We are nearing the midway point of the 2022 fantasy football season. With bye weeks upon us and injuries piling up, decisions are only getting increasingly difficult. Let’s take a look at our WR start/sit Week 8 plays, which include Brandin Cooks and DeVonta Smith. Be sure to also check out our full Week 8 wide receiver rankings.
Week 8 Fantasy Football WR Start ’ems
Brandin Cooks, Houston Texans (vs. TEN)
Death. Taxes. Wide receivers against the Titans. That’s where we’re at in 2022 fantasy football.
The Titans allow the second-most fantasy points to wide receivers — a whopping 43.6 PPR fantasy points per game.
Brandin Cooks’ average depth of target is a paltry 8.4 this season. But Nico Collins is out, and the Texans are bereft of playmakers beyond Cooks and Dameon Pierce. When they throw, which they should against the Titans, they need to take shots downfield to Cooks. Against the Titans, that is absolutely the move.
Surprisingly, Davis Mills has been pretty effective at downfield passing. He’s completing 50% of his passes 15 yards or more. Fittingly, the Titans love to surrender big passes. They allow a 65% completion rate on downfield throws. It’s, by far, the worst in the league, with no other team over 60%.
Cooks has been unstartable outside of two WR2 weeks. He’s proven not to be an every-week fantasy starter. At the same time, he can be trusted in the right spots. This is one of those spots. Start Cooks this week. And if you want a little extra juice, taking the higher on Cooks’ receiving yards on Underdog Fantasy is looking like a nice play.
DeVonta Smith, Philadelphia Eagles (vs. PIT)
DeVonta Smith is averaging a very respectable 14.1 ppg this season. Often times I will point to a player’s ppg average as misleading because it’s buoyed by a couple of big weeks, skewing the perception of how the player is performing. For Smith, it’s the opposite.
In actuality, Smith has been even better than the numbers suggest. Smith’s Week 1 goose egg was a total fluke that won’t happen again. Then, in Week 4, he scored just 4.7 fantasy points in a monsoon.
MORE: Week 8 PPR Fantasy Football Rankings
In Smith’s other four games, he’s averaged 20 ppg. Yeah, you got a completely unusable player for two games. But in the other four games, you got legitimate WR1 production. Smith is simply much better than the numbers, or his status as the Eagles’ WR2, suggests.
The Steelers aren’t much better than the Titans against wide receivers. They allow just 0.2 fewer ppg, the third-most in the NFL. Wide receivers are racking up 209.6 yards per game against them, which is the most in the league. It should come as no surprise that 73% of the passing yards allowed by the Steelers have gone to wide receivers.
Jalen Hurts should key in on A.J. Brown and Smith this week, as that is the recipe for dissecting this Steelers’ pass defense. I would not be surprised if both finished as WR1s.
Week 8 Fantasy Football WR Sit ’ems
Christian Kirk, Jacksonville Jaguars (vs. DEN)
The Jaguars’ top receiver got back on track last week after a trio of poor outings with 17.1 fantasy points. These first seven weeks have shown us that while Christian Kirk is a productive fantasy asset, he’s not necessarily a reliable every-week option. If possible, you have to pick your spots. Regrettably, this doesn’t look like one of them.
The Broncos allow the second-fewest fantasy points to wide receivers at just 24.4 ppg. While the Broncos haven’t necessarily faced a gauntlet of elite quarterbacks, there’s no way to spin them allowing just three passing touchdowns on the season as anything other than incredibly impressive. Their offense may be terrible, but this is an elite defense, especially against the pass.
To give you an idea of what the Broncos do to WR1s, here’s what they’ve done so far. Mike Williams caught two passes for 17 yards. Michael Pittman caught five passes for 59 yards. Brandin Cooks posted a 4-54 line, and D.K. Metcalf 7-36. The only WR1 to break through against them was Davante Adams, who caught nine balls for 101 yards. Christian Kirk is not Davante Adams.
No one is able to throw deep against the Broncos. They allow just a 27% completion percentage on downfield throws, which is the second-lowest rate in the league. The Jaguars will likely keep their passes underneath. Kirk may be able to rack up a couple of short receptions, but unless he finds the end zone, his ceiling may be something like what Metcalf did against this elite pass defense. Sit Kirk this week if you can.
Darnell Mooney, Chicago Bears (at DAL)
Things have been improving for Darnell Mooney over the past couple of weeks. That may inspire a renewed sense of confidence in fantasy managers. I do think Mooney is worthy of being on fantasy rosters. In the right matchups, he’s a startable WR3. This is not one of those matchups.
Mooney’s 29.5% target share is elite. The problem is two-fold. First, the Bears are a low-volume passing offense. They run the ball 49% of the time, which is the second-highest rate in the league. Second, the Cowboys’ defense is elite. It might be the best in the NFL.
While they’re decidedly average in terms of fantasy points per game allowed, ranking 15th against wide receivers, this is a different team with Dak Prescott back. With an improved offense, the Cowboys can really clamp down defensively when opponents are facing a negative game script.
It’s also worth noting the Cowboys have faced some really talented receivers this season. So ranking 15th is actually impressive when you realize they’ve gone up against Mike Evans, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, Cooper Kupp, and A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
Between the Bears’ aversion to throwing the ball, Justin Fields’ increased rushing, and the Cowboys’ staunch defense, Mooney is nothing more than a WR5 this week. Sit him.