Week 8 Fantasy Football Start/Sit Sleepers To Discover (2024)

Can you believe it? We’re almost halfway through the NFL regular season! Hopefully, this season has been going quite well for you. If you are one of those managers who hasn’t had the best luck, I hope you find your good luck charm before the fantasy football playoffs start!

Before we get into Week 8’s version of “Shore Thing Sleepers,” I always recap the previous week’s list. In short, last week was injury-riddled, even though none of the players got injured. It started with Matthew Stafford. I expected Cooper Kupp to return, but to my surprise, he was inactive. I also chose Raiders WR Tre Tucker, and his quarterback Aidan O’Connell suffered a thumb injury, meaning they had to switch to Gardner Minshew. However, he did salvage his day, as he was just 2.7 points under projection. Then, things didn’t go as expected on “Monday Night Football,” with two of my picks, Trey Benson and Michael Wilson. Benson was a “game-time” decision with an illness, and though he was active, he didn’t score anything. Wilson was expected to be WR1, but Marvin Harrison Jr. passed concussion protocol within a week, a rarity to do on such short notice.

Everything did not go bad, though! I told you to get over your trust issues with Mark Andrews, and he scored two touchdowns and 13.8 points over projection! Andrews singlehandedly saved last week’s sleepers from being horrendous, as the total was 10.7 points under projection.

In Week 8’s “Shore Thing Sleepers,” I hope to have more “Booms” than “Dooms”! So, let’s get into it and let you know what sleepers to consider for your start/sit decisions!

Fantasy Football Start/Sit Consideration: Week 8 Sleepers

Quarterback

Drake Maye (New England Patriots)

To quote NSYNC, “It’s gonna be Maye!” In Drake Maye‘s two starts this season, he has gotten the Patriots’ offense in sync, with an average of 287.5 total yards, 2.5 touchdowns, one interception and 21.1 fantasy points! Across those two weeks, Maye’s is the QB8! He’s popped off for T10 finishes at the quarterback position in every start. So, why would you not ride one of the hottest quarterback options in Week 8?

I get it; the matchup against the New York Jets looks scary on paper. The Jets have allowed the fourth-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks this season. Although something interesting is happening to the Jets defense, once they said “Bye Bye Bye” to former head coach Robert Saleh. In both games with Jeff Ulbrich as interim head coach, the Jets’ defense has allowed a quarterback to have 215+ passing yards, two passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown and 24.4+ fantasy points! The Jets’ defense has now allowed the 14th-most fantasy points to quarterbacks in the last three weeks.

With the recent lows of the Jets’ defense and the highs of Maye’s offense, I’m hoping this rookie is tearing up the Jets’ defense and not tearing up my heart!

Running Back

Tyler Goodson (Indianapolis Colts)

Jonathan Taylor logged a limited practice session on Wednesday. If Taylor does play, I am still OK with Tyler Goodson in this spot. I think they’ll ease Taylor back in while still letting Goodson get valuable snaps. This about-to-be 24-year-old has gradually gone up weekly in fantasy scoring. In Week 5, he was behind Trey Sermon, but Goodson still put up 8.7 fantasy points. In back-to-back weeks, he now has 51 rushing yards and 10.5+ fantasy points and outscored Sermon.

Now, onto the matchup. The Texans have allowed the third-fewest fantasy points to the running back position, but I am not one to turn away from a matchup if it looks bad on paper. I believe Goodson has some receiving potential, which the Texans have struggled with in recent matchups. In their last two games, the Texans have allowed a running back to score more on the receiving end than on the rushing end. Just last week, Josh Jacobs had 76 rushing yards, but they allowed him to score his first-career receiving touchdown, alongside five receptions for 16 yards! In Week 6, Antonio Gibson scored 7.3 fantasy points, with 5.4 of them coming from the receiving end. Anthony Richardson might’ve not targeted Goodson last week, but I think they’ll get back to doing that.

Another thing to note: In two games this season, the Texans have allowed an RB2 to outscore the RB1 and put up 8.7+ fantasy points. This might be one of your last times to use Tyler Goodson this season. You might as well go out on a high note!

D’Ernest Johnson (Jacksonville Jaguars)

If there’s one thing I have learned this season, it’s good to be a Jaguars’ running back, unless you’re named Travis Etienne. D’Ernest Johnson might be behind Tank Bigsby on the depth chart, but all you have to do is look at the stats for the last two games! In those games, Bigsby averaged 13.1 fantasy points per game, with Johnson not too far behind with 8.2!

The Packers are right around the middle of fantasy points allowed to the RB position. But did you know they’ve allowed a running back to have 93+ rushing yards in five games this season? While that may be good news for Bigsby and not Johnson, you might want to look at the other two games this season. Those other two games without the 93-yard rusher saw the RB2 outscore the RB1, with the RB2 putting up at least 10.1 fantasy points!

If Bigsby struggles against the Packers, they can look toward Johnson to use his consistency. The six-year veteran might have an 8.2-points-per-game average in that span, but he hasn’t scored fewer than 6.4 in those appearances!

Wide Receiver

Jalen McMillan (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

Look who made it! It’s Jalen McMillan, one of the more popular Week 8 waiver wire pickups. “Monday Night Football” was a nightmare for the Buccaneers starting WRs. First, Mike Evans suffered a hamstring injury and is not expected to return until after the bye week in Week 11. Then, with less than a minute left in the game, Chris Godwin suffered a gruesome ankle injury. With the ankle injury, Godwin is now out for the season. That leaves us with the healthy rookie after a hamstring injury caused him to miss Weeks 4-5. He now has some big shoes to fill as the expected WR1.

The Falcons have been struggling against the wide receiver position. This season, they’ve allowed the eighth-most fantasy points to the position. Meanwhile, over the last five weeks, they’ve allowed the fifth-most. The rookie is coming off a season-high eight targets, which is to be expected moving forward considering the circumstances. This season, the Falcons have allowed five wide receivers to see eight-plus targets against them. Those WRs average 86.8 yards, 0.6 touchdowns and 20.7 PPR fantasy points!

The scheduling gods blessed McMillan with this prime opportunity in his first start at WR1. Considering the games Evans is expected to miss, this week is the best opportunity to use McMillan. As in Weeks 9-10, they face off against the teams who made the Super Bowl last year.

Alec Pierce (Indianapolis Colts)

This is shocking; I know! The difference between Joe Flacco and Anthony Richardson has been night and day. Even though Richardson might be sleeping on his WR corps, this is a great opportunity for a sleeper receiver in Alec Pierce. Guess who averages the most fantasy points out of the four Colts wide receivers to play in all four games with Richardson? That’s right; it’s Pierce with 11.7!

Before we even get into the matchup, the Colts and Texans have already faced off once this season. That happened in Week 1, and Pierce ended the day with three receptions for 125 yards and a touchdown, finishing as the WR6 in PPR scoring that week. He is still the only receiver this season to have over 100 scrimmage yards against the Texans!

In four separate games this season, the Texans allowed two different wide receivers to score a touchdown, and three of those games saw a receiver with four or fewer targets to score a touchdown. Five of those games also saw two different wide receivers score 12.4+ fantasy points! How about one more for good measure? The Texans have allowed a WR to score 21.5+ fantasy points in two divisional games.

Despite Richardson struggling to get completions, with the few targets that the receivers are getting, he and Pierce have a unique chemistry forming. This week, it might come at the Texans’ expense.

Tight End

Dalton Schultz (Houston Texans)

It’s been a struggle for those who thought Dalton Schultz could step up with Nico Collins on Injured Reserve (IR). In those two games, Schultz is averaging 2.5 receptions on five targets for 27.5 yards and a disappointing 5.2 fantasy points. None of those games include over 29 receiving yards or seven fantasy points.

The days of “Disappointin’ Dalton” are over, though. This matchup is heavenly for him. He goes face-to-face against the team allowing the most fantasy points to the TE position in the last five weeks! The Colts have been so generous lately that they’ve seen a tight end with five-plus targets do all of the above: 57+ receiving yards, a touchdown and 16.7+ fantasy points. This should lead to a nice bounce-back game for the Texans offense, especially Schultz!

Check out all of our Week 8 fantasy football content:

Thanks for reading this week’s “Shore Thing Sleepers”! If you’re looking for more fantasy content like this or need help with the last-minute fantasy football start/sit decisions for your roster, you can find me on Facebook at “Fantasy Sports Start or Sit’Em Questions” or on Twitter/X @FSSOSEQ.

*Photo Credit: Brian Fluharty – USA TODAY Sports*

Ben Siebert

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Week 8 Shore Thing Sleepers (2024)