Week 8 DFS Picks: Tournament Plays

Every Sunday in the weekly fantasy chats, I get asked about my favorite plays of the week or who is in my player pool that weekend for DFS.

This article series covers exactly that.

Every week, I will go through the players I am targeting to play in DFS for all games, tournaments, and game stacks.

The idea is that this will paint a clearer picture of framing lineups.

Week 8 DFS Content:

It is not that tournament players cannot be used in cash games.

If a player here works out for your team structure in cash games surrounding your primary core, use them.

These are just the players that come with some element of inherent risk but are the primary players that I still want to be ahead of the field compared to the percentage of rosters they are projected to make this weekend.

I will analyze the player selections and game writeups, but for a detailed breakdown of the players and games, check out the Week 8 Worksheet.

Quarterback

Jalen Hurts ($7,500/$8,600)

It has not always been pretty, but Hurts has been a QB1 scorer in five of his six games this season.

Hurts is a high-floor QB1 with added upside if this game gets cooking.

The Eagles have not been challenged in the past two weeks against the Browns and Giants.

Over the past two games, the Eagles have had 41.9% and 35.4% dropback rates, which are by far their season's lowest rates.

The Eagles will always skew run heavy based on league rates because of Hurts, but to open the season, those rates were 51.4%, 51.5%, 67.2%, and 66.1%.

There was a stretch earlier this season where the Bengals looked like our carnival team, consistently playing in shootouts.

I am not ready to give up on that entirely because the Browns and Giants have dragged these teams down over the past two weeks.

The Bengals have also allowed the most rushing yards per game to opposing quarterbacks.

They have faced Lamar Jackson (55 yards) and Jayden Daniels (39 yards), but that also includes Daniel Jones (56 yards), Jacoby Brissett (32 yards), Patrick Mahomes (29 yards), and allowing 44 yards to Dorian Thompson-Robinson last week.

Joe Burrow ($7,000/$7,700)

Burrow has been held back the past two weeks because their opponents (the Giants and Browns) have not pressed the action like we were getting over that hot stretch when the Bengals played the Chiefs, Commanders, and Ravens.

The Bengals' dropback rate on Sunday was 52.8%, their lowest this season outside of facing the Panthers (51.2%).

That could change here against an opponent that can provide some pushback.

The late week injury to Tee Higgins does add some volatility to Burrow, who has been at his best since the wide receiver returned.

Philadelphia has looked better out of the bye, but they have faced the same two teams as the Bengals.

When we hit the Week 5 bye, the Eagles had allowed 347 yards on 47 pass attempts to Baker Mayfield.

The Eagles have allowed QB1 scoring weeks to Jordan Love (16.4 points), Kirk Cousins (17.5 points), and Mayfield (28.9 points) and have limited Daniel Jones (6.0 points), Deshaun Watson (8.4 points) and Derek Carr (8.0 points).

I would Burrow with that front group.

Bo Nix ($5,600/$6,900)

Nix has hit in his matchup-based spots so far.

This is the highest implied team total that the Broncos have had this season.

He has three QB1 scoring weeks, coming against the Buccaneers (19.3 points), Raiders (23.1 points), and Chargers (20.7 points).

Both of the Tampa Bay and Las Vegas games were identifiable good matchups coming in.

He gets another one this week.

The Panthers have been a mark for us all season.

They are dead last in pressure rate (23.7%) and 31st in sack rate (3.5%) so Nix should stay clean here.

Carolina has allowed the most passing points per attempt (0.583) in the league.

They have allowed four QB1 scoring weeks, which includes Marcus Mariota (19.6 points) in relief last week for Jayden Daniels.

Jameis Winston ($5,200/$6,500)

I am not expecting a sequel to what we got out of Joe Flacco last season, but we know Winston is not scared to wing the ball around while this offense has a low bar to clear in being better than what we saw from Deshaun Watson.

Baltimore has been a giving defense to this point, allowing 19.2 passing points per game, which is 31st in the league.

The Ravens have given up buckets of garbage-time points, a Winston specialty.

Baltimore has allowed the most passing yards in the fourth quarter this season (709), 123 more yards than the next closest team.

In the fourth quarter, they have allowed a league-high 9 passing touchdowns.

In quarters 1-3, they have allowed 5 passing touchdowns, tied for 8th.

Running Back