Fantasy Football Redraft

Print

Best Week 8 Moves from Our Fantasy Football Pros

Best Week 8 Moves

Whether you're playing redraft, dynasty, or even DFS, knowing what moves to make is crucial to success.

That's why we're having each of our fantasy football pros give you one move to take advantage of this week.

Check back every week for new moves!

Pay Up For CeeDee Lamb

Shane Hallam

Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

CeeDee Lamb has started the season slow with only one game with 11+ targets and barely any TDs.

With his high ADP, it feels like he is a bust that there is little hope for. 

The Cowboys offense looks awful and Dak Prescott isn’t performing.

If you thought I was talking about this year, you are wrong. This was about last season.

As the Cowboys come off the bye, let’s explore what Lamb did after the bye last year:

• Three straight games of 14+ targets
• At least nine targets in every game the rest of the season
• Scored 92% of his TDs 

The Cowboys are primed to blow up again, especially in the fantasy playoffs where Lamb draws the Panthers, Buccaneers and Eagles.

If you have Malik Nabers, offer him up for Lamb.

If you are hurting at QB, don’t hesitate to use our Fantasy Football Trade Calculator and toss out an offer for Dak as well.

What to Do with DeVonta Smith?

Kevin English

Following a Week 5 bye, the Eagles have won two in a row.

Matchups with the Browns and Giants have helped. But the real story is a major shift to the ground game.

In Week 7, the Eagles posted the second-lowest pass rate over expected. The only team with a greater run-game commitment: a Miami team down several QBs.

Think it was a one-week blip? Well, from Week 4 to Week 7, Philadelphia still ranks 31st in pass rate over expected. 

You can’t argue with the approach. I could throw out a bunch of fancy stats, but I think you know that Saquan Barkley is having a stellar season.

So, what does it mean for Smith?

Likely more volatility for a guy with six targets over the past two weeks (15.3%).

Take a look at the Eagles upcoming schedule. There are a few spots – I’ll put ‘em in bold – that might lead to boosted passing. But in general, I wouldn’t expect Philly to engage in many shootouts:

• Bengals
• Jaguars
• Cowboys 
• Commanders 
• Rams 
• Ravens 
• Panthers 
• Steelers 
• Commanders 
• Giants

I wouldn’t rush out and sell Smith at a discount. He’s still an extremely talented WR, and he’ll have some impactful games going forward.

I’d just bet against him recapturing his early-season volume – the kind that you expected from a Round 2/3 pick. So I would consider selling Smith if he delivers a big game against the Bengals or Jaguars.

Stash Dontayvion Wicks

Jared Smola

As the driver of the Dontayvion Wicks Bandwagon around here, I feel obligated at this point to defend my guy – and tell you to stash him on your bench.

There have been two problems for Wicks so far:

1. He battled drops early in the season. (Fantasy players HATE drops – even though getting the target is more of a positive than the drop is a negative. But that’s a story for another article.)
2. He scored just 4 PPR points in the one game most owners started him.

But there’s been a lot to like about what Wicks has done so far this season.

For starters, he’s tied for the lead among Packers with 38 targets – despite running a route of more than 52% of pass plays in just two of seven games. Wicks has drawn a target on 28% of his routes. That leads the Packers and ranks fifth among 105 qualifying WRs league-wide.

Wicks has also worked his way into a timeshare with WR Christian Watson. Over their last two healthy games together, Wicks has run just three fewer routes than Watson.

We need Wicks to pull clearly ahead of Watson before we can trust him as a fantasy starter. But that’s certainly possible considering the progress he’s already made in terms of earning playing time.

If Wicks does become something close to a full-time player, he’ll boast exciting fantasy upside thanks to his target-earning prowess and a strong Packers passing game. QB Jordan Love has averaged 270 passing yards and 3.0 TDs per game this season.

So, whether you can grab him off the waiver wire or need to swing a trade for him, Wicks is one of the best upside WR stashes for the second half of the season.

Don’t Pick Up Grant Stuard

Matt Schauf

If you don’t know who that is, please feel free to quit reading. But if you play in an IDP league, then you probably just learned his name.

Stuard delivered a top-5 fantasy score for Week 7 because the LB racked up 19 tackles in the Colts’ win over the Dolphins. And yet he probably won’t see the field with the defense this week.

Indy went without starting LB E.J. Speed last week because of a knee injury. That meant opportunity for Stuard – a fourth-year vet who hadn’t played a defensive snap this season before Sunday – and Jaylon Carlies.

Carlies left that game early with an ankle injury that might land him on IR. So Stuard could see some time going forward. But Speed also finished last practice week with a full Friday and started this week the same way.

Bet on Speed returning for Week 8 and Stuard returning to irrelevance.

I’ll get more into the situation in this week’s IDP Hits. But I also highlight it here as a general BEWARE on chasing last week’s surprise scorer in your IDP league.

And if you read this far and are angry I didn’t give you anything on the offensive side, go read my Sell case for James Cook in the Week 8 Trade Targets. (Also, try to chill.)

Shane Hallam, Writer

Shane has over 20 years of experience creating content and playing every fantasy football format including redraft, dynasty, devy, IDP, and more. He is a multi-year winner of $500 dynasty leagues on the FFPC and utilizes deep film and scheme study to enhance his fantasy performance.