What a glorious gift from the robo-schedule makers over at NFL headquarters - a full slate of NFL games with no bye weeks right in the heart of the season! And though you may think we are all settled in now that it’s Week Eight, the NFL is never short of twists, turns, and, soon enough, trades. Let’s take a look around the action from this week to sort out what’s just a hot take and what might actually be a real takeaway that could help us win our fantasy football leagues!

 

Week 8 Hot Takes

Kirk Cousins Suffers Achilles Injury

It’s been confirmed that Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles tendon on Sunday, officially ending his season. The 4-4 Vikings now face some decisions in terms of which direct to go. They could hold tight at the trade deadline with backup veteran options Nick Mullens/Sean Manion or rookie Jaren Hall. They could try to trade for a veteran quarterback like Ryan Tannehill, Joshua Dobbs, or Teddy Bridgewater. Or they could become sellers at the deadline and gear up for next year in which case their older veterans could be on the block, like Harrison Smith. Either way, this is a crushing blow for the Vikings as well as fantasy managers as Kirk Cousins is one of the more fantasy-friendly quarterbacks.

The Winner of the Rookie QB Showdown Is… Will Levis?

A lot was made of the rookie QB showdown this week between C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young. And it is certainly interesting to see them face off as this is only the 5th time a QB taken first has met with a QB taken second. But they were both overshadowed by the first start of Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis, who came out firing on all cylinders with four touchdown passes and a 130.5 QB rating. To this point, Ryan Tannehill had yet to connect with DeAndre Hopkins for a touchdown pass - he caught three from Levis yesterday. The young gunslinger has been compared to Jay Cutler as a raw talent with a monster arm who might need some help polishing up his mechanics. Say what you will about Jay Cutler but he could chuck the ball and he produced some great fantasy football weapons. We like what we saw from Will Levis in that regard.

Can’t Put Rashid Shaheed Back In The Bottle

In his rookie year, Tyreek Hill was not a full time player. In fact, through this point in the season, he hadn’t played more than 35% of the snaps in any game. For the entire season, he never played more than 68% of the offensive snaps. But it became clear pretty quickly that he was too electric to ignore as he was finding his way to the end zone any time he had the ball in his hands. Despite the limited usage, he scoured six receiving touchdowns, three rushing touchdowns, ran back two punts, and a kick. Hill had some down weeks but you simply could not afford to leave him out of your lineup. Shaheed is not a full time player either - in fact, he only played 18 of 66 snaps this week. But he’s simply too explosive at this point to leave out of your lineup. He’s not going back in the bottle.

Myles Garrett NFL MVP?

We know this is a quarterback-driven league. Which makes the MVP (and often the Offensive Player of the Year) quarterback awards. A quarterback has won it for a decade straight and the last defensive player to win was Lawrence Taylor in 1986. But, if any player in recent memory has an argument, it is Myles Garrett. No one has been more disruptive and his 8.5 sacks are tied for third in the league despite him already having his bye week. He even hopped over the line and blocked a field goal last week. Garrett is one pace for ~20.5 sacks and the record is 22.5. If he can kick things up a notch, hit that number, and keep winning games for the Browns despite their quarterback issues, there is an argument to be made that the former first overall pick is the league’s most valuable player on the league’s best defense. But they’ll probably just give it to a quarterback again.

You Should Trade George Kittle

This might sound counterintuitive coming off back-to-back great games. But let’s take a second to break down his season so far. He’s played eight games. Four of those games have been good, and four of them have been bad. One good one was against the Cowboys where he caught three touchdowns on three passes. The other three good games when the team was missing either Brandon Aiyuk or Deebo Samuel. In the other four games, he has scored six PPR points or fewer. Right now he sits as the TE4 in fantasy football but at some point, the band is going to be back together. Down the stretch in your fantasy league, you need consistency first and foremost so it might be wise to sell high on George Kittle for a more consistent option now if possible. I know there aren’t many out there but pairing Kittle with someone for a Travis Kelce or Mark Andrews might not be as hard as you think given Kittle’s current point total.