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Week 8 is finally upon us! With week 8 comes the glorious weather elements. Before getting into this weekend’s slate I want to stress: CHECK THE WEATHER. The slate already has lower game totals than most weeks and now the weather is coming into play. This will be an interesting week. Do not worry, there is light at the end of the tunnel with the matchups we are gifted this week so lets get to it!
LOCK OF THE WEEK: (Derrick Henry) 
You will not typically see me hit the lock button while generating lineups. However, if I am pushing all my chips in on one player this week, we are all in on Henry! Cincinnati defensive line ranks 25th in adjusted line yards. Tennessee O-line ranks 7th. Cincinnati is 28th in the league for rushing yards allowed. Henry is averaging over 110 rushing yards /game. Tennessee ranks 3rd in offensive efficiency while Bengals rank 26th. The weather is showing to be very windy which should give Henry even more rushing attempts. King Henry averages 23.8 rushing attempts/ game at 4.6 yards/carry. In the early weeks of the season Henry was seeing almost 30 touches a game and I believe you will see much of the same thing this week. I believe Henry has one of his best games of the season this week and that why I am smashing the lock button.
Game stack of the week: (Minnesota vs Green Bay) 
This will be a great NFC North matchup with currently the third highest projected game total. I would suggest running 4 man game stacks (QB/RB/WR+WR or QB/WR/WR+WR). It looks like Aaron Jones is out again making Jamal Williams another great pivot. Adams has a matchup against Cameron Dantzler who has a CB rating under 60 and is the worse CB for allowing yards/route at 3.33. Adams continues to stay at the top of the WR list for targets/game 11.5. I also have a ton of interest in Valdes-Scantling. Look I know he drops 17% of his targets, but he leads the team in air yards just over 100/game and leads the team aDot at 18.37. Green Bay is 2nd in % of targets 20+ yards down field and Minnesota’s defense is 28th in explosiveness allowed. MVS is due to have a breakout game and what better opportunity than to do it on the division rivals. On the Minnesota side of things, it appears Dalvin Cook should be good to go coming off that groin injury. He averages 19 touches/game and Vikings are 5th in rushing plays. GB d-line is 22nd in adjusted line yards. This is a clear indicator that they like to establish the run before airing it out. Last time these two teams played Minnesota had 134 rushing yards, but do not forget GB had a 29-10 lead going into the 4Q which forced Minnesota to throw. Minnesota is 6th in the league for passing plays when trailing by more than 7. Justin Jefferson is an absolute beast and continues to have his name come up for possible ROY. He has a 90% catch %, and leads the team in receiving yards/ game at 89.5. I do not want to take anything away from Thielen as he has 29% MS targets, and an astonishing 56.2% end zone targets. The kryptonite here is Jaire Alexander. With a CB rating of 79, Alexander is arguably on the best CB this season and mainly covers the right side of the field which is a side Thielen favors. Last time these two faced off they put up a combined 77 points!! With great volume production, matchups, stacking options, and a rivalry narrative I do not want to miss out on this game stack.
Other candidates (TEN vs CINCY), (SF vs SEA)
OVERWEIGHT: (Kareem Hunt) 
Kareem “The Dream” Hunt fell short of my over 86 rushing yard player prop last week but managed to find the end zone in the 4Q keeping his team in the game. Austin Hooper is still out and OBJ out for the season the Browns have two options for production Hunt and Landry. Hunt played 90% of the snaps last week which was tied for RB snap %. Cleveland is 2nd in rushing play % and the Raiders defense is 3rd in % of TD’s gained rushing. Cleveland’s o-line is 3rd in the league for adjusted line yards and the Raider’s d-line adjusted line yards is 23rd in the league at 4.73. The Browns also lead the league in explosive run plays (10+ yards or more). Hunt is like Fedex he delivers on the ground and in the air! His target share% continues to increase (week 5 10.5%, week 6 11%, week 7 14.3%). Hunt has faired up against some great rush defenses this season (Baltimore, Pittsburg, Washington, Indianapolis) and still averages 16.4 fppg. The Raiders rank 2nd in fantasy points allowed to RB’s averaging 32.9! I’ll let you guys see the screenshot below on some of the upside Hunt has this weekend ????.
Other candidates: (Patrick Mahomes, Davante Adams, Joe Burrow, George Kittle)
FADE/UNDERWEIGHT: (Stefon Diggs) 
It’s not you it’s the matchup! I think Diggs is a great receiver, but this is not the week to expect him to help you take home the milly. Vegas currently has this game total at 40.5 which is the lowest on the slate. Next, we have a difficult matchup against a stud CB, Stephon Gilmore. Gilmore CB QB rating is 78.98. according to PFF Gilmore has been targeted 24 times this season which is 4 times/game. This indicates when people play the Patriots, they game plan around throwing to opposite side of Gilmore. Ugly is the best word to describe the weather as we are looking at wet, windy, and cold; not a recipe for passing at all. New England is the 4th best defense to receptions allowed to WR. All these ingredients call for clock chewing, running the ball, and smashing the under 40.5.
Final Thoughts
We have an interesting slate this week with all the weather concerns so make sure you check the weather! My ingredients for the optimizer are heaping helping of King Henry! An overloaded amount of Mr. Fedex himself, Kareem Hunt! A strong foundation of the Green Bay Minnesota game stack (I love all these stack options but feel best with the 4 man). Lastly, I will be avoiding Diggs anticipating a boring game. The NFL optimizer is a great tool to help increase your bankroll and make you a better player in DFS. I hope this article pointed you in a direction on where to start your builds for this week! If you ever have any questions, feel free to DM me on twitter @party_marty13 and I’ll be sure to get back with you asap!
