Fantasy Football Week 8 Quarterback Rankings: Justin Fields is a viable starter in a muddled QB landscape

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The quarterback position is pretty dire right now for Fantasy Football. Entering Week 8, there are only eight quarterbacks averaging 20 or more points in six-point-per-pass-TD leagues, and even that isn't really telling the whole story – Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, and Lamar Jackson are all above 26 points per game; nobody else is above 21.

The position has never been more hit-or-miss than it is right now, and it's created a landscape in which, unless you have one of the handful of elite options, you probably need to be throwing as many darts as you can until you find one. I'm usually not a proponent of rostering multiple quarterbacks in a one-QB league, but if I've got Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, or Kirk Cousins, I'm pretty looking to add a second quarterback just to see if I can catch lightning in a bottle.

Justin Fields should be that second quarterback. He's only 32% rostered in CBS Fantasy leagues, but he's showing us the kind of upside we hoped he would of late. Coming into the season, Fields was a popular sleeper/breakout pick, based largely on the upside his rushing ability brought to the table. He would only need to be passable as a passer to be a viable Fantasy starter if he lived up to expectations as a runner. And then for the first four weeks of the season, he failed in both regards. Fields was averaging a decent 36.8 rushing yards in those four games, not nearly enough to overcome 118 passing yards with two touchdowns to four interceptions in that span. He was a disaster, and the Bears offense around him was, somehow, even worse.

However, the Bears kept tweaking, and they seem to have found a solution. Fields is still lacking for traditional weapons and he isn't a traditional pocket passer, so the Bears have focused on harnessing their offensive strengths – including Fields' athleticism and their wide receivers' speed. Fields had arguably his best game of the season Monday against a very good Patriots defense, completing 13 of 21 passes for 179 yards (8.5 per attempt) with one passing touchdown, plus 82 yards on the ground and another score there. All of a sudden, he's been a top-12 QB over the past three weeks, averaging 21.6 points per game despite just one passing touchdown in each game. That's because he's averaging 70-plus yards per game on the ground.

Can he sustain this? Physically, Fields has the size and speed to compete with Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen, and the Bears are wisely taking advantage of that. And he's doing this while still averaging fewer than 200 passing yards per game. He may not keep up a 1,100-yard pace, but if his passing production improves, he can make up for whatever slowdown might be coming.

Which is to say, yeah, Fields might just be a top-12 QB the rest of the way. I wouldn't rank him quite that high, but given the dearth of other options, Fields is clearly moving up the ranks, and it wouldn't take long to get him into that range. If you're looking for upside at QB, he's got it, and he's not a bad starting option while he's trying to figure it out.

Here are the rest of my rankings for QB in Week 8.