Entering Week 8, NFL scoring was down to its lowest level since 2010, and watching teams across the league felt more like a trip to the dentist’s office than the candy store. Thankfully, all of that changed this week, when we were handed the tasty treats we so richly deserve this Halloween season.

Incredibly, five different wide receivers or running backs accounted for three touchdowns on Sunday: A.J. Brown, Alvin Kamara, D’Onta Foreman, Tony Pollard and Christian McCaffrey. Four other non-QBs scored twice, headlined by Derrick Henry, who piled up 219 rushing yards as he continued to own the Texans.

Whether these players were a “trick” or a “treat” for your fantasy team comes down to whether you had them in your starting lineup — or your opponent did. But one thing we can say for sure is that this was a rebound week for the NFL. It provided the kind of fun offensive explosions we’ve come to expect in years past, while also being largely devoid of major injuries.

Those of us who dress up as fantasy football managers each weekend (i.e. wear sweatpants) can’t ask for anything more. Here are my biggest takeaways from Week 8.

• Week 9 Waiver Wire Advice
• Erickson’s Rapid Reactions to Week 8
• Fantasy Football Heat Index
• Fantasy Football Panic Meter

Top 5 Surprises

Christian McCaffrey completes football’s version of the cycle
There should be a name for throwing, catching and rushing for a touchdown in the same game, but I guess it’s so rare that NFL Wordsmiths don’t feel the need. In his first full game with Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers, McCaffrey became just the fourth player to accomplish the feat since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. Perhaps they should bring back the Punt, Pass and Kick competition and let NFL players compete in it, so CMC can win that, too. The guy can truly do it all.

While there was hand-wringing in some circles over whether he would get enough touches in San Francisco, McCaffrey was destined for ceiling games like this once he joined forces with Shanahan, an innovative coach who is known for putting his players in the best position to maximize their skill sets. In CMC’s case, those skills rival any player in the league. Deebo Samuel’s absence made it all-but-certain that McCaffrey would play an outsized role in the Week 8 game plan, but he isn’t going to need the 26 touches he got on Sunday to deliver top-five fantasy numbers week-in and week-out in this offense. Giddy up.

Alvin Kamara boosts his trade value
There was a lot of hubbub on Sunday morning about whether Kamara could be had for the right price. It’s been reported that the Saints would be willing to part with Kamara for a similar selection of picks to what the 49ers gave up for McCaffrey, but we’ve also heard that New Orleans isn’t actively shopping their star running back. The Saints happen to be right in the thick of the title race in the comically-mediocre NFC South, so their dominant victory over the Raiders on Sunday may persuade them not to be sellers. For his part, Kamara seems more than content to stay in New Orleans.

With the NFL trade deadline set for Tuesday afternoon, this drama won’t go on for much longer, but it is safe to say that Kamara didn’t hurt his trade value with his performance against Las Vegas. He entered the day with zero touchdowns on the year, and left it with three. This is what touchdown regression looks like, people! Kamara missed a couple games early in the season, but is now the RB7 in fantasy points per game. That sounds about right.

On a side note, Mark Ingram left Week 8 with a knee injury. If he misses time, it could open up even more touchdown opportunities for Kamara — assuming he stays put in New Orleans.

Led by Dak and Pollard, Cowboys put up 49 on the Bears
While it was fair to wonder if the Cowboys would wait until after their Week 9 bye to truly unleash Dak Prescott, we can confidently pronounce that “Dak is Bak” after he threw for 250 yards and two scores — and ran for a third — in Dallas’ 49-29 shellacking of Chicago. In a year where so many QBs have disappointed, the door is wide open for Prescott to be a top-seven fantasy option at the position over the rest of the season.

But the even bigger story in “Big D” has to be Pollard, who showed once again that he is fully capable of bringing a more explosive element to the Cowboys offense than late-career Ezekiel Elliott. The last time Pollard played in a game without Zeke (Week 15, 2020), he accounted for 132 scrimmage yards and two TDs, finishing as that week’s top fantasy RB. On Sunday, it was a similar story. Pollard averaged 9.4 yards per carry and rushed for three scores — both feats that Zeke never accomplished even in his prime.

But Elliott looks likely to return to the lineup after the Cowboys’ Week 9 bye, and owner Jerry Jones has made it abundantly clear that the team will continue to lean on Zeke once he’s healthy. Elliott’s hefty contract essentially assures his place in the RB hierarchy, although to be fair, he did string together some of his best performances of the season just prior to injuring his knee.

Even with Zeke back in the fold, Pollard will remain a worthy RB2 option moving forward. There just may be more weekly ups-and-downs than there would be if the Cowboys ever fully handed him the keys to the backfield.

Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown toy with the Steelers
I’m going to go ahead and list this as a “surprise,” even though it wasn’t one for me (content warning: humble brag). The Eagles are one of the few offenses that were firing on all cylinders prior to Sunday, and they certainly kept it going against a Steelers defense that is not reminding anyone of the Iron Curtain. If there was anything surprising about Philly’s dominant performance, it is that four of the team’s five TDs against Pittsburgh came through the air, after seven of their previous nine scores had come on the ground.

That was the perfect recipe for a ceiling game for Brown, who had been relatively quiet in recent weeks while Hurts continued to post QB1 numbers with his legs. The three touchdown performance was the first of Brown’s career, but he’s already put up 150+ yards twice this season — and has now gone for 130+ yards nine times in 50 career games. Brown’s style of play — and the types of offenses he’s inhabited — have led to lower target and catch totals than your typical alpha receiver, but he possesses as much big play potential as any receiver in the game. This game was a good reminder of why AJB is an every-week WR1.

D’Onta Foreman and DJ Moore go wild, but Moore loses his head (actually, his helmet)
I must admit I was skeptical that any Panthers RB would do better than RB3/flex value following the McCaffrey trade, but that was assuming that both Foreman and Chuba Hubbard would be in the lineup. Hubbard sat out Sunday’s game against Atlanta with an ankle sprain, and Foreman absolutely feasted in his absence. Although he only played 66% of the snaps, Foreman’s 26 carries were more than McCaffrey had in any game with Carolina this season.

We shouldn’t get used to three-touchdown games from him, but this marks the second straight week that Foreman has rushed for exactly 118 yards. He also topped the century mark in three of his nine games with the Texans last year, so clearly he’s capable of doing some damage on the ground. While Hubbard should be able to return to action soon and turn this back into something of a committee, it is becoming more and more clear that Foreman is simply the better player. As long as the Panthers’ revamped coaching staff agrees, Foreman could have a shot at sustained RB2 value after all.

Meanwhile, P.J. Walker is fast becoming a godsend for disgruntled managers of DJ Moore, who has put up his two best fantasy lines of the season with Walker over the last two weeks. Sunday marked the first time this year that Moore has topped 70 receiving yards, and he nearly put up that many yards on a single play — a last-second, game-tying 62-yard touchdown catch that was the longest completed pass of the NextGen Stats era. Unfortunately, Moore celebrated the score by pulling a Dwayne Rudd and removing his helmet, ultimately costing the Panthers the game. Not a smart move, but fantasy managers won’t really mind.

Top 5 Disappointments

Davante Adams’ flu game not exactly Jordan-esque
The Raiders must not have gotten the memo that Week 8 is when teams are supposed to get their offenses in gear. Vegas had actually been one of the highest-scoring teams over their previous three games, but they put up a goose egg against New Orleans.

While Derek Carr and Josh Jacobs also posted massive duds, no player on the Week 8 slate was more disappointing than Adams, who accounted for a grand total of two yards from scrimmage against a Saints defense that had been giving up the seventh-most fantasy points to WRs — and was missing both Marshon Lattimore and Bradley Roby. Perhaps we should have seen it coming after Adams was out sick from practice for most of the week? Michael Jordan flu game, this was not.

Courtland Sutton loses his luggage in London
Over the first month of the season, Sutton was the lone bright spot in the Broncos’ broken passing offense. No more. Sutton failed to reach 25 receiving yards for the third straight time in Sunday’s victory over the Jags in London, a putrid stretch in which he’s caught a grand total of six passes.

Making matters worse for Sutton managers is the fact that this was actually one of Wilson’s better games, and one in which both Jerry Jeudy (6-63-1) and Greg Dulcich (4-87) did just fine for themselves. Jeudy and Dulcich have both been coming on strong over the last couple weeks, and as long as Jeudy isn’t traded at the deadline, it is no longer going to be tenable to treat Sutton as a clear-cut WR2.

Elijah Moore returns…to serve as Jets’ WR5
After a one-game absence following his trade request, Moore returned to the Jets on Sunday — sort of. Even with Corey Davis out, Moore ended up playing just 10 snaps and running seven routes, serving as the Jets’ fifth wideout behind Garrett Wilson, Denzel Mims, Braxton Berrios and Jeff Smith. He wasn’t targeted on any of Zach Wilson’s 33 pass attempts.

After the game, Moore was straight to the point about his role — or lack thereof — in the Jets’ offense right now. Asked about his on-field chemistry with Zach Wilson, he replied: “I don’t get the ball. I don’t know.” Barring a trade to a team that has big plans for him, it is extremely hard to see a path to fantasy relevance for Moore moving forward.

Darrell Henderson gets six touches coming out of Rams’ bye
Over the weekend, speculation began to build from Matthew Berry and others that undrafted rookie Ronnie Rivers would play ahead of Darrell Henderson this week. Sure enough, while Henderson led the team in snaps, Rivers out-touched him 12 to six. Neither player did much with their limited chances — Rivers accumulated 36 yards, Henderson 30 — but this will be a situation to monitor going forward. It could get even more messy following the return of Kyren Williams, who the Rams recently designated to return from IR.

While this was clearly an unfortunate turn of events for Henderson managers, one thing to keep in mind is that he missed practice time during the week due to an illness. It is too soon to say that Rivers has surpassed Henderson on the depth chart, and while rumor has it that Williams will have a significant role upon his return, he lacks the size to operate as a true bell-cow. While it’s a good idea to add Rivers and/or Williams where available, it’s also prudent to hold onto Henderson, at least until we get a more definitive read on this evolving backfield.

Brian Robinson plays third-most snaps in Commanders backfield
Robinson’s incredible recovery from gun shot wounds is one of the very best stories of the 2022 NFL season so far, but from a fantasy perspective, some of the bloom is beginning to come off the rose. The Commanders have a way of doing that with their ceaselessly frustrating running-back-by-committee approach.

While Washington’s backfield appeared to get a bit simpler last week when J.D. McKissic’s snap dropped to just 16%, that didn’t prove to be sticky. McKissic tied Antonio Gibson for the most snaps in Week 8, while Robinson was third in line. Gibson, who was coming off his best rushing performance of the season, also got the start over Robinson against Indianapolis.

If there’s a bright side for Robinson managers, it’s that he had been given 37 carries over the previous two games, and remains the best bet to be Washington’s primary rusher, especially at the goal line. The problem is that he has a total of just two catches in his four games played, and may no longer dominate rushing work over Gibson to the same extent he did before. That makes both Robinson and Gibson RB3/flex types, and it is hard to see either player emerging as a reliable RB2 anytime soon.

Key Stats

Rondale Moore played 52% of his snaps from the slot this week. That’s a big deal for a player who is listed at 5′ 7″ and 180 lbs — and clearly has the skill set to be an explosive slot receiver. The increased slot usage led to seven catches, 92 yards and a TD after Moore caught just one pass while playing 13% of his snaps in the slot in Week 7. Let’s hope it sticks.

Jamaal Williams is tied for the league lead with eight rushing TDs. D’Andre Swift finally returned for Detroit this week and quickly found his way into the end zone on a seven yard catch in the first quarter. But while Swift was the Lions’ go-to running back in passing situations and on a slight majority of early downs, Williams remained the team’s hammer at the goal line, posting his fourth (!) multi-touchdown game of the season.

Justin Fields is averaging 63 rushing yards per game over his last six. Fields has now been a top-12 fantasy QB four straight weeks, and if he can do it on the road against the Cowboys’ ferocious defense, he can do it against anyone. Adjust the ranks.

Tyreek Hill is on pace for 2,042 receiving yards. While Hill only has two touchdowns this year — Jaylen Waddle had two on Sunday alone — Hill is on pace to breeze past the most receiving yards he ever had in a season with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes.

Top Takeaways

Fantasy football is a lot more fun when teams are scoring points. Ground-breaking analysis, I know! A true connoisseur of football can appreciate great defense the same way a baseball connoisseur can appreciate a pitcher’s duel. But let’s be real: a lot of what we’ve been seeing this year is bad offense, not great defense. Plus, fantasy football is about chasing numbers, and some big games from DSTs isn’t going to cut it. Let’s hope Week 8 was the start of a high-flying second-half of the fantasy season.

One by one, young star RBs are taking over. While this will go down as “Tony Pollard week,” you could just as easily call it Travis Etienne or Rhamondre Stevenson week. We’ve also recently seen Damien Pierce and Kenneth Walker emerge as every-week RB1s and Khalil Herbert become a credible RB2, while injuries robbed us of what could have been glorious seasons for Breece Hall and Javonte Williams. Perhaps Rachaad White, Isiah Pacheco or Jaylen Warren will be the next RB to break out. Who are you picking?

Alright, that’s it for this week. If you like what you see here, you can get more of my thoughts on waiver wire pickups, buy-low/sell-high candidates, rest-of-season player values, and more by subscribing to the Rest of Season Rankings Podcast and going to ROSrankings.com. I’m also always happy to help you sort through injury-related conundrums or anything else fantasy-related on Twitter @andrew_seifter.

Andrew Seifter is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Andrew, check out his archive and follow him @andrew_seifter.