Fitz’s Week 8 Rankings, Tiers & Start/Sit Advice (2022 Fantasy Football)

Fitz’s Week 8 Rankings, Tiers & Start/Sit Advice (2022 Fantasy Football)

We’re coming off a depressing week in which we lost Jets RB Breece Hall to a season-ending knee injury and also saw some other significant fantasy contributors — D.K. Metcalf, Mike Williams, David Njoku — go down with what are likely to be multi-week injuries. On Thursday we learned that Ja’Marr Chase could miss a month or more.

Fantasy football can be the cruelest of pastimes. But what can we do except pick ourselves up off the ground, dust ourselves off, hitch up our britches and get back at it?

As always, feel free to use these tiered rankings as a tiebreaker for your difficult lineup decisions. I’ll offer a few brief thoughts on some of the borderline start/sit guys and some other interesting cases.

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Fitz’s Fantasy Football Week 8 Rankings, Tiers & Start/Sit Advice

QUARTERBACKS

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Derek Carr‘s matchup against New Orleans is particularly appealing because of all the injuries the Saints are dealing with at cornerback. Marshon Lattimore missed Week 7 with an abdominal injury and wasn’t practicing as of Wednesday. Another starter, Paulson Adebo, missed Week 7 with a knee injury and has also been kept out of recent practices. Saints CB Bradley Roby just landed on IR. The New Orleans pass rush has generated the fifth-lowest pressure rate this season. Carr is the QB15 in fantasy points per game but should be regarded as a midrange QB1 this week.

The Cowboys merely needed Dak Prescott to be a game manager last week in his first game back from a thumb injury. He played that role well, completing 19 of 25 yards for 204 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions in a 24-6 win over the Lions. It’s possible he serves the same role this week against the Bears and their limited offense, but Prescott still lands in QB1 range in a week where Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert are on bye.

It’s been a Cinderella season for Geno Smith. I’m less excited about using him with WR D.K. Metcalf (knee) likely to be sidelined, but as turbulent as the QB waters have been this season, you may not have a choice.

New Giants head coach Brian Daboll has worked wonders with Daniel Jones. The oft-maligned, formerly turnover-prone quarterback is QB9 in fantasy points per game. He’s thrown only two interceptions in 189 pass attempts and has lost two fumbles. Perhaps most important to fantasy managers, Jones has run for 343 yards and three touchdowns. He’s a decent fantasy option this week against a Seattle defense that has given up the 10th-most fantasy points to QBs.

You could say that Aaron Rodgers is a matchup-based fade against the Bills in Buffalo. Yes, the Bills are allowing only 12.5 fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks, but this is about more than just the matchup. The only wide receiver Rodgers has clicked with this season is Allen Lazard, who’s dealing with a shoulder injury and wasn’t practicing as of Thursday. Rodgers is averaging 6.5 yards per pass attempt this season, more than a full yard below his career YPA of 7.7. Don’t feel guilty about benching the future first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Trevor Lawrence is a pure matchup fade. He’s enjoying a solid season after the shipwreck campaign of 2021, but he’ll be in London facing a Denver pass defense that’s giving up a league-low 10.2 fantasy points per game to quarterbacks.

If Ryan Tannehill isn’t able to play this week due to an ankle injury, I’ll rank rookie backup Malik Willis as a midrange QB1. Willis would probably struggle as a passer in his first NFL start, but the dude can flat-out run and would no doubt be aggressive about running in his first real exposure to an NFL defense (assuming the Texans’ defense can be considered one).

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RUNNING BACKS

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With Ezekiel Elliott almost certain to be sidelined by a sprained MCL, Tony Pollard ascends to RB10 in this week’s rankings. That might even be a tad conservative, but the Cowboys are likely to sprinkle in a handful of Malik Davis carries just to avoid running Pollard into the ground.

The trade that sent James Robinson to the Jets is certainly a boon to the fantasy value of Travis Etienne. I don’t think we’ll see Etienne become a workhorse in the mold of Saquon Barkley or Dalvin Cook, however. Etienne never averaged more than 14 carries a game in any of his four seasons at Clemson. He’s not a heavy-duty guy. Etienne is a terrific dual run-catch threat, and I’m a big fan of his game, but I’m being careful not to overestimate the workload, which is probably why I’m slightly below consensus on him this week.

I’m assuming that D’Andre Swift will be back from a shoulder sprain and ankle sprain — an imprudent leap of faith, perhaps — after being a surprise scratch in Week 7. You’re pretty much obligated to use Swift if he’s active, albeit with somewhat reduced expectations. Jamaal Williams has standalone value even in games Swift plays, but Williams has less stand-alone value than usual this week vs. a Cowboys defense that’s giving up the fewest fantasy points per game to RBs.

The guess here is that we see ample Michael Carter usage this weekend and not a lot of the newly acquired James Robinson. The Jets traded for Robinson on Monday night; the 49ers traded for Christian McCaffrey on a Thursday. That’s a little more time for Robinson to learn the playbook than CMC had, but this is not going to be a 50/50 split right away. Carter offers low-end RB2 value this week in a tough matchup. The Patriots hadn’t given up a TD to a running back all season before David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert both scored against them on Monday night.

Try not to get too exuberant about the Carolina RBs in the wake of the Christian McCaffrey trade. D’Onta Foreman and Chuba Hubbard combined for 181 rushing yards, 37 receiving yards and a touchdown last week. The Panthers had a positive game script throughout their 21-3 upset of the Buccaneers. That won’t happen very often for Carolina and its limited offense. We’re in the midst of the bye weeks, so if you have no choice but to start a Carolina RB, have at it. But don’t let the Panthers’ improbable Week 7 upset skew your perspective.

This might be a good time to get up from your seat on the Gus Bus, approach the driver for a transfer, and disembark at the next stop. Gus Edwards had a terrific 16-66-2 rushing game in his return from a knee injury last week, but he played only 36% of the offensive snaps. Yes, Edwards will continue to get the ball on a high percentage of his snaps, so snap share isn’t everything. But the Ravens are still going to be somewhat cautious about Edwards’ usage post-injury. He’s a nonfactor as a pass catcher, and he has a tricky Week 8 matchup against a Buccaneers run defense that ranks 11th in DVOA.

My friend Jeff Bell of Footballguys made an interesting point about Kareem Hunt. The Browns play on Monday night. The NFL trade deadline is Tuesday. Hunt has been the subject of trade rumors. What if the Browns are negotiating with a potential suitor on Monday and decide to hold Hunt out of that night’s game? It’s an element of risk worth considering in any lineup decision involving Hunt since a Monday-night game doesn’t leave Hunt stakeholders with many potential safety nets in the event of a trade.

WIDE RECEIVERS

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Tyler Boyd is currently the WR13 in half-PPR fantasy scoring. He had a season-high eight catches for 155 yards and a touchdown last week against the Falcons, Boyd has been streaky, which is to be expected from a receiver who’s had to share targets with Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Boyd’s weekly fantasy finishes this season: WR30, WR72, WR9, WR48, WR67, WR32, WR3. Quite a roller-coaster ride, huh? But now Chase is likely to miss at least 4-6 weeks with a hip injury, which will put Boyd in WR2 range of the rankings every week. He’s basically a must-start until Chase gets back

It would be imprudent to expect a strong performance from the Colts’ passing game this week with Sam Ehlinger, a sixth-round draft pick in 2021, making his first NFL start. Michael Pittman is a riskier fantasy option than usual, and I would be disinclined to use rookie Alec Pierce or the newly awakened Paris Campbell.

I’m above consensus on Jakobi Meyers, which is atypical. I’ve traditionally been a Meyers fader. My hang-up with him was that Meyers didn’t score many touchdowns and didn’t produce many big plays, so he was basically just an empty-calorie PPR receiver. But this year, Meyers has a career-high average depth of target of 11.5 yards. He’s averaging 13.7 yards per catch and a career-high 10.8 yards per target. The targets have more value than they used to. Meyers lines up in the slot about half the time, so he’s mostly going to avoid the Jets’ dynamic outside CB duo of Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed this weekend and will run most of his routes against Michael Carter, who’s allowing a 73% catch rate and 1.28 yards per route into his coverage.

Is it a coincidence that D.J. Moore produced his best single-game numbers of the season immediately after the Panthers traded away Christian McCaffrey? Moore is bound to get some additional targets as a result of McCaffrey’s absence. The outlook for Moore is bright this week against an injury-depleted Falcons secondary that has given up more fantasy points to WRs than any other. The Falcons will be missing outside CBs A.J. Terrell and Casey Hayward, who are both hurt.

I hate being below the expert consensus ranking on Brandon Aiyuk, but George Kittle has become much more involved as a pass catcher (19 targets in his last two games), and I think it will stay that way now that the 49ers have stud left tackle Trent Williams back from injury and have a less of a need for Kittle to occasionally chip in as a pass blocker. Christian McCaffrey is going to siphon away a few targets from the San Francisco wide receivers, too. But I’m assuming that Deebo Samuel is playing — he tweaked his hamstring last week vs. Chiefs. If Deebo winds up sitting, Aiyuk will move up, of course.

In four games so far this season, Michael Gallup has 8-86-1 receiving. Granted, three of those games have been with Cooper Rush at QB, but Dak Prescott returned from his thumb injury last week, the Cowboys had a juicy matchup against the Lions … and Gallup had zero catches on two targets. Noah Brown, one of the better blocking receivers in the league, has been playing more snaps than Gallup. I’m not eager to throw Gallup into my lineups.

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TIGHT ENDS

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Taysom Hill will continue to be in the top 10 of my weekly TE rankings. Yes, there will be weeks when he gives you next to nothing. But that’s also the case with the Hunter Hursts and Irv Smiths, and those dudes don’t have anything close to the weekly upside that Hill offers. Never mind the low snaps counts for Hill, which are irrelevant. When Hill is in the game, he’s often getting the ball. He’s played 90 offensive snaps this season and has 29 rushing attempts, seven pass attempts and two receptions. He’s handled the ball on 42.2% of his snaps. I’m happy to keep rolling him out knowing it’s going to be hit/miss. As long as the hits continue to be 500-foot home runs, I’m good with it.

Tyler Higbee is a start in most circumstances, but I suspect he’s more of a low-end TE1 masquerading as a high-end or midrange TE1. Higbee hasn’t scored a touchdown this season and has only two red-zone receptions. He’s averaging 5.7 catches and 49.5 yards per game. It’s empty-calorie PPR value. Is Higbee even good? With averages of 8.7 yards per catch and 5.9 yards per target, we can’t exactly call him a playmaker, can we?

Mike Gesicki had a snap share of 60% or higher just once in his first five games, but he was at 64% in Week 6 and 61% in Week 7. He’s had seven targets in each of his last two games, and he’s produced 9-96-2 over that span. He’s an interesting Week 8 stealth play against a Lions defense that has allowed the fifth-most fantasy points to tight ends.

Las Vegas is another team that has been getting nuked by tight ends this year, giving up 14.0 fantasy points per game and six total touchdowns to TEs. Saints TE Juwan Johnson faces the Raiders this week. He’s played more than 50 snaps in each of the last two weeks, and he’s coming off a two-TD game vs. the Cardinals

Another interesting TE option for Week 8: Harrison Bryant. With David Njoku shelved by a high-ankle sprain, Bryant is going to soak up most of the TE targets for Cleveland — and Browns QB Jacoby Brissett has targeted tight ends on 30.2% of his throws this year.

Remember Tyler Conklin‘s relevance? Yeah … that was great. He’s had 38 receiving yards in his last three games. Don’t use him.

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Pat Fitzmaurice

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Pat Fitzmaurice is the managing editor and a fantasy football analyst at FantasyPros.

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