Week 8 has arrived and fantasy football managers need to start thinking about who they’re going to insert into their starting lineups. With that in mind, here are my top options to start — or avoid — for fantasy football going into this week at the WR position.
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Which WRs Should You Start in Fantasy This Week?
Chris Olave, WR, New Orleans Saints
It wasn’t a particularly effective day at the office for Chris Olave in Week 7 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but it’s encouraging to see that he’s commanded 25 targets over the past two games from Derek Carr.
MORE: Week 8 Start/Sit Options — TE | QB | RB
Olave now gets a much easier matchup in Week 8 against the Indianapolis Colts’ secondary that’s allowing 27.7 fantasy points on average to the WR position. With a mini bye week to help Carr’s shoulder recover, Olave should be in line for a big performance.
Christian Kirk, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars
It’s probably time to acknowledge that Christian Kirk is the clear WR1 for the Jacksonville Jaguars. While many fantasy managers wanted desperately for that title to belong to Calvin Ridley, Trevor Lawrence is locking onto Kirk early and often week after week.
Now, Kirk gets a matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers’ secondary that has been shredded by opposing receivers through the first seven weeks of the season. They’re allowing 35.5 fantasy points per contest, which is the second-most in the entire league.
If you’ve got Kirk on your roster, continue to plug him into your starting lineup with confidence. He’s a top-20 WR for me yet again.
Joshua Palmer, WR, Los Angeles Chargers
What more does Joshua Palmer have to do to gain our respect? He’s put up solid production in Mike Williams’ absence, and he should have had an even larger stat line in Week 6 if it weren’t for penalty flags bringing back some of them.
Palmer’s coming off of a five-reception, 133-yard performance against the vaunted Kansas City Chiefs defense. He now gets a cake matchup in Week 8 against the Chicago Bears’ secondary.
Palmer’s a borderline top-24 WR with plenty of upside.
Which WRs Should You Sit in Fantasy This Week?
DK Metcalf, WR, Seattle Seahawks
At the time of writing, we have no idea if DK Metcalf will make it back in time for this Week 8 matchup against the Cleveland Browns after missing Week 7 with rib and hip injuries.
Even if he does play, it’s probably best to play it safe with the veteran WR as he will have a difficult matchup on his hands.
The Browns are allowing just 19.2 fantasy points on average to opposing wide receivers this year, and Metcalf will almost certainly be playing at less than 100%. The practice reports will be crucial to monitor for Metcalf this week as we begin setting our starting lineups.
Marquise Brown, WR, Arizona Cardinals
Marquise Brown was on a solid stretch of production from Weeks 3-5, but since that point, he has come back to earth and failed to help lift fantasy lineups to victory.
Despite 18 targets over the past two games combined, Brown has just 83 receiving yards and no touchdowns. This has led to fantasy finishes outside of the top 40 each of those two weeks.
In Week 8, he gets a matchup against a Baltimore Ravens defense that just demolished the humming Detroit Lions offense in Week 7. Things could get ugly here, in spite of the revenge-game narrative for the former first-round selection.
Trending Searches for WR Start/Sit
Did you know that we have a Start/Sit Optimizer here at Pro Football Network?! It’s completely free to use and it allows you to enter in up to six players to find the best option to plug into your starting lineup!
MORE: PFN Consensus Rankings
It also allows us to see the most popular trending searches, which we’ve jotted some of them down here to help provide some clarity on.
Should You Start Marquise Brown or Joshua Palmer?
This is not currently what the rest of the industry thinks, but I’m going with Palmer here over Brown. While Brown’s been on a downward trend the past two weeks, Palmer’s delivering while seeing his opportunities increase.
Should You Start Christian Kirk or DeVonta Smith?
Unfortunately for DeVonta Smith’s fantasy managers, the answer to this one is Kirk. While Smith has the talent — and he plays in a dynamic enough offense — Smith’s simply not seeing the amount of volume needed to compete with Kirk.
A.J. Brown is on a roll and Jalen Hurts is looking his way early and often, while Kirk is that player for Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville. At this point, Kirk belongs in starting lineups over Smith.