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Fantasy Football Week 8 Bold Predictions: Le'Veon Bell gets his revenge game vs. Jets

Every week, our Yahoo fantasy football crew will reveal their boldest predictions for the action ahead. It’s time to get bold for Week 8!

Le'Veon Bell’s gets revenge game vs. Jets

Scott Pianowski: I don’t know if this is more fun prediction or bold prediction, but let’s have fun —Le’Veon Bell is scoring this week. Multiple times. Bell made the biggest leap you can possibly make, jumping from perhaps the worst team in the league to possibly the best. Escaping Adam Gase is one of the clearest paths to NFL relevance; admit it, Bell’s snappy runs last week caught your eye. Andy Reid is a player’s coach, and heck, the Chiefs need a plan at the goal line, anyway. Narrative Street will pay off in Week 8.

[Week 8 Fantasy Rankings: QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | FLEX | DST | Kickers]

Henry Ruggs makes most of limited opportunity

Matt Harmon: Henry Ruggs goes for over 100 yards in Week 8. The Raiders rookie is an absurdly thin play. His target totals on the year go five, three, three and three. That’s not the kind of volume that you want. Nevertheless, he is seeing enough playing time to justify a dart throw. Ruggs is running 24.3 routes per game, tied with Nelson Agholor for second on the team behind Darren Waller. While he doesn’t get a ton of targets, he does monopolize the deep looks with a crazy 20 air yards per target mark. Cleveland struggles to defend the pass all over the field but can be stung deep. They allow the second-most touchdowns and sixth-most catches of passes with at least 15 air yards.

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Richard Rodgers will feast against Cowboys

Liz Loza: Richard Rodgers posts a second consecutive top-10 fantasy performance. A bit of a chicken-and-egg situation, it’s clear that Philly wants to keep the tight end position heavily involved and that Carson Wentz thoroughly enjoys throwing to his TE. In Week 6, when Zach Ertz hurt his ankle, Rodgers snap percentage jumped by nearly 30 percent. The following week when Ertz was officially out, Rodgers recorded his highest snap percentage of the season (85%) while also drawing eight looks (second behind Travis Fulgham’s 11). The former Packer led the Eagles receiving corps in yards with 85 on six receptions. With Ertz and Dallas Goedert, both expected to miss Sunday’s game, Rodgers figures to be in line for another healthy workload. He’ll face a disaster of a Cowboys defense that let Logan Thomas into the end zone last week.

Brandon Aiyuk will be WR1 in Week 8

Dalton Del Don: Brandon Aiyuk ranked fifth in WOPR last week and should be even busier Sunday with Deebo Samuel (and the team’s top-four running backs) injured and in a likely high-scoring matchup against a Seattle offense that leads the NFL in yards per play by a wide margin. The Seahawks also sport a funnel defense that’s tough against the run but ranks 30th against the pass in DVOA and has allowed the most fantasy points to wide receivers this season. Aiyuk has impressed during his rookie campaign, and Sunday he should get a big opportunity, so he’s a top-12 WR on my board in Week 8.

Falcons continue to be fantasy gift that keeps giving

Andy Behrens: That’s right, good people: I’ve been asked to contribute to this feature AGAIN, despite my consistent record of catastrophically poor bold predictions in 2020. At this point, I have to assume I’m only here to make Dalton Del Don look good. Anyway, here goes...

Teddy Bridgewater is about to produce his first 3-TD passing performance of the season. Atlanta’s defense has been an absolute gift to opposing passers. Four quarterbacks have done it against them already and they haven’t yet held a team below 300 passing yards. Start Teddy with complete confidence. (Or with whatever confidence you can manage, considering the source of this particular prediction.)

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