Fantasy Football Rankings - Week 8, 2025
- Kev Wheeler
- Oct 21
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 26
Your fantasy football season is in make or break territory. Fantasy Football Rankings for Week 8 will guide you to make the correct decisions. We now have enough data points to breakdown every team. We need to stay Bayesian and adjust or prior predictions. There is tremendous variance in football every week, no matter how much data we gather there are too many moving parts to be as confident in our predictions in football as we are when analyzing other sports.
Week 8 Schedule
Bye Week: ARI, DET, JAC, LV, SEA, LAR
Sunday, October 26th
New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles 1:00pm ET
Miami Dolphins at Atlanta Falcons 1:00pm ET
Cleveland Browns at New England Patriots 1:00pm ET
New York Jets at Cincinnati Bengals 1:00pm ET
Buffalo Bills at Carolina Panthers 1:00pm ET
San Francisco 49ers at Houston Texans 1:00pm ET
Chicago Bears at Baltimore Ravens 1:00pm ET
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints 4:05pm ET
Dallas Cowboys at Denver Broncos 4:25pm ET
Tennessee Titans at Indianapolis Colts 4:25pm ET
Green Bay Packers at Pittsburgh Steelers 8:20pm ET
Monday Night Football, October 27th
Washington Commanders at Kansas City Chiefs 8:15pm ET
Fantasy Football Weekly Rankings
When examining these fantasy football weekly rankings, take into consideration that we are really only looking at positional ranks, not flex or overall rankings. When it comes to who you start in the flex a lot will depend on your specific league rules and roster construction. If players are ranked within 3 spots of each other the difference between them is negligible, they are expected to score the same amount of points, in those cases go with your gut, flip a coin, or join our Discord Channel.
Quarterback
Commanders QB Jayden Daniels had an MRI on his hamstring and it is not considered a long term injury, per HC Dan Quinn. He is out this week, Marcus Mariota will get the start against the Chiefs Monday night.
QB Lamar Jackson remains sidelined with a hamstring injury. The 2-time NFL MVP did not participate in Monday’s practice, which was the Ravens’ first one since coming off the bye. Jackson hasn’t suited up since injuring his hamstring in Kansas City on Sept. 28. @nflnewsposter.bsky.social
The Ravens have now made it official: Lamar Jackson is out and they updated his status on Friday from full to limited.
Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa has been added to the injury report with an illness but will have no game status designation. He is expected to start today’s game vs. Atlanta.
Kirk Cousins will start Sunday's game against the Dolphins with Michael Penix (knee) expected to be sidelined for the contest, Adam Schefter reports. Falcons QB, Michael Penix has a bone bruise in his foot and ankle, per coach Raheem Morris, who called him day-to-day, per @rapsheet.bsky.social.
Tyrod Taylor (knee) ruled out Week 8. Justin Fields has finished as QB7 or better vs PIT, MIA, and DAL and had his butt handed to him by better defenses, he plays the Bengals this week, they are not a better defense.
Panthers QB, Bryce Young suffered a high ankle sprain on Sunday, an MRI revealed, he will miss this week’s game against the Bills.
When Vikings QB JJ McCarthy suffered a Week 2 high ankle sprain, doctors expected it to be a six-week injury. Nothing has changed. It still looks like a six-week injury, which means McCarthy would miss next week, and possibly be able to return in Week 9 at Detroit.
Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell said that Carson Wentz (shoulder) will start at quarterback in Thursday's game against the Chargers in Los Angeles.
Kyler Murray (foot) expected to return in Week 9. Cardinals have a bye Week 8.
Coach Kellen Moore said Monday that Spencer Rattler remains the Saints' starting quarterback despite turning the ball over four times in Sunday's loss to the Bears, Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football reports.
The Chicago Bears were 15th in neutral drop-back rate the first four weeks (60.2%).
They are 30th since the bye (50%).
They were 2% under expected pass rate the first four weeks.
They are 6% under expected since the bye.
Running Back
Packers standout RB Josh Jacobs, dealing with an illness and a calf strain, is up in the air regarding his status on Sunday, per @Rapsheet and @TomPelissero. Whether he plays will be determined pre-game. If Jacobs is unable to play, Packers RB Emanuel Wilson would be the expected starter.
Indianapolis’ Jonathan Taylor has 11 touchdowns this season -- five more than the entire Titans team that the Colts are playing today. Taylor also is on pace to lead the NFL in carries, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns – a running back’s Triple Crown.
Breece Hall (knee), who is listed as questionable for Sunday's game against Cincinnati, is expected to play, Adam Schefter reports.
Bears RB D'Andre Swift (groin) is listed as questionable and expected to play on Sunday.
Alvin Kamara (ankle) was a limited participant in Thursday's practice.
Chiefs RB Kareem Hunt (ankle) is off the injury report and good to go Monday night vs. Washington. G Trey Smith (back) is doubtful and OT Josh Simmons (personal) is out again.
Bengals added G Dalton Risner to the injury report with an illness and he is questionable for today’s game. This could be a slight downgrade for Chase Brown.
New Orleans Saints RB, Kendre Miller (ACL) is out for the season.
Chase Brown runs gap schemes at the 7th highest rate in the league (56.5%).
The Jets have been particularly tough there, allowing the 5th fewest YPC (3.60) and the 2nd lowest success rate (35.9%), per @ffdataroma
JK Dobbins runs the 8th highest rate of gap concepts (56.2%) among RBs.
The Cowboys have struggled against these, allowing the 7th highest YPC (4.94), and the 3rd highest success rate (62%), per @ffdataroma.
The Process
My usual process is to only take data from the previous six weeks, I truly believe anything older than that holds little relevance unless there is a player returning from injury or some reason to discount the newer information. In Week 2 we have very little information we can be confident in. The last six weeks of the previous season can give some indication, and the preseason could provide a glimpse of what’s to come or it could be a mirage.
Wide Receiver
Drake London is OUT today.
A.J. Brown has been ruled out for Sunday’s game vs. the Giants.
The Browns are a heavy man (6th highest rate) and single-high (3rd highest rate) team.
Stefon Diggs has thrived against these:
- Vs. All Coverages: 0.28 TPRR, 2.87 YPRR, 13.5% 1D/RR
- Vs. 1-high: 0.27 TPRR, 3.85 YPRR, 17.7% 1D/RR
- Vs. Man: 0.35 TPRR, 4.89 YPRR, 27.0% 1D/RR
@ffdataroma
The Ravens run man coverage at the 3rd highest rate in the league, and single-high shells at the 4th highest rate.
DJ Moore has struggled against these:
- Vs. All Coverages: 0.17 TPRR, 1.47 YPRR
- Vs. Man: 0.15 TPRR, 1.12 YPRR
- Vs. 1-High: 0.12 TPRR, 0.79 YPRR
@ffdataroma
Packers WR Christian Watson was activated off injured reserve and is expected to make his season debut Sunday night at Pittsburgh.
Khalil Shakir takes 62% of snaps from the slot
Carolina vs slot receivers:
6 points per game (8th)
6.3 yards per target (7th)
2.7% TD rate (10th)
@SharpFBAnalysis
Jaylin Noel may seem like you're typical low aDOT slot receiver.
In his 1st semi-full time action in Week 7, Noel had an 18.0 aDOT and earned 4 (!) deep targets.
The 49ers are bottom 10 in the league in completions allowed, CPOE, and YPG on deep targets, per @ffdataroma.
Tez Johnson has been elite after the catch this year, with 7.20 YAC/Rec (top 5 among WRs) and a ridiculous 0.60 MTF/Rec (leading league).
The Saints have been pretty bad defending yards after the catch this year, as they are allowing the 7th most YAC/Rec in the NFL, per @ffdataroma.
Tight End
Mark Andrews has had 70 catches for 857 yards and has scored 6 touchdowns in 12 games with Tyler Huntley at home in his career.
The Broncos run the 3rd highest rate of Cover 1 (3rd highest rate)
Jake Ferguson has really struggled against Cover 1, dropping all the way down from a 1.67 to a 0.59 YPRR (a 64.7% decrease!), per @ffdataroma.
Mason Taylor, who has been deemed questionable for Sunday's game against the Bengals due to a quad injury, is expected to play, Adam Schefter reports.
Falcons vs TEs this season; 20-10-99-1 allowed:
Otton: 3-0-0-0
Hockenson: 3-1-12-0
Tremble+JTS: 4-4-27-0
Ertz: 4-2-21-0
Knox: 2-1-19-1
Kittle: 2-0-0-0
Kicker
Defense/Special Teams
News or Hype?
The best way to start our Week 8 approach is to look at implied team totals based on Vegas odds and adjust from there. We need to pay attention to DFS articles and individual player prop-bets (over/under) to get a good idea of how to project median outcomes. With six weeks of data we can begin to examine the individual matchups some players may have, but we can't overreact to that data. There are so many changes from week-to-week in the NFL the best we can do is project a range of outcomes. Picking the outliers is what wins championships.
Thursday Night Football
Minnesota Vikings at Los Angeles Chargers 8:15pm ET
The Vikings’ offensive line ranks 13th in adjusted yards before contact per attempt (YBC/Att). They face a Chargers’ defensive line allowing the third-most adjusted YBC/Att, meaning it should be a favorable matchup for the Vikings’ running backs.
The Chargers’ pass offense ranks 17th in PrROE, with opposing offenses throwing on the Vikings at the sixth-highest PrROE. Since they’ve been using backup running backs without Hampton and with OT Joe Alt expected to return, we should expect the Chargers’ pass offense to lean on their top pass catchers.
https://corbinyoung.substack.com/p/week-8-thursday-night-matchup-min
Hassan Haskins (hamstring) is OUT.
Comments