Fantasy football projections, Week 8: Jets vs. Bengals featuring Geno Smith, Giovani Bernard and A.J Green

The Week 8 matchup between the New York Jets and the Cincinnati Bengals should be a defensive battle. We've got all the fantasy projections for you courtesy of numberFire.

Quarterback Geno Smith is looking more and more like a polished and proven NFL quarterback, even though he's only in his rookie year. Smith chalked up an impressive win over his division rivals, the New England Patriots in Week 7. Although the win impressed many around the league, Smith's performance was an average one by fantasy standards as he threw for 233 yards to go with one touchdown and one interception.

Much of his statistics can be attributed to the Jets' commitment to the running game. Chris Ivory seemingly came out of nowhere for the Jets last week, rushing for 104 yards on 34 carries against the Patriots. Although that leaves a less-than-impressive yards-per-carry average, it's enough to make the fantasy community wonder whether it means Ivory has supplanted teammate Bilal Powell as the team's number one running back. To say the least, getting 34 carries in a game is worth noting in regard to any potential waiver wire additions owners might be reviewing going into Week 8.

After struggling in fantasy terms to start the season, it seems that A.J. Green and Andy Dalton have finally gotten on the same page, leading Green to some big performances over the last few weeks. Green has at least six catches, 100 receiving yards and a touchdown in each of the last two games after going four straight weeks with no 100-yard receiving games and only one touchdown. There's no doubt that when he's on his game he is one of the best receivers in the NFL, and fantasy owners definitely have to be glad about what he's done recently. He will match up against a historically good Jets secondary, so it's nice that he's playing well at the right time.