Week 8 Thursday Night Football Fantasy Picks: Start 'Em, Sit 'Em for Packers vs Cardinals

Week 8's Thursday Night Football contest features a much-anticipated matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals. FanDuel Sportsbook shows the Cardinals as 6.5-point home favorites in a game full of fantasy football implications.

If you need some help with your fantasy lineups, here's some start 'em, sit 'em advice for this Week 8 NFC Thursay Night Football clash.

Randall Cobb Fantasy

Start Randall Cobb, WR, Green Bay Packers: The Green Bay Packers receiving corps is taking on an almost entirely new look in Week 8 as both Davante Adams and Allen Lazard deal with COVID-19 issues. Marquez Valdes-Scantling may suit up, but won't be 100% even if he does. Normally, this means look for a big game from running back Aaron Jones but that's hard to imagine against a Cardinals defense that gives up the sixth-fewest PPR points to opposing running backs. There's not many wide receiver options to trust, so we'll look to the veteran Randall Cobb. Cobb played in a season-high 62% of snaps in Week 7 and was targeted 4 times, his second-highest mark of the season. Cobb caught two touchdowns in his highest-targeted game of the season, seeing 6 targets in Week 4.

Zach Ertz Fantasy

Start Zach Ertz, TE, Arizona Cardinals: Zach Ertz enjoyed his best fantasy performance of the year during his very first week with the Arizona Cardinals. Ertz saw 5 targets in Week 7, catching 3 balls for 66 yards and 1 score. His 13.2-yard per target average was the most pleasant surprise and, by far, his biggest mark of the year. The Pro Bowl tight end also owns 7 red zone targets throughout the year, including 1 target during his first game with Arizona. Other than the two or three elite options at the position, tight end is a gamble. But, we loved the down-field focus that Arizona showed Ertz and know that can be replicated again in Week 8.

Aaron Jones Fantasy

Sit Aaron Jones, RB, Green Bay Packers: Disclaimer: this is not a legitimate suggestion to bench Aaron Jones. Rather, a word of caution. Arizona's formidable front seven gives up the sixth-fewest PPR points to opposing running backs and ranks top-7 in Football Outsiders' rush-defense DVOA metric. Jones only rushed the ball 6 times in a weird Packers game script against the Washington Football Team and Green Bay may operate heavily through the air again on Thursday night. Jones is a capable fantasy player each and every week, but don't expect him to put up a ludicrous stat line against Arizona's defense.

A.J. Green Fantasy

Sit A.J. Green, WR, Arizona Cardinals: It's really difficult to gauge Arizona's wide receiver corps outside of DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins, Christian Kirk and Ertz all saw more targets than A.J. Green a week ago. His efficiency was great (3 receptions for 66 yards), but he did that on just 3 targets. There are just too many mouths to feed on Arizona's offense and Green Bay gives up the eighth-fewest PPR points to opposing wide receivers this year.

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Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.