Fantasy Football Week 8 wide receiver rankings: What will the Packers do without Davante Adams?

Davante Adams was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list Monday and Allen Lazard was placed on the reserve list Tuesday, which comes at an especially bad time with the Packers set to face the Cardinals on Thursday night, given the league protocols around COVID-19 testing. Neither will be able to play this week, and it looks like Marquez Valdes-Scantling won’t be coming off IR for the Packers, leaving them very shorthanded for a game against one of the league’s best offenses. Not ideal.

Bad news for them, bad news for Fantasy players, especially since there just isn’t anyone in the Packers offense we can feel particularly confident will step up. If you’re desperate for a Week 8 starter, Randall Cobb should see an increased role and might have some appeal as a low-end starter in PPR leagues. Amari Rodgers and Equanimious St. Brown are likely to see expanded roles, but it’s hard to justify starting either of them unless you are truly desperate — it might make Robert Tonyan, Aaron Jones, and AJ Dillon better starts, if anything. 

Here are my top 48 wide receivers for Week 8. To see the rankings from Jamey Eisenberg, Dave Richard and Heath Cummings, make sure you head here. We’ll be updating this throughout the week with new notes and rankings as we get news and the rankings get tweaked, so make sure you bookmark the page.

Week 8 WR Rankings

1. Cooper Kupp @HOU
2. Tyreek Hill vs. NYG 
3. Stefon Diggs vs. MIA — Diggs hasn’t been quite as good as he was last season, but I’m still viewing him as more or less the same player. He’s still tied to an elite quarterback and he’s on pace for just nine fewer targets over 16 games than he earned last season. He’s still unquestionably one of the elite receivers i Fantasy. 
4. Justin Jefferson vs. DAL
5. Ja’Marr Chase @NYJ — If you’re wondering when Chase might finally get tripped up, this is a contender. Not that I’m worried the Jets will slow him down; I’m just worried the Bengals might only throw the ball 25 times. Of course, I’m still treating him as an elite WR, because as he has shown time and time again so far, he’s the kind of player who only needs on target to make you regret doubting him.  
6. Deebo Samuel @CHI — Samuel just keeps on rolling, and the only thing I’m worried may slow him down is the ascension of Trey Lance to the starting QB spot. That won’t be happening in Week 8, so I’m not worried about it. 
7. A.J. Brown @IND
8. Diontae Johnson @CLE — After having just two targets and two catches in Week 5, Johnson bounced back with nine catches on 13 targets the following week. He’s one of the best bets in the league for double-digits in any given game and belongs in the borderline-elite discussion in PPR. 
9. Terry McLaurin @DEN 
10. Mike Williams vs. NE — The Patriots are a tough matchup, but everything I’ve seen from Williams, Allen, and the Chargers offense makes me think I should trust them anyway. Williams is coming off a subpart outing against the Ravens in Week 6, one of two in his final three games leading into the bye, but he’s just been too good to doubt this season. 
11. Keenan Allen vs. NE
12. D.J. Moore @ATL — When I first plugged Ridley’s data into my spreadsheet where I begin my rankings process, he came out as WR2. Obviously, I needed to adjust that, given Moore (and the Panthers passing game as a whole’s) struggles over the last three weeks. However, Moore is seeing legitimate WR1 usage with 73 targets in seven games, and he’s taking on the Falcons, who just gave up four passing touchdowns to the Dolphins and have allowed 15 in six games to date. He’s still a No. 1 WR. 
13. Calvin Ridley vs. CAR — I don’t think Ridley’s struggles are related to the absence of Julio Jones — Ridley averaged 20.1 PPR points in eight games without Jones before this season. But they are hard to explain, as he hasn’t had a game with better than 6.4 yards per target yet. I don’t have a good explanation for it, which leads me to believe he’s going to figure things out. The good news is, he’s still averaging more than 10 targets per game, so I’m just going to keep riding him until the breakout comes. 
14. Chris Godwin @NO
15. CeeDee Lamb @MIN
16. Mike Evans @NO 
17. Amari Cooper @MIN
18. Courtland Sutton vs. WAS — We’ll see how Jerry Jeudy’s expected return impacts Sutton’s usage, but I’m not going to be too concerned about that when he gets to play against one of the best matchups in the game — arguably the worst defense against the pass right now, in fact. I’m starting Sutton pretty confidently this week and still viewing him as a WR2 moving forward based on what we’ve seen. The question is more about how Jeudy looks coming off his high-ankle sprain. 
19. Robert Woods @HOU
20. DeAndre Hopkins vs. GB — Are we seeing the start of a trend back to Hopkins being treated as a legitimate No. 1 WR for the Cardinals? He has nine targets in two of his last three games after averaging 6.3 per game in the first four. The thing about Hopkins’ usage so far is, there’s no reason they can’t go back to throwing 25%-plus of their targets his way if they want to, even if there’s no reason to think they will at this point. Hopkins has spent basically his entire career well north of that 25% mark, so this season has been a pretty gigantic outlier to date. Maybe he 
21. Michael Pittman vs. TEN — Pittman had four catches for 105 yards in Sunday’s game, and he was even better than that, drawing two pass interference penalties that could have been touchdowns and led to goal-to-go situations for the Colts. I’m still curious to see what his target share looks like when T.Y. Hilton is healthy, but facing a great matchup this week, Pittman belongs in your lineup. 
22. Jaylen Waddle @BUF
23. Brandin Cooks vs. LAR — I don’t feel good about this one at all. I wouldn’t feel good about ranking Cooks much higher or lower either, though. He’s still seeing a massive share of the Texans targets, which makes me wary of going against him in any game. However, this is a tough matchup, one that makes it hard to expect him to turn things around at this point. 
24. Chase Claypool @CLE — 
25. Tee Higgins @NYJ — I don’t understand why Higgins has been so inefficient this season, averaging 6.0 yards per target after putting up 8.4 as a rookie in a worse situation. If you believe Higgins is better than this, he’s a viable buy low option, because he’s still seeing a healthy target volume, with 43 in five games. Chase has dominated headlines and the spotlight, but there’s still room for Higgins to thrive here.  
26. DeVonta Smith @DET — It still feels like there’s a lot of room for Smith to improve here. He’s seeing the kind of targets we want most weeks, including nine in two of his last three. But outside of Week 1 and 4 we’re still waiting for him to take a step forward. If you’ve been frustrated with Smith, I understand, but I take that as reason for optimism, considering how many rookie wide receivers tend to play better in the second half. There could be a breakout coming. 
27. Marvin Jones @SEA
28. Adam Thielen vs. DAL
29. Emmanuel Sanders vs. MIA
30. D.K. Metcalf vs. JAX — I can’t bring myself to sit Metcalf, but I can’t give him a full-throated endorsement at this point with Geno Smith as his starting quarterback. He had 17.6 PPR points in Week 7, but that very easily could have been a one-catch, 12-yard showing if the defensive back made a better play on his long touchdown. Metcalf is the kind of player who can make himself worth starting with one target, but he doesn’t have much of a floor these days. 
31. Randall Cobb @ARI — With Adams and Lazard out, Cobb seems likely to see his largest role of the season this week. It’s been a while since you could start Cobb confidently, but he’s still been pretty efficient with the targets he has earned this season, so if he does get, say, five catches or more Thursday, he should be pretty useful. 
32. Jakobi Meyers @LAC
33. Cole Beasley vs. MIA
34. Jerry Jeudy vs. WAS
35. Julio Jones @IND — This one is a total guess. I’m betting on Jones getting closer to full health and seeing a larger role, but that’s admittedly just a guess. I still think he’s a very good player when healthy, so hopefully he can start to show that off a little more moving forward. For what it’s worth, Jones is still averaging 11.1 yards per target despite his lingering hamstring issues this season.
36. Darius Slayton @KC — We’ll see if Kenny Golladay, Sterling Shepard, Kadarius Toney, and Saquon Barkley play this week, as all four are making progress in their recoveries. If none of them play, Slayton is probably a starting caliber Fantasy option, but if more than one returns, it’ll be tough to trust him even in a good matchup. 
37. Laviska Shenault @SEA — Shenault’s role has fluctuated since DJ Chark’s injury — seven targets in the game he missed, then three, then 10 in Week 6. He hasn’t had a great game for Fantasy yet, regardless of his workload, but he’s too talented to remain this quiet, right? I thought so coming into the season. I’m less sure every week. 
38. Jarvis Landry vs. PIT
39. DeVante Parker @BUF
40. Jamison Crowder vs. CIN
41. Corey Davis vs. CIN
42. Darnell Mooney vs. LAR
43. Robby Anderson @ATL — I’m really struggling with Anderson. I’m a big believer in staying steady when it comes to how I view a player’s talent level, and I think he’s a lot better than he has shown so far this season. If he keeps getting as many targets as he is — 38 in his past four games! — I figure he has to play better. And against this matchup, how could he not have a good game? Well, he had 14 yards on nine targets in Week 7 against the Giants, so how could you even trust him. 
44. Mecole Hardman vs. NYG
45. Amon-Ra St. Brown vs. PHI
46. Russell Gage vs. CAR
47. Tyler Lockett vs. JAX
48. A.J. Green vs. GB — At this point, I don’t really know what to do with the non-Hopkins Cardinals WR. I think multiple will be good most weeks, but there just isn’t any real hierarchy here — they just spread the ball around, and the beneficiary seems to be someone different each week. Green, Christian Kirk, and Rondale Moore are all viable starting options each week, even if I don’t have much confidence in which one might be best. 

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