For a massive undertaking like Fantasy Points Data, we need a large team of dedicated, well-trained charting professionals to ensure we can post statistics on the website accurately and quickly.
While the data-charting process is, by nature, objective, our team will obviously form opinions about what they saw, given that we have to watch every play multiple times.
Every week, we’ll select the most notable observations and back them up with the objective data we’ve become known for.
Here are our top observations for 2025 NFL Week 8.
Week 8 Data Charter Observations
1. “There aren’t enough words to describe how good Jonathan Taylor looked yesterday. Vision, burst, and contact balance on every run. OL dominated the line of scrimmage, but Taylor forced the first guy to miss seemingly every touch. The Colts’ offensive environment is perfect for Daniel Jones’ career resurgence. At WR, Alec Pierce is their deep threat, Michael Pittman is their possession WR, and Josh Downs is their ASS expert and can get open at will. Add in Tyler Warren as a matchup nightmare, and it’s easy to see why Dimes is playing so well.”
The Colts continued to dominate on offense by crossing 30 points scored for the fourth straight game in a 38-14 romp of the Titans in Week 8. RB Jonathan Taylor was unstoppable yet again with 174 total yards and 3 touchdowns on just 14 touches. Taylor is pacing for over 2,200 total yards and 29 touchdowns, and the combination of great blocking and elusiveness makes it no surprise that he is having such a great season. The Colts’ OL has helped guide Taylor to 2.95 YBCO/ATT (4th best), while he has forced the most missed tackles with 33 on the season.
Taylor’s success coincides with QB Daniel Jones playing the best football of his career. With the OL playing well and a plethora of weapons, Jones currently ranks top 10 in Passing Yards (2,062), CPOE (5.9%), ADJ COMP% (79.2%), ACC% (63.0%), and CATCH% (79.8%). The Colts travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers’ struggling defense that has allowed the 5th most passing yards so far this season.
2. “Nothing stuck out at me from a Buffalo standpoint other than James Cook has turned into one of the best producers at RB in the league (which isn’t something I have to tell anyone who has been paying attention). Cook gashed the Panthers for huge gains, as the Bills offensive line was getting tremendous push. They did a good job neutralizing Derrick Brown, who exited the game late but should be OK.”
Needing a win following two straight losses and a bye week, the Bills delivered with a 40-9 blowout win over the Panthers. The story in this one was RB James Cook exploding for 216 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground. Cook racked up 109 yards on explosive runs as the Bills’ OL opened massive holes en route to Cook averaging 8.84 YBCO/ATT. On the season, Cook has asserted himself as one of the best RBs in the NFL, leading the league in rushing yards per game at 107.6 and owning a 60+% success rate in both zone and man run concepts.
It is hard to think of QB Josh Allen as a complementary player, but that is what Allen was with Cook stealing the show against the Panthers. Allen attempted just 19 passes for 163 yards and 1 touchdown to go along with 7 rushing yards and another score on the ground. Since the run game has been so effective, Allen ranks 23rd in pass attempts with 197 on the season. The Bills will need to keep their run game rolling next week as they host the Chiefs in one of the biggest games of the season.
3. “Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough both struggled here to put it mildly. Alvin Kamara couldn’t get anything going rushing and only had 2 targets. The WRs didn’t miss a beat because Rattler and Shough are the Spider-Man meme.”
The Saints fell to 1-7 on the season following a 23-3 loss at the hands of the division rival Bucs. QB Spencer Rattler was benched in favor of rookie QB Tyler Shough in this game and now for the foreseeable future, as the Saints have announced Shough as the starter. The Bucs defense held Rattler to just 136 yards on 15/21 passing with no touchdowns and 1 interception, prompting HC Kellen Moore to turn to Shough. Although Rattler struggled, Shough did not fare much better as the rookie threw for 128 yards on 17/30 passing with no touchdowns and 1 interception. Shough registered poor metrics of -10.4% CPOE, 62.1% ADJ COMP, 46.7% ACC, 70.0% CATCH, and 26.7% OFF.
Despite the subpar QB play, WRs Rashid Shaheed and Chris Olave turned in decent performances with 9 catches for 75 yards and 8 catches for 63 yards, respectively. Both players have been productive at times this season and have positive ASS scores with Shaheed at 0.062 and Olave at 0.052. The duo will need to be on their A-game next week to help Shough in his first start against the Rams’ top 10 pass defense.
4. “Caleb Williams and the Bears offense once again came out firing on their first drive, getting to the Ravens 3-yard line before taking a couple of negative plays and settling for a field goal. I think Williams did a good job evading pressure, and he made a couple of big throws down the field before getting hit, although he did have a couple of ugly intentional grounding penalties. It looked like he was expecting a different route on one of the grounding penalties, which has been a recurring theme with him and his WRs, including his last pass of the game, where DJ Moore settled in the back of the end zone and Williams threw it like he was going to keep running. Can assign blame to both of them on that play, but ultimately, the game was over regardless, so the hyper-focus on the specifics of the play isn’t as important as the greater trend of his connection with DJ Moore just not clicking as well as it should.”
Despite facing the Ravens without QB Lamar Jackson, the Bears were unable to keep up, falling 30-16in Baltimore. QB Caleb Williams threw for 285 yards but failed to throw a touchdown pass and now has just 2 touchdown passes in the last four games. The main issue for Williams at this point is his accuracy. Among QBs with 100+ pass attempts, Williams ranks 28th in ADJ COMP % (73.3%), 32nd in ACC% (50.7%), 32nd in CATCH% (70.4%), and 33rd in OFF% (20.6%).
WR DJ Moore has struggled to get on the same page as Williams. Week 8 was better with Moore bringing in 4 catches for 73 yards, but this was Moore’s first game with over 50 receiving yards since Week 1. The Bears have a get-right opportunity on offense next week as they take on the Bengals who just allowed 39 points to the low-scoring Jets.
5. “Jaylin Noel settled into the slot role for the Texans and had a productive day that could make it difficult for the team to take him off the field in 3-WR sets. His biggest play of the day came on a deep over while lined up outside, showing that he doesn’t have to be typecast as a small slot guy, especially when Nico Collins and Jayden Higgins both have skillsets that work very well as big slot options as well.”
The Texans got back in the win column with a 26-15 victory over the visiting 49ers in Week 8. Despite missing top WR Nico Collins this week, QB CJ Stroud had his best game of the 2025 season with 318 passing yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 interception. The OL play this week made a huge difference for Stroud as he faced just a 23.8% pressure rate, which allowed him to hit pass catchers downfield. On the season, Stroud has been under pressure on 37.0% of his drop backs, so it was good to see him have time to make plays this week.
With Collins out, WRs Xavier Hutchinson and Jaylin Noel stepped up with 69 and 63 yards, respectively, and 1 touchdown for Hutchinson. Both WRs posted win rates above 10.0% on the week with 12.9% for Hutchinson and 11.8% for Noel. If Collins cannot go again next week, both Hutchinson and Noel will relied upon in a difficult matchup against the Broncos in Houston.
6. “The Chargers offense has pivoted to a quicker offensive attack. With the continued OL struggles, we are seeing the short/intermediate receivers thrive. This has brought on a resurgence for Ladd McConkey and a breakout for Oronde Gadsden.”
Week 8 kicked off with the Chargers dominating the Vikings on their way to a 37-10 win on Thursday Night Football. QB Justin Herbert was on fire in the first half with 191 passing yards and 2 touchdowns to go along with 5 carries for 51 yards before the Chargers turned to a run-heavy approach in the second half. WR Ladd McConkey and TE Oronde Gadsden were Herbert’s main targets with 6 catches, 88 yards, and 1 touchdown for McConkey and 5 catches, 77 yards, and 1 touchdown for Gadsden. Gadsden’s breakout came at the expense of WR Keenan Allen at least for this game as Allen’s route share fell to just 50.0% against the Vikings. The Chargers have a good matchup for this passing game against the Titans in Week 9.
Bonus Observations
Patriots RB TreVeyon Henderson — It seemed like OC Josh McDaniels wanted to emphasize getting TreVeyon Henderson going in space. Multiple pitch/tosses to him outside to utilize the speed we have been waiting to see. Henderson posted his best rushing total of his young career with 75 rushing yards, with 45 of them coming on explosive runs.
Broncos RB RJ Harvey — RJ Harvey had a DAY….. but so did JK Dobbins. Dobbins now has two 100-yard performances as a Bronco, and he is the first Bronco to achieve the century mark since Latavius Murray back in 2022. Although Harvey did have 3 touchdowns, that was mainly scripted by HC Sean Payton. Harvey broke a 40-yard touchdown and scored a couple of other short-yardage touchdowns, but was stuffed on 71.4% of his runs.
Packers RB Emanuel Wilson — Emanuel Wilson brought some juice to the Packers’ run game. Josh Jacobs looks to be pretty limited by the calf injury, so Wilson looked like their most explosive back. Wilson carried the ball 11 times for 61 yards, which led to a 72.7% success rate in Week 8.
Panthers RBs Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle — Hubbard looked a little better, but Dowdle absolutely cannot be denied. I don’t know why Hubbard has struggled this season, but he’s at least starting to look a little more like himself. Dowdle is just so much better right now. Hubbard had 12 carries for 34 yards, but did average 0.33 MTF/ATT. Dowdle continued to play better with 8 carries for 54 yards and a 0.38 MTF/ATT rate.
Browns QB Dillon Gabriel — Gabriel played like a rookie. The Patriots were a defense that could be beaten in the passing game, and Gabriel had no answer outside of the first 15 scripted plays. He struggles with reading a defense. If you can take away his first read, he can’t extend plays and find someone open. Have to wonder if Shedeur Sanders will get a chance if the Browns continue to struggle throwing the ball. Gabriel threw for 156 yards and 2 touchdowns with 2 interceptions and was off target on 17.1% of his throws.
