Death. Taxes. The Kansas City Chiefs. These are the inevitable things in life in recent memory. Despite a slow start to the season, the Chiefs are back at the top of the NFL hierarchy. They’re winning games handily, Travis Kelce is breaking off big runs, Rashee Rice is off his suspension, and Patrick Mahomes is playing at an MVP level for the first time since 2022. Their running game is still very suspect, but who needs an explosive running game when you’re blowing out a division rival 31-0? 

Speaking of the top of the NFL hierarchy, we need to start talking about the Colts in that category. They looked great on Sunday, going to LA and beating a tough Chargers team. Jonathan Taylor is now -140 on Fanduel to win the Offensive Player of the Year award after his third three-touchdown game in five games. He and Daniel Jones are carrying the Colts to a 6-1 record, with no end in sight. On the other side of that game, we’re starting to witness a rookie breakout at tight end in Oronde Gadsden. He’s got seven catches in each of the past two games, and he found the end zone on Sunday. He was likely drafted in your dynasty league, but could be on the waiver wire after a slow start. 

Moving on to week eight of the fantasy football season, this is the brutal bye week that everyone has been dreading since the season schedule was announced. The Cardinals, Lions, Jaguars, Raiders, Rams, and Seahawks all have a week off. Planning around bye weeks can be so tough in dynasty leagues, where rosters are typically deeper and players are kept year-over-year. Especially in superflex leagues, it’s luck of the draw whether or not your quarterback bye weeks will stack up. Luckily, there are some teams on bye this week that are in the bottom half of fantasy-relevant teams, so it shouldn’t be too tough to replace the players in your starting lineups. 

With so many teams on bye, we have a more compact slate this week, kicking off tonight with the Vikings going to LA to take on the Chargers. Both of these teams are coming off of bad losses and could really use a win this week. The Vikings will hopefully get JJ McCarthy back on the field, but he’s only played one good quarter of football all season. He hasn’t played with Jordan Addison on the field yet, so maybe that will help him out in the passing game. Gadsden will be a popular waiver wire pickup and starting option in this game, but beware of that Minnesota defense. They’ve held tight ends to 60 or fewer yards in all but one game this season.

Bijan Robinson managers can rejoice, as they’ll get to go up against the hapless Dolphins defense, who just gave up three touchdowns to Quinshon Judkins. While Robinson is an obvious start, you may be able to start his backup in this game as well! Tyler Allgeier’s best games have come in games the Falcons won, and they’re 7.5 point favorites in this game. If you need a sneaky RB fill-in this week with all of the byes, Allgeier could be a good one to start. 

The marquee game of the week comes on Sunday night, when the Pittsburgh Steelers play host to the Green Bay Packers. Younger readers may not recall, but Rodgers played for the Packers for EIGHTEEN YEARS from 2005-2022. Rodgers is having a renaissance season with the Steelers, coming off a four-touchdown performance in a loss to the Bengals. This will be a fun one to watch, with Jordan Love attempting to prove the Packers made the right choice when they traded Rodgers to the Jets in 2023. Their fantasy numbers are nearly identical this season. 

With all of the bye weeks around the league, you need DLF more than ever to win your dynasty leagues! Check out the DLF Expert Rankings to see where your players stand according to our experts. You can also plug your league into the My DLF League Sync Tool where you can see your rosters, all of your league mates’ rosters, available players on the waiver wire, and scores for all of the rosters. If you have some holes in your starting lineup, open up the rankings, and you’ll easily be able to find the best available players for you to pick up. League sync also works for the Trade Analyzer Tool, to help you find a fair trade offer to send out to your league mates. You can’t win your dynasty league without winning in the regular season, so win the week with the advanced, analytical tools available at DLF!

Another Thursday Night Football game, another bonus square from Bleacher Nation Fantasy! New users at Bleacher Nation Fantasy can grab tonight’s free square —> Justin Herbert MORE than 0.5 passing yards.

The game is a simple one. Pick MORE or LESS on a player’s stat line and add a few other picks to turn that entry into much, much more.

Don’t miss out on any more of the action! Click the link below to get started. Oh yeah, don’t forget our 100% deposit match promo for new users too!

Here’s a name that I didn’t expect to type out this season: Xavier Legette. After a horrendous rookie season, he needed to step up his production this year or risk getting cut. He had his best game by far as a pro on Sunday, catching nine balls on 11 targets for 92 yards and a touchdown. It was his second touchdown in three weeks. A lot of those targets came with Andy Dalton at quarterback, and he is expected to take the reins for the Panthers over the next couple of weeks while Bryce Young is hurt. Let’s dive into the value of Legette, a player to potentially buy this week.

Legette got a slow start to his college career, too. He was a rare fifth-year college breakout player, but that fifth season was enough to earn him first-round draft capital when the Panthers took him at pick 32 in 2024. Even after the pick was made, the dynasty community was lukewarm on Legette. He was barely a top 100 pick after the Panthers selected him and topped out at pick 67.5 in November of last season. In August of this year, he was all the way down at pick 178, but he bounced back up in the month of October. He’s currently the WR70, going off the board at pick 159 overall. The DLF expert rankings agree with that take, ranking him at 167 overall and WR70. 

If Legette and Andy Dalton truly have the chemistry that they displayed in week seven, then Legette could be in line for a couple of good weeks in a row here. The Panthers will have to air it out over their next two matchups, vs. Buffalo and in Green Bay. I’d certainly consider putting in an offer for him, but don’t overpay based on one game’s results. Use the Trade Analyzer Tool to your advantage and find a good price for him.

WEEKLY MATCHUPS: FOUR ROOKIES TO START FOR WEEK EIGHT

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed a series of tweets I share on a weekly basis regarding player and team defensive performances, all from a fantasy lens. I’m going to be sharing some of that same information with you here. I use this each week as I am making my own lineup and waiver wire decisions, and I thought you might find this valuable as well.

In fact, the weekly matchup numbers may be the most relevant, actionable data we look at each week. Examining how teams have performed against certain positions and then targeting or avoiding those players each week has been a huge game-changer in my weekly lineup decisions. With that in mind, this year, I’ll focus most of my attention on that weekly matchup info, giving you a few must-start or must-sit players each week, based on the trends and numbers.

Through seven weeks, the 2025 rookie class has been very impressive. Several of this year’s crop have already become locked-in weekly fantasy starters, including Tyler Warren, Emeka Egbuka, and Quinshon Judkins, among others. In Week Eight, a few more rookies stand out as possible fantasy starters, thanks to their nice matchups, along with six teams on bye this week. If you’re noticing your roster is a bit thin, consider taking a chance on these rookies this week.

Cam Ward, QB TEN

I know, I know. This one is tough. Through seven weeks, Ward has finished no higher than QB22 in any week. There is a little bit of hope for improvement though. In Week Seven, Ward set a new career-high with 10.2 fantasy points, and he completed 73.5% of his passes, by far a new high mark. The coaching change in Tennessee might be paying off, but will obviously take some time to really flourish. This week, Ward and the Titans face off with the Colts, who have allowed four QB1 games so far this year, including last week’s QB3 game by Justin Herbert and backup Jacob Brissett’s QB7 performance the previous week. The Colts’ defense has also been pretty solid against the run, and they are currently a two-touchdown favorite, meaning Ward and the Titans will be passing the ball all game long.

Kyle Monangai, CHI

Last week, Bears rookie Monangai and his teammate D’Andre Swift took advantage of a juicy matchup and each finished as RB1s for the week. This week, we could see a repeat as the Bears face off with the Ravens, who are giving up 29.1 fantasy points per game to opposing backfields. Monangai’s usage has been steadily increasing, and last week, he played a new career-high 45% of the snaps, just seven plays less than the starter, Swift. The Ravens are coming off a bye and need to get things turned around before the season is lost, but Kyren Williams lit them up for an RB1 performance just before they got the week off, and they are still missing many key defenders. You could do worse than gambling on Monangai as your last starter this week.

Want to save significant cash and get access to everything you need to dominate dynasty leagues?

The Fantasy Football Bundle may be the best value in the industry, with access to DLF (everything dynasty), 4for4 (the most accurate weekly projections/rankings), and Bleacher Nation Fantasy (the fastest fantasy alerts), all for one low price of $79.99!

Normally, we discount the bundle from $168 to $99, but we’re taking 20% more off just for you…click that link 👇