CFB DFS DraftKings Main Slate Breakdown: Week 8

by Jordan Vanek (vanekjordan)

Created Oct 23, 2026

Last Updated 2026-10-23 18:36:34 Premium Content Part of the product CFB Premium

Using his experience as a former scout and staff member at Central Florida under Josh Heupel, Jordan Vanek takes an in-depth look at the upcoming CFB DFS main slate on DraftKings for Week 8. Winner of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association’s 2025 College Sports Writer of the Year award, Jordan’s deep dive into the best stacks, running backs, and wide receivers is a must-read before you start building your lineups.

We’re getting to the point in the college football season where we have a pretty good understanding of what teams want to do offensively and defensively, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily good at executing it. That’s one of the biggest things that stands out to me on this Week 8 slate. There are several defenses that continue to play the same coverages despite getting beaten by them every week, and I think there are some really good opportunities to take advantage of those tendencies.

West Virginia and Illinois are two defenses I want to attack, particularly through the passing game. We’ve seen some massive performances against both teams, and I think there are a few offenses that are priced too cheaply for the matchups they’re getting. On the other side, Pittsburgh’s willingness to bring pressure against one of the best QBs in the country at beating the blitz creates another interesting spot to target.

The biggest decision this weekend is going to be how much salary we want to spend at QB and WR. There are some expensive players with legitimate slate-breaking upside, but I also think the cheaper stacks are stronger than usual. That gives us some flexibility to pay up at RB, where there are several players with massive workloads and favorable matchups. Finding the right combination of those expensive players and cheaper passing attacks is going to be important in tournaments.

As always, our CFB DFS projections will be updated throughout Saturday’s slate with any news that comes out. Our projections team will also be posting real-time updates in the RotoGrinders Discord, letting you know what news came in and how it impacted the projections.

CFB DFS DraftKings Picks: Top Stacks, RBs, & WRs for Week 8

There are a ton of zone-heavy defenses on this slate, but quite a few of them haven’t been very good. West Virginia is allowing over 10 yards per dropback against zone coverage, while Illinois has also struggled significantly, giving up a ton of production through the air when playing zone.

The more man-heavy defenses on the slate are Oregon, UCF, Minnesota, UCLA, Texas A&M, Michigan, and Auburn. Oregon tends to lean more on 2-Man concepts, while the others have no problem playing Cover 1 and trusting their defensive backs to win one-on-one matchups.

Quite a few teams on this slate play a lot of single-high coverage, starting with Illinois, which has one of the highest single-high rates in the country. TCU is another team that relies heavily on single-high looks, even though the graph doesn’t show it. Texas A&M and Miami also rank near the top, but there’s an important difference between the two. Miami loves to blitz out of single-high looks, while Texas A&M doesn’t bring nearly as much pressure.

On the two-high side, Iowa, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, and Oregon are all near the top. Pittsburgh is particularly interesting because of how often it blitzes from two-high shells, and Darian Mensah has been one of the best passers in the country against those looks.

Game Stacks

Jaden Craig ($6,400, QB, TCU)

Jordan Dwyer ($5,300, WR, TCU)

Ed Small ($4,900, WR, TCU)

Cam Cook ($8,400, RB, West Virginia)

West Virginia has allowed five of its six opponents to average over 8 yards per dropback this season, and I don’t think Jaden Craig could ask for a much better matchup. The passing attack really comes down to three players: Jordan Dwyer, Ed Small, and Kari Ashley. With Ashley on the injury report, I’m more than happy to play both Dwyer and Small in this spot.

West Virginia has already had two games where multiple pass catchers topped 80 receiving yards, and they’ve allowed some monstrous individual performances. Wyatt Young went for 192 yards, Isaiah Mizell had 183, Cody Jackson finished with 160, and Malachi Henry put up 128. None of those players needed 10 receptions to reach those numbers, which is a big reason why I love Dwyer in this matchup. He has a massive aDOT this season, and we finally saw the chemistry between him and Craig come together last week when he finished with 150 receiving yards on just 6 receptions.

On the West Virginia side, Michael Hawkins and DJ Epps are perfectly fine bring-back options, but Cam Cook is my favorite play from this offense for a few reasons. TCU hasn’t faced an RB of Cook’s caliber this season, and I think the way the Horned Frogs have to account for Hawkins will create opportunities for Cook in the running game.

Cook is coming off his lowest touch total in any game against a Power Four opponent this season, but I’m not concerned about his workload. He’s typically around 30 touches per game, and his snap count didn’t drop at all last week. West Virginia simply threw the ball more, and Hawkins kept more of the read-option plays. I expect Cook to get back to his usual workload, and I really like his upside in this matchup.

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