NFL Week 8 Fantasy Football Recap: New York Jets vs. New England Patriots

• Tyler Conklin: 6 receptions, 79 yards, 2 touchdowns

• Jakobi Meyers: 9 receptions, 60 yards, 1 touchdown

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Monitor the DeVante Parker injury: Parker suffered a knee injury on the first play of the game and did not return.

He joined Nelson Agholor in the starting lineup. Agholor has started in four of the past five games he has played.
While Agholor got the start, it was Tyquan Thornton and Kendrick Bourne playing the vast majority of the game on the outside, with Jakobi Meyers taking on his usual role in the slot.
Meyers remains the only Patriots wide receiver to trust in fantasy football.
Thornton is worth a waiver wire addition in most leagues. He caught only one pass for 13 yards, but there is a chance he keeps this role and eventually sees increased targets.
It will be harder to add Thornton if Parker misses significant time.

Damien Harris starts for New England: Harris was off the injury report and back into New England’s starting lineup.

Rhamondre Stevenson started last week for the first time in a game Harris also played, as Harris was coming back from injury.
New England continued to rotate the backs mostly by drive, but Stevenson still saw all of the third-down snaps as well as the work during two-minute drills.
The goal-line and short-yardage work was largely based on which running back was playing that drive.
This kind of rotation is something that will likely continue as long as both are healthy. This makes Stevenson a fantasy starter every week, and Harris can also be a starter in games where the Patriots are clear favorites.

Drop Hunter Henry: Henry saw a sharp decline in playing time alongside a healthy Jonnu Smith, and the two split time.

Henry’s playing time was similar to earlier points of the season when both players were healthy.
Smith ended up with four targets compared to one for Henry.
It is very difficult for a tight end to be a fantasy starter when they are running a route on only 57% of their team’s pass routes.

James Robinson’s Jets debut: The former Jaguars running back made his debut with New York, with the team easing him into action.

Michael Carter started the game for the Jets, but Robinson was eased in during the team’s second drive.
Robinson played significantly in the first and third quarters but barely in the second and fourth periods.
Ty Johnson was the third-down back, making this a three-man committee.
We can expect Robinson to take more snaps from Carter over time.
The big question is if Carter will then take third-down snaps from Johnson as he loses snaps on early downs.
Robinson is a buy-low candidate after his quiet debut. The Jets have the second-easiest remaining schedule for running backs, including the easiest in the fantasy playoffs.

Elijah Moore benched: Moore was the fifth wide receiver on the Jets’ depth chart after missing a week following his trade request.

Corey Davis missed this game with an injury, making it even more surprising that Moore didn’t see a normal amount of playing time.
Garrett Wilson played much more on the outside compared to the slot. He took on Moore’s role in the offense.
Unsurprisingly, this led to Wilson’s best performance all month: six catches for 115 yards.
Wilson has now played all three wide receiver roles in the Jets’ offense at various points this season.
He has a 25.2% targets per route run rate when lined up out wide in his career compared to 19.4% from the slot.
Denzel Mims took Davis’ role, leading to two catches for 76 yards.
Braxton Berrios played in the slot, while Jeff Smith was the backup to Mims and Moore was the backup to Wilson.
Ideally, Moore gets traded in the next few days, but if not it’s OK to drop him from your fantasy roster. He might get out of the Jets' doghouse sometime this season, or he could go back to being inactive once Davis is healthy.

Add Tyler Conklin: Conklin scored two touchdowns while hogging targets in his best performance in over a month.

He’s lost playing time to C.J. Uzomah, particularly on third downs, but he’s slowly but surely worked his way back to the third-down role.
He will very likely see fewer targets if the Jets become satisfied with their wide receiver room again.
The Jets have the second-best remaining schedule for tight ends, largely because they have three of the best matchups during the fantasy playoffs.
Conklin might not be someone to put in fantasy starting lineups in the near future, but he’s a great player to stash and unleash during the fantasy playoffs for any team without an elite tight end.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.