Greetings, Gamers! We have an excellent opportunity on Yahoo for Week 8, as they are running a $200,000 contest with a $15 entry fee and 15,200 entries. This flagship tournament generally does not fill more than 90-95% in the seventh week, which provides extra value for gamers. Let’s get into some NFL Yahoo Fantasy Football DFS Picks for Week 8 including Carson Wentz, Russell Wilson and George Kittle.
Don’t forget to check out this week’s NFL DFS On the Contrary show with Alex “Awesemo” Baker, Dave “Loughy” Loughran and new Awesemo contributor Steve Buzzard aka daColts on the Awesemo YouTube Channel
Yahoo Fantasy Football General Strategy
As with most sites, there are many viable strategies that can be successful in large-field tournaments and of course, we do need the same amount of favor from Lady Luck as we do elsewhere.
The key thing to remember is that this is a half-PPR site, meaning receptions are worth 0.5 points and the minimum salary is $10 with an average salary per player of $22. This week, Alvin Kamara and Russell Wilson are at the top of the pricing list at $40. The full scoring parameters can be found here.
Please note: Yahoo now offers CSV upload as well as editing capabilities. The latter was something that was not available until recently. Be sure to become familiar with the steps involved in this process so you are savvy with how it all works when faced with a time crunch.
Awesemo NFL Rankings
One of the most useful features of the Awesemo.com premium content is the personal player rankings from Alex Baker, aka Awesemo, for all of the main sports. The players grade out separately for each DFS site with ratings for both “projected points” and “value” receiving an A through E report card-style grade.
As a sneak preview, for this article I will be sharing the grades Full Rankings (Premium Content)
[PUMPKIN]
Quarterback
If you have played football on Yahoo, or if you played Yahoo fantasy baseball, you know that the strategy is to look for the cheapest quarterback or pitcher that is tolerable so you can look for more secure points and upside elsewhere. In the recommendations below, I will be highlighting several discount options at the other positions so you can build a framework that will allow lineup construction for a top-shelf quarterback along with his favorite target and still have enough salary cap to run it back with the top option on the opposing team.
Carson Wentz – Philadelphia Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys – $31 Awesemo Grade: Points C, Value C
The Eagles are 9.0 home favorites against the Cowboys who are starting a seventh round rookie quarterback. Miles Sanders and Alshon Jeffery are out. Jalen Reagor, DeSean Jackson, Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert are all on the injured reserve. Update: please note that Jalen Reagor (thumb) and Dallas Goedert (ankle) were activated off the IR Saturday afternoon. I had surmised they would take advantage of this straight forward matchup and next week’s bye to get them back to 100%. Their return helps Wentz, hurts Rodgers and is neutral for Fulghum as detailed below.
While he has been mediocre with the 20th best passing yards per game at 251.4 and his 10 touchdowns coming in as 18th, the ground game has kept him fantasy relevant. Wentz has a rushing touchdown in five of his last six games with 37+ rushing yards in three of those outings.
This game has a 43.0 projected point total which is the third lowest of the week. As I mention in every column, the Sunday Night Football game tends to be underrepresented on Yahoo. The other sites leave it off their main slate contests and by default there is not much analysis included in the main slate content.
Russell Wilson – Seattle Seahawks vs. San Francisco 49ers – $40 Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value C
The latest reports on Saturday morning when this article was posted have the trio of Chris Carson (foot), Carlos Hyde (hamstring), and Travis Homer (knee) as game time decisions. That leaves rookie DeeJay Dallas as the lone healthy option, though Homer is expected to be active.
This all foists even more of the offensive load onto Russell Wilson who has been sublime this season. The nine-year veteran leades the league with 315.0 yards per game, 22 aerial scores and a 119.5 rating. His 17 sacks and six interceptions have him with an 80.9 QBR behind only Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Ryan Tannehill.
Joe Burrow – Cincinnati Bengals vs. Tennessee Titans – $27 Awesemo Grade: Points C, Value B
If you don’t trust Wentz and find Wilson a little spendy, then look to rookie Joe Burrow. This is a very favorable price point for a quarterback who has topped 300+ passing yards in four of his seven starts. He also has three rushing touchdowns and 34+ rushing yards in two games. With Joe Mixon out, Cincinnati will be counting on the passing game once again with Burrow’s flirting with 40 attempts. Over their last three games the Bengals are running 70.3 plays per game for second most in the league. Despite being known as a run first team, Tennessee has allowed their opponents to run 70.0 plays over the last three games which is the third most in the league. The only concerns here are that wind could come into play. A.J. Green – $17 is an interesting option having tallied 24 targets in the last two weeks.
Editor’s Note
Awesemo’s Player Prop Stat Projections are predicting 266.0 passing yards for Joe Burrow which is well under what his Vegas totals suggest. If you are looking to hedge against the windy conditions or your fantasy lineups this is one way to accomplish that mission. There is some variation in the lines across sportsbooks, so use OddsShopper to take advantage of this possible money-making player prop. Click on the image for more OddsShopper options.
*Betting odds as of Saturday, Oct. 31 at 12:02 p.m. EST
Running Back
We want to keep in mind that while running backs are very important, Yahoo fantasy uses half-PPR, which will not penalize running backs that are not as active in the passing game.
Boston Scott – Philadelphia Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys – $18 Awesemo Grade: Points B, Value A
While he has not been exciting as the Miles Sanders replacement, this is an excellent matchup for Scott. He is a capable receiver and runner and will not have much competition from backup Corey Clement. We can really use the savings for other positions and currently Awesemo is projecting Scott to be on just 25% of the tournament rosters.
Jamal Williams – Green Bay Packers vs. Minnesota Vikings – $20 Awesemo Grade: Points B, Value A
Once again Aaron Jones will be sidelined and we saw last weekend what Williams is capable of with 114 combined yards and a touchdown in Houston. This is a premium matchup against a Vikings rushing defense that has been in the bottom-third of the league all season. A baseline of 12-15 carries and 4-5 targets is reasonable for Williams in this matchup.
Dalvin Cook – Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers – $37 Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value D
After suffering a groin injury against the Seahawks during Week 5’s Sunday Night Football matchup, Cook is slated to return at full health. There is no price discount here, however, Green Bay is allowing the most fantasy points in the league to opposing running backs. The average line is 20.8 attempts for 94.7 yards with 1.2 touchdowns per game. The position is also seeing 8.0 targets for 7.2 receptions and another 64.0 yards through the air.
Giovani Bernard – Cincinnati Bengals vs. Tennessee Titans – $17 Awesemo Grade: Points B, Value A
With Joe Mixon ruled out again, Bernard will be the RB1 for Cincinnati. He saw 13 carries which was a two year high for 37 yards. The five targets for 5/59 and a late touchdown are where his true value resides. The seventh-year veteran is going to be popular in tournaments and is projected to be on 40-45% of all entries.
Tevin Coleman – San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks – $15 Awesemo Grade: Points D, Value B
The plan is for San Francisco to activate Tevin Coleman (knee) from the injured reserve. They have been pushing him in practice to see how his knee responds, so if he is a go for the ‘Niners, we can take a chance on him in the afternoon games. Just be sure to have a backup plan. If he is out then rookie JaMycal Hasty – $18 will see a heavy workload against Seattle. Jerick McKinnon – $16 is still lurking, but he received “in-game rest” playing just a dozen snaps last week with three carries despite being the starter. This feels like a very Belichickian backfield, so just to reiterate, this is for tournaments or the late slate only.
Wide Receiver
More often than not, we should be able to find several nice options in the middle tier. The top-shelf Yahoo fantasy options are typically priced in the mid-$30 range. Often, they are best paired with their quarterbacks for tournament upside rather than risking downside as solo plays.
In addition to the players highlighted above with their quarterbacks, we can look to:
Rashard Higgins – Cleveland Browns vs. Las Vegas Raiders – $14 Awesemo Grade: Points C, Value B
Higgins has been involved over the last three weeks after missing nearly a month with a foot injury. Odell Beckham Jr (knee) is out for the season which should give a boost to Higgins. On a fun note, though he has had just 11 targets in the last three games – he did catch touchdowns in both outings prior to Beckham going down with a torn ACL. Jarvis Landry – $17 is also an option, just remember that Yahoo utilizes a half-PPR scoring format.
Keenan Allen – Los Angeles Chargers at Denver Broncos – $22 Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value B
It should be in the mid-60s for game time in Denver which is a major departure from last weekends snow and sub-freezing weather. Allen has double digit targets in four of his last five games. In the other outing he caught both targets including one for a touchdown before leaving with back spasms. In reality he should be a $27-28 receiver so enjoy the 20% discount while it lasts!
Travis Fulgham – Philadelphia Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys – $24 Awesemo Grade: Points B, Value D
At this price point we really do need him to find the end zone to make it worthwhile. On a positive note he has three straight games with double-digit targets and has scored in two of those matchups. Update: Jalen Reagor was activated off of the injured reserve after missing just over a month with a thumb injury, I am still good with Fulgham in tournaments as this gives a very bad defense someone else to worry about. At $15 Reagor makes for an interesting tournament option as he should be fully conditioned since it was a thumb injury. The rookie had four targets in Week 1 and 2.
Bonus Discount Dandies
Injuries to Allen Robinson (concussion), Jamison Crowder (groin), Michael Thomas (hamstring) and Julian Edleman (knee) have their teammates moving into relevance at $10-11 each. Jakobi Meyers, Deonte Harris, Darnell Mooney, Anthony Miller and Braxton Berrios are all deep discount options in tournaments.
Tight Ends
This week we have some high, medium and low priced options.
George Kittle – San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks – $26 Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value B
While Seattle has not allowed a touchdown to the tight end position, they have allowed yardage to some sketchy ones. Irv Smith (64), Dan Arnold (57) and Dalton Schultz (48) to name a few and we know Kittle is twice as good as those guys. We need to consider Kittle for what he is which is the defacto ‘Niners WR1. The Seahawks have allowed eight different receivers to top 100+ yards and two others have had multi-touchdown games. Giddyup!
Darren Waller – Las Vegas Raiders at Cleveland Browns – $21 Awesemo Grade: Points A, Value B
In four of his last five games, Waller has notched 88+ yards and/or a touchdown. He continues to get volume and should be heavily involved in the Raiders plans this weekend. He is the third best tight end on the Awesemo Big Board this weekend.
Richard Rodgers – Philadelphia Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys – $11 Awesemo Grade: Points B, Value B
Yes, another Eagle is being recommended in this article and we still have one position to go! Most gamers do not seem to realized that Rodgers is in his third season with Philadelphia. This gives him plenty of familiarity with both is quarterback and the offense. Dallas Goedert and Zach Ertz are both out for at least the next two games so he projects to see half a dozen targets with most of the receiving corps dinged up as well. Update: Dallas Goedert was activated Saturday afternoon. I was under the impression that Goedert was going to get one more week off with the Eagles having a Week 9 bye and their cake matchup. This along with Jalen Reagor returning dampens the prospects of Rodgers. If you have the otherwise perfect lineup and do not want to roll with Rodgers, the touchdown or bust pivot would be Greg Olsen – $10. Though I think it is a tossup between the two tight ends.
Defense/Special Teams
This week there is really are just two defenses to focus on as the best points per dollar option.
Philadelphia Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys – $15 Awesemo Grade: Points B, Value C
On the season the Eagles are fourth in the league with 24 sacks which works out to 3.4 per game. The Cowboys have allowed 20 sacks which is the fifth most in the league. Dallas leads the league with 16 turnovers which is likely to continue with a rookie quarterback making his first start.
Los Angeles Rams at Miami Dolphins – $15 Awesemo Grade: Points C, Value D
The Rams have at least four sacks in four of their last five games. The will be facing the #1 overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft, Tua Tagovailoa. Dare I say the Dolphins are better than the Cowboys? Well at least from an infrastructure perspective and the Rams are on the road. Los Angeles is tied with Philadelphia at 24 sacks, but I still have to give the slight nod to the Eagles as the home team against the less accomplished rookie signal-caller.
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