Sleepers - Daily Fantasy Football Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, DraftDay and Draftster for Week 8

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A peek ahead at week 8

Looking for the week 8 picks? Follow the link! I go position by position and give you whom I believe to be the best plays, dollar for dollar, for Week 8's games. This article is going to be a little bit different. Instead, I'm going to focus on particular lineup formation strategies that might help you get some separation from the field and get those value plays and sleepers that will let you spend money elsewhere while cashing in for cheap.

Sleepers

Weekly disclaimer:
The whole concept of a sleeper in one week fantasy football games needs to be adjusted. First of all, there's no real such thing as a "sleeper," in that you're not really going to sleep on a guy until he wakes up. What you're looking at with cheap plays are guys who are priced very reasonably who could go off if all things break right. Sniffing out the best cheap plays with upside is really the only way to have a chance in hell at taking down some of these utterly massive NFL tournaments. You'll pay up for the big names, and then hope your bargain plays pay off. That's where we come in - here are some sleepers that we love for Week 8.

A note on week 8

This doesn't seem like the week to punt away from WR. We give a few options below, but in general, prices are climbing on guys who actually get the ball thrown their way.

Jerick McKinnon - FD 5800 DK 4900 DD 8350 DFSTR 3700
I wrote about McKinnon in the week 8 picks and mentioned him in the week 8 podcast, so I'll try not to belabor the point here. It would just be irresponsible not to mention him in any article dealing with great value plays.

Darren McFadden - FD 6100 DK 4700 DD 8300 DFSTR 3600
I love McFadden as an off-color play for week 8 for several different reasons. First of all, McFadden is coming off a season high 18 touches against the Cardinals, and it certainly appears as though the Raiders are resigned to the fact that the MJD thing isn't happening. Next, and perhaps most importantly, the Raiders LOVE McFadden in the Red Zone. He is among the league leaders in the percentage of his team's touches that he's received in the red zone, boasting a % greater than 50. Oh, and that vaunted Browns defense? They've given up 155 yards per game on the ground this year, good for the league's worst. This has all the trappings of a potential monster game.

Tre Mason - FD 6000 DK 4400 DD 8350 DFSTR 3000
Mason emerged as the Rams' #1 RB in week 7, and he performed admirably against a terrific Seattle defense. Averaging more than 4 yards per carry against the defending Superbowl champions has a lot of eyebrows raised, and it looks pretty clear from here that he's the Rams' best set of legs. Schottenheimer can pay lip service to them using Stacy and Cunningham all he wants, but they have had plenty of opportunity to give those guys action, and they've turned their eye to Mason. The Chiefs have been worse than league average against the run this year, and I think Mason could pay off his prices easily.

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Denard Robinson - FD 6400 DK 4600 DD 8550 DFSTR 3000
Robinson played 46 of 74 snaps, and more importantly, was the first Jaguars running back to do anything other than suck unbelievably. He racked up 127 yards on 22 carries - and sure, it was against the league's worst running defense - but it's going to be good enough for Robinson to keep the job even with the gimpy Gerhardt returning. Miami enjoys a pretty stout defense, but Robinson's speed gives him big play upside that it's tough to find on bottom dollar prices.

Andre Holmes - FD 5900 DK 4100 DD 9500 DFSTR 5800
Holmes got bottled up by Patrick Peterson for the most part during week 7, and now everyone seems to have forgotten about the guy. Word on the street is that Joe Haden will be shadowing James Jones, so I nominate Holmes as my cheap WR most likely to have serious upper-end upside.

Alfred Morris - FD 6800 DK 4200 DD 7500 DFSTR 6000
I have very little that's nice to say about Alfred Morris after he sandbagged all of my DraftKings lineup last week, but Doug talked me into him on the week 8 podcast. How? The price. It's just damned tough to get a guy who is DEFINITELY the starting running back on a team that will have a greater incentive to run this week with Colt McCoy under center. And for all his faults, Morris does have 17 red zone carries this season. And Dallas is only about league average against the run. Huge downside, but I would be utterly unsurprised if Morris has some line like 18 carries for 63 yards rushing but 2 TDs.

Bishop Sankey - FD 5300 DK 3300 DD 7550 DFSTR 4000
With Clowney potentially returning and Mettenberger getting the start, it's hard to imagine the Titans not trying to keep the ball on the ground to start the game. Sankey has been pretty pedestrian so far this season and showed some real rawness in making big mistakes last week (particularly stepping out of bounds late), but the Titans are playing for the future and want to see what they have. Houston is the league's 20th best run defense. Am I pumped? No. But I could see this finally being the week.

Jordan Reed - FD 5200 DK 4000 DD 8750 DFSTR 5800
People are really heavy on Reed so far taking a look at Thursday lineups, so this isn't much of a sleeper - but the Cowboys have really struggled against the tight end position this year, and Reed has received 8.5 targets per game since returning from injury. My favorite cheap tight end play of the week.

Cecil Shorts - FD 6200 DK 4300 DD 7900 DFSTR 5700
Allen Robinson - FD 6000 DK 4400 DD 8450 DFSTR 4000
If you've fallen out of love with Cecil Shorts the Third, no one could blame you. Last week's performance was an absolute atrocity. But he's still seeing targets. While Robinson outscored him, Shorts did have one more target than A-Rob, and had an incredible 16 in week 6. Give me Robinson due to the red zone looks he gets, but one of these weeks these guys are going to see their price climb 15%.

Sleeper Stayaways

Anthony Dixon - FD 5900 DK 3300 DD 5800 DFSTR 3000
Boobie Dixon! So glad to see anyone who has endured the name Boobie make it this big. I've got to say, I'm pretty uninspired by the Boob-man. Sure, he might be the feature running back by default with the sudden and simultaneous deaths of Fred Jackson and CJ Spiller, but who cares? The Jets have been dominant against the run this year, and the Bills had trouble getting anything together against the Vikings last week. Sure, this could be a decent separation play, and Dixon rates to get the red zone work... but at the same prices as McKinn? C'mon.

Donte Moncrief - FD 5100 DK 3000 DD 4000 DFSTR 3000
Moncrief appears to be the heir-apparent to the injured Reggie Wayne, and while DFSR editor-in-chief Doug Norrie just tried to talk me into him on the phone, I'm not buying it. Sure, he out-snapped Hakeem Nicks last week, but who cares? He's had 1 or 2 targets in every game this season, and the game where he had 5 targets he really did very little with them. To me, Moncrief is a little raw to trust, even at very cheap prices. For a GPP? I can see playing him here and there, but I won't sniff him personally.

 
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