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Week 8 injuries mean new fantasy opportunities

The Rams’ Frank Cignetti is one of the more anonymous offensive coordinators in the league, and he’s not likely to be heralded as a great innovator with the Rams running a Todd Gurley-centric offense that would have fit comfortably into the NFL of the 1970s.

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Up to date rankings of NFL TEs for the remainder of the 2015 fantasy football season before Week 9. I think that this move will put Davis back in the top 5 TE conversation. It might not include a few of the players most intriguing to you personally. In the meantime, Bryant is still a must-start for fantasy purposes, though poor quarterback play is nearly sure to give him a statistical haircut-hopefully just a little off the top. Outside of his first game against Jacksonville, after this week’s bye Aiken faces teams like Cleveland, St. Louis, and Seattle, tough defenses that will give Aiken fits. Spiller could be the ultimate buy low candidate in PPR leagues, and with the workload increase could be a weekly staple in your lineups.

After watching the Raiders destroy my New York Jets, I’m sold on Carr. He is a consistent QB that should be on a fantasy roster. The sky is the limit for the Raiders. I accidently drafted Davanta Feeman and needed rookie Coleman to hurt his ribs in order for me to have the second best RB this season. Watkins had just one catch against Miami when these teams met back in Week 3, but with Percy Harvin (hip) out, Watkins has plenty of upside.

After Bell’s exit, Williams picked up where he left off from the beginning of the season, averaging 7.9 yards per carry against the Bengals’ 16th-ranked run defense. Smith missed time in weeks four and five and that’s when Aiken had two of his best games, topping 77 yards in both contests and scoring a touchdown. He’s still available in 88 percent of NFL.com leagues (55 percent on ESPN; 45 percent on Yahoo). Brees loves throwing running backs the ball out of the backfield and Spiller is always capable of taking it to the house. Since the Week 1 game in which Forte hung 141 yards on the Green Bay defense, his yards per carry has steadily dropped, which could be an indication of the residual wear and tear from previous seasons, which makes this injury not all that surprising when you factor in age and tread on the tires. He hasn’t proved much in the regular season, but he looked like a RB that can be the starter for the Bears in the future during the preseason.

In his 2nd game back, he only had 7 touches for 56 yards. Here are a few players to consider picking up ahead of Week 9 action.

Steve Smith is done for the season and guess who leads the team in targets when Smith is out? Aiken will be become the top wide receiver on the Ravens.

Yes, the so called “sorry ass receiver” has been the number 2 WR for Oakland and has quietly had himself a nice season. Revis was all over Amari Cooper, which allowed Crabtree to have a great fantasy day.

This is Kirk Cousins’ favorite target. Garcon will be a solid WR2 once the Redskins come back. He has not thrown an interception is three weeks and he isn’t afraid to tuck and run when the time comes, he does have a pair of rushing TD’s this season. Benjamin has averaged 9.5 targets in the six games since, yet he’s scored only one touchdown over that span and has had only one reception covering more than 25 yards. I have never seen a player make this list who is owned by literally nobody. Also, Keenan Allen is out indefinitely with a kidney injury and the Cowboys released Joseph Randle. Floyd may end up becoming that go-to receiver for Rivers. It’s hard to trust a rookie QB but at the very minimum, Hunter’s targets will skyrocket in the upcoming weeks. Watson gets the Titans this week who have forfeited four touchdowns to the TE position on the season. They will be trying out a new RB, who you will hear about later but this game will be won through the air. This is no fluke.

Watson has blown up the last few weeks, and it’s fair to wonder whether he might now be a more valuable fantasy property than Graham, who’s still settling into his new home in Seattle, unpacking boxes and waiting for the cable guy to show up. No team is going to double cover Watson, believe me. Vernon Davis will change that. Davis has been an afterthought for awhile now, but part of that’s attributable to the 49ers steady decline. Shaun Draughn and Kendall Gaskins, who might be better candidates for early-down work. That injury means DeAngelo Williams gets the start in Pittsburgh. I know the Giants defense isn’t good, but they aren’t that bad.

WATCH Fantasy Football With The W: Does history repeat itself?

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DeAngelo Williams