the football year. Tyler Boyd is the new WR2 of the offense, and though Nick Westbrook-Ikhine has caught a touchdown in two consecutive weeks, his role isn’t nearly consistent enough to count on, with just three catches total on the season, all in the last few weeks. It is a great matchup, though, as the Lions surrender the third-most fantasy points to the position on the year.

    The Tight Ends: (DET) Sam LaPorta has seen a fraction of the usage and success we saw from his stellar 2023 rookie campaign, with only two TE1 finishes on the year as the TE20 overall. Perhaps, a part of the reason for his production dip could be attributed to the emergence of wideout Jameson Williams. Hopefully, LaPorta will be able to capture some of the vacated opportunities during Williams’s two-game suspension for PEDs. It’ll be tough, though, as the Titans allow the second-fewest fantasy points to TEs on the season, and haven’t allowed a tight end to finish with more than 6.7 half-PPR fantasy points in a game this season. (TEN)  Tennessee tight ends can still be avoided all together in fantasy football, though Chigoziem Okonkwo had his best game of the season in Week 7 with four catches and 50 yards.

    Want to get access to the rest of Nathan’s article? You’ll need to have a FANTASYPASS membership. Click here to learn more and sign up!
    Premium Access Required

    Click here to join us on Discord! And Follow us on Twitter by clicking here

    Come join us at SportsEthos by filling out an application by clicking here