🏈 Route Report + 7 Players To Add For Week 8

Hey, Movers!

Learned how to make some pretty neat-looking charts this week. I think you’ll like them better than the conditionally-formatted spreadsheets, but let me know what you think!

Glossary

Expected Fantasy Points - A PFF metric comparing the fantasy points a player scores versus what we would have expected based on how they were used and targeted in their offenses.

TPRR - Targets Per Route Run, measures a player’s target-earning ability

YPRR - Yards Per Route Run, measures a player’s efficiency

Target Share - share of team targets

Air Yards Share - share of team air yards

Rostership - % of Yahoo leagues player is rostered in

Recommended FAAB Range: FAAB recommendation based on FAABLab, which is an awesome crowd-sourced FAAB estimation tool. Check out FAABLab’s interactive bid calculator, which shows your win probability for any bid amount - it’s sweet.

Wide Receivers

Add Tez Johnson (18% rostered): 16-24% FAAB

With Mike Evans out “most of the year”, the 7th-round rookie should see more opportunities in the Bucs’ high-octane offense. He’s shown big-play ability and has more juice than Sterling Shepard, meaning his fantasy stock is trending up, especially while Chris Godwin remains sidelined.

Add Jaylin Noel (1% rostered): 6-8% FAAB

Christian Kirk is battling yet another hamstring injury, opening the door for the 3rd-round rookie. Noel impressed with a 7-4-77 stat line on MNF, and Nico Collins sustained a concussion. As a result, Noel’s role could continue to increase, and if he takes advantage of his opportunities, he could ice Christian Kirk for the starting slot role, even when Kirk eventually returns.

Tight Ends

Add Oronde Gadsden II (6% rostered): 18-27% FAAB

I wrote about Gadsden last week following his Week 6 usage uptick, but now the cat is fully out of the bag. You’ll need to spend up to get him on the waiver wire, but he’s deserving of the bid if you’re in need of tight end help. It’s rare that we see rookies return to irrelevance following a breakout performance of this magnitude (9-7-164-1), and the Chargers have the 3rd-highest Pass Rate Over Expectation in the league (+7.3%), per FantasyPoints.

Add Colston Loveland (22% rostered): 4-6% FAAB

If you missed the boat on adding Gadsden for cheap, listen closely. Like Gadsden last week, Loveland just logged season/career-highs in Route Share (63%) and Target Share (15.4%) in Week 7, per FantasyPoints. Cole Kmet left the game with a back injury, and were he to miss Week 8, we could finally see Loveland operate as the Bears’ featured tight end. Unlike Gadsden, who was a 5th-round pick this year, Loveland was the 10th overall pick in the draft. Chicago should be very invested in his continued development now that his hip injury is behind him. I’d be adding him for cheap before the breakout inevitably comes.

Running Backs

Add Brashard Smith (6% rostered): 10-15% FAAB

Brashard Smith is a receiver-turned-running back, he’s fast, and he plays with Patrick Mahomes. He had the best game of his career this week, granted this game was never close as the Chiefs shut out the Raiders, 31-0. Regardless, Smith now has 13.3% and 14.3% target shares over the last two weeks, and his role in the passing game could continue to grow. Given that Isiah Pacheco and Kareem Hunt haven’t been anything special this season, I’m optimistic that Smith can continue to earn more work as the most explosive running back on Kansas City’s roster.

Add Kyle Monangai (8% rostered): 14-20% FAAB

Monangai saw a season-high 46.3% snap share in Week 7, turning in a 17.4-fantasy point performance. If the rookie continues to eat into D’Andre Swift’s workload, he could earn standalone fantasy value in Ben Johnson’s offense.

Add Devin Neal (0% rostered): 4-6% FAAB

Kendre Miller suffered a torn ACL and is out for the season, opening the door for the rookie 6th-rounder, Devin Neal, whom PFF compared to Rachaad White in their pre-draft guide. Neal has multiple outs to fantasy relevance, with the first obviously being an Alvin Kamara injury. Additionally, however, the Saints are going nowhere this season and down the stretch, they may want to see what they have in the rookie as they look to 2026.

As always, thank you for reading! I hope you all have a great week.

-Stephen

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