Rush Nation, it’s time for Week Eight’s Starts & Sits. This week sees a lot of teams on bye and a lot of teams banged up. Therefore, getting Starts & Sits information and getting these calls correct means more than ever before.

If you are stuck on some decisions, join our sleeper channel (you can find it here) and ask Murf or Stocks directly in the Starts & Sits channel.

However, here are Murf’s Starts and Sits for Week Eight:

Starts

Teddy Bridgewater- QB Carolina Panthers

I’ve written a lot about Teddy Bridgewater this week in the Waiver Wire and I Streamed a Stream columns. However, the maths is simple. Teddy has scored 19 points plus in four out of the last five games. And Atlanta are last in fantasy points allowed to Quarterbacks. Easy start.

Carson Wentz- QB Philadelphia Eagles

Rinse and repeat for Wentz as per above. Wentz has scored 20 plus points in 4 of his last 5 games. Most of these are coming from rushing Touchdowns. He also has a highly favourable match-up as he faces the Everson Griffin less Dallas Cowboy’s who look like they are waiving the white flag on 2020. An easy Starts & Sits choice.

Jerick McKinnion- RB San Francisco 49ers

Kyle Shanahan suggest that he was “resting” McKinnion due to his “heavy early season workload”. Whether this is true or not, it doesn’t look like he will have too much competition for touches this week, especially with Jeff Wilson heading to IR.

Todd Gurley- RB Atlanta Falcons

He was a punch-line last week for scoring when he shouldn’t have. However, he did fantasy owners a favour for scoring. Gurley is tied for the league in Touchdowns now with 7. And, he has a great match-up this week against the Panthers, who have allowed the third most fantasy points to Running Backs this week.

Tyler Boyd- WR Cincinatti Bengals

Tyler Boyd is the alpha in this high passing offense. He got 13 targets last week and he is playing a Titans defense who are giving up a ton of points to fantasy Wide Receivers. The Titans are in a shootout every week, always trying to come back from behind after taking an early lead. With Joe Burrow, Tyler Boyd will get double digit targets this week and will be knocking on the door of the WR1 conversation this week.

Rashard Higgins- WR Cleveland Browns

Higgins has a great rapport with Mayfield. He has a great yards per target number than OBJ, he got a season high number of targets after OBJ left the game last week, and Jarvis Landry is playing hurt. Do not be surprised if Higgins is a WR2 this week. This is well within the range of outcomes for him. Especially as Vegas are a bottom 10 fantasy points allowed to Wide Receivers defense.

Evan Engram- TE New York Giants

Engram came up with a season high 6 receptions on 9 targets last week on Thursday Night Football. This week he plays the Buccaneers who start at over 10 point favourites on Monday Night Football. That means, especially with the Buccaneers defense, not a lot of run plays and a ton of the ball going in the air. Expect Engram to have more catches this week.

Sits

Drew Brees- QB New Orleans Saints

The Bears have a top 10 pass defense in the NFL. Brees is not getting the ball downfield too often and it looks like he is going to be without Emmanuel Sanders and Michael Thomas again this week. Therefore, expect a lot of Murray and Kamara in this game, and not a lot of anything else in this potentially low scoring affair.

Daniel Jones- QB New York Giants

Jones continues to turn the ball over at an alarming rate. This week he gets the Buccaneers, who will stop the run, as they have done in each of the last 12 games. They have no chance to establish the run against the leagues best run defense, meaning more opportunities to turn the ball over.

Mark Ingram & J.K Dobbins- RBs Baltimore Ravens

J.K Dobbins is the leading fantasy points scorer on this roster. He is also the RB40 on the season. You cannot play anyone in this backfield until further notice.

Justin Jackson- RB Los Angeles Chargers

Justin Jackson had a 50/50 snap share with Joshua Kelley last week. However, he didn’t get any of the goal-line work. He now gets to face the Denver Broncos, who have given up the 3rd least fantasy points to Running Backs this season. Having to split that stingy points total with someone else, and not having the goal-line work, means he has virtually no upside this week.

Justin Jefferson- WR Minnesota Vikings

I would be expecting Adam Thielen to be lining up in the slot this week and Jefferson being the deep threat vs the Packers. However, if that transpires, Jefferson will draw the shadow coverage from Jaire Alexander, who has been arguably one of the two best corners in the NFL in 2020. If that’s the case, I expect Jefferson to really struggle in that match-up and would rather start either Tee or Rashard Higgins, Cole Beasley or others in that category of receiver.

Preston Williams- WR Miami Dolphins

The Rams have allowed the second fewest fantasy points to Wide Receivers this season. Not to mention, Williams will have Tua playing in his first NFL start. We just don’t know how he will acclimatise in this offense against a great pass rush. Therefore, I would sit Williams.

T.J Hockenson- TE Detroit Lions

Hockenson has scored in his last three games. However, he is taking on the Colts defense who have allowed 17 catches for 134 yards and zero Touchdowns, in six games. The highest scoring Tight End this season against the Colts is Austin Hooper who managed 33 yards. Sit Hockenson this week.

That will do it for Starts & Sits this week. Please do share this article, tell your friends and interact with us on the Sleeper channel or on @5yardrush on Twitter. However, until next week Rush Nation, when I’m back with more Starts & Sits, Keep Rushing.

– Murf (@Murf_NFL)