Week 8 Fantasy Football Stars Who Will Struggle: Kyler Murray, Nick Chubb, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Trey McBride

Last week’s attempt to identify fantasy stars who would struggle was inconsistent. The Bills’ new top combination proved they could produce immediately, but the other performances were mostly mundane:

• I chose Josh Allen for the second straight week because there weren’t many good options, and he made me look foolish for the second time. I didn’t expect him to really struggle, just to have an average day. Instead, he threw for 323 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
• Jordan Mason was bottled up much of the day by the Chiefs, running for just 58 yards and catching two passes for 11 yards in a middling performance.
• Amari Cooper and Davante Adams made their debuts in new places with mixed results: while Cooper turned four receptions into 66 yards and a touchdown, Adams had just 30 yards on three catches.
• Tucker Kraft’s three receptions and 33 yards were “meh,” but he got into the end zone, saving his fantasy day.

Let’s do it again and pick one fantasy star at each offensive fantasy position who will struggle in Week 8. I used NFL’s defensive stats and our FantasySP defensive fantasy rankings to help determine the toughest matchups. I will reference those numbers often.

Quarterback

Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals @ Miami Dolphins

Washington’s Jayden Daniels was going to be the choice here, but it looks like he will miss Week 8 after suffering a rib injury last week. Part of looking at guys who might not have good games is those who are dealing with injury, but it doesn’t count when a guy has officially been ruled out (or close to it) before the time of writing.

Instead, we’ll focus on Murray, a player who is similar to Daniels in that they are dynamic athletes who can break a 50-yard run at any moment. Murray hasn’t been very good throwing the ball: he’s been below 150 yards twice in seven games, below 200 yards four times, and below 215 yards six times.

Given his running ability and the presence of James Conner, who has looked very good, Arizona doesn’t have to rely on passing the ball. That affects Murray’s fantasy production, even if he is currently QB7.

The matchup isn’t in Murray’s favor in this one. The Dolphins have allowed the least fantasy points per game to quarterbacks and the seventh-fewest yards per pass attempt. Part of the low fantasy scores is that they haven’t given up rushing yards to quarterbacks.

Anthony Richardson ran for 56 yards against Miami last week. Even with that performance, though, the Dolphins have still allowed the sixth-least rushing yards per game to QBs. Miami held Trevor Lawrence and Buffalo’s Allen to 10 combined rushing yards, for instance, and have had more positives than negatives in that area.

With a tougher matchup, Murray is in danger of finishing outside the top 10 quarterbacks this week. He might not be able to find as much running room as he does other weeks, and that lowers his floor and ceiling in Week 8.

Running Back

Nick Chubb, Cleveland Browns vs. Baltimore Ravens

This is about both the expectations around Chubb and Baltimore’s fantastic run defense. Let’s start with the latter: the Ravens have allowed the least yards per rush attempt, though they are closer to the middle in fantasy points per game allowed to running backs.

Chubb himself is the more intriguing part of the equation. He returned last week from more than a year off due to a nasty knee injury and led the backfield with 11 carries while no one else had more than three. He also caught a pass for 10 yards.

Chubb was inefficient, gaining just 22 yards on the ground, but part of that was because they pounded the ball with him near the goal line to get Chubb into the end zone; they surely wanted to get the good vibes as much as score points.

His place atop the running back hierarchy is the most important thing for Chubb’s fantasy value. It was reasonable to think he would carry a more limited load in his first games back, but Chubb was the clear RB1 and will probably keep that role unless injury issues flare up. If we assume he’s going to be on the field, it’s about what we can expect from the Cleveland offense.

Cleveland lost their quarterback and top receiver in the span of a week, part of a lot of shuffling among the Browns’ fantasy players. The offense might actually be better with Jameis Winston than Deshaun Watson, offering more chances at scoring and increasing Chubb’s value.

There’s also the chance that Chubb doesn’t have the speed, burst, etc. that he did before the injury. It takes time to ramp back up, so the inefficiency might become a regular thing in 2024.

Chubb is a high-ceiling, low-floor player. He’s worth a spot on your roster just in case, but Week 8 with a bad matchup isn’t the time to test him out.

Wide Receiver

Amon-Ra St. Brown, Detroit Lions vs. Tennessee Titans

No one is benching St. Brown. Like the pick with Buffalo’s Allen last week, though, this is about how a star could be more limited than we expect because of a bad matchup. Let’s hit the matchup fast because that’s the easy part.

Tennessee has allowed the third-least yards per pass attempt and sixth-least fantasy points per game to wide receivers. The Titans made one of the biggest pickups of the offseason when they traded for cornerback L'Jarius Sneed, one of the driving forces behind Kansas City’s best-in-the-league pass defense from last year.

Buffalo’s top receivers excelled last week; the Bills are also really good. The Titans have gotten lucky with some matchups, as they have already faced two backups (Malik Willis and Tyler Huntley). Tennessee isn’t a good team, but they have a good defense; they rank 11th in defensive DVOA.

The Lions have been thrown into flux a bit by a likely two-game suspension for Jameson Williams due to PEDs. That could mean St. Brown just turns into Superman and dominates the targets, but Detroit also has a stacked offense and can rely on multiple players to pick up the slack.

I recently looked at the best options to replace some of Williams’ work, but I didn’t really mention St. Brown. It was more of a guess at the group effort between Detroit’s backs, complementary receivers, and tight end Sam LaPorta all pitching in to keep this machine running.

Defenses will also get to put extra attention toward St. Brown without Williams on the field, giving him less room to operate. Given the tough matchup and a changing situation, St. Brown might not excel in Week 8.

Tight End

Trey McBride, Arizona Cardinals @ Miami Dolphins

It’s been a long four games for the Dolphins since Tua Tagovailoa went down with a concussion in Week 2. The offense just hasn’t worked without the starting quarterback; that’s something we could say about most teams.

Miami’s pass defense put in a tremendous effort while the QB was out, though they have just a 1-3 record to show for it (2-4 overall). The Dolphins have allowed the least passing yards and seventh-least yards per attempt through seven weeks (they did have their bye).

Specific to our cause, Miami has given up the third-least fantasy points per game to tight ends. I provided this list in my tight end start/sit for this week, and I’m going to steal it again:

• Evan Engram Week 1: one catch, five yards
• Dalton Kincaid Week 2: four catches, 33 yards
• Chigoziem Okonkwo Week 4: one catch, five yards
• Hunter Henry Week 5: two catches, 32 yards
• Indianapolis tight ends Week 7: combined one catch, five yards

Week 3 was the one blemish, when Seattle’s Noah Fant had six receptions for 60 yards, but the Dolphins have otherwise dominated tight ends.

McBride was drafted as a top-five fantasy tight end, and he’s been fine but not to that level. Over his first two seasons, McBride averaged a touchdown every 27.5 receptions. That’s not a very good rate, and it’s likely he will have stretches where he scores much more often.

He hasn’t scored on 33 catches this year. Touchdowns are often random, but McBride has regularly been unlucky when it comes to the end zone. He’s averaging 5.5 catches and 54 yards per game, good numbers, and he’s worthy of a spot in your lineup almost every week.

This is a tough week for the young TE, though, and it’s worth seeing if you have another option, especially since no teams are on bye this week.