At this point, this column is starting to become a little depressing to write. You never realize how many players the NFL loses to injury every season until you’re looking at the Waiver Wire each week trying to piece together something new.
The newest edition to Welcome To Fantasy/Good Luck Next Year is Brecee Hall, who tore his ACL just a few plays after tearing off a huge run and starting a fire in the hearts of Jets fans. That and the Sun God went down with another concussion, David Njoku is out for a couple of weeks, and that’s all before we even talk about the news of the week.
CMC to the 49ers and what that does to the fantasy landscape! And Matty Ice benched, P.J. Walker maybe taking the reins, the steady decline of Brady & Rodgers, bye weeks are still going…
It’s going to be a Spooky Waiver Wire for this Halloween Season!
Only players owned in less than 50% of Yahoo! leagues make the list.
QBs
Daniel Jones — 41% owned
Danny Dimes makes the list again this week as he continues to lead the Giants to something out of nothing every week. He might have only throw for 200 and a TD, but he also ran for over 100 yards and a TD, and in this 21st century QB styling, Jones is staying healthy while doing it. And his team can only get better as his weapons improve. And he’s outscored Rodgers so far by 20 points on the season…
Time to get with Dimes?
Andy Dalton — 3% owned
This might be more of a lark, but rumor is that Dalton might be the starter for the rest of the season unless things go really bad…and throwing two pick-6s last week apparently wasn’t bad enough to just give the job back to Jameis outright. If Dalton retains the job, you could see more games like last week where he put up nearly 30 in standard scoring despite throwing 3 picks. The Saints are a bad football team right now, but with Dalton at the helm, they should be at least in shootouts are in full garbage time mode, both of which fantasy is all about taking advantage of.
Sam Ehlinger — 1% owned
Ehlinger has been named the Colts starter for the remainder of the season. While the jury is still out about how he’s going to look in the NFL, he did have over 500 yards of rushing his senior season at Texas, which could translate into some of that dual-threat action. Regardless, he’ll have serviceable weapons in Indy. The real question is if he has any ability. If you’ve got a spot on your bench and a spotty QB, Ehlinger is worth a stash, but probably not a start yet.
RBs
Gus Edwards — 44% owned
I’m actually kind of surprised that Edwards is less than 50% owned and I’m scolding myself for not putting him on this list last week.
Look, he’s not flashy, and he’s certainly not a name, but for the past two seasons, Edwards has been the best running back not named Lamar in the Ravens backfield, despite how they’ve tried to make Dobbins and others a thing.
And he’s doing it again, despite their desire to revive Kenyan Drake’s career.
For now, Edwards is the back you want in Baltimore, until Dobbins comes back and they try to make him a thing again.
Chuba Hubbard — 37% owned
Hubbard was probably the guy flying off your waiver wire as soon as the Run CMC news hit, but if he’s still sitting there, grab him up. While right now Foreman is the guy, that probably won’t be the case once things get flowing again over there in Carolina. Which could be sooner than later with P.J. Walker at the helm, but I’m not drinking that Kool-aid yet.
Tyler Allgeier — 40% owned
This might come down to just a two week rental or so once Patterson returns to Atlanta, but Allgeier has shown that he is a capable back. If nothing else, he can help you this week in fantasy and then if you keep him on the bench and Patterson goes down again, you’ve already got a tried and true handcuff.
WRs
Wan’Dale Robinson — 29% owned
I’m sticking with the rookie from last week. Robinson has been a serviceable WR3 since coming back from injury, and he’s got nothing but upside right now in that Giants offense. This week might be a little tougher than others with a game at Seattle, but then the Giants go into the bye week, and when they come out, it looks to be fairly smooth sailing for the Danny Dimes/Robinson connection to heat up.
Donovan Peoples-Jones — 20% owned
Peoples-Jones isn’t going to win you your fantasy league, but he can certainly plug a hole in these bye weeks, especially as the Browns have shown that while they can stay in games, they can’t seem to stop anyone’s offense yet. With that in mind, Peoples-Jones is going to be involved in a lot of that late-comeback/garbage time, and should be good for 10 points when you need it.
Zay Jones — 18% owned
It’s hard to say who the true WR2 is in Jax right now as T. Law and company further figure out their identity under Doug Pederson. Right now, Christian Kirk feels embedded as the WR1, but with 10 targets last week, does that make Zay Jones the WR2?
In addition, Jax traded away James Robinson this week, which means that his touches will have to get distributed out, and they’re not all going to Etienne.
TEs
Greg Dulcich — 13% owned
Dulcich kind of came out of nowhere after the failings of Albert O. to get involved in the Broncos offense, though that’s probably not just on him with the way things have been going in Denver. Regardless, for the time being, Dulcich seems like the TE you want right now, and he’s putting up good numbers so far. If you’ve been disappointed in your TE play, grab him up now while he’s hot.
Cade Otton — 14% owned
I don’t know if you want any Buc, but as Brady seems to be regressing in his final days, it only makes sense that he’s throwing to the TE more. And with no Gronk, and Brate hurt, Otton is the default man of the hour. We’ll see how long it lasts, but again, with such slim pickings at TE this season, he’s worth as much a flier as nearly anyone else.