Players on the Rise: Week 8

Wednesday, Oct 28, 2020 at 6:32 pm ET

Chase Edmonds

I wrote about Edmonds a few weeks back in Stock Report: Week 6 and I’ll keep harping on him until he’s owned in 100% of leagues. You can reference the article to see how much better he’s been that Kenyan Drake this year. The only new development is that Drake has an ankle injury now and Adam Shefter reported he is expected to “miss a few weeks.” Edmonds looked great when he took over for Drake in the second half of the game. He handled 5 carries which he turned into 58 yards, and added seven catches for 87 yards. This is a player in an elite offense that has been on the rise for a while and gets full time duty now. Get your hands on him if he’s available somehow. Fire him up in your lineup with confidence after his week 8 bye.

Brandon Aiyuk

Aiyuk is an immensely talented player, playing under one of the brightest offensive minds in the game. Coach Kyle Shanahan has continued to use his speed in creative ways. Outside of George Kittle, the only two players getting consistent targets for the 49ers are Deebo Samuel and Aiyuk. Samuel is now injured and expected to miss at least the next 2 weeks. This past week against the Patriots Aiyuk had already out-targeted Samuel seven to six. He totaled 115 receiving yards compared to Samuels 65. I would expect Aiyuk’s target’s to be closer to the 10-12 range with Samuel sidelined. He could also pick up some rushing opportunities that Samuel was getting. Either way, Shanahan should put Aiyuk in a great position to succeed, and it doesn’t hurt that he has the Seahawks and Packers the next two weeks in what should be high scoring affairs. He can be started in both matchups as a high upside WR2.

James Robinson

Robinson has been pretty consistent all year long, averaging 20+ PPR points on the season so it might be odd to say he’s on the rise. He is in the running for fantasy MVP this year and could also be a league winner. The reason he is on the rise is because it is very tough to find true Bell Cow Running Backs in the current NFL and Robinson is the definition of that. He is coming off a game in which he played an eye popping 90% of snaps, including 26 total touches. They ran him 22 times, with only Gardner Minshew having more than one rushing attempt for the Jaguars. The more exciting part is that he has continued to come on strong in the passing game. He got six targets in a game that the Jaguars were once again trying to come from behind in. Those six targets trailed only DJ Chark’s seven on the team. He now has 32 targets on the season, with 21 of those coming since week 4. He ranks top ten in rushing attempts and rushing yards. Amongst running backs he has the seventh most targets and fourth most receptions in the league. I chose to highlight him because he has provided a tremendous floor that is tough to find amongst running backs, and is continuing to become a bigger part of the passing game each week. Fire him up in your lineup every week, and if the Robinson owner is willing to part with him, I would absolutely go after him.

Sterling Shepard

Putting Shepard on this list is a reminder that he is a fantasy viable option. I get it, you don’t want much to do with this Giants offense. The nice thing about Shepard is that he provides an extremely reliable target floor. He has gotten six or more targets in 18 straight games that he’s finished going all the way back to November of 2018. He is on a team that will be playing from behind in basically every game he plays in and has zero run game. Last year he had a 16 game pace of 133 targets, so Daniel Jones definitely trusts him. He’s an injury risk, but he’s currently healthy and got into the End Zone in his first game back this past week. He’ll throw in the occasional big game, but overall he is as solid of a WR3 as they come. Depends on your philosophy, but I always prefer a WR3/Flex that has a nice target floor to the boom or bust option such as Mecole Hardman and Marvin Jones. There’s a good chance he’s still available in your league so if you are a WR needy team, go grab him.

Rashard Higgins

This one is all about the opportunity at hand. With OBJ out for the rest of the season, Higgins will be his fill in. You may not be starting him immediately or every week, but you should absolutely grab him and see how this plays out. After Beckham left the game Higgins was targeted six times, catching all of them for 110 yards. The Browns are certainly a team that would prefer to run the ball, but with the Raiders, Texans, Eagles, Jaguars and Titans all coming up on the schedule, this could become a higher volume passing attack. I would expect Higgins to get most of those down the field targets that OBJ got, while Jarvis Landry continues to handle the mid range targets. Grab him if he is still out there in the hopes he gets 6+ targets a game moving forward.

Bonus: Christian McCaffrey and Dallas Goedart

This is a reminder that you missed your chance to buy low on McCaffrey as he’s back practicing and Goedert should be a target hog with Ertz injured and the whole Philadelphia offense falling apart.