Fire & Ice: Fantasy Football Risers & Fallers For Week 8
Dynasty

Fire & Ice: Fantasy Football Risers & Fallers For Week 8

By Optimus Staff · October 31, 2026

That chill you feel creeping up your spine? No, it's not a frosty breath off an open grave, with the undead slowly emerging to pursue the living. It's the feeling you get when you start the players on Optimus' staff 'Ice' lists. Well, it should be.

In this spooky season when the tricks look like treats and all the bad candy tries to dress up like your favorites, do yourself a favor and fill your bags with the 'Fire' players and take advantage of their expectations for the week. Of all the scary weeks of the year with bye weeks and injuries, this week is the perfect week to dress up your lineup and be something it's not. At least for one week.

Let's dive in and find out who the Optimus Fantasy Football analysts think the risers and fallers are for Week 8.

Fire & Ice: Fantasy Football Risers & Fallers For Week 8

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Lou Brunson (@brewpython27)

Fire Player: Tre Tucker, WR, Las Vegas Raiders

I know, it's scary to rely on a pass-catcher for Las Vegas not named Brock Bowers. That's very fair. But I need you to take another look at Tre Tucker. First of all, the dude is tied for 21st in the NFL in targets earned, with 47. Tied with Luther Burden, at that, and you're not worried about starting him. And even better, he's earned at least 5 targets in each of the last four Las Vegas games. "Lou, you're cherry-picking." Fine. He hasn't earned fewer than 4 targets in any game this year. Parker Washington can't say that. Heck, Ja'Marr Chase can't say that.

And lest you worry about the matchup, the New York Jets are only middle of the road against opposing WRs. While it's always a good idea to go and look at how a player has performed against all kinds of competition to see if they're gonna regress positively or negatively, Tucker has been WR11 or better each of the last two weeks. Why does that matter? Well, in Week 6 he played Buffalo (last at preventing fantasy points to WRs), and the Los Angeles Rams (5th best at preventing fantasy points to WRs). Could not be two more different opponents in the last two weeks, and he did great vs. both.

Now, I'm not saying you should go out and bench CeeDee Lamb for him or anything. But Tucker shouldn't be a "maybe he's a WR3/Flex" consideration type of WR. He's right behind the automatic-start WRs, and before the ones you have to think about. Think WR15 range, ahead of all the guys that are "I think this guy is good, but I'm not sure if his team agrees." 

Ice Player: Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs

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I hate when people say, "Throw out this game, and this player is only blah, blah, blah." So that's exactly what I'm going to do here, of course, with one Mr. Taylor Swift - Travis Kelce. And it's his Week 2 that I've got in my sights.

Now it's not fair to do this to just him, so I did it to all TEs, and Kelce's ranking dipped slightly, from TE6 to TE9. The interesting thing to me is that of all TEs who have caught at least 10 passes, he had the 5th highest drop in points/game when the top performance is excluded, at 2.2 HPPR points. If instead we go by just since Week 3 (the week after Kelce's big performance), Kelce drops all the way to TE21 in terms of points/game.

Now, the one good thing is that Kelce is seeing decent volume for the most part, with his low of 2 targets coming in the blowout win vs. Miami when he was still able to put up double-digit points in Week 3. Outside of that week, he's only had one other week under 5 targets. But there's simply no way people should be passing up players like Chig Okonkwo or Brenton Strange to be forcing Travis Kelce into their lineups this week.

Jay Green (@jaygreeniii)

Fire Player: Zach Charbonnet, RB, Seattle Seahawks

Friends, the time has finally arrived! After sitting on our IR spots for six weeks, plus an extra week to get fully healthy, Charbonnet is finally back on the active roster.

Charbonnet could very well come in and immediately take over the backfield in a similar way to how Emanuel Wilson has since Week 4. We've seen with Wilson how valuable that role can be. With Price still not fully healthy, plus Charbonnet's history with the team, it seems reasonable to expect him to have a large role if he is as healthy as it appears.

Combine that with a great matchup against the Bears and the new acquisition of Quenton Nelson, and this is a run game ready to explode, with Charbonnet in pole position to lead it.

if you're wondering how Quenton Nelson looks this season.

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— Nate Tice (@natetice.bsky.social) October 27, 2026 at 2:34 PM

Ice Player: Derrick Henry, RB, Baltimore Ravens

When looking at players to put in the Ice category each week, I am really looking to see which players are ranked in a tier ahead of where I would have them. If a player is mostly ranked in the RB1 tier and I think he is more of an RB2 on any given week, then that seems like the exact kind of player to list in this section.

I want this section to help you out when making lineup choices, so when I see Derrick Henry in this exact situation, listed as a top-five RB for this week in many places, I have to point out some flaws.

To start with the obvious, Derrick has struggled over the past two weeks, with finishes in the 40s at the position.

Now, he is still involved in the offense in a similar way to how he has been all season, with 17 carries in each of the past two games. The issue isn't that he isn't involved in the game plan. It's a lack of the things that made Derrick such a force in fantasy over the past decade: touchdowns and explosive plays.

Henry has only broken the 4.0 yards-per-carry mark twice since Week 1 of this season. He has also not scored a TD in either of the past two weeks.

When you add in that Henry has never been much of a receiver, with only 10 catches on the year, if you play him as your RB1, you are counting on a TD to make that bet pay out.

Could the good matchup and Lamar Jackson coming back negate all of this? Of course. But to me, that is still not the résumé of a top-five fantasy RB this week.

Henry is someone you should start barring an incredible RB room, but he is also someone I would have some concern about if I were counting on him to win me games.

Nate Polvogt (@natepolvogt) 

Fire Player: Jaylen Waddle, WR, Denver Broncos

Yeah, it's been a disappointing season for veteran WR Jaylen Waddle, to say the least. Waddle arrived in Denver this offseason to a fair bit of excitement, with the idea that the Broncos finally had the true WR1, the one element many believed the team needed to elevate their offense to elite status. Fast-forward to Week 8, and Waddle has been anything but in a less-than-impressive offense. 

While his current WR38 ranking in half-PPR formats isn't near what we expected, the Broncos face off against the division-rival Kansas City Chiefs at home this week. The Chiefs are fresh off their first loss of the season, an embarrassing 20-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Not only did their offense struggle against an elite Seattle defense, but their defense also struggled. They allowed QB Sam Darnold to throw for 257 yards, with WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba logging 150 yards and a TD on nine catches.

We know Waddle isn't Smith-Njigba, and I know I recommended him last week in this same article. However, over the last three weeks, the Kansas City secondary has given up the 18th-most fantasy points to WRs, a drastic drop from the second-fewest early in the season. And this is one of those division rivalries where anything can happen (remember Jerick McKinnon going nuclear on Denver in December 2022?). I'm betting on Waddle to not only be active this weekend, but to outperform his consensus fantasy ranking as a back-end WR3 and finish the week as a middle-of-the-pack WR2 against a weakening and vulnerable Chiefs secondary. 

Ice Player: Justin Jefferson, WR, Minnesota Vikings

I don't know how much more of QB Kyler Murray we need to see before we realize he's not going to be that guy. Ever. Worse, he's dragging down the undisputedly elite Justin Jefferson, and we're all suffering for it.

It was supposed to get better this season, after a mash-up of J.J. McCarthy, Carson Wentz, and Max Brosmer behind center sent Jefferson down the well to an overall WR25 finish in half-PPR formats last season. Instead, it's about the same, with Jefferson sitting at WR27 through seven weeks, and with only two games with double-digit fantasy points.

Will it get better for Jefferson this season? Maybe. But I don't have enough confidence to bet on it, even with Minnesota facing off against a putrid Detroit defense in Week 8. As long as Murray is a Viking, I won't trust any Minnesota receiving assets outside TE T.J. Hockenson.

Now, to be clear, as with any of these high-end players we spent significant draft capital on, you likely can't afford to bench Jefferson. However, if you're expecting him to finish as the overall WR8 this week, as consensus suggests, you might be in for a bit of a shock. His ceiling is closer to a back-end WR2, which is where I have him ranked heading into Sunday's slate, and I'll likely keep him there for the rest of the season at his highest. 

If you're staring down a potentially close match-up this weekend, start Jefferson, but look to chase a boom game elsewhere in your lineups to try to offset the disappointment. 

For more advice, head over to our Discord channel and ask our analysts! For breaking news and injury updates, follow Optimus Fantasy News on Bluesky!

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