If you were like anyone that I played with, this week was either feast or famine. You ran with Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes and enjoyed every second of the weekend ride. You might even have started Joe Burrow and been throwing your phone across the room before he woke up.
Or you could have been playing Dak and wondering where his receivers were before rushing to the waiver and looking at options besides Cooper Rush.
That’s not even to say how your top running backs did outside of Jonathan Taylor. And if you started, let’s say, Eli Mitchell…
So there’s a lot to consider, as well as how much of all of this was just Week One.
Only players owned in less than 50% of Yahoo! leagues make the list.
QBs
Jamies Winston – 46% owned
He may not be available in your league, but if you’re looking for a quality replacement for Dak, look no further than Famous Jameis. He went for 269, 2 TDs, and most importantly, no picks yesterday against a Falcons team that probably should have won that game. That said, Jameis looked worlds better in the 2nd half (as did a lot of these QBs who didn’t play the preseason), and with weapons like Michael Thomas, Jarvis Landry, and the rookie Chris Olave, he should put up similar numbers every week, which was good enough for QB7 this week in standard scoring.
Carson Wentz – 14% owned
Speaking of performances, Wentz was QB3 on the week. And he’s also got a bag full of weapons in Terry McLaurin, Curtis Samuel, Logan Thomas, and rookie Jahan Dotson. Could this be the new start that Wentz really needed, a place where no one knows him? Or was this just some Week 1 aberration that hoodwinks us all again? The Commanders have the talent. They usually do. It’s the leadership that’s usually lacking. But for one week, Carson Wentz has me considering.
Geno Smith – 4%
Quote of the night maybe. When asked about all the people that had written him off, Geno responded, “They write me off, I ain’t write back though.”
I’m excited if this is for real, like with Wentz. And while the numbers weren’t as great as these other waiver wire wonders, he’s only 4% rostered, so he’s almost guaranteed to be available in your league. And he’s got weapons too in both DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, as well as Will Dissly and Noah Fant at TE. This was probably a floor game for him against a good defense and a lot of emotions in Russ’s return to Seattle.
All the haters keep hatin’
It’ll be interesting to see if any of these three can keep it up going forward, but they’re all better bets than Cooper Rush (who will now be QB1 next week).
RB
Jeff Wilson Jr. – 18%
Come ride with me!
I’m not sure if he’s the top waiver wire pickup at RB this week, but if you have Eli Mitchell, he’s probably the most comfortable.
We’ve seen the last two seasons that Wilson Jr. is a perfectly capable fill-in for that 49er offense. It’ll just be a question of what the 49ers game-plan is going forward. Sunday’s game in Chicago in a heavy downpour didn’t do much to show us the potential of Trey Lance. If they can get utilize Lance’s running ability as well as Deebo’s out of the backfield, it may open more holes for Wilson Jr. down the line. But really, it’s too soon to tell, but if you trusted in Mitchell, you probably feel better grabbing this now RB1 than one of the RB2s below.
Jamaal Williams – 48%
Right under the 50% mark, which shouldn’t be the case next week, is my #1 RB pick-up.
Look, we’ve been saying it in all the pods leading into the season, and we’re not the only ones. The Lions are going to be good this season. They may even squeak into the playoffs. I called Sunday’s game against the Eagles a Week One play-in game as I thought both these teams (not so much Philly now that Dak is out) were going to be fighting for a Wild Card spot, and this game could have been a factor.
That said, the way the Detroit offense seems to flow, Jamaal Williams will be very much a part of the run game, nearly splitting carries with D’Andre Swift. This will probably be the case the rest of the season as the Lions are somewhat lacking in weapons. They’ll also likely find themselves in a lot of high scoring affairs, so Williams is bound to pay off at least in a Flex spot.
Dontrell Hilliard – 7%
The Titans are one of those questionable teams coming out of Week One. But one thing that is clear is that Hilliard is going to be the pass catching back. While he can do it, for some reason, getting the ball to King Henry in the air has never been a high priority for the Titans. He barely averages a target a game for crying out loud.
Hilliard is not only the perfect change of pace back for Henry, but he also has soft hands and a quick reaction to what’s happening upfield, making him a very interesting weapon for Tannehill in the pass game. While this was probably his ceiling game for the season with 61 yards receiving and 2 TDs, he should continue to see action at a high level, making him worth at least a bench stash.
Khalil Herbert – 41%
Like Williams, he’s higher owned and probably will be over 50% this week, so it’s hard to ignore him. Again, this game was played in the pouring rain, so it’s hard to say how much of this translates to next week, but until Justin Fields proves things with his arm, there’s going to be a lot of running going on, and Herbert got quite a few meaningful carries behind David Montgomery. He’s a weapon that the Bears would be idiotic not to find a way to use, so he should be finding a way onto your bench as his role increases in Chicago.
WR
Jahan Dotson – 24% and Curtis Samuel – 7%
When the Kid and I pulled a rookie auto of Dotson this summer, I was like “who?”
Now a lot of this comes with the grain of salt that I mentioned up with Wentz…is this the Wentz we’re going to see for most of the season? If so, then Dotson and McLaurin make for a great pair of guys on the outside with Curtis Samuel in the slot.
They were WR18 and 13 respectively, which was higher than the WRs on a few of my fantasy teams. Definitely guys to consider.
Devin Duvernay – 32%
All off-season we’ve been asking each other who Lamar was going to throw to outside of Mark Andrews. Rashod Bateman? Maybe, but we weren’t sold.
Duvernay saw the 3rd most targets on the team in Week One and made the most of them, catching all 4 for 54 yards and 2 TDs. Not only that, it seemed that Lamar wanted to prove to everyone that he was not just a running quarterback, throwing the ball 30 times versus only six rushes, and this was against the lowly Jets that he didn’t have to perform magic to beat. That’s all to say that if Lamar continues to work from the pocket, that just means more passes coming Duvernay’s way.
Robbie Anderson – 11%
How do we forget about Robbie Anderson every year, it feels like? And this guy has not played with great QBs of late, yet he still finds a way to make an impact on every fantasy season. That said, he’s clearly the guy that Baker is looking for right now in the passing game, targeted 8 times. He caught 5 for 102 and a tuddy, which again puts him worlds ahead of my top drafted wide receivers. And Anderson might be the one most likely to continue to repeat this performance as Baker will be throwing a lot in the coming months. This could be the waiver wire pick-up that changes your fantasy fortune.
TE
Hayden Hurst – 10%
That Bengals/Steelers game was wild. One thing it showed us was that Cincy wasn’t going to be go away from throwing the ball, even after Burrow threw 4 INTs. Now with Tee Higgins out for at least a week with a concussion, there’s even more targets to go around. In Week One, Hurst got 8 targets, catching 5 for 46 yards, and a super crucial acrobatic catch on a 4th quarter drive that has to give Burrow further confidence in him going forward.
There were higher scoring waiver wire TEs this week, but Hurst strikes me as the player with the most consistency going forward.
O.J. Howard – 1%
So, I’m pretty sure that Howard will be available in your league just like Davis Mills is pretty sure that Howard is open in the end zone.
One of our favorite mantras is that a young QBs safety valve is always the TE, and Mills proved that on Sunday. Not only that, Mills looked better as a 2nd year QB than a lot of us expected, so there’s nothing but upside here. Howard might not see another 2 TD day this season like he did Sunday, but he should find himself with a few more targets going forward.
Taysom Hill – 12%
Here in Louisiana, we say that Taysom Hill plays football. That simple. Now primarily lined up back at TE, there’s no telling how many gadget plays the Saints have worked out for him. Would I trust myself to start him in Week Two….no. But he’s an interesting bench stash, as if they keep using him both to run and catch the ball, and maybe even throw it on occasion, well, he could be really interesting flex play that gets you 12 to 15 points every week.
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