Week 9 of the NFL season is here, and we get a break from bye weeks with everyone playing this week. Hopefully, this gives Fantasy Football managers a reprieve from having to make difficult decisions about who to plug into their lineups this week.
Make sure to check out our Fantasy In Frames IDP waiver-wire article every week to fill in your open roster spots.
Below are my educated guesses of players to Play and others to Fade for Week 8 of the NFL season. As we continue to get more data, we get a better idea of who to lean on throughout the season.
As always I am going to give you some players I think could have a better week than expected or might have a worse game than predicted.
Here we go!
Plays
- Dayo Odeyingbo, DE Colts at Vikings
- He was DL1 in Fantasy Pros scoring with 24.8 points in Week 8, and he almost had an even bigger game. He led the Colts edge rushers with 67.6% of snaps. He also led the team with a 16.0% win rate and pressure rate.
- Odeyingbo had four tackles, three solo, with a sack and a fumble recovery. He returned the fumble for a touchdown, but was later called down by contact on a very questionable review.
- Tuli Tuipulotu, DE Chargers at Browns
- With Joey Bosa struggling to stay healthy, Tuipulotu has been getting run this season. He played 65.8% of snaps in Week 8. He added an 18.5% win rate and 11.1% pressure rate.
- He is coming off a great game in Week 8, scoring 11 points in Fantasy Pros scoring. He had two tackles, one TFL, one sack, and one pass defensed against the Saints.
- Trey Hendrickson, DE Bengals vs Raiders
- Hendrickson is a feast or famine type of player. He usually gets you sacks in bunches or nothing. He has seven sacks on 37 QB pressures in eight games. In five of the eight games he has four or more pressures. When he gets four or more pressures he has multiple sacks in three of those four games. That’s a 75% chance he will get you two or more sacks if he can get four pressures.
- He faces the Raiders, whose tackles have given up 26 pressures and six sacks in eight games. Las Vegas Quarterback Gardner Minshew has been bad about getting away from pressure this season. Hendrickson should have a shot at multiple sacks this week.
Fades
- Joey Bosa, DE Chargers at Browns
- Bosa continues to be banged up and miss time. After missing the last three games, Bosa returned in Week 8, but only played 20 snaps and then looked as if he injured his hamstring.
- He has played in only four games with nine tackles and two sacks.
- Nik Bonitto, DL Broncos at Ravens
- Bonitto has been on a tear. He has had a sack in six straight games. It’s incredible. But can he keep up that pace? He only has four tackles. He has three tackles or less in seven of eight games this year, and has only one solo tackle in six of eight games, which means he needs a sack to score any points.
- Bonitto now faces the Ravens. Quarterback Lamar Jackson is tied for the least sacked QB in the league this season. He has only been sacked 12 times in eight games this year. Bonitto is also sharing equal snap share with Jonathon Cooper, Baron Browning, and Jonah Ellis. This is a game where someone else gets home this week instead of Bonitto.
- Montez Sweat, DE Bears at Cardinals
- Sweat only played 50% of snaps in Week 8, but he had an elite win rate of 30.4% and 26.1% pressure rate. He scored 14.3 points in Fantasy Pros in Week 8 with four tackles, three solo, and one sack.
- But Sweat has struggled a bit this season in games he doesn’t get a sack. The Cardinals offensive line has been better the last four weeks after a terrible start, not giving up a sack in four straight games. Quarterback Kyler Murray has only been sacked more than one time in two of eight games.
Plays
- Mohamoud Diabate, LB Browns vs Chargers
- The neck injury to starting linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah late in last week’s game against the Ravens could give Diabate a big role this season. JOK had 20.5 points in Fantasy Pros scoring before the injury. Jordan Hicks is also banged up and is questionable for this game.
- Keep an eye on the injury report this week, but if JOK and Hicks are both out this week, Diabate could be a huge play against a run-first Chargers offense. He played 86.8% of snaps in Week 8 and turned those snaps into eight tackles and a pass defensed.
- Bobby Okereke, LB Giants vs Commanders
- Okereke is coming off his best game of the season with 25.8 points in Fantasy Pros scoring. He had 14 tackles, seven solo, with .5 sacks, and a fumble recovery against the Steelers.
- The Commanders offense has been elite this season. They should keep the Giants defense on the field for most of the day, giving Okereke plenty of chances to make plays.
- Edgerrin Cooper, LB Packers vs Lions
- Cooper has gotten at least 30 snaps a game the last four weeks. Averaging 12.7 points per game in the last five games. 27 tackles, two sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, four tackles for loss, one pass defensed, and three QB hits.
- The Packers have finally unleashed the second-round rookie pick. He has a 16.1% tackle rate over that span. His snap share has increased from 19.6% in the first three weeks. 51.8% snap share the last five games and over 60% each of the last three games.
Fades
- Tyrell Dodson, LB Seahawks vs Rams
- For the season he has been solid when you look at his overall production, but week-to-week he hasn’t been super impressive. He is currently LB17 in Fantasy Pros scoring overall, but is tied with three others for LB23 in average points per game with 12.3.
- He had a big first six weeks, but has struggled a bit the last two weeks. Now you bring in Ernest Jones in a trade and I’m going to worry a bit about his production moving forward.
- Devin Lloyd, LB Jaguars at Eagles
- Foyesade Oluokun returned from the IR and immediately took over as LB1 for the Jaguars playing 91% of snaps. Lloyd then split snaps with Ventrell Miller. Lloyd played 55.7% of snaps to Miller’s 60%.
- With a dip in snap share, Lloyd was only able to score 6.3 points in Fantasy Pros scoring in Week 8 after he had 18.5 points the week before while playing 97% of snaps. Lloyd is in trouble if his snap share doesn’t go back up.
- Nate Landman, LB Falcons vs Cowboys
- Landman was rotated off the field several times in Week 8. He played 75% of snaps, but he has been dealing with nagging injuries all season. He had seven tackles, six solos, against the Buccaneers in Week 8 for one of his most productive weeks of the season.
- Landman was already on IR earlier in the season, and he has been dealing with a shoulder issue that caused him to miss a bit of practice time last week. Now Troy Andersen looks to be ready to return from injury, which really muddy the waters on how they will share the snap share. I need to see what is going to happen with Landman and Andersen for snap share before I play either one of them.
Plays
- Budda Baker, S Cardinals vs Bears
- Baker is starting to round back into top form this season. He finished as DB3 in Fantasy Pros scoring in Week 8. He finished with 12 tackles, six solo, and a pass defensed.
- He has four top 10 finishes this season. He is currently DB2 in Fantasy Pros scoring this season with 108.4 points for 13.6 points per game. He doesn’t have an interception, a sack, a forced fumble, or a fumble recovery this season. He is just a tackling machine.
- Reed Blankenship, S Eagles vs Jaguars
- Blankenship played 95% of snaps in Week 8 against the Bengals, and turned those snaps into eight tackles, six solo, and a pass defensed for a total of 12.8 points in Fantasy Pros scoring. This was his best output since Week 2.
- He played 70% of his snaps at deep safety, but the Eagles don’t have a traditional box safety. He saw almost 30% of snaps in the box or in the slot, which still gives him a chance to make plays in the running game.
- Joshua Metellus, S Vikings vs Colts
- Metellus has 15 tackles combined in the last two games. He also has five or more tackles in all but one game this season.
- Metellus got 87% of his snaps at box safety, in the slot or on the defensive line in Week 8 against Rams. Metellus now gets a Colts team that wants to run the ball and get the ball to slot wide receiver Josh Downs. This should keep Metellus involved all night on Sunday.
Fades
- Justin Reid, S Chiefs vs Buccaneers
- The Chiefs have had a great defense this year, but they haven’t been getting production numbers from their secondary. The defense has almost been too good, They only had 58 defensive snaps in Week 8, which was 27th in the league.
- Reid is getting the snap share you want (100%) and playing the box safety role (51.7%), but you just aren’t getting the production from him.
- Antonio Johnson, S Jaguars at Eagles
- Johnson was playing nearly 100 percent of snaps in the first six weeks of the season. While he wasn’t putting up huge numbers, he was a solid play most weeks. He was averaging 9.3 ppg per Fantasy Pros through the first six games.
- The last two weeks Johnson’s snap share has dropped to 32% and 16%. He has two total tackles.
- Riley Moss, S Broncos at Ravens
- After a great start to the season, his production has waned the last few weeks. He was averaging 12.3 points per game in the first six weeks, but only 6.7 the last two games.
- The linebackers should see most of the work against a Ravens team that likes to run.