Building The Perfect Daily Fantasy Football Lineup For Week 8

The daily fantasy football game can be a cruel witch sometimes. You think you’re taking sure things and they get hurt or have just an average day while players around the same price go off. That was the case in my Week 6 picks, where Chris Hogan and Kareem Hunt let me down after posting nothing but good games all season. Let’s take a look at how things went.

The Good

Josh McCown – 25.26
Michael Crabtree – 17.2
Marvin Jones – 21.6
Rob Gronkowski – 26.3

The Bad

Alvin Kamara – 12.7
Marshawn Lynch – 6.3
Chris Hogan – 2.9
Kareem Hunt – 16.0
Tampa Bay Buccaneers DST – 8.0

I am proud of calling Marvin Jones‘ first breakout game of the season. He saw a whopping 14 targets and was one of the best wide receiver picks of the day. Picking a quarterback against the New England Patriots isn’t some special insight, but it worked yet again and McCown went way above his salary.

Kamara didn’t have the bust out game I was expecting, and players who pivoted to Mark Ingram were super happy about that. Despite averaging over five yards per attempt, Lynch only got 13 carries and didn’t find the end zone like he needs to to justify his selection. Hogan’s day was marred by injury even though he came back into the game. It was Gronk and Brandin Cooks who led the way for New England.

Here is my perfect lineup (Sunday, 1 pm EST start) for Week 8.

QB — Andy Dalton, Cincinnati Bengals
Salary — $5,700
Matchup — Indianapolis Colts (28th OPRK)

Dalton is having an inconsistent season to say the least, but the Colts have given up good days to opposing QBs just about every week. The Bengals are talented enough to take advantage of a very weak Colts secondary and Dalton is a great value pick.

RB — Jordan Howard, Chicago Bears
Salary — $6,800
Matchup — New Orleans Saints (16th OPRK)

Howard is a workhorse for the Bears and Tarik Cohen has taken less and less of his carries while he tries — and fails — to break every run for a touchdown. Howard will see a steady dose of carries to protect their rookie quarterback. The Saints were just gashed by Aaron Jones for 131 yards and a score in Week 7.

RB — Wendell Smallwood, Philadelphia Eagles
Salary — $4,900
Matchup — San Francisco 49ers (32nd OPRK)

Smallwood returned from his injury to out-touch LaGarrette Blount and is up against a 49ers unit that is dead last against running backs, partially due to the monster game Ezekiel Elliott just put up on them. He will continue to get most of the passing game work and split carries with Blount.

WR — Chris Hogan, New England Patriots
Salary — $6,500
Matchup — Los Angeles Chargers (20th OPRK)

Coming off back-to-back poor performances, and with Casey Heyward likely shadowing Cooks, I like Hogan to bounce back with a nice game at home. He is consistently involved in a high-flying passing offense and is about as safe a bet as they come.

WR — Pierre Garcon, San Francisco 49ers
Salary — $6,100
Matchup — Philadelphia Eagles (29th OPRK)

Not only do the Eagles have a poor pass defense, they just lost one of their better defensive players in Jordan Hicks. I also expect the Eagles offense to be too much and the 49ers will be playing from behind. That means extra targets for Garcon.

WR — Kelvin Benjamin, Carolina Panthers
Salary — $6,400
Matchup — Tampa Bay Buccaneers (31st OPRK)

The Bucs have been brutal against the pass this season and it could be exactly what the Panthers need after their no-touchdown performance against the Bears. Benjamin strung together three nice games before that, so he should resemble something closer to that with a juicy matchup.

TE — Jason Witten, Dallas Cowboys
Salary — $4,200
Matchup — Washington Redskins (30th OPRK)

The Redskins have great cover corners so it has forced teams to look to the middle of the field to beat them. It’s worked so far as they are 3rd-to-last against tight ends. Witten has been a great weapon for Dak Prescott this year and he should be looking for the future Hall of Famer early and often against Washington.

FLEX — Alvin Kamara, New Orleans Saints
Salary — $5,900
Matchup — Chicago Bears (15th OPRK)

Kamara gets most of the looks in the passing game and makes the most of his carries so it’s tough not to use him at this price. The Saints are almost unstoppable at home and put up over 50 points in their last outing at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

DST — New Orleans Saints
Salary — $3,400
Matchup — Chicago Bears (26th OPRK)

Speaking of games at the Superdome, the Saints defense scored three times the last time they played at home. While it’s unrealistic to expect anything close to that, it’s fair to say the Bears have been extremely conservative with their rookie first round quarterback. The Saints won’t give up very many points, and the Bears have committed 10 turnovers while allowing three defensive/special teams scores in their three games on the road this year.

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