Week 8 Fantasy Football Sneaky Starts & Sleepers

Oct 26, 2022

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Breece Hall is done for the year. Mike Williams (ankle), D.K. Metcalf (knee), David Njoku (ankle), and Deebo Samuel (hamstring) are likely to miss time with various injuries.

All but the luckiest fantasy owners at some point need to find the proverbial diamond in the rough—a waiver wire or bench player capable of putting up some points in a pinch. This weekly feature is dedicated to that part of fantasy football. It's not pretty, but it's part of the game.

Below is a list of players who are ranked higher than usual due to injuries, depth chart changes, or favorable matchups. As the bye weeks hit, it’s important to be able to find players who can produce.

I’ll put the matchup along with our signature strength-of-schedule metric, adjusted fantasy points allowed (aFPA), in parenthesis. The higher the number, the better the matchup.

Quarterbacks

Daniel Jones, Giants (@ SEA, 26)

I’m still getting questions like, “Why is Daniel Jones ranked so high?” so I’m going to keep writing him up as a Sneaky Start even though he’s probably graduated at this point. Jones is the fantasy QB9 (17.0 PPG) thanks in large part to his ability to run the ball (49 yards, 0.43 rush TD per game). Seattle has yielded 262/1.4 to opposing quarterbacks this season, and Kyler Murray just rushed for 100 yards in Week 6.

Geno Smith, Seahawks (vs. NYG, 19)

The Seahawks/Giants game has one of the highest totals this week (46.5) and has some shootout potential. Smith is currently the fantasy QB7. The Giants don’t have a bad defense, but Trevor Lawrence, Lamar Jackson, and Aaron Rodgers all posted 16.1-18.7 points in the last three weeks.