Week 8 Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet: Justin Fields Forever

A Reddit rando broke the Ja'Marr Chase injury news, Justin Fields turns a corner and more fantasy insights in the Week 8 cheat sheet.

Author:
Matt De Lima
Publish date:
Oct 28, 2022

Like many of you, I was rocked by the news that Cincinnati Bengals star receiver Ja'Marr Chase would be out for the next month or more due to a hip injury. You may already be worrying about whether or not he'll be available or playing like his old self for the fantasy postseason. It's a bit early for this kind of speculation, but unless you're blessed with a plethora of top receivers, you've got to stick with Chase at that critical time of the season as soon as he returns to the starting lineup.

However, would you believe that a million people, including myself, had some early heads-up about Chase's injury? And if you were a member of a certain online group, you could have known ahead of most of the world? Well, if you are a diehard subscriber to r/fantasyfootball on Reddit, you might have caught wind of a since-deleted, typo-filled rumor posted by a user drmrpaul5, which went as follows:

Okay, here I go with my tinfoil hat.

My friend has a friend who works at an orthopedic hospital in Cincinnati and said that Ja’Marr Chase was in there today. He’s out for the reason of the season with an injury. I’m exactly sure what the injury is at this point, I’m waiting to hear back from my friend. Obviously nothing has been reported yet, but the team is expected to break the news later today.

Do what you want with this information, and god speed Ja’Marr.

The post, which went online at 12:40 p.m. ET o Thursday, was up nearly four hours before the first tweet confirming the news by Malik Wright at 4:20 p.m. ET and later confirmed by many national outlets like Adam Schefter at 4:36 p.m. ET.

You won't often find news broken on r/fantasyfootball. But it is an unparalleled aggregate of fantasy news with involved, opinionated fantasy managers. There are, in fact, 1,242,364 members of the subreddit, making it one of the largest sports subreddits on the site. It receives over 200 posts and 10,000 comments per day, making it one of the most active subreddits on the site.

For those not in the know, you may be asking, What is Reddit, exactly? Well, Reddit is a site made up of tens of thousands of communities, called subreddits. Each subreddit is an interest--everything under the sun, really. Some of the most popular subreddits are r/gaming, dedicated to video games, or r/music, which is of course all about music. There's r/politics, r/news, r/books, r/art, r/space, r/sports, r/history and even a little subreddit for football card collectors, r/footballcards, which is moderated by me u/ffwriter, as I go by on Reddit.. There's a subreddit for just about everything. And r/fantasyfootball is well worth your time if you're looking for like-minded, big-brained fantasy fans.

Oct 9, 2022; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields (1) throws a pass against the Minnesota Vikings during the first quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium. — Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

1. Justin Fields Put to the Test

I've been really impressed by Justin Fields in recent weeks. I think most of us paying attention to him have been. I say that because I wouldn't blame you if you stopped paying attention. The Bears aren't particularly good. Their fantasy options have been limited to whichever running back is the starter, whether it's David Montgomery or Khalil Herbert. Fields's improvement is more pronounced in his fantasy point totals and not reflected in the Bears' 3-4 record. It's not exactly reflected in Fields's stats either. He has all of three touchdown passes in his last five games, after starting the season with two in Week 1 against the 49ers. It has more to do with the play-calling. Which I found to be making better use of Fields's skill set, his ability to move outside the pocket, or move the pocket to one side of the field or the other. There's been more run-pass options (RPOs), and what appears to be a concerted effort to use Fields as a runner.

In his last two games, Fields has 26 runs, just shy of 40% of his carry total in just 29% of his games. With those runs, he's rushed for 170 yards and a score, and again, that's about 50% of his rushing total thus far.

Now, are the Bears world beaters at this point? Far from it. Will they even win this next game against Dallas? SI Sportsbook certainly doesn't seem to think so, as the Cowboys are 9.5-point favorites.

Fields is still getting sacked too much (9 in last two games, 27 total) and that's on pace to be the fourth-most sacks allowed. He has only passed for more than 200 yards once (Week 5, 208 yards). But we don't need him to be Lamar Jackson, who's play-style would make the most sense for Fields because he has the arm strength to challenge defenders deep or just run past the defense with minimal effort.

We need him to become Justin Fields, the 11th overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft. To play with a chip on his shoulder because he went from an early first overall pick prospect to the fourth quarterback drafted in his class. And this matchup against the Cowboys defense--which has 29 sacks this season, most in the NFL, and the best pass-rush as graded by PFF--will be a useful yardstick in measuring Fields's ongoing development.

2. Tyler Boyd SZN

I really liked Tyler Boyd coming out of Pitt, back in the 2016 NFL draft class. He was a second-round pick, 55th overall. He finished as Pitt's all-time leader in receptions (254) and receiving yards (3,361)—ahead of the Hall of Fame-bound Larry Fitzgerald. He was second in career all-purpose yards (5,243), behind only the legendary Cowboys back Tony Dorsett. So this was a guy putting up crazy numbers. For those of us old enough to remember, Fitzgerald was unbelievable at Pitt—and Boyd outpaced him. But it wasn't much of a start to his NFL career, as he began his rookie season behind a still-in-his-prime A.J. Green and good-enough-to-hold-a-job Brandon LaFell. That offense was anchored, of course, by the Red Rifle, Andy Dalton. Boyd wouldn't really begin to take off until 2018 as LaFell was released ahead of the season. Green finished the season on injured reserve and missed all of the 2019 season. In those two years, 2018-19, Boyd posted 76-1,028-7 and 90-1,046-5 totals. In 2020, Tee Higgins arrived and Green was healthy and while Boyd led the team with 110 targets, he "only" provided 79-841-4. Good, but not great numbers. And we certainly know what happened in 2021: With the fifth overall pick, the Bengals drafted Ja'Marr Chase. Since then, Boyd has played third fiddle to Chase and Higgins.

That said, for a team's No. 3 receiver, Boyd's numbers are outstanding. He has 29 receptions on 38 targets for 455 yards and three scores. He's averaging career-bests with 12.0 yards per target and 15.7 yards per touch. His three TDs are also on pace for a career high through seven games. How many No. 3 receivers are ranked in the top 15 at the position?

All this to say, if you can figure out a way to trade for Boyd, it's worth it. His value has certainly climbed already after the Chase injury announcement. But we're talking about a WR1 caliber receiver for the next month, so it's worth a price check. Boyd already made perfect sense as a handcuff if you drafted Chase or Higgins. I'd happily trade away Ezekiel Elliott or Christian Kirk for Boyd. Higgins certainly has more value, but it's less realistic you'll be able to get him at a small discount, as may be the case with Boyd.

SI Sportsbook Perfect 10: FREE TO PLAY. Pick 10 Games. Win $10,000

3. My Week 8 Friggin' Bums

Every week, I'll highlight eight players (two at each position) that I like who are rostered in less than 50% of Yahoo leagues. You can think of them as desperation plays or salary punts in DFS contests.