The Week 8 matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears features division rivals with productive running backs who have been at the top of their game for years and are nearing the end of their respective primes. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Fantasy football projections, Week 8: Vikings-Bears featuring Adrian Peterson, Stefon Diggs and Matt Forte
We break down the Week 8 matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears.
Minnesota Vikings
If you didn’t grab wide receiver Stefon Diggs off of waivers at any point during the last two weeks, you’re probably kicking yourself now. Diggs has emerged as the game’s newest fantasy stud in purple and gold. It’s been a while since Minnesota could lay claim to that kind of a statement at the wide receiver position. Cordarelle Patterson hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations over the last few years. Diggs on the other hand is averaging 106 receiving yards a game since being given a chance by the Vikings coaching staff. Last week he scored the first touchdown of his career. It’s clear that Mike Wallace, Charles Johnson, Kyle Rudolph and pretty much every other pass catcher in Minnesota is second class compared to Diggs -- at least for the moment.
The only other player on the team who plays second fiddle to no one is running back Adrian Peterson. He rushed for 98 yards last week against the Detroit Lions. Although he hasn’t been playing like his usual self this season, he’s still a top-notch running back and part of his struggles are due to the Vikings offensive line. Hopefully those woes get sorted out in time for an important matchup where Minnesota has the chance to bury a division rival. All Day should be OK this week. Perhaps he’ll finally get back over the 100-yard mark and find the end zone to help relieve fantasy owners a little bit.
Chicago Bears
Quarterback Jay Cutler is finding ways to produce fantasy points and racking up the throwing attempts. He’s thrown at least 41 passes in each of the last three games. Although he only tossed one touchdown to one interception against the Detroit Lions last week, Cutler’s fantasy totals were aided by his ability to accumulate yardage. He threw for 353 yards to be exact. Although Cutler will have to be better against the Vikings in order to produce similar value for owners this time around, at least he has a healthy group of receivers in which to throw.
His best weapon, however, is still running back Matt Forte. He’s been averaging less fewer than 4 yards a carry over the last month, which is unfortunate, but Forte’s value lies in his pass-catching ability. Hopefully he can use that to his advantage against the Vikings. There’s a good chance he will be able to if his quarterback struggles to connect with open receivers down the field and the team finds itself in a third-and-long situation more often than not.
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