Carson Wentz

Dallas' defense has been getting smoked like a brisket in Nashville as of late, and as injuries, trades, and dissent permeate the Cowboys' locker room, that's unlikely to change in Week 8 against Philly. Enter Carson Wentz. Dallas travels to Wentzylvania for a primetime matchup, where the Eagles QB is a bona fide QB1 with top-5 upside in a tasty matchup.

Wentz has turned his season around and is succeeding despite the situation around him. In this matchup, Wentz absolutely belongs in your starting lineup as a top-12 option. It might not be pretty, but he's going to get the job done for fantasy football.

Is Wentz starting to get his groove back? He's now scored at least 17.4 fantasy points in each of his last five games, including 21.4 or more in four of them. It doesn't hurt that he's scored a rushing touchdown in five of the last six games, something that's difficult to see continuing considering Wentz scored just three rushing touchdowns over his first 57 career games. He's also thrown for two touchdowns in each of the last three games, so maybe he's turning a corner there, though his 58.6 percent completion-rate remains near the bottom of the league. Unfortunately, teams have decided to go run-heavy against the Cowboys, as evidenced by the league-low 49.3 percent pass-rate. No quarterback has thrown more than 40 passes and just one quarterback has averaged more than 7.88 yards per attempt. I don't think it's due to them being so talented but rather teams taking the air out of the ball after jumping out ahead of them. The Cowboys have scored 13 points in the two games since Dak Prescott's injury, so we're likely to see the run-heavy ways of their opponents. Teams have averaged 67.9 plays per game against the Cowboys, and the Eagles have been the fourth-heaviest pass-happy team, calling a pass play on 64.8 percent of plays. It would be nice if we could get some competition in this game because Wentz could do some damage in this game, but volume is certainly a concern. He should be viewed as a high-end QB2 who might have a lower floor than most in that range due to lack of competency on the other side of the field.

As much as people have criticized Wentz this year, he is 7th among fantasy quarterbacks this season and he is 3rd over the last 3 weeks with 25.9 fantasy points per game. Wentz should be a great QB1 against a horrific Cowboys D that is 15th against fantasy QBs.