Sunday, December 22, 2024

Vikings vs. Rams Fantasy Football Takeaways: Matthew Stafford returns to relevance in Week 8

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WRs Puka Nacua and Justin Jefferson each topped 100 receiving yards in Week 8’s Thursday Night Football contest. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)

The following is an excerpt from the latest edition of Yahoo’s fantasy football newsletter, Get to the Points! If you like what you see, you can subscribe for free here.

For several weeks, the Rams have been a garage band, scrounging for fill-ins and replacements. Thursday against the Vikings, Sean McVay finally had his real band back together, and it was glorious.

The Rams scored a 30-20 victory over Minnesota and the big story was Puka Nacua (knee) and Cooper Kupp (ankle) returning from injuries. Both players were used as part-time players — Kupp ran 42 of 71 snaps, while Nacua logged 42 reps — but they made do with those workloads. Nacua was involved from the jump, a 7-106-0 line on nine targets, while Kupp posted a 5-51-1 line on eight looks.

The Rams are now 3-4 and just one game back of Seattle in a jumbled NFC West. It’s anyone’s division. When Los Angeles was 1-4, trade talk made sense. You can forget it now.

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✅ With Nacua and Kupp back, Matthew Stafford returns to fantasy relevance

Stafford threw for 279 yards and four touchdowns Thursday — his first game with multiple scoring tosses this year — and collected 21.76 fantasy points, easily his best score of the season. Next week’s showdown at Seattle will be a fascinating game.

👑 Kyren Williams continues to be fantasy royalty

Williams finished the day with 28 touches, 116 total yards and a score (for the 10th-straight game dating back to last season). He should receive his mail in the end zone. Demarcus Robinson is generally a fantasy afterthought with Kupp and Nacua back, but somehow he scored twice on three targets.

🫡 Sam Darnold had two early scoring passes and scored 16.2 fantasy points, his fifth game in the 16-20 range this year

That’s who he is, a useful player but not a transformative one. An 8-115-0 line for Justin Jefferson is just another day at the office, and Aaron Jones had a credible 95 total yards on 21 touches, though he didn’t score. The Vikings should move the ball well against Indianapolis next week.

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