Fantasy Football Week 8: Jonathan Stewart or Christine Michael?

The pickings are slim in fantasy football Week 8 at running back. Experts like Christine Michael, but can Jonathan Stewart or Mark Ingram show up?

With six teams on bye in Week 8 of the NFL season, pickings are slimmer than they’ve been at any point this season. Eight weeks in, we also have a number of starting players out injured, as one would expect in fantasy football. That leaves the rankings this week pretty narrow and very interesting.

What do you do at running back in fantasy football Week 8? Christine Michael is getting a lot of love, yet his Seattle Seahawks have been as unpredictable as his own numbers. Enter Jonathan Stewart and Mark Ingram, two running backs due for big weeks. Who is the best play?

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem discuss Fantasy Football Week 8 in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

Consensus expert rankings have a few odd names atop the running back position. Seattle’s Christine Michael checks in as the fifth-best running back this week. Let’s just say I’m dubious of this ranking. I would rather have a pair of running backs whose “best” expert ranking doesn’t even surpass Michael’s “worst.” Those would be Mark Ingram and Jonathan Stewart.

Michael has been good this year…kind of. He has really been a boom-or-bust runner for an uneven Seattle offense. In his six weeks of action, he has had two good weeks, one solid week and three bad weeks. The two good weeks are propped up by four total touchdowns—the only four rushing touchdowns he has scored all season. Michael has essentially been Ryan Mathews with less expectations and thus, less disappointment. Michael is scoring 12 points per week over six games while Mathews has 10 points per game over five, if you disregard Week 3 when he was forced to sit with an ankle injury.

Most people consider Mathews a flop at this point, yet his touchdowns are keeping him fantasy relevant. Why are opinions so different for Michael when the facts are eerily similar? I would rather have either of Ingram or Stewart this week, two reliable veterans with no one else around to vulture carries.

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Ingram has gotten the vast majority of touches for the Saints all year. He has 64 percent of the team’s rushing attempts. A lack of touchdowns is what has held him back. Stewart doesn’t have the totals because he has really only played two games this season. Injuries are what has always kept Stewart down, but he is healthy in Week 8. There isn’t a logical explanation for ranking him 18th at his position when you know he’s healthy. Nor does it make sense to rank him so much lower than Michael.

Dan Salem:

In principle I agree with your player breakdowns, but a closer look at the actual matchups in fantasy football Week 8 makes things much less cut and dry. The Seahawks and Saints face off, while Carolina faces Arizona, the same opponent that stifled Seattle’s running game last week to the tune of 52 total yards in an extended contest. Michael recorded all of those yards, one of his more disappointing weeks on the season.

Arizona’s defense has been playing very well, making me question Jonathan Stewart’s ability to churn out yards with the Panthers this week. Seattle’s defense has also looked great, bringing into question Mark Ingram’s ability to run successfully with New Orleans in their matchup. The Saints, on the other hand, have not played good defense. Does this open the door for Michael to have one of his boom fantasy weeks in the Seattle backfield?

Experts certainly think so and I have to agree with them this week. Michael is in a great position to have a big week, because his team is facing the Saints. The Seahawks are due to bounce back offensively and they like to run the football. New Orleans has not been able to stop anyone, so why now? That being said, I do like one of our other players better than Michael.

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Stewart is going to play really well. The Arizona defense has been up and down all season. While they are currently up, I like Carolina coming out of the bye week with Stewart’s fresh legs to work with. Despite the Panthers’ poor play thus far, I am not counting them out going forward. If any team exploits Arizona, its the Panthers offense in Week 8. Stewart has huge fantasy potential in this game. I am not as high on Mark Ingram, considering he’s facing the Seahawks. New Orleans continues to put up points, yet continues to lose. Seattle is a much better football team, coming off what will feel like a loss, even if it was technically a tie. They will assert themselves.

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