Early Pickups for Next Week's Byes, Desperation Week 8 Adds and More

I’ll be here once per week answering questions from you, the readers. If you have a specific Guillotine-related question you want answered in this column, shoot me a tweet @jakenagy98 on the former Twitter.

Who are some good bye week fill-ins for Week 8?

Did you wake up Tuesday morning, go to set your lineup, and realize you only drafted Cardinals, Lions, Jaguars, Raiders, Rams, and Seahawks? If so, I commend you for making it this far with so many Raiders on your roster. Not to worry, though; there are plenty of widely available spot starters out there. I’ve listed some of my favorites at each position below along with their opponents’ matchup based upon our DvP tool. Thankfully, only 11 teams remain, so your waiver options are better than they were at the start of the season. Still, six byes are the most we’ll see in a single week all season.

Quarterback

• Normal Option: Aaron Rodgers. The Packers are 16th against opposing fantasy QBs and this is a revenge spot.
• Down Bad Option: Joe Flacco. The Jets are 15th against opposing fantasy QBs and this is a much less advertised revenge spot. He also throws to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.

Running Back

• Normal Option: Tyler Allgeier. This is my favorite call of the week, which means it’ll backfire horribly. The Dolphins are somehow only fifth in DvP to running backs. Everyone goes off against them.
• Down Bad Option: RJ Harvey. Dallas is the most favorable matchup for fantasy RBs and they allow the second-most receiving yards to opposing backs. Harvey only played 25% of Denver’s snaps in a trailing script last week, but paced the backfield in route and target share.

Wide Receiver

• Normal Option: Troy Franklin. Hello again, Cowboys. Dallas is the second-most favorable matchup for fantasy wideouts, and Franklin has established himself as the clear WR2 in Denver.
• Down Bad Option: Elic Ayomanor. My, how the mighty have fallen. Start a Titan at your own risk, but they might be down 40-0 after the first quarter and the Colts are the most favorable matchup for wideouts.

Tight End

I covered this in last week’s Mailbag, but I’d add Oronde Gadsden to that list.

Who should I be targeting as my bye week fill-ins next week?

I’ll preface this by saying that Goal No. 1 should be to survive this week. You should only be concerned about next week if you know you have a good shot to survive this week. Otherwise, focus on shoring up your holes and monitoring injury reports through Sunday morning.

The Browns, Jets, Eagles, and Buccaneers are on bye next week. Thankfully, the Browns and Jets really only have one or two Guillotine relevant players at this point in the season. Managers of Eagles and Bucs players have had to weather erratic offensive play and injuries, respectively, so they’re used to the grind. Regardless of your needs, here are some cheap players I like ahead of Week 9, again based upon our DvP tool. Bonus Tip: Keep an eye on your waiver wire for guys that are on bye this week. They sometimes slip through the cracks and end up not getting picked up.

• Pittsburgh is the fourth-friendliest fantasy QB matchup, so Daniel Jones is 100% viable. If you need a more sicko option: Jacoby Brissett. Ian said it best: The best offenses in the NFL are the Cowboys and whoever is playing the Cowboys.
• Let’s pick on the Cowboys even more. This would be as good a week as any to plug Cardinals RBs Michael Carter or Bam Knight into your lineup, assuming Emari Demercado doesn’t come back to make this an ugly three-way split. Kimani Vidal should get the majority of the work in a leading script against the fifth-friendliest RB matchup in Tennessee. Your sicko option is Kyle Monangai. A two-headed monster in emerging in the Midway, and the Bengals are the softest matchup for fantasy backs.
• The Steelers are a bottom five defense against opposing fantasy wideouts, so I’d welcome a stab at Colts wideouts Alec Pierce and Josh Downs (health permitting in Downs’ case). The Niners visit a Giants defense that’s even worse than Pittsburgh’s. The health of the San Francisco receiver room has been in question all season, but if Kendrick Bourne is forced into action again, there could be worse sicko options.
• Colston Loveland may get his first shot at a full time role this week. If he flashes and/or if Cole Kmet remains out with his back injury, a soft matchup with a Bengals defense allowing the most fantasy points to opposing tight ends awaits.

How can I apply the Utilization Report to my Guillotine League?

If you want the full utilization breakdown, check out Dwain’s musings over at the full Utilization Report. In my opinion, it’s the best mid-week breakdown in fantasy football. We’re focused on how to apply Dwain’s points to our Guillotine Leagues.

Travis Hunter was the headliner this week. He’s on bye this week, so the market will likely cool off by this time next week, but I’m here to tell you to not go too crazy over his 8-101-1 line. Hunter is an incredibly dangerous player in the Guillotine format. Until we see consistent usage on offense, I’m always going to be nervous about starting a player that might line up at cornerback for half of the game. He absolutely should be on rosters, but should not be sniffing your starting lineup until he strings together a couple consistent offensive performances out of the bye. Dwain’s most likely range of outcomes have him somewhere in the WR2 to WR3 range for the rest of the season. By the time you’ll feel comfortable starting him, you’ll have a need for more output than from a WR2 or WR3.

Can I drop Treveyon Henderson?

Honestly… yeah. You never want to give up on a player at their rock bottom value, but we’ve also been saying this about Henderson for weeks now, and he keeps cratering. In fact, this may be the first “sabotage drop” opportunity of the season. For the uninitiated, a sabotage drop is when you drop an underperforming player in hopes of getting your opponents to waste their FAAB on him. Generally, you want to get ahead of the poor performances, but it just does not seem like it’s going to happen for Henderson this year. This may be the last time your league mates will spend money on him.