Fire & Ice: Top starts, sits and sleepers in fantasy football for Week 8

• Jordan Love is going to eat the Jacksonville Jaguars secondary alive: No team has allowed more passing touchdowns than the Jaguars, while no QB has thrown more touchdowns per game than Love this season. This is also the perfect matchup for Love to finally get his interceptions under control as Jacksonville has come down with one sole interception in 2024.

• George Pickens will continue to shine with Russell Wilson: In their first game playing together, they both finished as top-three highest scorers at their position on the week. Wilson and Pickens should continue to build upon their connection against the New York Giants, who struggle against the deep pass this season.

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Are you struggling to set your fantasy lineups? Maybe I can help… Below you can find my top fire (boom) and ice (bust) players at each position for Week 8 I also include my sleeper of the week at each position in case you are in a deeper league or in need of a replacement for an ice player.

Don’t miss my Fire & Ice chart at the bottom of this page. There, I have listed out all of my fire, good, sleeper and ice plays for Week 8 of the 2024 fantasy football season.

Quarterbacks

Fire QB Start of the Week: Jordan Love (at JAX)

Sooner or later, Jordan Love’s hyper-pass touchdown rate has to slow down, but that won’t be happening in Week 8 against the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ weak secondary. This matchup is a fantasy manager’s euphoria. Jacksonville has allowed a league-high 16 passing touchdowns this season, while Love is averaging an NFL-high three passing touchdowns per game. Plus, Love’s major downfall this year has been his high interception rate, but the Jaguars have forced just one interception this entire season.

Each of the last five quarterbacks to start a game against the Jaguars has scored at least 20 fantasy points against them. This Sunday could be a career-high fantasy day for Love.

Sleeper QB of the Week: Russell Wilson (vs. NYG)

Russell Wilson appears to be a perfect fit for Arthur Smith’s heavy-play-action system. In his first start with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Wilson put up 264 passing yards and three touchdowns while finishing as the QB3 on the week with 24.9 fantasy points.

The New York Giants are allowing the eight most fantasy points per game to quarterbacks in 2024 — the last three QBs to face them have scored at least 19.8 points (Geno Smith, Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts). The “Big Blue” has particularly struggled against play action and coverage deep down the field, two areas in which Wilson has excelled his entire career.

Ice QB Start of the Week: Kyler Murray (at MIA)

Kyler Murray has been anything but consistent this season — he has been a top-five fantasy QB in three of the last six weeks but finished as the QB18 or worse in the other three weeks. The Arizona Cardinals’ offense has been struggling as of late and for some reason they can’t get their No. 4 overall rookie WR Marvin Harrison Jr. going.

It will be hard to trust Murray to have a good statistical day in Week 8 against the Miami Dolphins who have allowed just 8.5 fantasy points per game to opposing quarterback this season, the fewest in the NFL. Miami has yet to allow a QB to score 12-plus points against them in 2024.

Running Backs

Fire RB Start of the Week: Kareem Hunt (vs. LV)

The Kansas City Chiefs have fully trusted Kareem Hunt as their lead back with Isiah Pacheco sidelined. Over his two starts with Kansas City this season, Hunt has seen 24-plus touches and scored 18-plus fantasy points in both games. No player has had more carries (49) or touches (52) than Hunt over their last two games played this season.

This Chiefs offense has become extremely run-heavy with their defense playing so well and injuries across the wide receiver position. Over the last three weeks, the Chiefs are running the ball at the third-highest rate among all teams across the NFL. I highly doubt that will change against the Las Vegas Raiders, who struggle to even put up 15 points in any given week. The Raiders allowed both Najee Harris and Kyren Williams to score 19 fantasy points against them over their last two games.

Sleeper RB of the Week: Javonte Williams (vs. CAR)

This is the perfect timing for Javonte Williams to face the friendliest defense against fantasy RBs this season. Last week, the Denver Broncos finally leaned on Williams to carry their offense to a victory, and he proved he could do just that. Williams recorded a season-high 88 rushing yards and scored his first two touchdowns of the season in Week 7. He finished with 111 scrimmage yards and 26.1 fantasy points on the day, making him the RB6 on the week.

I don’t believe that Williams will be a good fantasy play for the remainder of the season, but he should put up another big performance this weekend against the Carolina Panthers‘ defense that seems to have all but given up on the season.

Ice RB Start of the Week: Nick Chubb (vs. BAL)

As exciting as it was to watch Nick Chubb fight his way into the end zone in his first game back from a devasting knee injury, it is important to note he was only able to rack up 22 yards on 11 carries on the day. Chubb should improve as he gets more playing time under his belt, but this weekend is too tough of a matchup to count on him in your fantasy lineups.

The Baltimore Ravens allow a league-low 51.7 rushing yards per game and 3.1 yards per carry to running backs this season. No running back has recorded more than 46 rushing yards against the Ravens in 2024.

Wide Receivers

Fire WR Start of the Week: George Pickens (vs. NYG)

Russell Wilson has found his new favorite target in George Pickens, who he targeted nine times last week. In their first game together, Pickens put up 22.1 fantasy points against the Jets tough secondary. This week they will face the other New York (New Jersey) defense that is much weaker in the secondary.

The Giants have allowed a 70.2 catch % to wide receivers this season, the third-highest rate in the NFL, while Pickens has possibly the best hands in the league. What is special about Wilson is that he has trust in his top receivers to target them down the field even when they aren’t necessarily open — Pickens came down with two catches in Week 7 that had under a 30% probability of being completed, according to Next Gen Stats.

Sleeper WR Start of the Week: Cedric Tillman (vs. BAL)

With Amari Cooper shipped off to the Buffalo Bills, 2023 third-round pick Cedric Tillman got his first NFL opportunity to shine in Week 7. After playing on only 31% of the Cleveland Browns’ offensive snaps over the first six weeks of the season, Tillman was on the field for 82% of the snaps last Sunday and recorded a career-high 12 targets, eight receptions for a team-most 81 receiving yards in the game — he was the only Browns WR with more than six targets or 45 receiving yards in Week 7.

Not only does Tillman get an upgrade at quarterback going from Deshaun Watson to Jameis Winston (yeah, I said it), but he also gets a very juicy matchup. The Ravens have allowed the most fantasy points to the wide receiver position in 2024.

Ice WR Start of the Week: Marvin Harrison Jr. (at MIA)

It is hard to let sink in, but Marvin Harrison Jr. has given his fantasy managers one good game … nay, one good quarter this season.

Harrison’s Rookie Season Receiving Stats:

1st Quarter of Week 2: 130 yards, 2 TDs, 29 fantasy points
Other 21 Quarters COMBINED: 170 yards, 2 TDs, 45 fantasy points (2.1 points/quarter)

Over the last three weeks, he has scored 5.6, zero (left early with a concussion), and 5.1 fantasy points. It is just impossible to trust that MHJ’s usage will increase until we actually see it happen. Plus, this is a miserable matchup for fantasy wide receivers. The Dolphins have allowed the fewest points to the wide receiver position this season – they have allowed just two WRs to score 12+ fantasy points against them in 2024.

Tight Ends

Fire TE Start of the Week: David Njoku (vs BAL)

In his first game without Amari Cooper this season, David Njoku led the Browns with 14 targets and 10 receptions and caught the team’s only passing touchdown on the day. Jameis Winston needed just one drive to get Njoku his first receiving touchdown of the season. It seems Njoku will be the focal point of the Browns offense moving forward with Cooper out of town.

Not only are the Ravens a great matchup for fantasy WRs but they also have been suspect against tight ends, allowing the sixth most fantasy points per game to the position this season. Buccaneers TE Cade Otton just put up eight receptions for 100 receiving yards against the Ravens defense last week.

Sleeper TE of the Week: Cade Otton (vs ATL)

Speaking of Cade Otton’s great Week 7 performance, he is another good option to plug into your fantasy lineup this weekend. Otton has scored at least 9.5 fantasy points in three of the last four weeks and put up a season-high 18 points on Monday night against the Ravens.

Otton has run the second most routes among all tight ends this season and he will be a necessity high-volume target for Baker Mayfield with both Chris Godwin and Mike Evans going down with serious injuries in Week 7. Anytime you can find a tight end who has the ability to be his team’s top target, he is a good bet to put up a solid fantasy performance.

Ice TE Start of the Week: Dalton Kincaid (vs SEA)

The Seattle Seahawks have been a favorable matchup for fantasy tight ends this season, which could find you wanting to plug Kincaid into your lineups, but I wouldn’t do it. I don’t have high hopes that Kincaid will be a good fantasy tight end this season, no matter what opponent he is facing.

Kincaid has scored one touchdown all season long, while not hitting 55 receiving yards in any game in 2024. He has scored fewer than 10 fantasy points in 5 of 7 games this season and has yet to score more than 13 points in any week. The acquisition of Amari Cooper will only make it harder for Kincaid to get an increase in targets moving forward.

Fire & Ice Fantasy Football Plays

Here, I categorize every relevant fantasy player into five different buckets: (1) fire starts (best starts of the week); (2) thumbs up (good starts); (3) Risky players with upside (sleepers); (4) Ice starts (predicting bad performance from good player); (5) Stop (must sits).

Note: If a player/defense is not listed, I am not considering starting them in Week 8. I did not include Vikings/Rams players as they play on Thursday night.