There's a lot to track heading into Week 8, like Seattle's game-time-decision backfield, La'Mical Perine's possible ascension if Frank Gore has to sit, Wayne Gallman possibly bellcow'ing for the Giants, which Raven RB has the advantage with Mark Ingram out, whether JaMycal Hasty will have the backfield to himself, whether anyone can step up in Allen Robinson's anticipated absence, etc.
Back to San Francisco: Hasty could become the fourth Niner back this season to accumulate 90+ total yards in a game. A major shoutout if anyone knows if that would be an NFL record. Really, if you add in Tevin Coleman, has a team ever had five starting-caliber backs? There was a time when one was enough. A bygone era.
Anyway, last Saturday my bargain/bust picks went 7-2. As always, I'm not picking based on injuries or other factors that create obvious disparities between expert opinion and objective reality. These are all old-fashioned, against-the-grain predictions aimed at giving you value. Because we all need value now and then. I'm only sad I can't pick Christian Kirk after three straight weeks of declaring him a major bargain. Nice to see he's back to being a fantasy starter.
At quarterback, Kirk Cousins is my go-to streamer when the fantasy universe has given up on him. His QB-20 ranking this week misses some key fundamentals. He's facing one of the league's worst pass defenses in the Packers--a team Cousins racked up nearly 22 fantasy points on in Week 1. With Adam Thielen, Justin Jefferson, and a returning Dalvin Cook, Cousins is a fantastic bet for 18+, putting him comfortably in the top 16. On the flip side, what have I been saying about Ryan Tannehill? His QB-4 ranking is uncomfortably off. In fact, I'm betting Cousins will outperform Tannehill this week. You heard it here first, and if I'm wrong, hopefully you'll hear it again Monday in a more sorrowful tone.
At running back, Tampa Bay should handle the Giants, meaning more backfield touches for Leonard Fournette (RB-22) and Ronald Jones (RB-16). They are interchangeable in that they both have top-16 potential, but for our purposes Fournette has more bargain potential. With Fournette it's always been more about attitude than talent, and in the right situation (a Super Bowl contender like the Bucs), he could be a top-5 RB if Jones went down. For now, Fournette's underpriced. On the flip side, Gio Bernard and James Conner are deceptively overvalued at their respective RB-11 and RB-13 rankings. Gio needs to score to hit the top 16, while Conner--well, whatever I warned about last week with Conner, it's the same this week. Baltmore should contain him.
At wideout, Greg Ward (WR-53) is too cheap to ignore as Carson Wentz's likely #2 target against the league-worst Cowboys D. I'm also loving the Jarvis Landry / Rashard Higgins stack at WR-24 and WR-36, respectively. Odell Beckham, Jr. was done for the season before Week 8 rankings began, so these picks are valid based on my standards. On the flip side, is Brandon Aiyuk (WR-21) really a WR2? His matchup with Seattle is near-perfect. But you'll probably need more than five catches or a score from him, and that's no guarantee in this fairly conservative offense. I'm betting against him.
At tight end, Irv Smith (TE-22) gets my vote as a potential #3 receiver, while Hunter Henry (TE-7) simply isn't doing enough with his targets to be a reliable TE1.