Well, it’s week eight of the fantasy football season. You realized that you’ve made a ton of errors in your awful teams and you hate yourself. It’s time to turn to daily fantasy football to get some good fuzzies and forget that you drafted JuJu Smith-Schuster, Davante Adams, and Damien Williams. You need some studs in your life, and these guys will help you jam all those high-priced studs into your daily fantasy football lineups.
Week Eight Dumpster Dive Daily Fantasy Football Quarterback (Fan Duel):
Gardner Minshew II versus N.Y. Jets ($6,900)
Minshew Mania hit a bit of the skids in fantasy football the last couple of games, as he threw for just 418 yards and one touchdown over the last couple of contests. Minshew should bounce back this week against a Jets team that has had some serious troubles staying healthy. They’ve “stopped” opposing QBs lately, allowing just 239 passing yards per game and two touchdowns since their week four-game. However, two of these games ended with a combined score of 64-6.
In reality, their defense took a page out of Zapp Brannigan’s playbook against the Killbots. Opposing teams will only score so many touchdowns before shutting down, so the Jets went ahead and gave them all those touchdowns to see what happened. It ended in Carson Wentz and Tom Brady having down fantasy football days. Don’t count on that this weekend, as the Jags defense is bad enough to keep this one competitive.
Week Eight Dumpster Dive Daily Fantasy Football Quarterback (Draft Kings):
Ryan Tannehill versus Tampa Bay ($5,100)
I did a deeper dive into the reasons why I believe in Ryan Tannehill in this week’s Fantasy Football QB Sleepers column. Here’s the long and the short of it: Ryan Tannehill is better than Marcus Mariota, full stop. He torched the Chargers, who allow the eighth-fewest fantasy football points to QBs, for 312 yards and two scores in his first start of the season, joining Deshaun Watson as the only QB to do that against the Chargers. This week he makes a Buccaneers team that gave up four touchdowns to Daniel Jones, who has four touchdowns in his other four starts… combined.
Week Eight Dumpster Dive Daily Fantasy Football Running Back (Fan Duel):
Darrell Henderson Jr. versus Cincinnati in London ($5,600)
DHJ had the opportunity to produce last week, but failed to cash in against the Falcons, turning his 12 touchdowns into just 39 yards. This week, not only will he get more touches, but his matchup is such that he will do a lot with them. The Rams travel to London this week to take on the lowly Bengals, a team that bleeds fantasy football points to running backs. In a league where the 2019 Miami Dolphins exist, the Bengals give up the most fantasy points to RBs. It’s a sad display, with eleven different running backs getting at least 14 half-PPR fantasy points against the Bengals through seven games. The Rams are likely to get up big against the lowly Bengals and turn garbage time over to Darrell Henderson, as Malcolm Brown has already been ruled out for week eight.
Week Eight Dumpster Dive Daily Fantasy Football Running Back (Draft Kings):
David Montgomery versus L.A. Chargers ($4,400)
David Montgomery touched the ball just four times last week against the Saints, which led Head Coach Matt Nagy to exclaim that he is not stupid. Okay, thanks Matt. The reason he had to remind us that he is not stupid is that he knows that David Montgomery needs to run the ball more. What better a place to stop letting Mitchell Trubisky vomit all over himself against a top-ten pass defense and a middling run defense.
L.A.’s fourth favorite football team gives up the fourteenth-most fantasy football points to running backs, and have gotten worse lately. Over their last three games, five running backs have at least 8 PPR points, and a running back in each game ended up over 17.8. Draft Kings buried Montgomery after last week, and you have to decide if Matt Nagy isn’t dumb, or if you are, for starting a running back who had four touches last week after averaging 15.6 for the season.
Week Eight Dumpster Dive Daily Fantasy Football Wide Receiver (Fan Duel):
Kenny Stills versus Oakland ($5,700)
Stills is the “free square” in pretty much every fantasy football analyst’s sleeper lineup this week. The math is extremely simple. Few QBs bomb it out as much as Deshaun Watson (fourth-highest 20+ yard passes), and nobody gives up as many 20+ yard completions as the Raiders. Two teams allow more 40+ yard pass plays. Sometimes fantasy football can be easy. This is one of those times.
Week Eight Dumpster Dive Daily Fantasy Football Wide Receiver (Draft Kings):
DaeSean Hamilton at Indianapolis ($3,300)
Kenny Stills is the free square, and DaeSean Hamilton is essentially free on Draft Kings, going just $300 over the minimum, tied for the 69th-highest wide receiver salary (nice). The situation changed mightily in Denver since they last played. The Broncos shipped out Emmanuel Sanders for a third- and a fourth-round pick. That leaves DaeSean Hamilton and Courtland Sutton as the WR1 and WR2, respectively (that’s a joke, calm down). This is a lesson in knowing your format: Draft Kings is full PPR. It is also a history lesson.
Let’s look at what DaeSean Hamilton did last year without Emmanuel Sanders down the stretch, shall we? In Hamilton’s last four games, he averaged 6.3 receptions and 45.5 yards, scoring two touchdowns in four games. That’s not a good overall line for standard scoring fantasy football, but his 9.5 targets and 6.3 receptions? Baby, you’ve got a wide receiver James White going there. Should he return to his ways, he’s a free floor play to keep your lineup from tanking.
Week Eight Dumpster Dive Daily Fantasy Football Tight End (Fan Duel):
Jonnu Smith versus Tampa Bay ($4,900)
Tight End injuries made this dumpster dive extraordinarily easy, as Delanie Walker’s late scratch made it impossible for Fan Duel to adjust Jonnu’s pricing. Admittedly, Jonnu didn’t really step up last season without Delanie Walker. However, he didn’t have the opportunity to do so, as Mariota vomited up just 30 targets to Jonnu over 13 games. There isn’t a tight end in the world who can work with that. Last week, after Walker went down, Tannehill and Jonnu manufactured three catches for 64 yards, and they did that against a Chargers team that is a bottom-half fantasy football tight end matchup. This week, he gets a Bucs team that allows the second-most fantasy football points to tight ends on the year.
Week Eight Dumpster Dive Daily Fantasy Football Tight End (Draft Kings):
Cameron Brate at Tennessee ($2,700)
Injuries also made this dumpster dive easy, as O.J. Howard was ruled out of this contest against Tennessee. Bruce Arians doesn’t like to use the tight end, but he will likely be forced to in this contest, as the Titans are a bad fantasy football matchup for wide receivers, and a good one for tight ends. In full-PPR, like Draft Kings, they allow the ninth-most fantasy points per contest to TEs. On the flip side, they allow the fifth-fewest fantasy points to wide receivers. With this type of defensive split, Tannehill would be smart to lean on Brate; taking what the defense gives him. He’s essentially free on DK, so you could do worse than Brate, but it would be hard.
Week Eight Dumpster Dive Daily Fantasy Football D/ST (Fan Duel and Draft Kings):
Philadelphia Eagles at Buffalo ($4,300 on Fanduel, $2,700 on Draft Kings)
Every week, it seems like there is a medium-to-low range D/ST that I can snag that fits the bill for but DK & FD (no pun intended). This week, Philly is the obvious choice. They’re not the lowest price, but in the medium range with a good matchup and some truly miserable defenses below them, I’ll go with Philly this week. They’ve been a solid, but unspectacular defense so far this year. Their 7.43 fantasy points per game is just 0.7 PPG outside of being tied for tenth-most with the Jets and the Buccaneers this year. They have a questionable secondary, but a strong front-seven.
What makes them exciting is playing the Bills, which are the sixth-best matchup on this weekend’s slate (Washington and Miami vacated the slate through TNF & MNF, respectively). Josh Allen and the Bills have the ability to lay some definite turds in their repertoire, as they give up the fourth-most interceptions per game, and the seventh-most turnovers per game, overall. If you cover up the Dolphins game (which you should), then those rates tie for the third-most turnovers per game this season. The Bills allow just 2.7 sacks per contest, but the Eagles D-Line can certainly change that.
