Fantasy Football Week 8: Waiver Wire

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Three of my top four picks from last week, Odell Beckham Jr, Ronnie Hillman and Jerick McKinnon, had solid weeks and shouldn’t be on the waiver wire anymore in all but the shallowest of leagues. I missed on Antone Smith and am giving up as the Falcons seem inclined to stick with old, slooow Stevan Jackson. I’m holding on to Smith in my deep bench leagues, just in case the Falcons come to their senses.

My next batch of picks were all WRs and they all disappointed except for Allen Robinson who has been a staple on this list from week 2 and a guy I think is going to be a solid WR2 no later than opening day next year. Despite their mediocre week 7 performances, Jarvis Landry, Andre Holmes, and Brandon LaFell are back on the list because they all got at least 5 targets and all have WR3 / FLEX potential. I missed on my sleeper RB picks (Bolden, Crowell, Storm Johnson) and none of them made the cut this week for a variety of reasons.

The big waiver news this week is the injuries to both Bills RBs (Fred Jackson, CJ Spiller), the emergence of Denard “Shoelace” Robinson in Jacksonville, rookie Tre Mason taking the lead in the Rams RBBC and the potential fantasy fallout from the Percy Harvin trade to the Jets. I’ll cover each of those developments and a few more in my waiver recommendations below.

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Every week on Tuesday, I will be posting my top waiver pick ups for the week. Only players owned in under 50% of Yahoo leagues will qualify. There are all sorts of leagues out there with different levels of competition and varying player pool depths, so I will have a few picks with under 50% ownership, a few under 30%, 15%,  and at least one super sleeper under 5%. I’ll also be listing a few players that may be popular waiver adds that I think you should pass on (the Kevin Ogletrees) and I’ll give you my reasons why of course. If there are any players you have a specific question about feel free to hit me up in the comments or on Twitter.

Week 6 Waiver Picks

RB Tre Mason, Rams (17%) – The most explosive rookie RB finally got a chance to play and didn’t disappoint with 85 yards and a TD on 18 carries. Mason did fumble late in the game which could send him back to the bench, but he is clearly the most talented RB on the Rams roster. I don’t think the Rams will give up on their RBBC plan, but Mason should get the first crack at it next week and if he keeps running well he could earn 15-20 carries per game moving forward.

RB Denard Robinson, Jags (10%) – Shoelace has a good preseason, but hadn’t gotten a chance to play much until week 7 and he definitely took advantage of it. Robinson gained 127 yards on 22 carries (5.8 ypc) and scored a TD. No Jags running back has averaged over 4 yards per carry all season, so Robinson should at least get one more chance as the lead back. He didn’t catch any passes this week, but is a good receiver so should eventually see some targets out of the backfield. The Jags line still sucks, but I would be fine starting Robinson at FLEX this week.

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RB Bryce Brown, Bills (7%) – Is a more talented back than Dixon, but questions about playing time in Buffalo make him a risky pickup. Is Brown going to play the Spiller role, while Dixon gets Fred Jackson’s carries? That would make Dixon more valuable in the short-term, but F-Jax will be back in 3-4 weeks, while Spiller is out for the year. I think Dixon will have more value over the next three weeks, but Brown is a better long-term play and has the talent to make an impact during the stretch run. Brown had a couple of huge fantasy games the last time he was given a chance to start back in 2012.

RB Anthony Dixon, Bills (5%) – I think Dixon will get a short-term boost in carries, but Fred Jackson is already talking about coming back sooner than the 4 weeks he is expected to be out. With the Bills on bye in week 9, that could only leave 2 games for Dixon to get the majority of carries. If you need a starter this week, then Dixon should be decent, but I don’t think he will have much value past week 10.