With 15 games played prior to Monday Night Football and no bye weeks, there are plenty of performances to from this past week to place under the microscope. Luckily, you won’t need your microspore this week – we’ve got you covered. Let’s look at who’s rising and falling in the dynasty ranks following a busy Week 8.
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Dynasty Fantasy Football Risers & Fallers
Risers
The Vikings’ first round pick out of USC has popped flashed with big plays throughout his rookie season but has now dialed in his consistency with Justin Jefferson sidelined. Jordan Addison broke out on Thursday Night Football in Week 7 with 123 yards and two scores against the 49ers. He followed it up with 82 yards and a touchdown in Week 8. Addison has tallied 52.7 fantasy points in the last two weeks and has now scored five touchdowns across the past four games. He’s played in eight games this season and has scored at least one touchdown in six of them, with or without his co-star Jefferson. Unfortunately, just as he’s hitting his stride, the Vikings have lost quarterback Kirk Cousins for the season. It may affect Addison’s output in the short term, but he looks to be tremendous long-term asset in dynasty.
It should come as no surprise that Dalton Kincaid’s best fantasy performance came in his first game without teammate Dawson Knox, who was recently placed on IR. But the Bills were beginning to feature Kincaid back in Week 7 even with Knox active. In Week 7, Knox played more snaps but Kincaid, but the rookie was much more involved in the passing game, corralling all eight of his targets for 75 yards. In Week 8 without Knox, Kincaid caught five of his seven targets for 65 yards and a score. His 15.5 fantasy points were good enough for TE7 in Week 7, while his 17.5 points this week placed him as the TE6 before Monday Night Football. Kincaid saw just three targets in the red zone in the first seven weeks, but registered two more in Week 8 alone. He’s becoming a bigger part of this offense and looks like the guy we all had circled on draft day.
As fantasy football’s current WR8 of the week, Rashid Shaheed posted 153 yards and a touchdown on just three targets and three receptions. An average of 51 yards per reception is absurd, and it led to Shaheed’s first career game with 100+ yards. Don’t let that fool you, however, as Shaheed has been incredibly productive all season on a low volume of targets. After posting 488 yards and two touchdowns as an undrafted rookie last season, Shaheed is on pace for 1,017 receiving yards this year. He’s topped 80 yards in three games, and although he was also held below 30 yards in three games, the ups and downs are to be expected from a big-play, low volume receiver.
The Titans were rumored to be running a two-quarterback system entering Sunday, but Malik Willis took just two snaps while Will Levis was the only one attempting a pass. No matter your opinion of Levis as a prospect, there’s no doubt that this performance boosts the rookie’s stock. He completed 19 of 29 passes for 238 yards and four touchdowns, including three to DeAndre Hopkins. He didn’t turn the ball over and his 26.62 fantasy points were good enough for QB6 of the week before Monday Night Football. It’s the best performance we’ve seen from a Titans signal caller all season, but will it be enough to keep the starting job?
Fantasy’s TE1 finish of the week came from Trey McBride, who snagged 10 of a whopping 14 targets for 95 yards and a touchdown. It was the first game with Zach Ertz on IR for the Cardinals, but similar to Kincaid, McBride has been taking over much of the work prior to that move, as I wrote about last week. It felt like many had given up on the young tight end already, but he’s a former first round pick in his second season with the tight end job now all his. His arrow is pointing way up.
After suffering a multi-ligament knee injury last season, Javonte Williams has been eased back into action this year. Although he hasn’t had a signature “I’m back” performance just yet, he’s trending that way. He’s topped 80 rushing yards in each of the last two weeks and while it took him 27 attempts this week, it was positive to see him take on that type of a workload. He finished the week as RB8 while adding a receiving touchdown to his total. But beyond the numbers, Williams has begun to resemble his old self, bullying defenders and bouncing off tacklers with decisive cuts upfield. Now, Williams and the Broncos will get a bye week for him to rest up before it’s wheels up in Week 10.
Fallers
Since rushing for 95 yards in Week 4, Alexander Mattison has notched rushing totals of 26, 44, 39, and 31 yards. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Cam Akers arrived in Week 5 and has been more involved in every game following Mattison’s 95-yard performance, but Akers has done little to prove he’s worthy of garnering more touches. Even so, Mattison has continued to struggle, with his 4.3 points on Sunday representing a season-low, as did his 1.9 yards per carry. The Vikings figure to run the ball more with Kirk Cousins out, but does it matter if all we get is an uninspiring committee? If anything, it may result in fewer scoring opportunities for both running backs. There’s still a chance Mattison emerges and takes the full workload back from Akers, but it’s been a disappointing season for those that have been waiting in anticipation for his opportunity.
I don’t want to overreact here, since the Cowboys dominated the Rams 43-20 on Sunday and placed the starters in bubble wrap well before the final whistle. Still, it’s disappointing that Tony Pollard couldn’t contribute more to the crooked number the Cowboys posted before that point. His 6.5 fantasy points were the lowest of his season and his 53 rushing yards was his highest total in the last four games. He hasn’t found the end zone since doing so twice in Week 1 and is surviving only on his target volume. It’s not the worst thing, but Pollard has certainly fallen short of the elite running back level that was anticipated after the departure of Ezekiel Elliot.
Olave is another big name on the fallers list, and it’s not as if the sky is falling, but the second-year receiver has fallen short of the high hopes which many dynasty managers had. He caught five passes for 46 yards on Sunday and has now posted 215 yards across his last five games, after totaling 302 yards in his first three games. His lone touchdown on the season came during a 12-yard performance in Week 5. The targets are there for Olave; he’s seen double-digit targets in five of eight games with nine targets in another. But he and Derek Carr haven’t connected the way we envisioned. I suspect that Olave will be fine in the long term, but it’s enough to ding his fantasy stock and raise questions about his status as a true WR1.
It’s been a bizarre season for the Cleveland Browns, who have been without their starting quarterback for multiple weeks. No matter who has been behind center, the Browns have made an effort to involve Elijah Moore in the offense, but he has done little to take advantage of the opportunities. Moore caught two of five targets for 30 yards on Sunday, but it’s the second game that Moore saw fewer than seven targets come his way. He topped out at 59 receiving yards last week, which was the only game of the season in which he cleared 50 yards. And after carrying the ball in each of the first five weeks, Moore failed to record a rushing attempt in either of the last two games. It’s fair to wonder if he will ever make a true impact in this offense.
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