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Welcome back RotoBallers to our Week 8 quarterback fantasy football waiver wire pickups and streamers. Today, I will take a look at names like Desmond Ridder, Derek Carr, and Kyler Murray as QB options to help bolster your fantasy teams.
In this article, I will be focusing on players under 65% rostered in fantasy leagues while adding a couple of deep sleepers for two-quarterback leagues (less than 25% rostered).
Let's break down who you should consider picking up for Week 8.
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One-QB Waiver Wire Options and Stashes
Desmond Ridder, Atlanta Falcons
Yahoo: 14% rostered
The Desmond Ridder experience hasn’t always been a fun one, but the Falcons seem content throwing the ball more and have one of the best matchups for quarterbacks in Week 8. Ridder put up 13.8 fantasy points against the Buccaneers in a come-from-behind victory. The second-year quarterback could have had an even better day if he didn't get the football punched out of the end zone on a rushing touchdown as well.
The Titans dare opposing offenses to throw the ball against them even though they aren’t especially good at stopping the pass. Tennessee went into their bye week as the 28th team in defensive passing DVOA and allowing 15.2 fantasy points per game to fantasy quarterbacks. Ridder has at least 250 passing yards in his last three games. He’s also added a rushing touchdown in two of his last three contests.
While that isn’t a massive total, it is enough to provide Ridder with a solid floor given the array of weapons he has in the passing attack. He’s worth picking up off waivers to provide a solid floor in Weeks 8 through 10 with matchups against Miami and Arizona on the horizon.
Derek Carr, New Orleans Saints
Yahoo: 35% rostered
The Saints aren’t having the best season, but Derek Carr is still airing the ball out and putting up empty yards (which is perfectly fine for fantasy football). The veteran quarterback has three games with 300+ yards passing, including each of his last two contests. Unfortunately, he has just one game this season with more than one touchdown pass.
The one thing Carr does provide is passing volume. The Saints have thrown the ball at least 30 times in five games this year, including two straight games with 50+ attempts. Carr has a decent amount of turnover this season (four interceptions), but is generally good at taking care of the ball and making safe passes to rack up yardage.
The Colts' secondary wasn’t tested much by the combination of Deshaun Watson and P.J. Walker in Week 7, but they haven’t been great to start the 2023 season. Indianapolis features PFF’s 25th-ranked coverage unit and is giving up 18.0 fantasy points per game to quarterbacks this season. Carr also has enticing matchups against the Bears and Vikings in Weeks 9 and 10, giving him multi-week appeal in fantasy.
Gardner Minshew, Indianapolis Colts
Yahoo: 8% rostered
We now know Anthony Richardson is done for the year now that he has gotten surgery on his injured shoulder. That means that Gardner Minshew will have the green light for the remainder of the season and finds himself in a solid situation. The Colts have good pass catchers, recently got Jonathan Taylor back into the lineup, and have one of the better offensive lines in the league.
Minshew is a very solid backup quarterback who is always capable of providing Jekyll and Hyde performances every week. That was apparent after he followed up Week 6’s game against the Jaguars (329 passing yards and three interceptions for 9.56 fantasy points) with Week 7’s stat line against one of the best defenses in the NFL (305 yards and a passing touchdown with two rushing touchdowns for 31.1 fantasy points).
Trusting Minshew as a fantasy quarterback won’t always be pretty, but he’s guaranteed a starting spot and is more than capable of providing boom weeks.
Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals
Yahoo: 43% rostered
Kyler Murray’s window to return has been activated, which means the team has 21 days to activate him. There was speculation (granted, it was mostly social media talk) that the Cardinals could consider shutting Murray down if the team was bad and in a position to get Caleb Williams in the NFL draft. The Cardinals aren’t very good, but it seems that Murray will be close to making his debut.
Murray will likely have less rushing upside than we are accustomed to but is still a talented passer (career 66.8% completion percentage) who has solid weapons in Marquise Brown, Rondale Moore, and Michael Wilson at wide receiver. The Cardinals have a run of very average fantasy defenses against quarterbacks on the horizon before their Week 14 bye, giving him some upside once he returns.
Two-QB Waiver Wire Options and Stashes
Zach Wilson, New York Jets
Yahoo: 5% rostered
Zach Wilson hasn’t been great taking over for Aaron Rodgers, but he has played much better than his previous years as the team’s starting quarterback. Wilson is completing 60% of his passes for four touchdowns and five interceptions in six games to start the season.
Wilson has a solid stretch of matchups coming up against the Giants, Chargers, and Raiders that he can take advantage of, especially with Garrett Wilson and a healthy Breece Hall as the linchpins of the offense. Week 8 won’t have any teams on bye, so Wilson likely won’t be in your starting lineup then, but he could be worth having once they start up again in Week 9.
Tyson Bagent, Chicago Bears
Yahoo: 4% rostered
Tyson Bagent has looked solid in relief of Justin Fields over the last two weeks. He gets the ball out quickly and isn’t afraid to feed D.J. Moore in the passing attack, which has allowed him to put up solid but unspectacular fantasy numbers.
The rookie will go back to the bench as soon as Fields is healthy, but his success as a passer likely gives the team the ability to be patient to let Fields heal so that there are no restrictions or limitations when he returns to the starting lineup. Bagent has some streaming appeal against a bad Chargers secondary in Week 9.
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