For those Fantasy Football managers who felt the season had gotten off to a low and slow-scoring start, Week 8 was the perfect reprieve. Cleveland Browns fans got a rare treat in seeing their team score 20 points after their quarterback lit it up for 334 yards passing and three touchdowns. Of course, it wasn't their $230 million quarterback but instead a Fantasy favorite -- Jameis Winston. We also saw the Philadelphia Eagles offense get back on track after a slow start to the season. We'll recap some of the biggest takeaways discussed by Dave Richard, Jamey Eisenberg, Heath Cummings, and Adam Aizer on Fantasy Football today as we roll through some Buy-Sells.
For a larger discussion on all of these players and more, be sure to check Fantasy Football Today Week 8 recap show:
Baker a must-start?
With Chris Godwin and Mike Evans out, there was some concern for Fantasy managers who had ridden the back of Baker Mayfield through the first seven weeks of the season. With his weapons, Baker was competing for QB1 overall. Without them? So far, so good. Mayfield leaned on a new favorite weapon in tight end Cade Otton. Mayfield threw for 330 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions in Week 8. He also added 21 rushing yards.
Dave is skeptical that Baker will continue to provide QB1 numbers through leaning so heavily on his tight ends and running backs in the pass game,"Can you think of any QB who has provided QB1 numbers while leaning on his tight ends and running backs? He got nothing out of his wide receivers in Week 8."
Mayfield's leading receiver was Rakim Jarrett. Baker also attempted 50 passes in this game. Adam mentioned the early Kirk Cousins game where a QB threw 50 passes, and in the following week, the wide receivers let us down in Fantasy Football. The lesson is to be careful buying into a 50-pass attempt game, and all three of the guys don't see Mayfield returning a top-12 QB finish in Week 9.
Mayfield's upcoming schedule: @KC, SF, BYE, @NYG, @CAR, LV, @LAC, @DAL, CAR, NO
Hurts rest of season QB1?
Hurts was the QB1 in Week 8 on the back of his most efficient passing performance of the season. He connected a long touchdown to Devonta Smith and only threw four incompletions en route to 236 passing yards and one touchdown. He did his work on the ground for Fantasy managers. Hurts racked up another three rushing touchdowns to go along with 37 yards rushing. It has been a tale of two seasons for Hurts -- with and without A.J. Brown in the lineup.
Dave is not buying Hurts as QB1 for the rest of the season. He thought this performance was a bit flukey because of the rushing touchdowns, and they matched up against the Bengals. Heath mentioned that Hurts is a different-level quarterback with Brown in the lineup. He has three games with 24+ Fantasy points and one game with 30+ Fantasy points with Brown in the lineup. However, is any of this enough to put him ahead of Lamar Jackson? Or Josh Allen? Jamey thinks he's in the conversation for the rest of the season.
Is it time to buy high on Hurts? It certainly looks like it if you believe in the health of Brown, Smith, and Dallas Goedert, soon to return as another reinforcement.
Hurt's upcoming schedule: JAC, @DAL, WAS, @LAR, @BAL, CAR, PIT, @WAS, DAL, NYG
Other Week 8 winners of note
JAMEY'S WINNERS
- Every tight End! It was "National Tight End Week," according to some, but more importantly, it was the first week where the "Year of the Tight End" finally started to look promising for Fantasy Managers.
DAVE'S WINNERS
- Marvin Harrison Jr. (100/62): 6/111/1 on seven targets @MIA after 3/21 on 6 targets for 5.1 FPs against LAC. He scored 5.1 and 5.6 PPR FPs in his last two healthy games @SF and LAC EW8
Previous Seven Games:
- 1/4 on 3 targets for 1.4 FPs @BUF
- 4/130/2 on 8 targets for 29.0 FPs against LAR
- 5/64/1 on 11 targets for 17.4 FPs against DET
- 5/45/1 on 6 targets for 15.5 FPs against WAS
- 2/36 on 7 targets for 5.6 FPs @SF
- 0/0 on 2 targets for 0.0 FPs @GB
- 3/21 on 6 targets for 5.1 FPs against LAC
Harrison's upcoming schedule: CHI, NYJ, BYE, @SEA, @MIN, SEA, NE, @CAR, @LAR, SF
- Cade Otton went 9/81/2 on 10 targets against ATL after 8/100 on 10 targets and he might be Mayfield's number one target moving forward.
Otton's upcoming schedule: @KC, SF, BYE, @NYG, @CAR, LV, @LAC, @DAL, CAR, NO
HEATH'S WINNERS
- Bo Nix: 28-37/284/3 and 5/4/1 rushing.
*Had scored 24.7 or more FPs in two straight games against LV and LAC before the @NO game
*Had 35 or more rushing yards in four-of-seven games
Nix's upcoming schedule: @BAL, @KC, ATL, @LV, CLE, BYE, IND, @LAC, @CIN, KC
- De'Von Achane (100/89): 10/97 and 6/50/1 against ARI after 15/77 and 2/8 for 10.5 FPs @IND
Heath's case: First two games with Tua Tagovailoa at QB:
- 10/24/1 and 7/76 for 23.0 FPs against JAC
- 22/96 and 7/69/1 for 29.5 FPs against BUF
Achane's upcoming schedule: @BUF, @LAR, LV, NE, @GB, NYJ, @HOU, SF, @CLE, @NYJ