Fantasy Football Pickups for Week 8
Yahoo Fantasy analysts Matt Harmon and Andy Behrens look to the waiver wire with a pair of widely-available adds ahead of Week 8
Video Transcript
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MATT HARMON: All right, Andy, week seven, one for the books. How could we ever get forget about the week that Bijan Robinson had a headache and Arthur Smith pulled a fast one on us? I think a lot of people probably want to move away, put week seven in the rearview mirror.
So let's talk week eight pickups. Who are some people that the folks out there can add to their fantasy teams to hopefully try to save their season?
ANDY BEHRENS: Matt, I've lost track of the number of times that Darrell Henderson has gained and lost and regained and re-lost the Rams' featured rushing role over the years. It's a lot, I know that.
I know that about 11 months ago, they waived him. And after he was waived, he briefly became a member of the Jaguars. And then he briefly became associated with the XFL. And then I don't know what he was doing until the Rams re-signed him just a week ago as a replacement for Kyren Williams.
And by god, they reinstalled him as their featured runner. I didn't see it coming necessarily, but it happened. He had 19 touches on Sunday, gained 66 total yards, found the end zone. He looked exactly like the Darrell Henderson that you remember, for better or worse.
Over the next three games, he's going to be the guy, presumably. And I think, obviously, anybody who's in line for 15-plus touches out of a backfield is a fantasy-relevant player. He's got a difficult matchup coming up with Dallas. But the week after that, it's Green Bay. That's a much friendlier spot.
So this is a guy we're going to be playing either as an RB2 or as a flex for the next month or so until the Rams perhaps waive him again.
MATT HARMON: Perhaps, yeah, right. Anything is on the table with Darrell Henderson, even-- look, he's a guy who hasn't played football in quite some time. And for that reason and for the fact that Royce Freeman, I think, sort of, kind of, sneaky looked pretty good against the Steelers, I would also endorse, if you have the bench space, you want to stash, I think Freeman is a guy who's in consideration there.
But I'll talk about a player who is young and exciting and hasn't lost and regained and lost and found his job again, just a guy who's found a really good hot streak lately. And that's Colts wide receiver Josh Downs.
Downs, who was getting pop gun targets from Gardner Minshew, sub-6 average depth of target coming into this past week for Josh Downs in games with Gardner Minshew, he actually had an ADOT north of 10, actually up at like 14 average depth of target against the Cleveland Browns.
Cleveland Browns, notably, might have the Defensive Player of the Year in Myles Garrett. They've been cooking on the defensive side of the football, while Josh Downs kind of cooked them, so did Michael Pittman. That Colts offense, I think, Andy, is a really good fantasy unit because Pittman is underrated. Downs is coming on.
Gardner is going to kind of, sort of do-- I saw Rich Rebar from Sharp Football Stats posit that he might be the new Jameis Winston, where he's just turnover-prone enough but also just aggressive enough to have some fun on the other side. So I think Downs, who is one of my favorite talents coming into the draft this year-- I just really love the way this guy plays.
I think he might have real standalone potential wide receiver 3 appeal. I love the way the guy plays. He's earning targets. He should continue to earn targets. And he's not one of these just pop gun slot receivers like we saw against the Cleveland Browns. He's more in the Tyler Lockett mold of receiver to me.
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, see, you took an actual good player. I didn't realize that was on the table. Downs has been impressive since like week one. The offense they sort of built for Anthony Richardson.
Downs was seeing targets right away. He's seen a ton of playing time since the opener as well. It's 70% of the snaps. Absolutely every week, he's clearly a key part of the offense. Love that call.
It's crazy that he's still out there in like two thirds of Yahoo leagues because I feel like we've been talking about him now for almost a month.
MATT HARMON: I mean, come on, exciting young rookie wide receivers and some veteran running backs that make you go, oh, when they're starting in your fantasy football roster. That's what it's all about. Good luck going into week eight.
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