Happy Halloween, everyone 🎃. Scared of missing the playoffs or leaving precious fantasy points on the bench in the stretch run? Check out Faraz’s fully updated rest of season rankings available now on our website so that you don’t get tricked this year. Also, stay tuned for our Halloween episode of the Upper Hand Fantasy Podcast covering QB and RB rankings for Week 9!

• Bills WR Amari Cooper misses practice Wednesday to open week with wrist injury

  • Cooper appearing on this week’s injury reports sheds some light on his disappointing one-catch performance last week in his second game in Buffalo. He played right around half of the Bills’ offensive snaps last Sunday and watched as rookie WR Keon Coleman and Khalil Shakir led the way for the passing attack. The expectation has been for Cooper’s route participation and snap shares to increase gradually as he became more familiar with the offense, but any kind of injury – especially one causing him to miss practice outright – will throw a wrench in that progression as he gets up to speed. Fantasy managers should monitor the injury report the rest of the week and into the weekend ahead of this weekend’s matchup against the Dolphins. Should Cooper miss, things would likely look similar to Buffalo’s time without Cooper in the offense. Shakir would operate as Buffalo’s de facto WR1, while Coleman would likely be in line for an increased number of looks than before – though Buffalo has been committed to the run this season and might look to keep that going against a run-funnel Miami defense that’s been stout against the pass. It’s early, so Cooper fantasy managers shouldn’t be panicking just yet, but this does appear to be a new injury for the recently acquired veteran.

• Patriots rookie QB Drake Maye, Giants rookie RB Tyrone Tracy Jr. both miss respective practices Wednesday with concussions

  • Both first-year players have shined in limited action, and both players have uphill battles to fight if either hope to be on the field this weekend. Drake Maye was on his way to what looked like a third-straight strong fantasy performance against the Jets before he left the game with his concussion, at which point Jacoby Brissett took over and finished the game. Should Drake Maye miss Week 9 against the Titans, the entire Patriots offense outside of potentially Rhamondre Stevenson would be unstartable. The Titans are one of the toughest matchups for QBs this season and are allowing the fewest pass yards per game to opposing quarterbacks, so fantasy managers would want to stay away from the Pats offense if Drake Maye isn’t able to suit up. As for Tracy, he executed a full takeover of the Giants backfield in Week 8 against the Steelers but suffered a concussion that has his status for this week in question. Considering the injury happened Monday night and it’s a six-day turnaround ahead of his matchup against the Commanders, the odds of him being ready to go are low. Fantasy managers will want to consider alternate options, while Devin Singletary would be worth a look as a low-RB2 if Tracy is sidelined.

Buy WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, DET

• In a game where the Lions scored 52 points, you wouldn’t expect Amon-Ra St. Brown to finish as the WR51 on the week with just two catches on two targets – but that’s exactly what happened in Detroit’s all-around demolition of the Titans in Week 8. Despite the limited opportunity, St. Brown still found the end zone for fantasy managers but posted just seven receiving yards.

• The good news: this won’t be the norm moving forward. As a player, Amon-Ra St. Brown is an elite target earner; he’s earning a 28% target share and has been targeted on 26% of his routes. Both of those numbers are top-5 among 47 WRs to run 200 or more routes.He’s also scored in each of his last five games.

• Consider also the games where St. Brown has underperformed. Two of his three lowest performing games have come in absolute blowouts of the Cowboys and Titans, and his lowest output occurred in Week 1. The Lions should have more competitive games coming up (GB & HOU), followed by a fantastic matchup against the Jaguars three weeks from now. The Lions will need him more moving forward than they have in recent weeks.

• Take advantage of any fantasy managers panicking that there are too many mouths to feed in Detroit. Amon-Ra is still the top dog and is still a top-6 fantasy WR moving forward.

Sell QB Kirk Cousins, ATL

• Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Kirk Cousins’ numbers are being severely inflated by two massive performances against the Buccaneers. The first game he relied on volume that he probably won’t see again this season and possibly his career (58 pass attempts), and the second game this past week he was super efficient (4 TDs on 23 completions).

• He’s averaging 32 fantasy points per game against the Buccaneers (who are statistically the best matchup in fantasy right now for QBs) and just 11 points per game in six other games this year. He’s had three top-8 finishes this season, but ranks outside the top-20 in five other games – and eight of his 14 touchdowns on the season have come in those games against Tampa Bay.

• I called it the last time Kirk had the blowup game against the Buccaneers, and I’m doing it again – they have a decent matchup this week against the Cowboys, but after that, they have New Orleans, Denver, the bye in Week 12, and the Chargers. Not necessarily a bed of roses, and you can probably sell to someone with an underperforming QB like Dak Prescott or a banged up starter like Jordan Love.