The halfway point of the fantasy season is here folks. Bye weeks are ramping up and trade deadlines are approaching. We have officially entered the dog days of the season.

It wouldn’t be another week of fantasy if there wasn’t another group of injuries to track as the week progresses. First up is the big news of the day, a second opinion on CJ Anderson’s injured knee revealed a bone bruise. This could keep him sidelined through the Broncos’ bye week in Week 11 given the “several weeks” timetable reported by NFL Network. He isn’t officially out yet but this will be a situation to keep a close eye on this week. It may be a week too late to get him on the cheap, but Devontae Booker is a must-add for all CJ Anderson owners, or if you are in need of running back help this week.

In other injury news, Tevin Coleman will likely miss Sunday’s game against the Packers. Devonta Freeman owners rejoice! One of last season’s best fantasy players will be getting his heavy workload back, for a short time at least. Now the Falcons held Freeman out of contact drills today, but it looks like this is more of a precaution to save him for a huge amount of touches this week. Terron Ward was promoted from the practice squad and must be on your radar if you own either Freeman or Coleman. An interesting note for Coleman’s injury is that if he isn’t ready for Sunday then he might miss the Thursday game Week 9 as well.

Last week I touched on the Lesean McCoy injury situation, and just when it looked like he may miss last week’s game, he amazingly was able to play. The Bills may be regretting that decision not to hold him out, because he only made his injury worse. Backup Mike Gillislie is also dealing with an injury. Keep a close eye on this running back situation this week. A clever move might be to snag Reggie Bush and monitor the news coming out of Bills’ practices.

An interesting development out of Green Bay came in the form of wide receiver Ty Montgomery. With Eddie Lacy and James Starks out for the foreseeable future, Montgomery played over 80% of his snaps lined up at running back. He played extremely well in the Thursday night game against Chicago and should see more work out of the backfield moving forward. If you are in an ESPN league, you got a very nice gift in the form of dual-eligibility for Montgomery at RB and WR. He is a must-add in free agency if available and is a guy to target in a trade if you can afford him. The dual eligibility is rare in fantasy football and will make him a one-man flex play as we head into the biggest bye weeks of the season.

Speaking of bye weeks, this is the first of the big ones. Week 8 sees Baltimore, Los Angeles, NY Giants, Miami, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco all taking a bye.

Hopefully you have all planned accordingly for these byes. Stream where you can but just looking at the teams, there are plenty of replacement options that you should have already rostered. Le’Veon Bell owners should just go back to the suspension plan they enacted at the beginning of the year. There are plenty of receivers to fill the void of Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham, and Jarvis Landry. Big Ben was already injured so just continue that back up plan.

If you are desperate at quarterback this week, go get Jameis Winston as he draws the Raiders defense this week. Oakland should have no way of stopping Mike Evans, which will make for a potentially great day for Winston.

This brings me to the matchup portion of my Week 8 primer. So lets just get right into the best and worst matchups of the week.

Best Matchup: Oakland vs. Tampa Bay (Both teams)

I already touched briefly on the Tampa Bay portion of this game. Oakland is one of the worst passing defenses in the league and will turn this game into one hell of a shootout. The Raiders also draw a weak Tampa Bay secondary as well. The Raiders play better on the road and Derek Carr is looking like a MVP candidate. This game is worth loading up on, this has the makings of a 42-35 ballgame.

Worst Matchup: Chicago (vs. Minnesota)

New week, same answer. Just avoid Minnesota at this point you will only regret it. This defense is an automatic bye week for your players. Jay Cutler coming back doesn’t mean a thing, other than more turnovers for the Vikings to force. Alshon Jeffrey, Cameron Meredith, Zach Miller, and any Bears RB shouldn’t be in the lineup.

Good Matchup: Seattle (vs. New Orleans)

This has to be the week where Seattle turns it around right? They will be in the dome facing one of the worst defenses in the NFL. Jimmy Graham faces his former team so I would expect big numbers out of him. If New Orleans sells out on him, that could mean Doug Baldwin gets a chance to break out of his early season slump.

Tough Matchup: Indianapolis (vs. Kansas City)

T.Y. Hilton has been fantasy gold this season, along with Andrew Luck. That won’t be the case on Sunday as the Chiefs can play some serious defense. This Kansas City defense absolutely shut down Oakland a few weeks ago on the road and I expect a similar performance on Sunday. Temper expectations for your Colts this week.

Other Good Matchups: Green Bay (vs. Atlanta), Atlanta (vs. Green Bay), Cincinnati (vs. Washington), Houston (vs. Detroit), Minnesota (vs. Chicago)

Other Tough Matchups: Carolina (vs. Arizona), San Diego (vs. Denver), Buffalo (vs. New England), Detroit (vs. Houston), Cleveland (vs. NY Jets)

 That’s it for me today. I’ll be back tomorrow with a “No Huddle” breaking down the best games heading into Week 8. I may even slip a little NBA predictions post in there as well with the season tipping off yesterday. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.