Fantasy Football: 5 Bold Predictions for Week 8

D.J. Moore Will Lead the Panthers in Receiving Yards

The Carolina Panthers are doing right by D.J. Moore. They've progressively worked their first-round wide receiver into the offense and given him targets, carries and returns while they develop him. Even after his two-fumble outing in Week 5, head coach Ron Rivera told the media they were more focused on helping Moore grow and learn than punishing him for his mistakes. That's a perfect, nurturing environment for a young rookie, and Moore is going to reward the coaching staff's faith in him by leading the team in receiving in Week 8.

He's slowly worked his way into an almost 50% snap share over the last few weeks, which makes the fact that he's drawn five targets in each of the last two games particularly impressive. Per PlayerProfiler.com, he's averaging the 13th-most yards per pass route run (3.08) and the 12th-most yards per target (10.6) among qualifying receivers. He's been showing off the elite athleticism and ability to demand targets that got him drafted in the first round this year, and this week he's going to take it to the next level.

The Panthers' placeholder WR2, Torrey Smith, suffered an injury late in last week's game, and hasn't practiced yet this week. If he's unable to play, then Moore will have to step up. Unlike Moore, Smith has been highly inefficient with his opportunities this year. Despite playing the second-most snaps among Panthers wide receivers, Smith is averaging just 1.13 yards per pass route run (125th in the league) and only garnering a 13% target market share. To his credit he has managed to draw a 20% share of the team's air yards, but he's only turned that into 171 receiving yards. Moore (191 receiving yards) has outproduced him while playing less than half as many snaps.

It's no secret that the Panthers' Week 8 opponent -- the Baltimore Ravens -- are one of the few elite defenses this season. I'm not expecting any Panthers pass-catchers to blow us out of the water against the second-strongest pass defense in the league, but I am expecting Moore to enjoy a quiet breakout and lead the team in receiving yards.