Bold Predictions For Week 8 Fantasy Football: Antonio Williams Breakout On Tap

It’s time to get bold.

Every Thursday here at Fantasy Life, I provide a few bold predictions for fantasy football for the week ahead. Week 8 features a rookie wideout trending up, as well as two quarterbacks with vastly different expectations.

Fantasy Football Bold Predictions For Week 8

Antonio Williams Finishes As A Top-24 WR

Every season, it feels like the post-bye week rookie bump is a thing.

One day I’d really like to sit down and conduct a study to find the legitimacy in it all. But it does seem like rookies start to see more usage, playing time, and success coming out of the bye week. That was already a possibility with Antonio Williams, but given the current circumstances in Washington, it’s not an idea.

It’s necessary.

The Commanders will be without Terry McLaurin for the rest of the season, paving the way for Williams to play a massive role throughout the second half of the season. Earlier this week, Dan Quinn was asked about the Washington wide receiver room in McLaurin’s absence, and he said Stefon Diggs’ role won’t change, but he did mention that the change will come with usage elsewhere, specifically mentioning Williams’ name. Williams immediately saw more opportunities once McLaurin exited Week 6’s game towards the end of the first quarter. During the final three quarters, Williams ran 31 routes on 39 Washington dropbacks (79%), catching three passes for 40 yards. We have already seen a full game for Williams with McLaurin sidelined (Week 4), and the rookie was busy, seeing eight targets and running 73% of the routes.

This week’s matchup is pretty favorable for Williams. Philadelphia’s pass defense has taken a step back this season, especially on the inside. The Eagles are coughing up 27.8 total PPR PPG to the slot this year, the fourth-most in the NFL, which is where Williams is operating around half of the time. Overall, the Eagles are allowing the second-most fantasy points per game to opposing wide receivers, and Williams’ versatile skill set allows him to make plays all over the field.

Sam Darnold Finishes As A QB1

Outside of a Week 3 game against the aforementioned Commanders, Darnold has been pretty poor this season. Turnovers continue to plague him, as Darnold has thrown eight interceptions over the last five games. But despite his struggles, Darnold does set up as a very solid streaming option for those missing Brock Purdy, Tyler Shough, or C.J. Stroud in Week 8.

Seattle hosts the Chicago Bears in primetime this week, a very vulnerable pass defense that happens to be dealing with some injuries to the secondary right now. The Bears have been a bit of a pass funnel this season, as 72% of the yardage allowed by this defense has come through the air, the sixth-highest rate in the NFL. Chicago is allowing 19.8 fantasy points per game to opposing signal callers, the 10th-most in the league. They’ve now allowed the QB2, QB5, and QB8 over their past three games. We’ll see if Seattle gets a boost to the run game with the potential return of Zach Charbonnet and Jadarian Price, though admittedly I’d like Darnold a lot more if the Seahawks’ run game remained underwhelming. Even with Seattle’s elite defense at home, this game could have sneaky shootout potential, forcing Darnold to throw 30-plus times.

Patrick Mahomes Finishes Outside The Top-20 QBs Again

Mahomes has now scored less than 20 fantasy points over his last two games combined, posting fantasy finishes of QB23 and QB25 during that span. He hasn't scored a touchdown since Week 4 and draws a second consecutive tough matchup, this time traveling to Mile High to take on the Broncos.

These teams met back in Week 1 when Mahomes scored 23 fantasy points, but he didn’t exactly play well. He completed just 15-of-27 passes for 184 yards, while one of his two touchdown “passes” was a goal-line assist to Kenneth Walker. We’ll see if he gets Rashee Rice back in the lineup this week, but even if he does, I still have my concerns. This Kansas City receiver room lacks pass-catchers that can consistently separate against man coverage, making this a tough matchup against a Broncos defense that deploys man coverage as much as anyone in football. Because of those issues, Mahomes currently ranks outside the top-25 quarterbacks in EPA/DB and success rate against man coverage. We tend to see quarterbacks make plays with their legs when teams play so much man coverage because defenders have their backs turned, but Mahomes’ scramble rate is down three percent from last year, so that isn’t even a guarantee.

If starting Mahomes this week, I’d definitely temper expectations. And if players like Darnold, Kyler Murray, Jacoby Brissett, or Geno Smith are available off waivers, I’d add them and start them over Mahomes.