Who to start and sit in Week 8 fantasy football for Ravens-Buccaneers on TNF

Week 7 of the NFL season will start on Thursday, October 27 with the Baltimore Ravens traveling to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Kickoff from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL is set for 8:15 p.m. ET, and the game will air on Amazon Prime Video. This is expected to be a competitive contest with Baltimore listed as a small, one point favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook.

We’ll take you through some starts and sits for this intriguing Thursday night matchup.

Start

Gus Edwards, RB, Baltimore Ravens

Edwards returned to the lineup last Sunday, making a splash with 66 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. Thursday’s matchup at Tampa doesn’t look great at first blush, but the Buccaneers have been generous to opposing running backs lately. Just ask Panthers RBs Chuba Hubbard and D’Onta Foreman, who combined for 181 rushing yards and a touchdown on 24 carries last week vs. Tampa.

Standing in at 238 pounds, Edwards is always a threat to put his head down and dive into the end-zone. Combine that with a likely 15 carry workload, and Edwards is worth starting on Thursday Night Football.

Cade Otton, TE, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Buccaneers starting TE Cameron Brate has been ruled out for Thursday Night Football. That’s good news if you have his backup, Otton, on your fantasy squad. Otton has performed well in two games with Brate sidelined, hauling in four catches for 64 yards (at CAR) and six catches for 43 yards (vs. ATL). There’s a chance he finds similar success in this showdown with the Ravens.

It helps that Russell Gage has been ruled out, and Julio Jones is questionable. This leaves Otton as one of the few healthy pass catchers for Tom Brady, aside from Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Otton is a serviceable fill-in tight end for the Bucs, and he should hold the same title for your fantasy team.

Sit

Rashod Bateman, WR, Baltimore Ravens

Will Bateman play on Thursday? We might not know until closer to kickoff, but he didn’t practice earlier in the week due to a foot injury.

Even if Bateman suits up on Thursday, his fantasy prospects aren’t encouraging. The Ravens receiver could be slowed by that aforementioned foot injury, and his production has dropped in recent weeks. Bateman is averaging three catches and 39 yards over his last three games, which isn’t exactly WR3 production. Unless you are in an extremely large league, you can probably do better than Bateman this week.

Kenyan Drake, RB, Baltimore Ravens

If Drake is on your fantasy roster, hopefully you enjoyed the gravy train while it lasted. The Baltimore RB went off for 119 rushing yards and a touchdown in Week 6 against the New York Giants. However, the Ravens activated Edwards as their RB1 last week, and Drake took a backseat with only five rushing yards on 11 carries against the Cleveland Browns.

Drake will still factor into the Ravens backfield, but it appears Edwards has the upper-hand. It’s hard to believe that he can find a path to reasonable fantasy production with Lamar Jackson and Edwards soaking up the scoring opportunities for Baltimore.