Week 8 Fantasy Football TE Sleepers
It’s finally week eight, which means that the fantasy football season is already half over. This isn’t true if you play in a league with a week seventeen championship, but if you play in a league with a week seventeen championship, find a new league. Each week, we try to help you out with week 8 TE sleepers to help get you through injuries, bad performance, bye weeks, or good ol’ fashioned streaming. These TE sleepers are available in at least 50% of Yahoo! fantasy football leagues, with one of the week 8 TE sleepers available in at least 90% of these leagues. Ownership figures are as of Friday afternoon.
If one of these guys can’t help you, then you probably already lost. Might I suggest Aaron Hernandez as a TE sleeper, in that case?
Week 8 TE Sleeper: C.J. Uzomah versus Tampa Bay (50% owned)
I’m honestly surprised that Uzomah is available in half of leagues. Are half of leagues not paying attention? He’s the TE12 since Tyler Eifert went down, and has had some good games in positive matchups this year. This weekend, he gets the best possible matchup. He takes on the defense that allows the most fantasy points to tight ends. They fired their defensive coordinator before last week’s game, and in a fit of brilliance and exuberance, the defense allowed… David Njoku 13.2 fantasy points. To be fair, the 13.2 fantasy points was the fewest the Bucs D had allowed since Ben Watson’s 6.4 in week one. If you’re wondering if you should start or sit C.J. Uzomah this week against the Bucs, let me put it this way: if you don’t start him now, you never will.
Week 8 TE Sleeper: Vance McDonald versus Cleveland (45% owned)
Toss out the absurd Pittsburgh-Atlanta game (the last time I recommended Vance McDonald, I might add), and he is averaging just under six targets a game on the season. This peaked last week when he hauled in seven-of-eight targets last week en route to 68 yards and his third performance of 62+ yards in his last four games. While he has only scored one touchdown in this span, he has been a good yardage performer. Tight end is usually a touchdown-or-bust game, so getting yardage provides a nice alternative, just in case, the “or bust” becomes reality. This week, he gets a middling Cleveland defense on paper. They allow the seventeenth-fewest fantasy points to TEs this year, but they’ve played two worth anything, and they went off for 177 yards and two scores combined (Jared Cook and O.J. Howard).
Week 8 TE Sleeper: Chris Herndon at Chicago (6% owned)
Sub-10% tight ends are absolutely bleak right now. Mike brought him up on the podcast this week, and I am just going to steal what he had to say! Thanks, Mike! Herndon is filling the Quincy Enunwa role in this offense, a role previously held by ASJ last season. Big and slow, with some decent hands. Herndon was born with two extra fingers, so those are some unique hands he has for catching footballs. This week he gets a Bears defense that is middling against tight ends, but that has to do with no tight end doing anything at all against them last week. They allowed four double-digit tight end games in the three games before that. Herndon has 12.6 and 12.2 fantasy points over the last two games, so the O/U sits at more or fewer fantasy points than fingers he was born with?
Looking for more sleepers advice? Check out our other sleepers & streamers pieces for week eight below:
Week 8 Fantasy Football QB Sleepers – Throwing May-Bakers
Week 8 Fantasy Football WR Sleepers – This Land is Courtland
Week 8 Fantasy Football RB Sleepers – More Like Raheem Must Start
Week 8 Fantasy Football DEF Sleepers – Between Anderson and Peterman, I Choose Death
Also, we have Hot Takes from Crazy People: Eric Reid vs Malcolm Jenkins Edition
Want more hard-hitting advice from fantasy experts who understand deeper leagues? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
