Fantasy football: Start-em, sit-em players for Week 8
By Jay Marsdale
Week 8 in the NFL has fantasy football players having to answer many questions when setting their lineups. Making those questions a little bit easier to answer, here are our picks for who to start and who to sit in fantasy football for Week 8.
With six teams not taking the field this weekend due to their bye weeks, fantasy football players are going to have to get a little creative when constructing these Week 8 lineups. Arizona, Green Bay, Jacksonville, Los Angeles Rams, New York Giants and Tennessee are all off in Week 8.
That leaves a lot of players needing to be replaced and not a lot of great options left to choose from. However, this week is a perfect example of how important a strong fantasy football bench can be. Hopefully you trust yours and it can get you a win on one of the toughest weeks in fantasy football.
Last week provided the excitement that the NFL always provides, but how did the start-em, sit-em picks do? Let’s take a look.
San Francisco 49ers
Week 7 Hits: Carson Wentz (PHI) start-em, Joe Flacco (BAL) sit-em, Jordan Howard (CHI) sit-em, Keenan Allen (LAC) sit-em, Zach Ertz (PHI) start-em, and Jack Doyle (IND) sit-em.
Week 7 Misses: Christian McCaffrey (CAR) start-em and AJ Green (CIN) start-em.
Wentz is proving to be a top five fantasy quarterback with games like last week and he is taking Zach Ertz with him. All the sit-em players last week had underwhelming performances as predicted and Flacco continued his incredibly poor season.
McCaffrey did score over ten fantasy points again in Week 7, but I expected a break out game. He has one of the lowest floors for a running back in fantasy football, but I thought last week was his break out game. I was definitely wrong there. AJ Green was nonexistent in Week 7 and surprised not only me, but the entire fantasy football world with such a bad showing.
This week I am avoiding Green and it will probably backfire. Let’s take a look at who is on this list for Week 8.
Start-em: Kirk Cousins (WAS) vs. Dallas
Carson Wentz opponent last week, Kirk Cousins, impressed me enough for me to put him on this week’s list. Wentz overshadowed a very solid game from Cousins even though he wasn’t getting much help from the rest of his team.
Since Week 2, Cousins hasn’t had a quarterback rating of under 100. Quietly, he is having a great season in yet another contact year in Washington. He is also working with very little talent at the wide receiver position. Pierre Garcon is now in San Francisco and his loss is being felt tremendously in D.C. Jamison Crowder has regressed to the point where he is barely on the field and new wide receiver pick up Terrelle Pryor is not fitting in to his new home.
Those all sound like negatives, and they are, but they are going to lead to positives. With the struggles of the Washington starting pass catchers, other players are starting to get opportunities. Cousins is getting new weapons to use and that will mean even bigger numbers in coming weeks. Players like Josh Doctson, Chris Thompson, and Jordan Reed are going to make Cousins job much easier in Week 8 against Dallas and beyond.
Also, Washington’s defense is going to get stronger this week as well. Top cornerback Josh Norman looks like he is ready to return. That could mean shorter fields and more time with the ball for Cousins and the Washington offense.
Fantasy football players are always looking for consistency and that is what Cousins embodies. He has multiple touchdowns in each of his last four games and this week he gets to go up against a poor Dallas defense. Cousins is a top five quarterback again this week in Dallas.
Other options: Cam Newton (CAR) @ Tampa Bay and Andy Dalton (CIN) vs Indianapolis.