josh-allen-us.jpg
USATSI

We got a Thursday Night Football game last night that was genuinely good for pretty much all of the Fantasy-relevant players involved -- James Cook and his 8.3 PPR points being the notable exception. But we got 33.1 points from Josh Allen, 16 from Stefon Diggs, 23.3 from Gabe Davis, 17.5 from Dalton Kincaid, 17.9 from Rachaad White, 16.4 points from Chris Godwin, and 12.9 from Mike Evans, who salvaged what would have otherwise been a pretty awful day with a late touchdown.

Basically, if you were deciding between someone last night and someone Sunday or Monday, you probably didn't make the wrong decision defaulting to the TNF crew. And if you did make the wrong decision ... well, that'll end up being because your other options just went off, and you can live with that. But it was nice to see our Fantasy players do well even in a game where the Under ultimately just barely hit. 

In the rest of today's newsletter, I shared updates on all the injuries you need to know about heading into the weekend, plus my thoughts on Sunday's main DFS slate. And we'll be back Sunday morning with everything else you need before you lock in your lineups for Week 8, so be sure to sign up below if you haven't yet:

TNF recap: Bills 24, Buccaneers 18

This ended up being a close game, but watching it, it felt like the Bills were playing offense on Easy mode, while the Buccaneers had toggled "All-Madden" on. The best example of that was the Buccaneers' scoring drive to cut it to six points late in the fourth quarter. It was a 17-play drive that saw the Bucs pick up multiple fourth downs on penalties and ultimately chewed up seven valuable minutes of clock time. The Buccaneers got into the end zone, but it never felt like a sure thing that they'd get there, while the Bills seemed to move the ball at ease.

Part of that was a game plan that saw Josh Allen getting the ball out quickly – at one point, the broadcast showed a graphic saying it was the quickest time to throw of Allen's career – and that surprisingly benefited … Gabe Davis? Davis' nine catches were a career-high, while his 9.7 yards per catch was his second-lowest for any game with more than four catches. Davis is generally a downfield-only target, and I don't think this changed that, though it would be an interesting wrinkle to account for if they did use him more this way moving forward. 

Allen briefly left this game to be looked at in the blue medical tent, but he was able to return without missing a snap. I wonder if the plan to get the ball out of his hands quicker was a result of his lingering shoulder issue? 

TNF Winner: Rachaad White

I think there's a real risk of White losing his grip on the lead rushing role for the Buccaneers, because he just hasn't been very effective at that aspect of the game dating back to his rookie season. However, I think it would be pretty unwise for them to phase him out of the game plan entirely, because he really is a very good playmaker in the passing game, and they're doing a good job of getting him more involved in that way. He has 13 catches over the past two games, and it's been the one way the Bucs have been able to simulate having a running game. I don't think that's going away.

TNF Loser: James Cook

I was skeptical about Cook for most of the offseason, mostly because I just didn't trust the Bills to use him in a way that would make him a viable weekly starter for Fantasy. And it's starting to look like that might have been right. Cook is clearly the most dynamic back the Bills have had since drafting Josh Allen, but they keep replacing him near the goal line, with Latavius Murray playing five of six snaps inside the 10-yard line Thursday. And the passing game role hasn't been consistent enough to make up for that; Cook had just one target in this one, his third time with either one or zero targets in his past five games. Cook has the skill set to be a must-start Fantasy option, but the role just isn't there for him to be more than a frustrating, low-end RB2 right now, unfortunately.

Remember to subscribe to the Fantasy Football Today newsletter above to get my full Friday morning breakdown of the Fantasy landscape, including injuries, DFS plays and more. You can also check out a full breakdown of Week 8 from the FFT team in these features: