Fantasy Football: Daniel Jones, Jacory Croskey-Merritt and 4 more players to consider fading in Week 8

Welcome to Week 8 of the fantasy fades and busts of the week! I am your host, Matt Okada, and will be bringing you half a dozen players to avoid each and every Thursday, throughout the fantasy football season. As a note, just because a player earns a fade" or bust" designation doesn't automatically mean they should be benched - it depends on the rest of your roster or the options on your waiver wire. But you can expect them to fall short of expectations (when I get them right).

Without further ado, here is my list for Week 8 of the 2025 season.

Daniel Jones, QB, Indianapolis Colts

This feels somewhere between wrong and insane - fading Daniel Jones, the captain of the league's most efficient offense, who's scored 22+ fantasy points in consecutive weeks?

Bear with me. For one, it's the Bye-mageddon: With six teams on bye at a position where only a handful of players are normally started in fantasy means we're forced to hit on some high-tier names this week. And to be clear, the Colts should score at will against the Titans.

But Tennessee has allowed the eighth-fewest fantasy points to QBs this season while surrendering the fourth-most to running backs. Most of that is due to the fact they're bottom 10 in pass attempts faced and top three in rush attempts faced - because they're almost always losing, usually by double digits. So the bulk of the scoring could come through Jonathan Taylor, leaving Jones with a decent but not exceptional fantasy day. Also, Jones has scored fewer than 17 fantasy points in three of the four games that he hasn't scored a rushing touchdown - if he only throws 25 passes and doesn't rush for a score, it might be tough to come up with a strong QB1 performance.

What to do You're probably not benching Jones, especially during the Bye-mageddon, unless you have a very strong alternate option - but you can play guys like Bo Nix and Drake Maye ahead of him, and I wouldn't judge you for going with Caleb Williams or Jordan Love either. And stay away from Jones in DFS.

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Rhamondre Stevenson, RB, New England Patriots

While he's been the bane of TreVeyon Henderson and his fantasy managers this season, Rhamondre Stevenson's fantasy box score has looked quite good in two of the last three weeks, with 13.7 points in Week 5 and 15.8 in Week 7. During the Bye-mageddon, you might be tempted to start him, especially in a flex spot. Look elsewhere.

In those two aforementioned performances, Stevenson was facing the Bills and Titans defenses - two of the softest for fantasy running backs - and needed three touchdowns over those two games to post those numbers.

He draws arguably the worst possible matchup this week in the Cleveland Browns, and those three touchdowns have been his only three on the entire year. Between those two games, he scored 1.8 fantasy points in a game with 14 opportunities against the Saints. Expect low single digits once again versus Cleveland.

What to do Do whatever you possibly can to keep Stevenson out of your lineups this week. He's a low-end RB2 in most rankings but has a lower floor and a lower ceiling than several names behind him.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt, RB, Washington Commanders

Jacory Bill" Croskey-Merritt has been quite a roller coaster for fantasy managers this season, particularly those who bought into the preseason hype or the post-Austin-Ekeler-injury hype. And while he's looked very good in flashes - 150 total yards and two touchdowns against the Chargers - JCM has scored single-digit fantasy points in five of the last six games. More importantly, he's totaled just 100 scrimmage yards over the last two weeks, despite seeing 33 opportunities.

He's been a bit of a fantasy mirage and now faces the Kansas City Chiefs in primetime, with Marcus Mariota expected to start at quarterback as Jayden Daniels looks set to miss Week 8. If JCM was heavily involved in the passing game, we could fall back on the hope of that production in a likely comeback effort. But he's not. So instead, we're left with a high chance of another single-digit dud in a patchwork offense against a difficult opponent.

What to do The Bye-mageddon makes it tough, but bench Croskey-Merritt for every reasonable RB2 and some reasonable RB3s this week. I'd happily start Chuba Hubbard over him and might even consider guys like Woody Marks and Tyjae Spears in PPR.

Xavier Worthy, WR, Kansas City Chiefs

This is the first back-to-back fade we've had in this column all year, but it feels necessary given Xavier Worthy's consensus ranking and the green" matchup with the Washington Commanders. Last week, we avoided Worthy in the return of Rashee Rice, with the threat of a diminished target share and an already inconsistent season. Rice saw 29% of the targets while Worthy saw just 12% in an absolute blowout of the Raiders, resulting in just 6.3 fantasy points for the second-year wideout.

That's now three straight games in single digits (in three good matchups for fantasy receivers), and with Rice's return, any semblance of a floor has disappeared for Worthy moving forward. With Patrick Mahomes at QB, there's always the chance he catches a fluke touchdown (like Marquise Brown did last week), but that's the only realistic chance he has of putting together a WR2 performance.

What to do Once again, we're starting every decent WR2 and probably several higher-floor WR3s over Worthy this week. Guys like Wan'Dale Robinson, Jordan Addison and Khalil Shakir are pretty easy decisions, but even Matthew Golden and Romeo Doubs are worth considering.

DJ Moore, WR, Chicago Bears

Considering what he'd been for fantasy managers in recent years, it's hard to come to terms with just how useless DJ Moore has been in 2025. His best game all season has been 10.8 fantasy points in the best possible matchup against the Cowboys back in Week 3 - and that was only because he scored his only TD that week (four catches for 21 yards). Other than that, he's scored between 5.8 and 7.5 points every single week, an incredibly consistent and incredibly disappointing trend.

Given the name, the Bye-mageddon and the extremely juicy matchup with the Ravens defense, you might be tempted to roll with Moore one last time in Week 8. And if you're okay with three catches for 40 yards on five targets, go for it. But that's what you've gotten all year, and it's almost certainly what you'll get again this weekend.

What to do Moore is a low-end WR3 at best, and has shown less upside this year than a dozen or more receivers ranked well below him. In fact, I'd prefer options like Kayshon Boutte or Tez Johnson, since the theoretical downside" is a loss of three or four points but the upside is a boost of 10 or more.

Mark Andrews, TE, Baltimore Ravens

Let's be honest: This week, with Trey McBride, Sam LaPorta and Brock Bowers (who hasn't been healthy anyway) on bye, the pickings are rather slim at tight end and you're probably starting whoever you've got. But if all you've got is Mark Andrews, consider taking a trip to the waiver wire. Andrews has a single game all season with more than 6.5 fantasy points - 24.1 in Week 3 against the Lions - and while some of that can be attributed to Lamar Jackson's absence the last few weeks (and a Week 7 bye), we didn't see enough from Andrews when Jackson was healthy to trust the All-Pro tight end if and when he returns. Outside of that Detroit game, Andrews hasn't recorded more than 30 receiving yards all year. It looks like his era as a fantasy mainstay is over, and it's time to look elsewhere in our lineups.

What to do Even during the Bye-mageddon, Andrews should not be a top-12 tight end. Potential waiver wire options worth starting over him this week include Harold Fannin Jr., Mason Taylor, Dalton Schultz, Cade Otton, Evan Engram and even Theo Johnson. Pick the best one, stash Andrews (if you want) to see if anything changes after the bye or with Jackson's return, and good luck.