Happy Week 8!
Seven weeks of football are in the books. Madness. Bye weeks are upon us, and injuries have unfortunately continued to take a toll on offenses around the league. Focusing on the long-term view is usually the right move in most walks of life, but it’s also important in fantasy football land to not be afraid to attack each week as its own mini one-game season.
What follows are my Week 8 QB rankings. Note that these are not season-long lists or projections; I’m purely ranking based on who I believe will score more fantasy points this week with a focus on 1) What the QB has achieved in recent weeks, 2) Injuries or workload changes that could impact their production, and 3) This week’s matchup.
1. SEATTLE SEAHAWKS QB RUSSELL WILSON VS. SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS (SEA -6.5, 54)
Wilson is one of the more-accurate passers the game has ever seen and has not one, but two high-end receivers at his disposal capable of winning seemingly any matchup. The performance that he and Lockett turned in during the Seahawks’ Sunday night loss to the Cardinals was nothing short of remarkable from start to finish.
Tyler Lockett is a fooking ballerpic.twitter.com/epyJnTBKGt
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) October 26, 2020
Of course, Wilson will need to do a better job taking care of the football moving forward, but his three interceptions were more than offset in fantasy land by a season-best 6-84-0 rushing line. Through seven weeks only Kyler Murray (437 rushing yards), Lamar Jackson (346), Daniel Jones (296), Cam Newton (244), Wilson (237) and Josh Allen (203) have racked up more than 200 yards on the ground.
Continue to treat the overall QB1 in fantasy points per game as such against a 49ers defense that is always well-coached, but faces a steep talent discrepancy on the outside with the likes of Richard Sherman (calf, IR), K’Waun Williams (knee, IR), Jimmie Ward (quad) and Jaquiski Tartt (groin) all kinds of banged up.
2. KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QB PATRICK MAHOMES VS. NEW YORK JETS (KC -21, 48)
Mahomes didn’t have to do much in Week 7 thanks to the Chiefs' special teams and defense scoring twice all on their own. Through seven weeks Mahomes is the QB6 in fantasy points per game. He’s technically playing worse than ever, but even a 95% version of the Chiefs’ franchise QB has been good enough to engineer the league’s fifth-ranked scoring offense.
- 2018: 92.8 PFF Passing Grade, 8.5 yards per attempt, 77.5% adjusted completion rate
- 2019: 82.3 PFF Passing Grade, 8.0 yards per attempt, 73.5% adjusted completion rate
- 2020: 84.0 PFF Passing Grade, 7.8 yards per attempt, 72.8% adjusted completion rate
The Chiefs have quite literally never lost by more than one score with Mahomes under center. You’d have to go back to November 19, 2016 when Iowa State took it to Texas Tech 66-10 to find the last time the game’s single-best QB wasn’t within eight points by the final whistle.
The concern for Mahomes in this spot is that the Chiefs will have too easy of a time with the league’s single-worst team in point differential through seven weeks. Still, this scenario also implies Mahomes leading the offense into the end zone on numerous occasions, and there’s no reason to think he won’t be responsible for a majority of those scores against the Jets’ 24th-ranked scoring defense.
3. GREEN BAY PACKERS QB AARON RODGERS VS. MINNESOTA VIKINGS (GB -6.5, 56)
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