Fantasy Football: 5 Major sleepers with tasty Week 8 matchups

Five fantasy football sleepers that deserve consideration for your Week 8 lineup.

We are now seven weeks into the 2020 NFL season and over halfway through the fantasy football regular season in most formats. Looking at the sleepers highlighted in Week 7’s article, we saw Justin Herbert have a career day, throwing for 347 yards and three touchdowns and adding 66 yards and a touchdown on the ground to finish as the QB1 on the week.

We also saw Tee Higgins and Christian Kirk take advantage of their matchups, both finishing as top 15 wide receivers on the week. However, not all the sleeper picks came to fruition with J.D McKissic having his worst game since Week 2 due to the emergence of Antonio Gibson and the non-competitive Cowboys offense.

Looking ahead to Week 8, the Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans and Washington Football team are all on bye. If you have a lot of players on these teams or have been hit particularly hard with injuries this year, you may find yourself needing to look to the waiver wire for some sneaky plays. Here are five major sleepers that deserve consideration for your Week 8 fantasy lineup.

Note: All stats and info via Fantasy Pros. 

Fantasy Football sleeper No. 5: QB Derek Carr, Las Vegas (vs. Cleveland)

After a strong opening drive, Carr struggled for much of the game against a strong Tampa Bay defense. Despite this, he still managed a QB12 finish and has actually been a very consistent quarterback on the year.

Since Week 2, he has thrown for at least two touchdowns in every single contest and has only finished under 20 fantasy points once. Now he gets a great matchup with a Cleveland defense that just got torched by Joe Burrow for 406 yards and three scores. Look to play Carr as a high floor option this week with plenty of upside.

Fantasy Football sleeper No. 4: RB Le’Veon Bell, Kansas City (vs. New York)

While he certainly is not sitting on any waiver wires, many Bell owners are unsure of what his fantasy value is on this Kansas City offense. In his KC debut, he only saw six touches which he turned into 39 yards. More importantly, he was in on 33 percent of snaps and was sat with the rest of the starters when the game got out of hand.

Now he gets a chance in Week 8 to show the Jets what they traded away, and with Kansas City being 20 point favorites heading in, there should be plenty of opportunities for this revenge storyline to take shape.

Fantasy Football sleeper No. 3: WR Brandon Aiyuk, San Fransisco (vs. Seattle)

Aiyuk had a nice game in Week 7 against New England, finishing with six catches for 115 yards. This 49ers offense seems to finally be hitting their stride after tough losses to Philadelphia and Miami, though they can not catch a break from injuries. Their latest victim is Deebo Samuel, who missed the first three weeks of the season and has already been ruled out in Week 8 due to a hamstring injury.

While it is important to note I do not particularly favor Aiyuk’s situation without Samuel, as I think he plays a crucial role in the Niners offense, the opportunity as his team’s top wideout against the league’s worst pass defense is hard to pass up.

Fantasy Football sleeper No. 2: WR Rashard Higgins, Cleveland (vs. Las Vegas)

With Odell Beckham Jr. suffering a season-ending injury early in Week 7, Rashard Higgins stepped up, catching six passes for 110 yards. Though mostly irrelevant before this game, he did score touchdowns in Weeks 5 and 6 as well.

Though counterintuitive, the Browns offense looked much stronger in the absence of Beckham, with Baker Mayfield throwing for 297 yards and five touchdowns. Though it is still a run-first offense, look for Higgins to see solid volume with touchdown upside as the Browns’ WR2 in a soft matchup against the Raiders.

Fantasy Football sleeper No. 1: TE Richard Rodgers, Philadelphia (vs. Dallas)

In Week 7, Rodgers put up six catches for 85 yards in relief of the injured Zach Ertz, demonstrating that Wentz will target the tight end no matter who it is. With Desean Jackson suffering another injury and neither of the two starting tight ends looking to return this week, Rodgers should be in line for another heavy target share.

The situation in Philadelphia is bad, but the situation in Dallas, their Week 8 matchup, is much worse. In a sad yet important NFC East game, look for Rodgers to receive enough volume to fuel a TE1 performance, making him a stand out candidate in the land of tight end streamers.