Welcome to Bye-mageddon! Week 8 is going to be a bit of a challenge for most fantasy football managers, as the NFL, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to give 6 teams off in the same week. I won’t go into my whole “the NFL hates fantasy football” rant, but suffice it to say they could have figured out a way to give four teams off every week for eight weeks, and we could have been done with byes by Week 12. But I digress. Last week, we managed to get by without the services of the two top-rated quarterbacks as Buffalo and Baltimore enjoyed their midseason vacation. This week, it will be more of a quantity over quality issue at the QB position as we will have to make do without Jared Goff, Sam Darnold, Trevor Lawrence, Matthew Stafford, and Kyler Murray. All solid options, but none of them have been fixtures on our top-10 quarterback rankings so far this season.
Also, Jayden Daniels owners will likely be without their QB1 as he will miss time with a hamstring injury. On a side note, the Raiders are also not playing this week, so if Geno Smith’s mom is reading this article, your baby boy won’t be on TV this Sunday. I highly doubt that anybody, including Mrs. Smith, will miss Geno for fantasy purposes this weekend. Now that we’ve covered who isn’t playing, let’s run through the list of the top ten active options for this week.
Top 10 Week 8 Quarterback Rankings
1) Josh Allen vs. Panthers
Allen returns after a week off, and his owners can now drop whoever they picked up to fill in for their top fantasy scorer last week. Allen is a set it and forget it option and won’t ever spend another second on your bench, barring the unthinkable. This week, he gets a Carolina team that will most likely be led by Andy Dalton under center at Bank of America Stadium. This isn’t exactly a downgrade to the Panthers offense, and they should put up enough points between the veteran signal caller and their running game to keep Buffalo in attack mode all day. Get Allen back in your lineup and relax.
2) Lamar Jackson vs. Bears
Jackson has been out since Week 4 with a hamstring injury, and the hope is that the team held him out through their bye week to ensure that the two-time MVP will return this week completely healthy. As of now, we will have to keep an eye on the injury reports, but it’s more than likely Jackson will suit up this Sunday to take on the Bears in a game the 1-5 Ravens need to win. Baltimore may lean heavily on Derrick Henry, as they are also expected to get their massive fullback, Patrick Ricard, back, which will certainly help the running game. If Lamar is good to go for the Ravens, he’s good to go for your fantasy team. Fire him up.
3) Jalen Hurts vs. Giants
Somehow or another, there has been this crazy talk amongst fans that this guy isn’t an elite quarterback. While he may not be a traditional drop-back passer, he can sling the ball downfield as well as most passers, while adding an element with his legs unlike any other QB in the league. Add in his work ethic and leadership ability, and you get a QB that any team in the league would be thrilled to have guiding their offense. His legs weren’t needed last week as he connected for 326 yards and 3 scores against the Vikings. Truth be told, none of his receiving corps outside of A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith were needed either, as they combined for 304 of those yards and all three scores. This week, he gets a revenge opportunity against the Giants, who just beat Philly two weeks ago in the Thursday night game. Don’t expect the Eagles to take their foot off the gas as they will look to put an old-fashioned, tush pushin’ beat down on Big Blue. Fire him up and expect at least 20 fantasy points.
