We are at that point of the year where the options on the waiver wire are becoming less and less attractive. Unless you’re in a 20 man league, there shouldn’t have been anyone out there clamoring to grab Drew Stanton. However, there are still options out there to help you and your team out. As with last week, if you know your team is playoff bound, you’re looking for high upside options or potential streamers for the playoffs. Teams that are in the mix for the playoffs will want to divide their targets between options that would help them now versus upside options. And sadly, there are teams that are already eliminated. In redraft leagues those teams should look to play the spoiler.
Regardless of where your team falls, there is a list below of players that either qualify as a streamer or someone who is worth holding onto for at least a little bit longer. All of the options are at or below the 50% ownership mark in either Yahoo or ESPN leagues. The big change from previous waiver wire articles is that you will no longer find a suggestion for a FAAB bid. You know your situation best at this point. You know the budgets of your league mates and you have nine weeks of league bid history available for research. In short, adjust your bidding according to the league you are in.
Fantasy Football: Working the Waiver Wire Week 10
Streaming Options
Quarterbacks
Jared Goff vs. the Houston Texans
Goff was on this list last week, and he probably deserves to be a rest of season candidate going forward. To say that Goff had a banner day this past Sunday would be an understatement. Sure, there are questions about if the New York Giants quit or not. Either way, throwing for 311 yards and four touchdowns on the road is an impressive feat. I doubt anyone was expecting Goff to be heading one of the NFL’s most dangerous offenses this season, but that’s exactly what has happened so far. Now, Goff gets to take that offense and direct it towards the Texans, a team that has surrendered six passing touchdowns since their bye and has given up multiple scores four times this year.
Josh McCown at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
McCown is on quite the tear right now. He has scored multiple touchdowns in five consecutive weeks. Now he gets to face a team that has surrendered at least one passing touchdown every game this season. Outside of Goff, McCown has the best floor for potential streamers.
Andy Dalton at the Tennessee Titans
While both Goff and McCown are reasonably safe–as far as streamers go–the same can’t be said for Dalton. These are dangerous waters that we are treading into now. At this point we have no clue what will happen to A.J. Green. If a fine is the only discipline that Green faces, then Dalton’s floor in this matchup becomes a little safer. At the start of the season the Titans were a matchup to target for quarterbacks, but they were able to clean things up in the three games before their bye (two total passing touchdowns with less than 250 passing yards in each game). Of course, the dangerous trio of Jay Cutler, Jacoby Brissett, and DeShone Kizer affected those numbers. If you’re looking for gold at the end of this rainbow, Joe Flacco was able to hang 261 passing yards and two touchdowns on the Titans this past Sunday.
Update: Green will not be suspended this week for his fight, which helps to stabilize Dalton’s floor this week.
Eli Manning at the San Francisco 49ers
Manning has a great matchup going into this week, but there are a few reasons to be less confident about his floor. First, he’s on the road. Second, Manning hasn’t been playing particularly well lately. In the last three games he’s averaging about 161 passing yards, 1.3 touchdowns, and one turnover. Third, his wide receivers have been decimated by injuries this year. Finally, Manning is a risky option because his coach hasn’t ruled out benching him. In other words, there are better options out there.
Running Backs
Orleans Darkwa at the San Francisco 49ers
Darkwa is more of a streaming option than someone you hold onto for the rest of the season. Think about it. How often would you feel comfortable plugging in Darkwa into your lineup? There’s always a chance that he could be scripted out of the game due to the score, which makes him less attractive as a season long option. There’s little chance, however, that he won’t be more of a factor this week. The 49ers offense has put their run defense in a tough situation these past few weeks. Their defense has surrendered an average of 166 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown over the last three games, so if you’re ever going to use Darkwa now would be the time.
Tight Ends
A.J. Derby vs. the New England Patriots
This is a tough week for streaming tight ends. The normal streaming option are either above the 50% mark, or they have a tough matchup. Enter Derby. Derby is a more viable option if Brock Osweiler remains the starter for this coming week. However, Derby saw only three targets this past week. In other words, consider this a deep cut that needs a negative game script to inflate Derby’s chances.
Rest of Season Options
Running Backs
The main reason not to go all in on either of these options is that we are unsure how the situation should play out. As of right now it looks like a full blown committee where one running back only slightly leads in touches. This week Drake had two more touches and 43 yards. It remains to be seen if that trend will continue, but if you’re picking one, it makes more sense right now to pick Drake. On the horizon, the Miami Dolphins face the Buccaneers, the Patriots (twice), and the Kansas City Chiefs in championship weekend, so there’s reason to use a bench spot on one them.
Not much has changed from last week. Lewis still leads the backfield in touches, and his competition narrows the types of ways that he can accrue points. He also faces a string of tough matchups in his last five games, but he’s a dynamic runner who has the ability to break one with every touch.
Mack is more of an upside stash at this point. In order to fulfill his fantasy potential this year Mack will need things to change for the Indianapolis Colts. Most likely Mack would need the Colts to decide to initiate a changing of the guard, but nothing indicates that is going to happen any time soon.
Woodhead is already practicing with his team, and he’s set to return in week 11. This is significant because Flacco has targeted his running backs an average of ten times in the past three games. While you can’t count on a lot of carries from him going forward, you can count on Woodhead having a role in the passing game going forward.
Potential Stashes
Now is the time to think about handcuffing your starters. Playoff bound teams, who have limited FAAB left, should make room for valuable backups. For instance, Malcolm Brown would definitely fall into that category. Now I wouldn’t go wild with this strategy and cut valuable players to make room. You also only want to focus on the handcuffs that would see a similar workload if they took over (e.g. Derrick Henry).
Wide Receivers
Gordon is the ultimate high upside stash pick at this point. Stashing Gordon only makes sense for playoff bound/spoiler teams. That’s because there’s no telling what player we will see in week 13. He hasn’t played in a regular season game since 2014. Yes, 2014. So it would unreasonable to expect 2013 Josh Gordon to walk through those doors and light the league on fire in weeks 13 and on. However, we do know that Gordon has massive upside and is on a team that could use his talents. It’s not as if Corey Coleman has proven anything at this point, so Gordon could be walking into a decent chunk of targets. All the more reason to stash the guy to see if he pays off.
Anderson has now scored in three straight games. He faces the Buccaneers next, who rank 31st in pass efficiency defense. This has all the makings of sweet fantasy meal this coming Sunday. Outside of this Sunday, Anderson has a few tough matchups. If you look at Warren Sharp‘s strength of schedule, Anderson had a front loaded schedule of easy matchups. After this week, that trend flips. It will be interesting to see if he can maintain his hot streak in the coming weeks.
Yes, Davis is talented. And yes, he does have two tough matchups coming up. He also a teammate’s production to contend with. Rishard Matthews‘s game this past Sunday creates concern for Davis’s value going forward; however, you have to keep in mind that this past Sunday was only his second full NFL game. At this point, Davis is more of a roster stash than a legitimate starter, but his snap share (75%) indicates his value should rise going forward.
Corey Coleman comes back from an injury in week 11. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s coming back to face the Jacksonville Jaguars. It’s a little unnerving to have two Cleveland Browns wide receivers on this list, but Coleman should be their top receiver for at least a couple of weeks.
Josh Doctson has some brutal matchups on the horizon, but he’s still worth stashing. His game winning catch on Sunday could earn him even more looks from Kirk Cousins.
Dede Westbrook looked great in the preseason, and could return to his team this coming week. The downside is that he, at best, would be the third source for targets in an offense that doesn’t throw the ball much.
Curtis Samuel benefits from the recent Kelvin Benjamin trade. In the first game after the trade, Samuel saw 75% of the offensive snaps. While the production wasn’t exactly there this past game, the talent and opportunity are reasons to consider stashing Samuel.
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