The story lines we’ll be watching closely, including the hot seats in Denver with Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett. Plus, Christian McCaffrey should be ready for the Rams.
Welcome to Week 8 featuring trades, trades and more trades. We’ve already seen quite a few big deals this week and we’ll likely see a few more leading up to Tuesday’s deadline. How will those trades impact games the rest of the season? We’ll start to get a good idea in Week 9. As for Week 8, there’s plenty of action to keep your eyes on, especially with New York’s teams and the Packers, who could fall to 3–5 with a loss to the Bills. So get ready for another crucial week on the NFL schedule.
To get it kicked off, Albert Breer and Conor Orr will take you through the Sunday and Monday games, noting the best matchups and what they’ll be watching.
GAMES OF THE WEEK
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Broncos at Jaguars, 9:30 a.m. ET Sunday: Another standalone game for Denver, and another referendum coming, presumably, on Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett. And while I don’t think this London trip will end like some others have for teams in the past, with the bye week to follow opening the door for change, this feels like a critical point for a lot of people in that organization, particularly with the trade deadline on Tuesday. Also, the Jaguars are plenty good enough, which is why they’re favored.— Albert Breer
Cardinals at Vikings, 1 p.m. ET Sunday: This game should be a must-watch for Packer fans. Green Bay has a must-win against the Bills on Sunday Night Football, while the Vikings can cruise to 6–1 against a disjointed but still competitive Cardinals roster. While it’s a bit of a stretch to say they could close out the NFC North with a win, making the Packers catch them from 3–5 is going to be a tremendous advantage. — Conor Orr
Patriots at Jets, 1 p.m. ET Sunday: The Jets are on a four-game winning streak and now run into New England, which hung 54 points on the Jets in their previous meeting. Coach Robert Saleh said they’re a different team now, and no argument here. The same can be said for the Patriots, who dropped an incredibly uncharacteristic game to the Bears on Monday Night Football. One would imagine that Bill Belichick still has Zach Wilson’s number, and that he would salivate over the prospect of breaking George Halas’s victory mark against the team he despises the most. But, as Saleh said, these are not the same old Jets. — C.O.
49ers at Rams, 4:25 p.m. ET Sunday: One of the NFL’s most entertaining rivalries gets renewed with a new character introduced—Christian McCaffrey, the running back the 49ers landed last week, outlasting a spirited pursuit from, yup, the Rams, to add the versatile weapon to their offense. The former Panther should have a much bigger role than he did last week, and it’s just in time for one that’s big for both teams, trying to avoid falling more than a game back of Seattle in the NFC West. But if there’s a matchup to watch here, it’ll probably be on the other side of the ball, with how the Rams’ beleaguered line manages a challenging matchup with a featured 49er front. — A.B.
Giants at Seahawks, 4:25 p.m. ET Sunday: A huge game that not a single one of us would have pegged as huge at the beginning of the season. Geno Smith faces another one of his former teams. The Giants try to climb to 6–1, while the Seahawks could pad their lead in the NFC West. Mothers, don’t let your kids grow up to be football prognosticators. In this one, I’m looking to see what Seattle learned from its loss to the Falcons, whose defense was probably the closest thing they’ll see to a Wink Martindale defense so far. The Seahawks have one of the highest offensive DVOA averages in the league, but Martindale’s unit adjusts incredibly well. The Giants have allowed one of the lowest fourth quarter touchdown percentages in the league this year. — C.O.
Packers at Bills, 8:20 p.m. ET Sunday: This was a top-five game for the season when the schedule came out in April. Now? It looks like it’s going to take everything the Packers have to keep a firing-on-an-all-cylinders Buffalo group from turning this into another national-television statement (the Bills have already had three of those this year). Obviously, to keep pace in Orchard Park, the Packers are going to need a lot more than they’ve gotten from Aaron Rodgers and their offense. — A.B.
FANTASY BOLD PREDICTION OF THE WEEK
Derrick Henry will rush for 150-plus yards vs. Houston. The Texans field one of the league’s worst defenses against running backs, allowing an average of 135.3 rushing yards and 31.9 fantasy points per game. Henry has absolutely owned them in his career, too, rushing for over 200 yards in each of his past three games against them (not a typo). The Titans will lean on Henry again, so expect a huge stat line. — Michael Fabiano
• Fabiano’s Week 8 Start ’Em, Sit ’Em: QB | RB | WR | TE | K/DEF
QUICK QUESTIONS
What is your one big prediction for Week 8?
Orr: We’ll finally get a punt-return touchdown. We haven’t had a punt returned for a touchdown this season. What is up with that? There are so many talented returners in the NFL right now. The Chiefs just gave up two draft picks for Kadarius Toney. It’s time for special teams to shine again.
Breer: Nick Bosa will have three sacks against the Rams to put him in double digits for the year. I trust Sean McVay to get his team’s issues sorted out in time to clinch an NFC playoff berth down the line. But this feels like the kind of spot where the 49ers’ 25-year-old superstar starts to build a case for Defensive Player of the Year.
Which team most needs a win in Week 8?
Orr: The Colts. You can’t make the pivot to Sam Ehlinger and have it go poorly. While it’s unfair to expect Ehlinger to look like Josh Allen, it is fair to expect him to look like Baker Mayfield–plus and find some rhythm in something more familiar to Indianapolis’s RPO-inspired Carson Wentz offense, which featured a career-high number of RPO attempts for the former No. 2 overall pick.
Breer: The Broncos. And I’m saying that, in part, because the Buccaneers are ineligible here, having played on Thursday night. The bottom line is that when you trade for a star quarterback in his 30s, you’re implicitly agreeing to build on his timeline. Which, in most of these cases, means building for now. So if Denver falls to 2–6, it’ll be in a pretty awkward spot ahead of the trade deadline, where it’ll have offers on a pretty extensive list of sellable players on its roster—and have to decide where it stands.
Which coach or player is most under pressure in Week 8?
Orr: Joe Burrow. Ja’Marr Chase will be out for at least a few weeks, which means Burrow will have to make due without his clear-cut No. 1 target. While Burrow’s rookie year is not a fair comparison to the player he is now, it is worth looking back at how the Bengals tried to scheme players open without Chase as part of the equation. .
Breer: Frank Reich. You can look at this one of two ways. Either Reich is sticking his neck out on a former sixth-round pick, and his future could well ride on the right arm of Sam Ehlinger, or this is ownership-driven, signaling that Jim Irsay is finally fed up with the quarterback carousel, and everyone is on notice. Whether the Colts can stay in contention or not, we’ve got an interesting couple of months ahead in Indianapolis.
Which team will everyone be talking about after Week 8?
Orr: The 49ers. After moving all of their draft equity for Trey Lance and Christian McCaffrey, one of them has to ball out. Lance, unfortunately, never had the chance this year. McCaffrey should be up to speed and should have a featured role against the 49ers’ division rivals. If he’s a pedestrian-looking chess piece, one would imagine Kyle Shanahan would start receiving some serious criticism.
Breer: The Seahawks. They get the Giants coming cross-country. And as good a job as Brian Daboll has done, they have gotten some bounces early this year to get them to 6–1, and the law of averages is bound to catch up to them at some point. So I’ll take Seattle in a tight one, and give me this as the week where the rest of the country starts to notice what’s a pretty good story out there—when people realize, after the Rams-49ers game finishes up, that there’s actually another team in first in the NFC West.
The trade you’d most like to see by Tuesday’s deadline?
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Orr: FREE BAILEY ZAPPE. SEND MAC JONES TO LAS VEGAS. In all seriousness, I think I would like to see Jerry Jeudy get a new home. He’s had a raw deal from the start, and he’s incredibly talented and well coached from a technical standpoint. He’s never had a quarterback who can get him the ball. And here are my nine deadline deals I want to see, which we published Thursday.
Breer: Saints WR Michael Thomas to the Titans. Thomas is hurt again, and it just feels like maybe his time in New Orleans has run its course. And the Saints have his eventual heir, Chris Olave, in place already and could use the picks. Plus, Thomas is a fantastic fit for the physical Titans and was together with Mike Vrabel at Ohio State for two years. So mark me down for this one, to see if maybe we can get a revival of a once great player with an everyone-wins exchange.
Which underdog has the best shot to win outright in Week 8?
Orr: The Bears! You heard me. I realize I am enemy No. 1 on Bears Twitter for my offseason take that Justin Fields should demand a trade. I’ll own that. But making them 10.5-point underdogs against Dallas, when Dak Prescott is still getting back into rhythm, is a bit much, especially with how well the Bears have been moving the ball on the ground lately.
Breer: Easy. Commanders. They’ve won two straight, Taylor Heinicke might be an upgrade over Carson Wentz and they get the Colts with Ehlinger making his first start.
SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL BEST BET
Week 8’s Sunday night showdown features last year’s MVP in Aaron Rodgers and this year’s leading MVP candidate in Josh Allen. Problem for the Packers, Aaron Rodgers is not playing like a reigning MVP and Green Bay isn’t playing like a team that was the No. 1 seed in the NFC just last season. The Bills on the other hand look every bit of a dominant force and perhaps the top Super Bowl contender. So how do we structure our bets to take advantage of what on paper and our eyeballs tell us is a very lopsided matchup? We go heavy on the Bills and their outstanding offense that ranks No. 2 in points per game. Using SI Sportsbook’s bet builder, we can grab Buffalo on the moneyline, the over at 47.5 and take the over on Josh Allen’s passing yards at 255. That same game parlay gives us odds of +190. Bettors would win $19 for every $10 wagered and $190 for every $100.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Orr: As I started doing my future head coaches list this year, I told a few contacts that I felt this season would be especially banal. Maybe three or four openings. I was quickly course-corrected by those who have been through the craziness before, and most of them were right. At this point, we could see another third of the league turn over, and we’re already one job down. The Panthers were the first in-season dismissal of the year but it certainly may not be the last.
Breer: To build off what Conor is saying here—with questions in a lot of places where coaches have three and four years left on contracts—I wonder whether this is the year we see the windfall from the broadcast deals give owners license to be a little more trigger-happy than they’ve been in the past.
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