1. Gus Edwards
He should’ve been picked up before Sunday, he was #5 on our waiver wire rankings last week… we mentioned him on our IG stories as the guy to pick up during the week from this backfield, so hopefully you had him stashed already even if you didn’t start him. But with JK Dobbins on short-term IR and how for the next 4-5 weeks+, Edwards will be the primary back on a good offense. He looked fine in his first game coming off his own ACL rehab.
2. Rachaad White – Long Term
White played on 43% of the snaps for the Bucs last week and saw 8 touches, and out-performed Leonard Fournette. That’s worth noting, but it’s really less about that and more about the fact that if Fournette were to go down, you have a league winner on your hands. We talk about this every week, and we will continue to talk about it until he’s rostered in more than 50% of leagues. Roster league winners.
3. Khalil Herbert
Herbert has forced a timeshare in Chicago – he played on 41% of snaps, and this is in line with Matt Eberflus saying that he’ll ride the hot hand… and he gave both backs opportunities. They split goal line snaps, they split early downs relatively evenly. and they split 3rd down work. Both backs did their thing in this game, both scored, but Herbert is a deep league flex option at this point, and he’s another guy who can win leagues for you if David Montgomery were to get hurt. If this role holds, he’s another Tony Pollard, except he actually has a chance of usurping David Montgomery, just like what has happened in House of the Dragon – sorry if that was a spoiler alert.
4. Kyren Williams – Long Term
Cam Akers is on his way out of LA, and Darrell Henderson hasn’t been standing out with his opportunities. There were reports that indicated that Sean McVay had intentions for Williams to be a big part of the rotation – we don’t know how true that is, but it’s worth stashing him to see how this backfield shakes out, and if Williams ends up handling a portion of the workload, with the opportunity to grab more and more of it as weeks go on. He’s an undersized back coming out of Notre Dame, but he was good after contact, good at making guys miss, good in the receiving game, and is a good pass blocker. He’s worth adding.
5. Alexander Mattison – Long Term
I just noticed that he’s starting to dip below 50% rostered, and I get it, byes are rolling around, but if you can afford to have him on your bench, if anything were to happen to Dalvin Cook, you don’t have to worry about fighting your league mates grabbing him off of waivers. Just keep him stashed. We know he’s an RB1 when Dalvin misses.
6. Wan’Dale Robinson
Wan’Dale led the Giants in target share with 25%, he’s running out of the slot, he’s going to get those low depth of target passes – so prefer him in a full PPR league. Solid PPR WR3 right now.
7. Rondale Moore
Rondale Moore’s target share went up from Weeks 4-6 – 17%, 21%, 26%, and then dropped to 7% – the reason for that drop is because AJ Green was benched, Rondale Moore played outside, and Greg Dortch played in the slot when the Cardinals weren’t running 12 personnel which they did more often in this game than normal, with Trey McBride coming in. With Robby Anderson coming up to speed, he’s likely going to take that outside role with D’Andre Hopkins (who by the way, ran a 50% of his routes from the slot last week), and Rondale will take his spot in the slot. If Rondale doesn’t run routes out of the slot, he’s useless, but I expect him to get that role back this week.
8. Isiah Pacheco – Long Term
Pacheco was named the starter before Sunday’s game, but the Chiefs backfield remained a 3-man committee. Pacheco’s work can go up moving forward, and he should be stashed even if you’re not planning on playing him. As of right now, I don’t feel so comfortable playing him – he only played on 19% of snaps. As the “starter.”
9. Parris Campbell
Over the last two weeks, Parris Campbell has got it done in a big way. Led the team in target share with 29% in Week 7 – 11 targets. 19% target share in Week 6, 10 targets. Caught a TD each of the last two weeks. He might be higher if there wasn’t a QB change and a potential shift in target distribution. But he’s definitely worth a pickup right now, especially after Frank Reich told us this would happen a few weeks ago.
10. Justin Fields
Fields has looked a lot better lately, and he’s dropping back a lot more. But 82 yards rushing on Monday night, 88 yards rushing the week before, 47, 52, 47… and he’s thrown a TD pass each of the last three weeks. His fantasy performances have improved for three weeks straight, and he did what he did against a Bill Belichick and a Patriots defense who just shut out the Lions two weeks ago. He’s worth picking up if you’ve been streaming QBs. Tough matchup this week against Dallas, I’d wait to start him.
11. Jameson Williams – Long Term
Williams is still a way out, but if you have an open IR spot, I think at this point he’s worth stashing on there. Unless you have someone who’s already on there, like Hollywood, or JK Dobbins – I might drop JK, to be honest, Cordarrelle Patterson, Kyren Williams… I’d hold those guys in my IR spot over Jameson Williams. But other than those guys, I’d stash Williams now – he’s still about a month out I’d say, so you can make that determination – he’s a league-winner type of player though.
12. Chuba Hubbard – Long Term
Hubbard started over D’onta Foreman, out-snapped him 22-14 through 3 quarters before he hurt his ankle, out-touched him, looked good before he got hurt, and Foreman ripped off a couple of big plays in the 4th quarter. Hubbard is also the passing down guy, so I prefer him on a team who is likely going to be losing a lot. He’ll be on the field more. Hubbard apparently could’ve come back into the game, and all reports are saying his injury is not serious. It’s possible he plays this week. Either way, I’m viewing Hubbard as an RB3 play most weeks moving forward, assuming Foreman will continue to still be involved. We have to remember that this is a bad offense.
13. D’onta Foreman – Short Term
If I need a guaranteed play this week given a little uncertainty around Hubbard’s ankle injury, I’d pick up Foreman. Both backs will get work regardless, so Foreman can potentially still come through for you. I’m viewing Foreman as a low-end RB3 unless Hubbard is out of the picture. Again, we have to remember this is going to be a bad offense moving forward. I wouldn’t be looking at what they did against the Bucs and projecting that forward.
14. Van Jefferson
Jefferson was activated off of IR – Sean McVay said he expects him back. He might even be able to play this week. I’d pick him up now – there’s no clear 2nd option behind Cooper Kupp – it’s been Tyler Higbee, so there’s room for Jefferson to step into that role. I’d add him, keep him for a week or two, and see what he can do.
15. Latavius Murray
Melvin Gordon started the game for the Broncos, but Latavius Murray was very involved – he had 11 opportunities himself, got the goal line carry, and split the early down work down the middle with Gordon. If you need a RB who has a chance at scoring on a not-so-great offense, Murray is your guy.
16. Robbie Anderson – Long Term
The Cardinals run a lot of plays (2nd in NFL in plays/game), a lot of pass plays at that (Kyler Murray is 3rd in the NFL in dropbacks), so Robbie Anderson is a solid bet to get some targets and get some deep targets on a team who desperately needs someone to be their deep threat. Murray has a great deep ball, and we can potentially see a connection form there.
17. Marquise Goodwin – Short Term
DK Metcalf might be out for a bit with the patellar tendon issue they’re calling it, and Marquise Goodwin caught 2 TDs from Geno Smith – looked to be some chemistry there… don’t forget when Geno Smith grabbed a handful of Marquise’s ass after one of their wins several weeks ago. It looks like they have a serious connection, and I wouldn’t underestimate it. But he did run only 5 fewer routes than Tyler Lockett this past week, so he’ll be the guy on the field with Lockett if DK were to miss time – a little bit of a shot-in-the-dark play against the Giants, but there’s some upside here.
18. Evan Engram
Engram is a TE you can grab on the waiver wire right now and stream every week if you’re struggling at the position. 6/69, 5/40, 4/67 over the last 3 weeks. Denver is a tough matchup for WRs, and Engram is running a route on 80%+ of Trevor Lawrence’s dropbacks over the last three weeks, so these are the kinds of TEs we want to target when streaming.
19. Greg Dulcich
Dulcich came in as a rookie and commanded target share off the jump – 20% target share this past week – got 9 targets, produced. The week before in this first game, 80% route participation, caught a TD… there’s a lot of appeal when a TE can do something like this in their first two games in the NFL, at a position where it’s very rare for rookies to do anything. I was also very high on Dulcich coming into the league as one of the best pass-catching TEs… so it’s possible he ends up being pretty good. There are also rumors about Jerry Jeudy being traded, and if that happens, Dulcich’s value will go up.
20. Donovan Peoples-Jones
DPJ is that WR who will be available on most waiver wires who you can just plug in to get some points. He’s averaging double-digit PPR fantasy points over the last 4 weeks without any TDs. Solid streaming WR.
21. Zay Jones
Another streaming WR if you need one.
22. Tyler Allgeier
23. Elijah Moore
24. Jahan Dotson
25. Tyquan Thornton
Streaming Tight Ends:
Irv Smith against Arizona this week. They’ve given up the 2nd most fantasy points to TEs – they gave up 2 TDs to Juwan Johnson last week.
Juwan Johnson against next week against the Raiders if you want, especially if Michael Thomas and Jarvis Landry are out again. Good matchup.
Cade Otton – another target for Tom Brady – 71% route participation last week, 5 targets – solid streamer against Baltimore.
Don’t forget about Taysom Hill.
QBs Streamers:
Daniel Jones against Seattle
Jared Goff against Miami
Marcus Mariota against Carolina