5 Daily Fantasy Football Matchups to Exploit in Week 8
Buffalo Bills' Passing Offense
Okay, we're cheating a bit here. The caption above says that we'll be plugging the Buffalo Bills' passing offense, which would seem to indicate we'll be zeroing in on Tyrod Taylor and his pass catchers. But we're going to broaden the scope a bit and just say to target this offense as a whole against the Oakland Raiders. It sets up just as well for LeSean McCoy as it does for Taylor.
The reason we're so itchy to target the Raiders is that they're 30th in the league in overall defense, per numberFire's metrics. That includes a 31st-place ranking against the pass and 18th against the rush. When they're on the docket, you can feel free to target the opposing team's top asset, whether it be a rusher or a passer.
As a defense, the Raiders have allowed both Kirk Cousins and Alex Smith to go for 340 yards and 3 touchdowns against them. C.J. Anderson, Kareem Hunt, and Melvin Gordon all had at least 80 yards on the ground, as well. This gives us the flexibility to go with either Taylor or McCoy depending on what we need in our lineups.
The best part about this? We can just go with both on the same roster.
McCoy has 23.6% of the Bills' targets this year, the second-highest mark for a running back in the league. That would actually rank 11th among wide receivers on the main slate if Shady were at that position. Add in his 18.3 rush attempts per game, and there aren't many backs who can match McCoy's floor.
We got a glimpse at McCoy's ceiling last week, too, as he scored his first two touchdowns of the season. That said, we do still have to worry about Mike Tolbert, who has four rushes inside the five-yard line this year compared to three for McCoy. That's enough to lower our exposure to McCoy a tad. But with the Bills' implied team total at 23.75 points, we should still feel fairly safe with him for $8,400.
As for Taylor, he's benefiting from some improved health around him. Jordan Matthews returned from a one-game absence in Week 7, and left tackle Cordy Glenn sported his highest snap rate of the year Sunday. It shouldn't be a major surprise, then, that Taylor set new season highs with 268 passing yards and 20.0 points on FanDuel. And he -- like McCoy -- can beat the Raiders whether by air or by land.
Taylor this year has carried the ball at least six times in five of six games, totaling 38 rush attempts. In those attempts, he is still yet to find the end zone. He had one touchdown for every 26 attempts in 2015 and one every 16 attempts last year, meaning he's due for a bit of touchdown regression. What better time than now when they have their second-highest implied team total since Week 1?
With Taylor, you've got options. You can stack him with McCoy, as mentioned before. You can also use him by himself on the off chance his legs carry him to a huge day. Or you can give a sniff to Matthews or Nick O'Leary.
Matthews had just three targets in his first game back, but he played 80.9% of the snaps. He's definitely risky given the offense's lack of passing volume, but a lot of that risk is baked into his $5,700 salary.
As for O'Leary, he also played most of the snaps last week, sitting at 79.4%. He had six targets in Week 5, and the Raiders have struggled the past few years against tight ends. That's enough to put him on our radars at $4,900 even if McCoy is the much-preferred stacking partner with Taylor.
