Waiver Favors™: 2023 Week 8 Fantasy Football Pickups
By Ha Kung Wong Week 8 Fantasy Football Pickups
Twitter: @FBGarbageTime
As I do every year over the last 11 years, I’m here to help with waiver wire adds via my weekly Waiver Favors™ article! And I’m assuming if you’re reader right now, you’re in your fantasy football playoffs, so congratulations!I’ll make a couple suggestions for after Week 8 of the 2023 fantasy football season that hopefully will keep your team running. You’re welcome. Again.
As usual, all pickups are available in at least 50% of Yahoo standard fantasy football leagues (with some minor exceptions) as of Sunday evening.
Will Levis
QB – Tennessee Titans – 4% Owned
There was talk that with Ryan Tannehill out with a ankle injury, Will Levis was going to split QB duties with Malik Willis. Turns out, none of that was true as Levis completed 19 of 29 passes for 238 yards, 4 TDs and zero interceptions in a win over the Titans. Not bad for a rookie starting for the first game of his career. And he brought DeAndre Hopkins along with him 128 yards and 3 TDs, his best game of the season by far. Tennessee called 36 rushes as compared to 31 pass plays, and even with that Levis blew the doors off. It would be surprising if Tannehill had another start after this, so go grab Levis in all 12-team leagues as a backup QB and definitely in all two-QB leagues.
Cam Akers
RB – Minnesota Vikings – 57% Owned
Cam Akers had his best game as a Viking in Week 8 carrying the ball nine times for 19 yards and a TD and catching his only target for 6 yards. Alex Mattison is still slightly out-touching him, but his TD was the most dynamic RB play the Vikings had on the day. Plus, with Kirk Cousins likely out for the season with a torn Achilles, the Vikings are likely to lean a little heavier on their RB duo to give rookie QB Jalen Hall some time to acclimate. Feel free to make a speculative stash in all 12-team leagues or deeper.
Taysom Hill
TE – New Orleans Saints – 35% Owned
Listen, I know we fall for this every year. But Taysom Hill is doing it again with 9 carries for 63 yards and two TDs to go along with catching his one target for 14 yards, and also going 1-for-2 passing for 44 yards. And that’s a week after getting 10 touches for 68 yards and a TD. With all the ways he gets involved and the fact that he qualifies at the TE position, he’s worth scooping up for TE-needy teams in 12-team leagues and deeper. Just don’t expect too much consistency.
| Game | Rush | Rush | Rush | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Tm | G | Att | Yds | TD | Tgt | Rec | Yds | TD |
| 2017 | NOR | 5 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 2018 | NOR | 16 | 37 | 196 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 |
| 2019 | NOR | 16 | 27 | 156 | 1 | 22 | 19 | 234 | 6 |
| 2020 | NOR | 16 | 87 | 457 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 98 | 1 |
| 2021 | NOR | 12 | 70 | 374 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 52 | 0 |
| 2022 | NOR | 16 | 96 | 575 | 7 | 13 | 9 | 77 | 2 |
| 2023 | NOR | 7 | 29 | 140 | 1 | 19 | 15 | 115 | 0 |
| Care | 88 | 346 | 1898 | 24 | 79 | 58 | 580 | 9 |
Trey McBride
TE – Arizona Cardinals – 20% Owned
With Zach Ertz on injured reserve with a quad injury, second-year TE Trey McBride stepped in and caught 10 of 14 targets for 95 yards and a TD. It’s not like this came out of nowhere as McBride had 11 targets in the last two games with Ertz on the field. It’s clear the Cardinals love targeting their TE, so he’s well worth your consideration going forward regardless of who is under center in all 12-team leagues and deeper.
UPDATE
Demario Douglas
WR – New England Patriots – 4% Owned
With Kendrick Bourne out for the season with a torn ACL, Damario Douglas should get a little more opportunity. He played 41 of 53 offensive snaps in the Week 8 leading th team in in snaps and targets, catching 5 of 7. Sure, it was only 25 yards, but the opportunity is there after getting 7 touches in Week 7. Feel free to pick him up in all 14-team leagues and deeper.
UPDATE for Monday Night Football
Check back for the update after Monday Night Football!
And here are players I previously recommended picking up that I still think are worth a pickup if available.
10-Team Leagues
RB – De’Von Achane (worth stashing in IR)
TE – Dalton Kincaid
12-Team Leagues
QB – C.J. Stroud
RB – Darrell Henderson, Chuba Hubbard
WR – Tyler Boyd, Tank Dell, Romeo Doubs, Josh Downs, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Joshua Palmer (keep an eye on potential injury), Rashee Rice, Adam Thielen
14-Team Leagues
RB – Jaleel McLaughlin, Jaylen Warren
WR – Quentin Johnston, Rashid Shaheed, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Michael Williams
TE – Logan Thomas, Michael Mayer
16-Team Leagues
WR – Jaylen Reed
Check back every week for more Waiver Favors!