Transcription
Good morning, friends and enemies. Welcome into the week 16 waiver wire, the semifinals of your fantasy playoffs. Kind of an interesting one, not going to lie. There's some moving parts around. There's some injuries that we need to make clear before we know who the hits, who the bangers are. But for right now, you know, I think there's some gold on the waiver wire if you play your cards right. And we're going to go through each of the positions, all the trending players, talk through my thoughts on these thoughts, and then go through the trending down players, guys that I think you can officially drop for the season.
All right, let's start with the running back position because I think that is the most interesting position of the week for the waiver wire. You have Michael Carter up top there, who I would say is probably my number one waiver wire pickup of the week at the running back position, given the fact that Zonovan Knight has sprained his ankle. Troy Benson is out for the year, James Connor's out for the year. Zonovan Knight got hurt very early on in Sunday's game against Houston and it led to Michael Carter playing on nearly 80% of the snaps in this one. Took all the early down work, got a lot of pass-catching work as well and Michael Carter is going to end up filling that role. The one wrench kind of thrown in here is that Amari DeMarcado did come back from a high ankle sprain for the first time in week 15 and I do think he will likely take that like pure pass-catching role when he's a little bit healthier, which obviously as the weeks progress he will become healthier and healthier. They've got a great schedule, Atlanta and Cincinnati, and I think Michael Carter as the lead back for those two games can be someone who scores, you know, one or two touchdowns over the next two weeks. He's also just a good versatile back. If y'all remember watching him at UNC, he was a really, really good runner and pass catcher along with Javonte Williams there when they were both there together. So, I think he's versatile. I think he could be used in all facets of the game and I think he will likely be their lead runner in the way that Zonovan Knight had kind of been for the last few weeks. So, in the same vein where now it's all condensed to Michael Carter and Amari DeMarcado, and this is assuming Zonovan Knight is out for the remainder of the season because I think he probably will be based on reports that we've heard. I think Michael Carter will be like a top, you know, 25 to 30 running back where he's not a must-start, but I think you could definitely do worse if you're in a pinch, especially in a PPR league. So, I like Michael Carter a lot this week.
Javonte Williams, only owned in 42% of leagues. He had a big game because Chris Rodriguez kind of randomly got ruled out. Ended up going 18 for 96 on the ground, a touchdown. A lot of that had to do with the fact they were playing against the New York Giants. Obviously, split work with Jeremy McNichols. One thing I will say about Chris Rodriguez, he missed the game with the groin. He was a DNP on Wednesday, but did get limited practices in on both Thursday and Friday. And as far as I'm concerned, he didn't suffer like a setback over the weekend or pregame warm-ups or anything like that. So, it does feel like he's probably trending to get back for the game against Philadelphia, who have been kind of a subpar uh defensive team against the run when Jordan Davis is not playing, which I don't think I expect him to play in week 16, but we'll have to keep an eye on that. When Chris Rodriguez is back, this is just going to be a very, very muddled backfield again. I just don't think they are planning on giving anyone just all the work here. You know, even when Chris Rodriguez kind of like was the starter, it was still like 12 carries to five for him, five for McNichols. So, it's messy. I'd pick up Javonte Williams just in case. He should be owned just in case Chris Rodriguez misses another game. He'll be a flex option for you, but not overly optimistic about it. Malik Davis just a high-end handcuff to Javonte Williams.
The New Orleans backfield is a little bit interesting here as well because Deon Neal leaves the game with a hamstring injury and that likely means he's going to miss at least one game, if not the remainder of the fantasy season. They get the Jets at home next week, which is a juicy matchup. Now we're going to see some sort of a split backfield. No Deon Neal. We don't have word on Alvin Kamara. I still think he probably tries to make a return and probably doesn't want to go out like this, but we'll have to see. Maybe it's this week. Maybe it's next week. Maybe it's just week 18 against Atlanta. If not, it'll be a split between Kendre Miller and Evan Hull. Now, it's kind of weird how they were used. Like Miller ended up being more heavily utilized when Deon Neal went out, but he was like more of a pass catcher. He was playing long down and distance snaps. He was playing the pass-catching role, which is weird 'cause that's not the type of player he is. He is a huge body. He is a big power running back, like a thumper from Notre Dame, as you could see, 5'11", 227 pounds, where Evan Hull is like a lot more explosive, a lot more fit to be the pass catcher. So, I'm not clear on what their actual role is going to be going forward. I would prioritize Kendre Miller and Evan Hull to me doesn't feel like a high upside play really. Not even sure I really want to go ahead and add him to any of my teams, but I do feel like he will be part of the committee here and and will throw a little bit of a wrench into Kendre Miller. Though, I do think Miller is very, very likely to be the one that ends up getting the goal-line scores here. And at the end of the day, I think the running backs in New Orleans have like a relatively featured role. They catch a lot of passes. They get a decent amount of goal-line scores. Like I don't hate Kendre Miller as a play, a fill-in play in week 16 as a flex guy against the New York Jets, assuming Deon Neal and Alvin Kamara are both out.
The other guy to talk about here that is not listed is Dameon Pierce. Dameon Pierce, Houston running back. He is 26 years old. He was a very late round pick years ago, like 2023 or 2024. He actually was the starter over Isaac Redman at Louisville at the time. This was his first carry in the NFL in week 15 because Nick Chubb was ruled out with a rib injury. Devin Singletary left the game with an ankle injury and didn't return mainly because they were whooping the out of Arizona. So, I get it. Maybe it's something that lingers though. Dameon Pierce was placed back with the practice squad, but I think that's just more of a formality. They'll have to see what the deal is with Devin Singletary. If Devin Singletary does end up missing this game and or Nick Chubb, they probably call Dameon Pierce back up. Now, Dameon Pierce, great game. 15 for 101 on the ground, two for 17 through the air. So overall, like good on paper. I am not overly confident that like both Devin Singletary and Nick Chubb both end up missing the week 16 game against the Raiders. Good matchup at home against the Raiders here. I do think Devin Singletary could have returned again if they weren't putting the beat down on the Arizona Cardinals. Nick Chubb's got the rib injury. I would put him at 50/50 to play this week as well. Obviously, if either of those guys are active, Dameon Pierce just takes a major back seat here. He should probably be owned just in case the practice reports end up moving in favor of him. He'll be a guy that probably consolidates a lot of the work. I will also say Dare Ogunbowale was playing the pass-catching role. So it wouldn't be just like pure upside. It wouldn't be pure bell cow role for Dameon Pierce, but you do expect Houston to be a very, very friendly game script to the running backs against Las Vegas. They'll probably be like 8, 9, 10, 11 point favorites in that one, which does not point towards like Dare Ogunbowale getting a lot of playtime as a pass-catching back.
Move over to the wide receivers now. I think there's basically two situations to talk about here. The first would be the Green Bay situation. You have Christian Watson leaving the game, going to the hospital, got the chest injury. I would be blown away if he played in week 16 from everything that I have heard. They also play on a short week on Saturday against Chicago. So, less rest. I'd go as far as saying he's not playing, which does open up the receiver room to Jayden Reed, who's still under 50% owned somehow. But, it's going to be Jayden Reed. It's going to be a lot of Romeo Doubs. And I'm sure there's going to be one of either Dontayvion Wicks or Malik Heath that kind of like pop off per se on any given week over the next couple of weeks. So assuming Christian Watson's out, would definitely prioritize Jayden Reed as the one. He's running a lot of routes now. He's seeing a decent amount of targets right now. We haven't seen the ceiling game, but we know it's there on any given week. Romeo Doubs was really good for a while when Christian Watson was not playing. So I do expect him to continue to run 90% of the routes. And you know, Jordan Love's got to throw the ball somewhere. They don't got Tucker Kraft. They don't got Christian Watson. So Jayden Reed to me is like a really, really solid wide receiver three right now. I think Romeo Doubs is flex-worthy against the Chicago Bears going forward. I don't want to have him in my lineup, but you could definitely do worse. And then the other two like Heath had the good game, but he still ran 41% of routes compared to 46% for Wicks. So yeah, he he caught a couple of passes like finally, but this was not any sort of like changing of the guard. And maybe they force him more into a role that's like, "Hey, you need to do what Christian Watson was doing," but I think you're insane if you're trying to throw Malik Heath into your lineup in week 16 of the fantasy playoffs right now. So, I would order it. Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, Malik Heath, Dontayvion Wicks.
You guys kind of know the deal with Adonai Mitchell. The Chicago receiver room is probably the only other one worth talking about here because you have Darnell Mooney who reaggravated the stress fracture in his foot and will likely be out for at least a week, if not the remainder of the season. Now reaggravations typically end up being a much longer-lasting injury. I guess I should throw that in with Chase Claypool who is likely to miss the upcoming game at Indy. He reaggravated his knee injury. So I would be surprised if he ended up suiting up on Monday Night Football. It's up for Brandon Aiyuk, up for Deebo Samuel, but I don't really necessarily want to touch anything else in that offense in relation to the wide receivers. Chicago though, so we have DJ Moore in the midst of like a little bit of a breakout with Darnell Mooney out. However, he ends up suffering an ankle sprain. I really don't know the severity of it. We haven't got much word on it. He was seen carted off the field at the end of the game, but again, could be precautionary. Just don't want to walk on it. From what we've heard, he's very much day-to-day. That feels more like a low ankle sprain than a high ankle sprain. Again though, what is working against them is they play Saturday, so they have one fewer day of rest, but it does also mean we'll have practice reports earlier on. We will probably get our first practice report. Saturday games will be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So hopefully by the time you guys see this, we'll have our first practice report on DJ Moore. We'll see if he's LP or DNP and we can get a little bit more clarification on it. Unfortunately, even if DJ Moore ends up missing this game, like I'm not interested at all in Cole Kmet. I'm not interested in anyone behind him. You know, you got D.J. Moore who's now going to be siphoning targets and then they'll probably play a lot of two tight end sets. So, like Cole Kmet, I I think becomes a stronger start. You're not starting Cole Kmet obviously, but hopefully Moore can play and if that's the case, you know, I think he's a decent wide receiver three flex option with weekly upside right now.
And as always, you know, the rankings that I have up on the website will be updated live throughout the week as injuries come in, both the waiver wire rankings, which will be live by the time this video goes live. So, it'll have my exact FAB suggestions. It'll have my actual rankings of all these players in terms of who I would prioritize. And then my weekly sit-start rankings go live tomorrow around noon Eastern. So, you'll be set up for Thursday Night Football, Saturday, Sunday, all that good stuff. You can get access to both of them through one single membership, the Big Dog membership on BDGE.co. The cheapest way to get it is by going to our partner app or website, MGM. You deposit $10 for the first time with code BDGE. You play any slip on there, right? Any over, any under, any spread, it don't matter. You could take a minus 10,000. I don't I don't give a. They're going to give you a promo code to use on BDGE.co that gets you three months free of the Big Dog membership.
All right, so we got Green Bay, we got Chicago. Jaylen Coker, I think needs to be mentioned. He is now kind of getting back to form, back-to-back big weeks for him. Four for 74 against the Rams, week 13 by, four for 60 and a touchdown, week 15 against New Orleans. Gets a very friendly matchup against Tampa Bay. How sticky is it? I I think he's moved into like the number two option behind Tee Higgins for sure. And and you're seeing a little bit of Bryce Young, Jaylen Coker chemistry happening here. So, he'll probably be somewhere in the the wide receiver 40 to 48 range when I drop my rankings this week. Just one of those like, you could do worse.
Tight end gets a little bit interesting. We have Colby Parkinson, which is going to be like the worst-kept secret this week. Everyone's just going to kind of reiterate the same things over and over again. Darren Waller is going to be out for their Thursday night game against Seattle. Seattle's not good against tight ends. The Rams run a ton of three tight end sets. Obviously, Colby Parkinson now has six receiving touchdowns in his last six games. That is crazy. And now when they're inside the five, they're going to have to go to those play-action tight end sets often or just feed Kyren Williams and Blake Corum over and over and over again without Darren Waller on the field. Obviously opens up targets, opportunities, all that kind of stuff. And I guess we could touch on that. I'm not really confident in any receiver outside of Puka Nacua in this receiving core. Like typically this is kind of a plug-and-play system where it's like you kind of expected when Puka was out that Tutu Atwell was going to step into that role, but they've got Tutu Atwell. They've got Van Jefferson. They've got I think Demarcus Robinson who was a guy that that stepped in during Puka's absence and scored a touchdown. So yeah, I mean if you're starting one of those non-Puka wide receivers from the Rams in week 16 of your fantasy playoffs, you are down tremendously. So if you want to take a shot on one of them, like if you want to just like hold Tutu Atwell and kind of like see what happens and maybe you start him in week 17, go for it. But that ain't me.
And then we've got Darren Waller who I can't believe is still under 40% owned. Like he needed to be picked up and we saw last night why played Pittsburgh. Two touchdowns, seven catches on eight targets, 66 yards. So monster fantasy performance for those of you that ended up playing him. Came at the end of the game for the most part, but still that is their red zone offense when they get down there. Two looks for the big body Darren Waller and they play Cincinnati next week. Couldn't ask for a better matchup. So I will be starting Darren Waller in my tight end spot in my most important league next week.
Couple other names that were not on the trending tab list. I already mentioned Cole Kmet. Obviously a really good pickup if Darnell Mooney and DJ Moore are out. Mike Gesicki I still think deserves a shout if Tee Higgins ends up missing a game. I know that he had a very, very poor game on Sunday. But like more often than not when Tee or Ja'Marr Chase misses, Gesicki becomes the secondary receiver. Joe Burrow just couldn't get anything going against the Ravens defense outside of just throwing to Ja'Marr Chase. So I think better days are ahead. They play Miami next week again. Like I just like getting pieces of that matchup. So, I think if you're desperate, can definitely get back into your lineup if needed. And don't like overemphasize recency bias off of a one game sample size.
And then two other receivers real quick to circle back there. DeVante Parker, about time that needs some respect out of y'all. He is playing really well. They get the Jets. He's become like a very high floor PPR play. He's averaging 14 PPR fantasy points per game over the last three. Now that they give him a workload, like he's playing really well. He's he's gotten almost the same amount of targets as Chris Godwin over the last three weeks. So, and then Darius Slayton coming off a 10-target game. I think he's just good. I I think he's just good for this offense. I think he just provides something a field stretcher. His ADOT is very high, which is why a lot of his targets end up being uncatchable, but he had 10 targets in this one. I think he's going to continue to get a decent amount of targets. He's got a low floor, but he's got a very high ceiling because the average depth of target is very far downfield.
And the last player I will circle back on, you know, I don't typically do a lot of quarterback discussion in these videos. I guess we could talk about Gardner Minshew, though. They play at Tennessee this week is obviously filling in for Patrick Mahomes. That's a good matchup for him, but then they play Denver in week 17. So, if you're going to pick up Gardner Minshew as like a quarterback 2 streaming option in Superflex leagues, you could do so. Just know that he will not be in your lineup in week 17. Tyler Shough is a great streamer at this point. C.J. Stroud is a great streamer at this point for one-quarterback leagues.
And then Anthony Richardson is the other one that I want to talk about real quick. Philip Rivers has already been named the starter for their week 16 matchup, Monday Night Football, against the 49ers. I think as soon as Philip Rivers and the Colts are eliminated from the playoffs, and I don't know if that's actually possible to happen on Monday night, but I do think they end up going to Anthony Richardson, maybe even Riley Leonard, but Anthony Richardson was just cleared medically from his orbital fracture. Now, when he returns to practice, when he's actually in game shape, when they're ready to play him, remains to be seen. It obviously won't be in week 16. So, the only other option left is week 17. But again, if you are in a Superflex league, you need a quarterback 2. I'm definitely not throwing Anthony Richardson in, you know, a one-quarterback league off of 10 weeks of of being out at this point. But we know the weekly ceiling that A-Rich has if he does get that week 17 start. I believe they play the Jacksonville Jaguars. So, tough matchup, but y'all know A-Rich.
All right, let's move over to the trending down tab. Once again, we've got the running backs. Emanuel Wilson, just a handcuff to Jacobs. Do what you want with it. Devin Singletary kind of got overtaken by Tracy. Listen, if you need the spot, you're probably not starting him this week, so I don't blame you. Chris Rodriguez, another one where if you need the spot, don't blame you. Brian Robinson, just a handcuff to I believe, is getting surgery on his finger, going to be out for a while, so he's droppable. Jaylen Wright, it's fine. Droppable. Zonovan Knight, droppable. Kyle Manangi, would not drop. Trey Benson is droppable. Ali Gordon, droppable. Jordan Mason, wouldn't drop. He's splitting carries pretty evenly with Aaron Jones at this point. They get the New York Giants in week 16, so could hold on to him. Kareem Hunt, they might go run heavy there without Mahomes. I I don't know. Obviously, it's not it's not pretty out there. I would hold on to the Kansas City Chiefs running backs for one more week. Sean Tucker getting about three carries, goal-line carry. Yeah, he's droppable to me.
Tyreek Hill is fine. He's kind of like a handcuff wide receiver at this point. They get the Chargers next week. You're not actually going to throw him into your lineup, so he's droppable. Jerry Jeudy, I probably hold on to. I might uh I might rip him in one of the next two weeks if I'm really desperate. Michael Wilson I think is still runs a lot of routes, still gets a decent amount of targets, so he's got a floor, but like I can't imagine him being in your lineup. Tee Higgins I would hold on to. Josh Downs is droppable. Xavier Worthy at this point is probably droppable. Quentin Johnston missed last game but I wouldn't drop him. Trey Tucker at Houston this week, droppable if you need the spot. DK Metcalf is droppable. Darnell Mooney has been asked. They do get Arizona so a decent matchup. Should see an okay amount of targets. So hold on to him if you want to.
Devin Duvernay, do not drop. Isaac Yiadom, you could drop. Malik Washington, you could drop. Romeo Doubs, I would not drop. Brettton Strange, I would not drop. Zach Ertz, you could drop. Mark Andrews, I probably wouldn't drop. Waller, definitely not. Mike Gesicki, I would not. Cole Kmet, I would not. AJ Barner, you could drop. Dalton Kincaid, you can drop.
All right, and that is it for the week 16 waiver wire. Thank you for hanging out with me today. And again, if you want access to my waiver wire rankings, my weekly start rankings, all of that is through the Big Dog membership. You can go straight to the source BDGE.co. But the best way to support us and the cheapest way for you to get that three months free, MGM app or website. Use code BDGE. When you deposit $10 or more, play any slip on there. They're going to hit you with a promo code in app that you can use on our website for three months free. All right. I love y'all. Smoke cheese.