Week 8 Fantasy Football Recap: Ladd McConkey Has Arrived
Top Performances
Jalen Hurts: 35.14 Half-PPR Points
Hurts became just the third player this season to score three rushing touchdowns in one game on Sunday, with two tush-push TDs and a seven-yard designed carry … and he threw for over 200 yards and another TD.
The Eagles’ offense hasn’t fired on all cylinders consitently this year, but Hurts has still done enough to be the QB3 in points per game. If we look just at his four games played with a healthy A.J. Brown, he is averaging 24.8 points per game. The Tush Push has not gone anywhere without Jason Kelce — if anything, Philadelphia seems to be more willing to do it multiple times in a row to gain a few yards. Hurts is locked in as an elite QB1 option.
CeeDee Lamb: 33.1 Half-PPR Points
This is harsh to say about someone averaging 12.7 Half-PPR points per game, but Lamb was a bust through the first seven weeks of the season. He wasn’t obviously hurting you with complete dud games, but getting mediocre results from a player drafted in the top half of the first round was slowly killing plenty of fantasy teams.
That changed this week, as Lamb racked up an absurd 17 targets against the 49ers, catching 13 for 146 yards and two touchdowns. It’s a great sign that the Cowboys leaned into getting their best player involved coming out of their bye week. Even if he doesn’t see a 42% target share every week, we can hope that Lamb will provide the elite numbers he was drafted for the rest of the way.
Ladd McConkey: 26.1 Half-PPR Points
Although he was just the Half-PPR WR45 coming into this week, McConkey had quietly been very good to start his NFL career. His 25% target per route run rate ranks 19th among players with at least 100 routes. He has also firmly established himself as the Chargers’ top receiver, leading the team in routes in every week but one since Week 3.
This week, that finally turned into fantasy points, as he caught all six of his targets for 111 yards and two touchdowns. Especially with the Chargers finally letting Justin Herbert loose (more on that later), McConkey should be at least a weekly flex option going forward.
Biggest Duds
Amari Cooper: 0.8 Half-PPR Points
After being surprisingly effective on limited snaps in his Bills debut, Amari Cooper was a huge disappointment in the encore. His involvement didn’t increase as much as we would have hoped for, with just a 62% route participation rate that ranked third among the team’s receivers.
On the routes he did run, Cooper didn’t do much, earning just two targets and recording one reception for three yards. At this point, Cooper is not someone you can trust in a fantasy lineup until we see him more involved in his new offense.
Geno Smith: 8.08 Half-PPR Points
I’m highlighting Smith here, but there are multiple Seahawks you could call duds this week as the Seattle offense imploded against a beatable Buffalo defense.
Kenneth Walker got absolutely nothing going on the ground, with nine carries for 12 yards — five targets weren’t enough for him to save a mediocre fantasy outing. Tyler Lockett did see expanded routes, but the efficiency he has had for most of this season disappeared, and he caught just one ball for nine yards. Jaxon Smith-Njigba was the best of the bunch, but he continued his per-target inefficiency to manage just 9.9 Half-PPR points on seven looks.
Overall, Seattle’s offense was miserable, perhaps indicating that D.K. Metcalf deserves more credit than he gets. I’m not quite ready to give up on this unit that still leads the league in pass rate over expectation, but we have to temper expectations at least a bit going forward.
D.J. Moore: 4.4 Half-PPR Points
Moore has been hugely disappointing this season. Outside of one huge game (against the Panthers), he has never finished in the top 30 weekly receivers. Even worse, he seems to be trending in the wrong direction. His 17.2% target share in Week 6 was a season-low … until the Bears came out of their bye in Week 8 and gave him just a 16.7% target share.
Overall, we seem to be getting the worst possible outcome for the Bears’ passing game. Caleb Williams isn’t good enough (yet?) to elevate this entire offense outside of cake matchups or very high-volume games. All three of Moore, Keenan Allen, and Rome Odunze are talented enough to have occasional big games but not seeing enough consistent volume to be reliable weekly starting options.
Sneaky Storylines
Jim Harbaugh Learned About the Forward Pass
As I alluded to in McConkey’s blurb above, something has changed in Los Angeles. Across the first six weeks of the season, the Chargers ranked second-lowest, only ahead of the Tua-less Dolphins, with a pass rate 7.8% below expected. They have now been at least 5% above expected in each of the last two weeks.
This may just be a blip, but it may also be the start of a shift in philosophy from Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman. Especially with J.K. Dobbins losing the elite efficiency he had to start the season, it’s the right call for them to let Justin Herbert throw more often. If this continues, Herbert (who was a top-12 fantasy QB for the first time this week) may find himself back on the QB1 radar, and the rest of the Chargers’ weapons get a boost, too.
The Dontayvion Wicks Dream is Dead (For Now)
After an exciting few weeks filled with injuries, mysterious suspensions, and huge DFS busts, the fantasy community has shifted away from focusing on the Packers’ WR room. Things seemed to have settled into a stable pattern: Romeo Doubs leads the way in routes, Jayden Reed plays consistently in three-WR sets, and Christian Watson and Dontayvion Wicks split the remaining reps.
However, that changed this week. Wicks fell to a 27% route participation rate, while Watson jumped up to a new season-high 67%. Of course, this may just be a one-week anomaly, as we’ve seen things change fast in this group before. But, as long as this continues, Wicks is droppable in most formats, while Watson is back to being a viable boom-or-bust flex play.
The Titans Play Two Receivers All Game
In their first game without DeAndre Hopkins, the Titans made a huge change to their offensive philosophy. Coming into this week, they had consistently used a rotation at the receiver positions — no player had posted even an 80% route participation rate since Week 2. But that changed this week, as both Calvin Ridley and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine posted 92.9% participation rates.
It’s not a coincidence that this coincided with Ridley’s biggest game of the season. Of course, a lack of routes hasn’t been the only issue for Ridley, as the Titans’ passing game has been miserable all season. But, if this usage continues, he (and NWI, to a lesser extent) could provide consistent fantasy production on volume alone. To put into perspective how strong that 93% participation rate is, only Ja’Marr Chase is averaging a higher number for the entire season. This may be a one-week blip, but it’s worth monitoring.
Early DFS Plays
Cedric Tillman, Cleveland Browns
I wish I had Tillman in this section last week (to my credit, I did feature his Week 7 usage in the Storylines section). Well, I’m rectifying my mistake now, going back to Tillman even though his price has risen from last week.
After all, Tillman has seen legitimately great usage over the last two weeks: a 23% target share, a 37% air yards share, and a 27% first-read target share. Especially with Jameis Winston easily surpassing the insanely low bar set by Deshaun Watson, that kind of usage is worth chasing at prices that are still decently low. The Chargers’ secondary is multiple tiers above the Ravens’, so I won’t be going too crazy, but Tillman looks like he will be a great value option in Week 9.
Jalen Coker, Carolina Panthers
If Tillman isn’t a deep enough value for you, consider Coker, a UDFA rookie out of Holy Cross. With Diontae Johnson sidelined, Coker ranked second on the Panthers in route participation in Week 8 and led the team with 78 receiving yards on four catches from six targets (a 15.8% target share).
Now, Johnson has been traded to Baltimore, opening the path for Coker to remain one of the Panthers’ starting receivers for the rest of the season. In Week 9, Carolina faces off against the Saints, who have certainly been beatable on the defensive end. At very low prices across the board, Coker is an interesting dart throw, especially if Andy Dalton is back under center.
Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia Eagles
Don’t worry, not all of my plays are going to be value wide receivers. Sometimes, you have to stake your claim with a pay-up option, and I love Barkley’s chances for a week-winning outing on Sunday. The Eagles are massive favorites against the Jaguars, who have been the second-softest adjusted matchup for opposing running backs so far this season.
And, although I did mention that the Eagles have been leaning heavily on the Tush Push at the goal line, Saquon has definitely been getting a bit unlucky of late with the number of times the Eagles have found themselves at the one-yard line. After scoring five TDs in his first three games in Philadelphia, he has just one over the last four. If positive TD regression hits this week in a juicy matchup, he could be a must-have player for the Week 9 slate.