Before we dive into the Week 8 picks, let’s keep the weekly accountability checks going:

With no byes in Week 8, this slate is packed with good plays. 

We don’t have any marquee games with totals over 50, but we do have a handful of teams projected to score 25+ (Cowboys, Dolphins, Eagles, Ravens, Chiefs) and a few games with sneaky shootout potential (Colts/Saints, Vikings/Packers). 

Because there are so many good plays available, it’s an especially great week to “scroll the eff down” and find the players who aren’t being drafted in every contest.

On smaller slates with less good plays, we might have to sacrifice a lot of projection to get unique, but on a slate like Week 8 we can get all of the uniqueness benefits without sacrificing much on the projection side. 

As always, the goal of this piece isn’t to select an entire team full of Hidden Gems–that’s a way to light your entry on fire–but rather give you ideas and levers to pull to ensure that your lineup is unique and has a chance to finish first in large-field contests.

Below, I’ve identified two intriguing QB/WR stacks, as well as a couple RBs and TEs I love for contests in Week 8. 

As always, special thanks to Chad Maschke’s Battle Royale data for giving us drafted percentage numbers.

QB: Gardner Minshew (ADP: 36), WR: Josh Downs (ADP: 35.7)

In case you haven’t noticed, the Colts are partaking in some wild games right now. They combined for 77 points last week vs. the Browns. The week before they combined for 57 points with the Jags. And now they are back at home facing off vs. a Saints defense that just gave up 31 points to the Jags:

Saints @ Colts Game Hub

Gardner Minshew, who is the QB13 on Underdog currently, is going undrafted in virtually every Battle Royale draft despite throwing for 300+ yards in both of his previous games. The Colts definitely want to be run-heavy, but they are playing so fast (fifth in average play-clock seconds, per Pat Thorman) that there is plenty of room for success through the air. 

Best of all, Minshew has legitimate weapons in the passing game who can speed up the game. Jonathan Taylor is a big play waiting to happen and Michael Pittman took a pass 75 yards to the house last week, but Josh Downs is my favorite way to stack up Minshew.

Over the last three weeks, Downs has been a consistent target earner, while also flashing a downfield skill set (his aDOT jumped to 15.83 in Week 7 and he accounted for 45% of the team’s air yards):

Josh Downs Game Logs

Despite finishing as the WR4 last week, Downs is going undrafted in most contests and has an arguably higher/floor ceiling combo than Pittman, who gets drafted ahead of him.

There are all kinds of fun ways to attack this game (Taylor, while not sneaky, is one of my favorite clicks and I also think this is a great bounce-back spot for Chris Olave on the other side), but the Minshew/Downs stack offers tournament-winning potential at its current price (re: free). 

QB: CJ Stroud (ADP: 34.4), WR: Tank Dell (ADP: 35.8)

I guess this week has a theme with QB/rookie WR stacks in the AFC South, because this Texans/Panthers game sets up equally as nice as the Colts/Saints spot.

The Texans were on bye in Week 7, which has kept them slightly under the radar this week in drafts, but their explosive offense coupled with Carolina’s leaky secondary, puts this game squarely in the cross-hairs for DFS purposes. 

Texans @ Panthers Game Hub

Stroud’s passing attempts came down in recent weeks, but this matchup couldn’t set up any better for Stroud and the pass-catchers:

I have nothing bad to say about Nico Collins–he’s a great play–but he’s getting drafted in every single contest while Tank Dell goes undrafted.

In the three full games Dell has played since Week 2 (he left Week 5 with a concussion and missed Week 6), he’s been in lockstep with Collins from a routes, targets, and targets per route run standpoint:

Nico Collins and Tank Dell Game Logs

When the usage projections are close–like we have it between Collins and Dell–it always behooves you to tilt your exposures in favor of the player who is getting selected far less frequently:

Nico Collins and Tank Dell projections

On DraftKings, this dynamic is painfully obvious. Both Collins and Dell are priced similarly ($4900 and $5500), have a similar points projection, and a similar field exposure projection (around 5%).

And yet on Underdog, Nico’s ADP gives him an expected draft percentage of near 100% while Dell’s is less than 5%.

These are the exact types of scenarios to exploit in draft contests.

Oct 22, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) breaks a tackle attempt by Arizona Cardinals cornerback Marco Wilson (20) during the second half at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

RB: Kenneth Walker (ADP 34.1), Dameon Pierce (ADP 35.8)

We won’t go long on RB this week since we spilled our ink on QB/WR stacks, but I did want to flag two RB plays I like a lot.

One week after going as a Top 5 overall pick, Kenneth Walker is now going as the RB13 on the week, even though the Seahawks are -3.5 point home favorites vs. a Browns defense that just gave up a ton of rushing production to Taylor and Zack Moss. Walker is the exact type of boom/bust runner that we want to attack when the field is discounting his ceiling.

I also wanted to mention Dameon Pierce because a lot of times we can be directionally accurate on spots to target (Texans offense vs. Panthers defense), but be overconfident in where those points come. In drafts where I don’t go the Stroud angle, and perhaps dial up a more chalky stack (i.e. A.J. Brown and Jalen Hurts), I love the idea of scrolling down for Pierce at the end of drafts. He could easily pop off for a big game in this spot and no one will have him. 

TE: Jake Ferguson (ADP 35.8), Trey McBride (ADP 35.9)

My popular refrain about unearthing hidden gems at the TE position is we are either 1) TD-hunting or 2) volume-hunting. I’ll give one of each this week…

TD Hunting: Along with the two other games I highlighted in the QB/WR section, I love this Cowboys/Rams game. Jake Ferguson’s targets cratered in Week 6 before the bye (only 1), but had been averaging 5.6 in the games previously. The Cowboys are implied to score almost 26 points in this spot and the market is queasy about CeeDee Lamb and Tony Pollard, both of whom are going later in drafts this week compared to previous slates. Ferguson is a sharp way to leverage that and potentially “steal” away a TD or two if things break right.

Volume Hunting:  I already gushed about Trey McBride in Wednesday’s newsletter, so go check that out if you are curious about my take. 

Good luck in Week 8, I’ll see you at the top.

You can put these strategies into practice in Battle Royale on Underdog Fantasy, where you can get a 100% deposit match of up to $500 when you sign up with promo code LIFE below!

Hidden Gems