The week 1 hangover is upon us and now it is time to overreact on the waiver wire. I will remind everyone that Allen Robinson caught one pass in the season opener last year (sounds like a certain receiver we saw in Dallas yesterday). This piece will simply help point you in the right direction of who may be available in your league and which situations you should look to take advantage of.
Tyrell Williams - WR - San Diego Chargers
Williams played on 60% of the snaps on Sunday and became relevant after the unfortunate ACL injury to Keenan Allen. He saw five targets and caught two of them for 71 yards. Travis Benjamin, Antonio Gates and Danny Woodhead will be the top-3 options, but in a high volume passing offense look for Tyrell to be the next guy up. Fellow wideout Dontrelle Inman played in 79% of the snaps, but saw only three targets catching one of them.
Theo Riddick - RB - Detroit Lions
Although Ameer Abdullah played almost twice the snaps of Riddick in this opening contest, it was due in part to a potential concussion for Theo. On just 24 snaps in the game, Riddick found pay-dirt twice while touching the ball 12 times (5 receptions) for 108 yards. Be weary of his potential concussion symptoms, but Riddick needs to be owned in all leagues and will provide excellent flex value for your team.
Will Fuller - WR - Houston Texans
With a ton of hype leading into the season, some owners may have shied away at the last minute due to his hamstring injury leading into week 1. We saw the chemistry Osweiler had with Fuller all throughout the pre-season and it carried over into the opening game. Leading the team with 11 targets we saw Fuller go over 100 yards and haul in a TD. With Hopkins dominating the tougher coverage from defenses, expect Fuller to continue his high level performance.
Josh McCown - QB - Cleveland Browns
Now that the RG3 experiment is put on hold for a minimum of eight weeks, we will see McCown take over an offense he ran for eight games last season. In those games he did far better than I assume you remember: 2,109 yds - 12 td - 4 int - 98 rush yds - 1 rush td - 20.5 pts/game. In comparison, the #10 scoring fantasy QB last year (Kirk Cousins) posted 22.1 pts/game. With upgraded weapons from last year, I expect McCown to perform at an above average level for fantasy owners.
Gary Barnidge - TE - Cleveland Browns
I realize that Barnidge is owned in most all leagues, but owners may get scared off this tight end because of the zero he posted in week 1. If you can obtain The Barn-yard Dog at a discount it will be similar to a hot waiver wire pickup. In the eight games McCown played last year, Barnidge averaged: 6 catches for 80 yards and a TD. Take advantage!
Spencer Ware - RB - Kansas City Chiefs
First of all, if Ware is available on your wavier wire and you are in a league with more than four people, than you need to re-visit the quality of your fantasy football situation. The talk for weeks leading up to opening day was how valuable Ware would be in the absence of Jamaal Charles and he proved it on the field. With only 16 touches (7 receptions), he posted 199 total yards and a touchdown. Ware has solidified himself a role in this offense with or without Charles and given his 12.4 yards per touch, he doesn't need a lot of volume to be successful on our fantasy teams.
Cole Beasely - WR - Dallas Cowboys
As one of our writers, Phillip Caldwell, mentioned in his dumpster dives article before the season, Beasley became a Jarvis Landry type outlet for rookie quarterback Dak Prescott. Beasley finished 5th overall in targets this past week with 12 and caught eight of them for 65 yards. Perhaps the most impressive stat was his 5 catches on 5 targets on third down, all resulting in a first down.
Stefon Diggs - WR - Minnesota Vikings
With the quarterback explosion in Minnesota, fantasy owners were scared off of Diggs and surely that was a bad decision. This is one of the most skilled wide receivers in the game and the plan to move him around the formation is paying dividends. Nine targets led the team in week 1. Seven catches for over 100 yards with a 77.8% catch rate makes Diggs the go-to guy in this passing game. And if Adrian Peterson continues to run backwards, that passing game will be leaned on a bit more than we expect this season.
OTHER POTENTIAL WAVIER OPTIONS
- James White - RB - New England Patriots
- Mohamed Sanu - WR - Atlanta Falcons
- Kyle Rudolph - TE - Minnesota Vikings
- Cody Latimer - WR - Denver Broncos
- Robert Woods - WR - Buffalo Bills
- Darren Sproles - RB - Philadelphia Eagles
- Chris Hogan - WR - New England Patriots
- Jameis Winston - QB - Tampa Bay Bucs