RADIO
Matt's quarterback (QB) fantasy football start 'em, sit 'em picks for Week 8 of 2025. His QB lineups advice for Week 8 fantasy football start/sit decisions.
I hope the fantasy season is treating you well. But considering what fantasy managers are dealing with as we enter Week 8, the process seems more complicated than it needs to be.
In this week's start 'em and sit 'em we will explore more debatable options that are being presented to fantasy managers who may not find themselves in a position to insert Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Dak Prescott, or Jalen Hurts into their starting lineups.
Due to byes, Kyler Murray, Jared Goff, Matthew Stafford, Trevor Lawrence, Geno Smith, and Sam Darnold are unavailable this week; fantasy managers will need creative solutions. So, which quarterbacks should fantasy managers trust as we enter Week 8 of the NFL season? Here are your Week 8 starts and sits for the quarterback position.
Be sure to check all of our fantasy football rankings for 2025:- 2025 fantasy football rankings
- Running back (RB) fantasy football rankings
- Wide receiver (WR) fantasy football rankings
- Tight end (TE) fantasy football rankings
- Quarterback (QB) fantasy football rankings
- FLEX fantasy football rankings
- Defense (D/ST) fantasy football rankings
- Kicker (K) fantasy football rankings
- Dynasty fantasy football rankings
Week 8 - Fantasy Football Booms
Bo Nix - QB, Denver Broncos vs. Dallas Cowboys
Rule one in Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club. However, rule one in fantasy football is that you start any quarterback who is facing the Dallas Cowboys.
Entering this contest, the Cowboys are allowing a league-worst 260.3 passing yards per game, although they have been much better on the road than at home. It's a matchup manager must exploit each week. The defense has yielded 25.10 fantasy points per game this season, which is substantially higher than the next closest team.
Not only has Dallas allowed the most passing yards to opposing quarterbacks, but they've also allowed the most passing touchdowns, rushing yards, and the second-most rushing touchdowns to the position.
Last week, despite Jayden Daniels suffering an injury (hamstring) and removing himself from the game, Washington's quarterbacks still produced 21.66 fantasy points, led by Daniels' 156 passing yards, 35 rushing yards, and a pair of touchdowns.
Since Week 2, Nix has been the QB3 in fantasy, averaging 22.1 points per game. He is coming off a monster performance last week in a comeback victory over the Giants in which he completed 27 of 50 passing attempts for 279 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But what really should boost his value this week is that rushing ability that netted him 48 additional yards of offense and another two touchdowns.
Caleb Williams - QB, Chicago Bears at Baltimore Ravens
This season, Caleb Williams has been a valuable addition to fantasy lineups, especially those looking to play the matchups. The Bears signal-caller has thrown for 1,351 yards, nine touchdowns, and an average of 17.1 fantasy points per game over six contests.
Last week, against New Orleans, was the first time this season that Williams failed to throw a touchdown pass, resulting in his lowest fantasy output of the season—failing to produce 12 or more points for the first time.
Eventually, the Baltimore Ravens and their defense will get it figured out. After all, they started last season much like they have this season before finally getting their secondary sorted and becoming a formidable pass defense. Unfortunately for them, and to the benefit of Williams' managers, there are too many injuries for the Ravens to overcome in the back end for them to slow down, much less stop any sort of passing attack this week.
Baltimore is currently allowing 246.5 passing yards per game, the fifth-most, and has allowed an average of 21.88 fantasy points per game to the quarterback position this season, also the fifth-most. Despite coming off a bye last week, only the Bengals, Cowboys, Bears, and Jaguars have allowed quarterbacks to throw more touchdowns against them than the 14 the Ravens have surrendered, with 10 passing touchdowns occurring over the previous four weeks.
Joe Flacco - QB, Cincinnati Bengals vs. New York Jets
If you want a deeper sleep, Joe Flacco may still be residing on your waiver wire. Coming off back-to-back 18-point outings and a 26-point performance last week, he may be the hero we all need. It also helps that the Jets rank just below the Bengals in fantasy points against the quarterback position at 18.76, the eighth-most over the last four weeks.
Flacco finds a window and Higgins does the rest.
BENGALS LEAD!
PITvsCIN on Prime Video
Also streaming on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/AlMG7JOIjD— NFL (@NFL) October 17, 2025
Everything is better with "a cup of Joe," as Ja'Marr Chase caught 16 passes for 161 yards, Tee Higgins caught six balls for 96 yards, and Chase Brown broke 100 yards rushing on just 11 rushing attempts. Against the Steelers, Flacco became just the sixth quarterback over the age of 40 to throw for more than 340 yards in a game, the ol' veteran can still sling it.
Since joining the Bengals, Flacco has completed 60 of 92 passing attempts for 561 yards and five touchdowns. That's 60 completions without throwing an interception through two games. Look for that to remain the case, as the Jets are one of two teams this season who have yet to force an interception with the 49ers being the other.
Passing volume, without turning the ball over, is a recipe for fantasy success.
Week 8 Sits - Potential Fantasy Football Busts
Tua Tagovailoa - QB, Miami Dolphins at Atlanta Falcons
I know you may be desperate this week between the injuries and the bye week, but under no circumstance should you trot Tua Tagovailoa out into your lineups. In seven contests, Tagovailoa has just two quality starts, a 19.6 fantasy performance in Week 2 and a 22.7 showing in Week 5. Other than that, it has been bad.
On the season, Tagovailoa has averaged 12.9 fantasy points per game, including a 1.6 abomination last week against the Browns, a contest where he threw for just 100 yards and three interceptions. Since 2022, the 12 games in which Tagovailoa has thrown two or more interceptions leads the NFL, that's so bad it's almost impressive.
Not only did Dillon Gabriel throw for more yards than Tagovailoa last week, but his 6.4 yards per attempt (not good) was nearly two yards more than Tagovailoa's per attempt.
Further complicating things this week is the Falcons' defense, which comes into this contest ranked as the second-best, allowing 12.29 fantasy points per game this season to the position and has nearly as many interceptions (6) and touchdowns allowed (7).
Drake Maye - QB, New England Patriots vs. Cleveland Browns
We love Drake Maye over at RotoBaller, but after watching the Browns do Tagovailoa dirty last week, and really every quarterback they have faced this season, Maye is a quarterback fantasy managers should consider fading.
Only the Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texans have been allowing fewer fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks than the 13.03 that the Browns have allowed. While Atlanta leads the NFL with 141.2 passing yards per game allowed, the Browns are right behind them, and the Bills are allowing 173.7 per game while also sitting 10th with five interceptions.
Maye is a special quarterback, he joined the likes of Dan Marino and Mahomes as the only quarterbacks in NFL history to throw for 200 or more yards in six straight contests and finish with a passer rating over 100, while being 24 years of age or younger. He also set a Patriots record for completion percentage in a game (91.3%) last week.
This is a best-against-best matchup this week. Maye's 1,744 passing yards, 75.6 completion percentage, 8.6 yards per attempt, 12 touchdowns, 200 rushing yards faces his most challenging test to date against a Browns defensive unit allowing a league-best 256.1 total yards of offense against per game.
Daniel Jones - QB, Indianapolis Colts vs. Tennessee Titans
Look, Daniel Jones makes this list not because he's in line for a bad week, but because the Titans are just bad. This season, Tennessee is allowing the fourth-most fantasy points per game to the running back position, allowing 26.41 per contest, and has allowed 10 touchdowns to opposing backs while conceding the fourth-most rushing yards per game (139.6).
As a result, their passing defense ranks 14th, allowing 210.0 passing yards per game.
Everyone owes Jones an apology. Indianapolis leads the NFL in total points scored with 232, which trails only Johnny Unitas in both 1958 and 1964 for the most points scored as a Colts quarterback through seven games. You read that right, that's more points through seven games than the Peyton Manning led 2007 team.
At 6-1 and with 1,790 passing yards to his credit, it's safe to say Jones is legit.
Colts QB Daniel Jones is first player since at least 1950 to complete two-thirds of his passes, throw for at least 200 yards in each of his first seven games of seasonhttps://t.co/QqiTkb1wp2 pic.twitter.com/Q4P5jyyyCF
— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) October 20, 2025
Again, this is all about the game script, and the fact that it projects to be a big Jonathan Taylor type week.
More Fantasy Football Analysis
Download Our Free News & Alerts Mobile App
Like what you see? Download our updated fantasy football app for iPhone and Android with 24x7 player news, injury alerts, rankings, starts/sits & more. All free!
