Favorable QB &TE Matchups for Week 8 (2021)
Every week this season, Fantasy In Frames is going to help you stream quarterbacks and tight ends by going over which ones have some of the most favorable matchups each week.
“Water is the most perfect traveler because when it travels it becomes the path itself!”
― Mehmet Murat Ildan
Hopefully, you survived the Week 7 bye-pocalypse, but if not we are still going to help you bounce back and get a win in Week 8! We must continue to trust the process and follow the streaming path. The best is when you pick up a streamer early in the season and he becomes a stud you can play every week, but if you haven’t nailed that yet or are dealing with injuries/byes then let us help you stream this week. Just a reminder, for QBs we focus on matchups and momentum of recent performance, and for TEs we focus on opportunities (target share). We are now halfway through the fantasy football regular season. It is time to get a winning streak going and position yourself to make the playoffs!
How Did We Do?
For the season we have recommended streaming a QB1 40% of the time, and for Week 7 we did well going 2 for 3, and we missed a perfect sweep by 2.52 points.
Several teams had to pick up QBs because their starting QB was on a bye. We were happy to see Tua put up huge numbers again as the QB3, and Heinicke bounced back with a solid performance as the QB11. Jameis Winston did not blow up on Monday night dealing with bad weather, but he didn’t crush you either as the QB16.
For the season, we have recommended streaming a TE1 35% and a TE2 59% of the time, and for Week 7 we were perfect with 1 for 1 for TE1!
There were not many TEs to stream last week due to so many teams on bye. We only recommended Ricky Seals-Jones and he wasn’t amazing but still managed a TE1 performance as the TE10 on the week. We will always try to follow the opportunities and hope the TE capitalizes with a TD with so much usage.
Week 8 Bye Week Teams (impacted QBs and TEs): Baltimore Ravens (QB Lamar Jackson and TE Mark Andrews), Las Vegas Raiders (QB Derek Carr and TE Darren Waller)
Quarterbacks to Stream – Week 8
Daniel Jones (@ KC) – 36.8% rostered in ESPN:
Daniel Jones was solid last week in a blowout against the Panthers with one touchdown and zero turnovers. He even caught a pass! Jones has been inconsistent this season, but he continues to have the third most QB rushing yards which help boost his fantasy value. The Giants have a lot of injured offensive skill players, which has prevented Jones from having any boom weeks recently. However, he is playing the Kansas City Chiefs this week! The Chiefs’ defense is historically terrible this season. The Chiefs allow almost 25 fantasy points per game to QBs, which is 2nd worst in the league! Jones has been a competent QB with rushing upside, and he has an incredible matchup this week.
Carson Wentz (vs TEN) – 26% rostered in ESPN:
Giving credit where credit is due. This is a hell of a throw by Carson Wentz. pic.twitter.com/PU4tcFVDMy
— DIE-HARD 🦅 Fans (@Eaglesfans9) October 25, 2021
I know Carson Wentz is not an exciting name, but he has been consistent recently. Over the last 4 games, he has thrown 2 TDs and 0 INTs in each game. For the season, he has the 2nd best deep-ball completion percentage (50%) in the NFL. However, he has only thrown for more than 251 yards once in all 7 games that he has played this season when he threw for 402 yards in Week 5. The Titans played an incredible defensive game last week against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, but the Titans have still given up the 6th most fantasy points per game to QBs. Wentz’s worst game this season was against the Titans in Tennessee, but that was in Week 3 and Wentz hasn’t scored less than 21 points since that game. Wentz is not a high-upside QB, but he should score at least 20 points, which means he won’t lose you your week.
Honorable Mention: Deshaun Watson (?) – 17.8% – Watson is dealing with serious off-the-field legal issues and we do not condone what he has been accused of, so we are just going to focus on the fantasy football side. Next Tuesday is the NFL trade deadline and there has been a lot of beat-writer chatter. If you have the roster space then take a flyer on Watson. We will know next week what team he will be on the rest of the season, and if he is still on Houston then just drop him. We do not know if Watson will be put on the commissioner’s exempt list if he is traded, but the latest speculation is that he would be able to play if he is traded. There is no risk to adding him to your bench this week then dropping him next week if a trade never happens, but he had a ton of upside if he is traded. We understand if you have no interest in having Watson on your roster.
Tight Ends to Stream – Week 8
Ricky Seals-Jones (@ DEN) – 49% rostered in ESPN:
Yes, this is three weeks in a row because Ricky Seals-Jones has not exceeded 50% rostership yet. In the last 3 weeks, Seals-Jones has only missed one play! Until Logan Thomas is healthy, Seals-Jones is getting so much opportunity that you have to love him as a streaming option. Over the last 3 weeks, he has had a 19% target share, which is 2nd on the team and is 15 receptions on 22 targets. Seals-Jones has the 5th most receptions for TEs over the last 3 games. Even though he has only scored 1 TD during those 3 weeks he is still the TE8, and he has the 4th most TE targets in the redzone (8) for the season so the TDs are coming soon. Seals-Jones is not a TD-dependent TE, and he is worth starting every week until Logan Thomas is healthy.
Tyler Conklin (vs DAL) – 13.4% rostered in ESPN:
Tyler Conklin is an average TE, but he is part of an offense that has averaged the 2nd most plays per game (69.8). It helps that the Vikings have played in an overtime game, but that amount of plays per game is still impressive. Conklin is 4th on the team in target share (13.1%) this season. Conklin is a TD-dependent TE, but he has a solid matchup against the Dallas Cowboys because they have been below average against TEs (12.6 ppg). The Cowboys have also been a high-powered offense, so the Vikings may need to push their passing game to keep up. Conklin is 3rd on the team in redzone receptions (3), so he has a chance to score a TD against a good matchup this week.
Pat Freiermuth (@ CLE) – 3.3% rostered in ESPN:
Pat Freiermuth is the Steelers rookie TE, and he is a speculative streamer this week. The Steelers are coming off a bye week, but Week 6 was the first game without JuJu Smith-Schuster and Freiermuth had a season-high in targets (7), receptions (7), and yards (58). Freiermuth was the clear short-yardage target in Week 6 with 8.3 yards/target. This is a small sample since there has only been one game played without JuJu, but if you are in a deep league then Freiermuth is a sneaky PPR TE.