Week 8 was a breath of fresh air for fantasy managers who weren’t already completely out of the race. The total FGW of all players was +1.38, meaning the players everyone was likely to start tended to perform better than average. It was only the 2nd week of the year where the total FGW was positive, and that other week (week 5) was barely over par (+0.16).
Another way of putting this is that it was the most predictable week of the fantasy season.
This should mean I can re-use some commentary from the old days to summarize what happened this week. Don’t worry. This isn’t just a side effect of the Jets breaking the sentient part of my brain and forcing me to rely on instincts.
- Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Advice
- Weekly Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football Start/Sit Advice
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
Fantasy Games Won (FGW) Primer
FGW is a statistic that converts fantasy points into fantasy wins. Players get positive FGW points for outscoring average fantasy starters and negative points for below-average scores. A player can score up to +0.5 FGW for increasing your chances of winning from 50% to 100% or down to -0.5 for dropping your chances from 50% to 0%. Percent started matters – 0% started throttles your FGW down to 0.
For a longer explanation, check out the 2023 FGW launch on my blog. The stat hasn’t changed since its inception.
Who Won Week 8?
| # | Player | Pos | Pts | %St | FGW |
| 1 | CeeDee Lamb | WR | 33.1 | 95% | 0.36 |
| 2 | Jalen Hurts | QB | 36.1 | 91% | 0.28 |
| 3 | George Kittle | TE | 21.8 | 94% | 0.25 |
| 4 | James Cook | RB | 26.8 | 88% | 0.25 |
| 5 | Josh Jacobs | RB | 25.0 | 94% | 0.23 |
| 6 | Kyle Pitts | TE | 23.1 | 74% | 0.21 |
| 7 | Travis Kelce | TE | 20.0 | 91% | 0.21 |
| 8 | De’Von Achane | RB | 23.7 | 88% | 0.20 |
| 9 | Joe Mixon | RB | 21.4 | 97% | 0.17 |
| 10 | Trey McBride | TE | 16.9 | 89% | 0.16 |
| 11 | Bijan Robinson | RB | 20.1 | 99% | 0.15 |
| 12 | Pittsburgh | DEF | 15.0 | 90% | 0.15 |
| 13 | Kyren Williams | RB | 20.1 | 96% | 0.15 |
| 14 | Jahmyr Gibbs | RB | 19.8 | 98% | 0.14 |
| 15 | Marvin Harrison | WR | 20.1 | 73% | 0.13 |
- [Week 8, 2023] CeeDee Lamb was the big ticket of Week 8…If you had CeeDee on your bench, either your WRs are great, or you’ve left your team on autopilot and are only reading this article to moonlight about what could have been. Off to a good start; that comment fits perfectly. Somehow CeeDee was only started in 95% of leagues.
- [Week 12, 2023] Jalen Hurts was not looking like a weekly winner at halftime…I saw quite a few “chances of winning” stats go nuts Sunday afternoon. Not bad, either. Jalen Hurts had only 1 of his 4 total touchdowns at halftime.
- [Week 13, 2021] There’s the Kittle we’ve been waiting for! He waited for the maximum possibility of trade by drafting managers before having his breakout. Eh, this one could be better. Kittle is actually #3 in the FGW MVP race. However, we’ve been waiting for a full George Kittle season like this for a while.
- How strange, in 4 years I have never written a positive note on Kyle Pitts on the weekly winners. He hasn’t hit 0.20 FGW since Week 5 and Week 7 of 2021, and I didn’t feel the need to highlight it at the time. I guess I assumed more of those would be coming in the meantime. Let’s hope I’m not repeating this exercise with Marvin Harrison 3 years from now.
Who Lost Week 8?
| # | Player | Pos | Pts | %St | FGW |
| 15 | Javonte Williams | RB | 7.2 | 63% | -0.08 |
| 14 | Baltimore | DEF | 3.0 | 83% | -0.09 |
| 13 | Tyler Lockett | WR | 1.4 | 38% | -0.09 |
| 12 | Breece Hall | RB | 9.4 | 100% | -0.09 |
| 11 | Davante Adams | WR | 7.4 | 88% | -0.09 |
| 10 | Amon-Ra St. Brown | WR | 7.7 | 98% | -0.09 |
| 9 | New York Jets | DEF | 2.0 | 79% | -0.10 |
| 8 | Joe Burrow | QB | 13.9 | 79% | -0.13 |
| 7 | C.J. Stroud | QB | 13.4 | 76% | -0.13 |
| 6 | Kenneth Walker | RB | 6.5 | 91% | -0.14 |
| 5 | Drake London | WR | 5.4 | 96% | -0.14 |
| 4 | DJ Moore | WR | 4.4 | 86% | -0.14 |
| 3 | Amari Cooper | WR | 0.8 | 81% | -0.19 |
| 2 | Jordan Mason | RB | 1.8 | 94% | -0.23 |
| 1 | Jordan Love | QB | 5.7 | 84% | -0.26 |
- [Week 4, 2023] Joe Burrow fantasy managers are so deep in the standings that it’s not clear whether their burrows are actually just graves. This year, it turns out it’s the Cincinnati Bengals that are so deep in the standings that it seems like a grave. Burrow has actually been playable from a fantasy standpoint.
- [Week 1, 2023] DJ Moore: Spike my drink and put a pillow over my head. That comment was actually someone else’s Reddit comment that I repurposed to capture DJ Moore. Moore tends to have weeks like this. He’s had 5 weeks of -0.15 FGW or worse since Week 9 of 2022.
- [Week 4, 2022] The Dad Naming Curse is real! Amari “Amani” Cooper. It’s been a while since I’ve dropped a dad name on an NFL player (a dad name would be any misspoken name along the lines of calling Randall Cobb “Reggie Cobb”). Jordan Jefferson was a fun dad name of mine because it was like calling Justin Jefferson by his brother’s name.
- [Week 5, 2023] Jordan Love giving Packers fans a taste of New York/Cleveland QB medicine. Wow. Time is a flat circle. I think it’s time to shut down the way-back machine before we see a player that time-travelled from the past.
Week 8 Junior Varsity All-Stars
| # | Player | Pos | Pts | %St | bFGW |
| 1 | Cedric Tillman | WR | 25.4 | 5% | 0.26 |
| 2 | Ladd McConkey | WR | 26.1 | 20% | 0.23 |
| 3 | Bo Nix | QB | 32.8 | 13% | 0.21 |
| 4 | Cade Otton | TE | 24.6 | 38% | 0.19 |
| 5 | Kirk Cousins | QB | 32.6 | 25% | 0.18 |
| 6 | Tyrone Tracy | RB | 22.0 | 10% | 0.17 |
| 7 | Adam Trautman | TE | 16.5 | 0% | 0.17 |
| 8 | Matthew Stafford | QB | 28.8 | 3% | 0.16 |
| 9 | Josh Downs | WR | 20.2 | 10% | 0.16 |
| 10 | Calvin Austin | WR | 18.9 | 0% | 0.15 |
| 11 | Jameis Winston | QB | 26.6 | 2% | 0.12 |
| 12 | Justin Herbert | QB | 26.1 | 0% | 0.11 |
| 13 | Rhamondre Stevenson | RB | 22.0 | 46% | 0.10 |
| 14 | Calvin Ridley | WR | 17.6 | 19% | 0.10 |
| 15 | Demarcus Robinson | WR | 16.5 | 0% | 0.10 |
- According to Pro Football Reference, Cedric Tillman is the 2nd NFL WR to be named Cedric Tillman. I know this because I kept searching for his name, I could have sworn we had another Cedric Tillman since 1995.
- Fine Young Ladd McConkey was only started in 20% of fantasy leagues. I was going to make a joke about how we all keep starting Justin Herbert, so we should have figured someone had to get the ball, but upon further review…no, we’re not all starting Justin Herbert.
- Bo Nix has 4 rushing TDs this year. It’s like he’s a cross between Broncos legends Tim Tebow (12 rushing TDs in 2011) and Trevor Siemian (1 rushing TD in 2017).
That’s the Name of the Game
One of the fun parts of going through the archives of fantasy football is all the obscure names you come across. Plenty of players who briefly make NFL rosters but never crack the fantasy radar have amazing names. For the enrichment of us all, I will share them now in a format that sounds like I’m reading off Patreon supporters. These are all current or recent NFL players.
Sincere McCormick. Messiah Swanson. Cole Fotheringham (fathering who?). Stone Smartt (he did get some show time last year). Thyrick Pitts. Zaire Mitchell-Paden. Snoop Conner. Peyton Hendershot. Lil’Jordan Humphrey. Jake Funk. Aaron Shampklin. Ty Fryfogle. Teagan Quitoriano. Geor’Quarius Spivey. George Kittle.
Whether you’re a a regular reader, or you’re just here because you googled “Geor’Quarius Spivey Key & Peele Skit”, remember we’re all going down in this fantasy football ship together. Good luck in Week 9.
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