10 Players You Need to Pick Up In Your League Before Week 16

This week's waiver wire can literally determine your fantasy championship because so many players just got injured last week. So heading into week 16, there's actually some solid players that you could pick up and play right away on the waiver wire.

And we could start right away with what's happening in the Arizona Cardinals backfield. Running back Bam Knight injured his ankle. Not only did he injure it, he did not return to the game. And we just got reports today, I'm recording this on Monday morning and the afternoon. Bam Knight's ankle is unlikely to play week 16 after suffering a bad sprain. To me, that means it was probably a high ankle sprain. That likely means he's done for the rest of the fantasy season and probably the rest of the season as well since the Cardinals aren't making the playoffs.

So, who is going to step up here? Well, let's keep in mind James Conner is done for the season, Trey Benson is done for the season, and now Bam Knight is done for the season. The Cardinals backfield has been a curse. Just dealt with so many different injuries. So, who is the next guy in line? Well, it appears that right now that guy's name is going to be Michael Carter. And we got confirmation of that this past week where he led the backfield with 14 carries in a game where Bam Knight did not suit up compared to the only other guy getting a carry in this backfield, Amari D. Marcato only had one carry. Now, I should call out Amari D. Marcato did come into this game with an injury as well. He was being limited and missing practices the last couple of weeks. So, that might have impacted kind of the touch split here, but we now have a sample size of Michael Carter actually being the starter a couple times this year when Bam Knight has been banged up and Trey Benson has been out.

Now, this past week, 79% of the snaps went to Michael Carter, 70 70% of the rush attempts, and 72% of the routes run, which is exactly what he's known for. He's known as a pass catcher coming out of UNC Charlotte early days as well with the Jets. And here's the deal. You can see as Ryan Heath points out here, he says Bam Knight was carted off the field after only one touch today. He actually only played one snap as well. He got a touch on the first snap that he played and he ends up getting injured. During that time, Michael Carter took over as the bell cow. He saw 78% of the backfield carries, a 10% target share, which is very good for running backs, and he got the only carry inside the 10-yard line. So again, it's a smaller sample. It's just one game. There's only one carry inside the 10-yard line. But what this shows you is that they trusted him in all situations, red zone, goal line, passing down usage. Ryan Heath would go on to say on Twitter, be sure to follow him, that this was the highest carry share by any Cardinals running back since James Conner in week two. And by the way, Michael Carter and the Arizona Cardinals have a great schedule upcoming. We're going to talk about this in a second. They get the Falcons and the Bengals the next week, couple of weeks to close out the fantasy season. So, you're talking about Bam Knight not going to play in week 16. I would suggest and probably assume that he's not going to play in week 17 either. The running back for the rest of the season in a Cardinals offense that is putting up points whether it's in garbage time or not right now with Kyler Murray is likely going to be Michael Carter. He could be a flex play right away. And we saw this earlier this season when Michael Carter had to play in a game where Bam Knight was a little bit banged up as well. Michael Carter came in and saw 18 carries. This was right after Trey Benson went down earlier this year. 18 carries in that game. So we now have a sample that was week five of a couple of times this year. Carter would go on to score 16 fantasy points in this game. He added five catches for 22 yards. So 23 total touches. Again, multiple times now this year when Bam Knight is banged up or or or like a little bit limited. Michael Carter without James Conner, Trey Benson and Bam Knight not fully there, he's taken over now two out of two times over Amari D. Marcato as the main back. And I could only assume that's going to be the case moving forward in those beneficial matchups like we just mentioned at home against the Falcons who have just been getting torched everywhere and then on the road against the Bengals who you can put up fantasy points, their bottom 10 defense in the NFL for now two straight years. Uh, and the funny thing is Michael Carter, I know a lot of people in a lot of these videos are like, "Oh my god, this guy's already rostered in my league." He's currently available as of this recording in 95% of fantasy leagues. So, the far majority of leagues out there, whether you're fighting to not finish last in the toilet bowl, whether you're fighting for some sort of third-place prize or still your fantasy championship, Michael Carter needs to be the priority this week.

Now, the next situation takes us to a wide receiver room, the Green Bay Packers wide receiver room. Man oh man, it's been a cast of rotating characters this year due to some injuries and just new faces there like Dontayvion Wicks. So, what are we looking at this week? Well, we have to look at the wide receiver room because Christian Watson is now dealing with an injury in this game for the Green Bay Packers. Uh, it was kind of all spread out, but the nice thing was that Jayden Reed came in, now his second game back from injury. Had five catches, 55 yards, led the team in receptions, tied for the team lead in receiving yards, and he led the team in targets with six for a team that was leaning on their run game. Josh Jacobs had a 40-yard touchdown run and their defense in the first half. Second half had a play from behind a little bit, struggled without Christian Watson and some offensive linemen. And even Jayden Reed himself limped off the field late in the game. Now, we don't have an update on Jayden Reed's status. Again, I'm recording this Monday afternoon. We'll probably get some updates once they start to practice on Wednesday and then Thursday the rest of the week. But, it doesn't seem like it was anything major for Jayden Reed because they didn't put any reports out compared to Christian Watson who left the game, didn't return, and went to the hospital later that night. So, what we ended up seeing was Romeo Doubs seeing the most routes. Jayden Reed was second on the team, and then we got to see Dontayvion Wicks play a little bit more, Dontayvion Wicks play a little bit more without Christian Watson out there. Now, Christian Watson did go to the hospital. It was only out of caution. And he was able to travel home with the team and as of today on Monday, Christian Watson's shoulder, it says that he avoided a major injury. Now, we don't have any other updates. We're going to have to see how the practice reports go the rest of the week to see if he has any chance of playing in week 16. A very big matchup against the Bears that potentially and likely will be for the NFC North Division title. So, my guess is that Christian Watson's going to do everything he possibly can to play, but even if he does play, he'll probably be a little bit banged up. Even if this is just like an AC joint sprain, it's hard to really fully extend for a downfield wide receiver. That could be an issue. So, I do believe that Jayden Reed becomes a priority add at at the wide receiver position and even Dontayvion Wicks as well if if Christian Watson is out. Either way, if Watson is suiting up, I do like Jayden Reed here. He already led the team in the first half when Watson was healthy in receptions, targets, and receiving yards. But Dontayvion Wicks, once Watson went down, became a big part of this offense. Over the second half of that game, he actually led the Packers with a 20% target share after the injury. Um, and he looked pretty good out there. He was making plays downfield. Dontayvion Wicks was dropping passes that ended up in interceptions. Romeo Doubs wasn't getting separation. Jayden Reed got banged up and the guy who is actually the only guy out there that you can trust was Dontayvion Wicks in that second half. So these are the two guys I would target on the waiver wire at the wide receiver position. Jayden Reed is the priority and if Christian Watson was out, so if you just want to stash Dontayvion Wicks for now, I think Wicks is going to have to take on a much larger role, especially as that downfield speedy receiver in this Packers offense.

All right, now let's go from the wide receiver position back to a potential running back who depending on how his backfield injuries shake up this week could be a big play for you. And that is Jaleel Jordan. Who is Jaleel Jordan? He's a 2024 undrafted rookie out of well, now he's a second-year player out of Louisville. He's already 26 years old, right? But in this game, he ended up seeing an extended run because we saw Woody Marks go down with an injury, an ankle injury, and he was unlikely to return. We saw Nick Chubb enter this game and or not actually enter this game. He he he was ruled out before the game started. Now, we do have news. Woody Marks' ankle is not considered major. So, it doesn't look like a high ankle sprain. He's considered day-to-day. Again, this is still an ankle injury. It's probably a low ankle sprain which on average you're going to miss anywhere between zero, one, maybe two weeks. So Woody Marks is not a guarantee to play in week 16 meaning we have to track the injury reports heading into the game. And we did get to see a flash of Jaleel Jordan, 15 carries, 101 yards as well. He had a nice day overall out there. Really nobody else was involved in terms of like being a runner on this team. Dayo Ojumabo was the only other back, satellite back, had five carries in this game. The overall backfield split, 52% of the rush attempts went to Jaleel Jordan. Only 17% went to Dayo Ojumabo. So when you look at it, Woody Marks' final touch due to an ankle injury, according to Ryan Heath, came at 11 minutes and 18 seconds remaining in the second quarter. From that point on, Jaleel Jordan saw 78% of the backfield carry share compared to just 22% for Dayo Ojumabo. Ojumabo saw more targets, 16% compared to 8% target share for Jaleel Jordan. Jordan is an early-down grinder. He was used in the red zone here. Ojumabo, if moving forward Nick Chubb and Woody Marks were not to play, which doesn't seem likely both of them to be out, but if they were not to play, then this would be the backfield and Jaleel Jordan would be the guy to pick up. Now, I'm going to assume that one, if not both, of Nick Chubb and Woody Marks will return and then Woody Marks will go right back to being the lead back and Nick Chubb will be maybe involved as a breather back here and there and then you're going to get Jaleel Jordan right here who's just basically comes up from the practice squad this past week, he probably just won't be involved. But again, this is late in the season. If Michael Carter, if you can't land him, the running backs that you want to start to pick up, you want to look at Jaleel Jordan just in case Woody Marks was to be out. Even if you don't want to start him, just to block your potential opponent in the fantasy playoffs or the toilet bowl bracket from getting him. Especially compared to these dusty wide receivers who are going to sit on your bench or Darnell Mooney's of the world, right? These guys who you're just never going to start in your lineups at this point in the season. Drop those guys and pick up some upside running backs who maybe could flash. You don't want your opponents to have them. And the matchup next week for the Texans backfield if Jaleel Jordan was to play is pretty good. They face the Raiders who allow right now the second most rushing touchdowns this year, 19 rushing touchdowns, very bottom 10 overall tackling and run defense. Um, and this would be a spot where you want to pick up Jaleel Jordan if indeed Woody Marks was not to play. He's day-to-day with an ankle. I'm sure he'll be limited in practice and he'll go questionable heading into Sunday and we won't know until probably Sunday morning.

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Let's stick at the running back position here. And I mean, every single week I'm talking about Blake Corum because every single week his role just gets better and better. This past week, Kyren Williams had 15 carries for 78 yards, averaged over five yards per carry. Pretty efficient. Doesn't matter. Blake Corum once again was more efficient. 11 carries, 71 yards, averaged 6 and a half yards per carry. He once again found the end zone in this one. And now if you start to look at how the snaps are breaking down in LA, you would see that this past week it was a near 50/50 split. They were splitting drives once again. 54% of the snaps for Kyren Williams. This was a guy playing nearly 85 to 90% of the snaps last year. Not the case this year. Blake Corum, 46% of the snaps. Blake Corum has been very good over the past month of the season. In fact, I mean, look how good he's been since week 13. Corum is averaging 17.6 fantasy points per game and four touchdowns in those three weeks. So, you're no longer adding him as just like a stash in case Kyren Williams goes down. If that happens, Blake Corum is a top 10 fantasy running back the final couple of weeks of the season. But you could actually flex this guy moving forward. He's that involved in the offense and has been playing that good of football in an offense getting to the red zone and scoring plenty of touchdowns a lot. Now, they are going to play on a short week this week against the Seattle Seahawks, which normally typically the short Thursday night football games, the run game usually has an advantage. The defense just played three to four days ago. Maybe they're a little bit tired. The Seahawks team was in a tough, uh, very difficult matchup against the Indianapolis Colts where the the Colts defense definitely brought it in that one and their offense tried as best as they can. They had to tackle Jonathan Taylor 25 different times in that game. Dumped dumped check down targets to the running backs as well. I mean, there was like 40 plays around the line of scrimmage for these Colts linebackers and defensive tackles to actually have to be involved in. So, Blake Corum on a short week, if you're in a flex situation where you need multiple flex options, whatever it might be, I don't hate it. Like, normally I don't like this matchup against Seattle. It's it's obviously not a great matchup. Seattle's a good defense, but on a short week would be where you want to attack them if you had to.

Next up, we got to talk about an injury that's going a little bit under the radar. R.J. Harvey left late in the game against the Green Bay Packers. The late window, uh, tons of injuries were happening, big injuries as well. Christian Watson, Micah Parsons, the Patrick Mahomes news was coming out. But R.J. Harvey injuring his ribs and did not return in a game that was very important. I mean, the Packers had a chance to tie it on the final drive. R.J. Harvey was not in the game. It was Julian McGlaughlin because Harvey's ribs were banged up. Now, as of this recording on Monday, it's currently right now 2 p.m. Eastern time. We don't have an update on R.J. Harvey. Maybe they'll say he was fine. He just got the wind knocked out of him. He's day-to-day. And if that's the case, okay. But if indeed he's going to miss practices and maybe miss some time, well, then we have to look at the next man up in this backfield. And the only other running backs involved this past week were Tyler Allgeier and Julian McGlaughlin. And to me, it would mean that Julian McGlaughlin is the next guy up. He's been on the depth chart ahead of Tyler Allgeier all season long. In this game, he saw two carries compared to Tyler Allgeier who saw zero. And if you look at the snaps breakdown, R.J. Harvey was the clear lead back when he was healthy, 68% of the snaps. A fullback saw 24% and then it was Julian McGlaughlin seeing 14%, Tyler Allgeier just 9%, didn't get any carries. Now, in terms of who Julian McGlaughlin is, he's an undrafted player from 2023. He kind of popped in his first year. It looked like, uh, out of Youngstown State, he was like the all-time leading rusher in college football as well. Um, and in his rookie season, he had a decent amount of usage. He was averaging 5.4 yards per carry. It looked like this was going to be like one of the pet projects for Sean Payton and he really liked him last year when none of the running backs were standing out between Javonte Williams and Audry Estime and Julian McGlaughlin when he actually got 113 carries. But obviously this year they bring in new guys. J.K. Dobbins while he was healthy. They draft R.J. Harvey in the second round. So he just hasn't been involved. But definitely based on past experience and usage this year ahead of Tyler Allgeier, McGlaughlin would be the next man up and is a talented player. He's an efficient player on a per-touch basis. Again, we have to see the R.J. Harvey news here. The matchups moving forward are not great. You get a tough Jaguars defense, a tough on the road Chiefs defense. So, it's not like this is exciting, but Julian McGlaughlin can catch passes. He would be a guy who if R.J. Harvey was out that I think would see 12 to 15 touches, meaning that he should be rostered at this point in fantasy seasons.

And Jaylen Coker needs to be taken very seriously right now. We're coming off of back-to-back very good games for Jaylen Coker. Um, even though the Panthers didn't throw a lot this past week, they leaned on their run game in a close game where they led for most of it and ultimately lost to the Saints. You saw Jaylen Coker get there once again. This past week, he catches four balls for 60 yards, has the most receptions, most receiving yards, finds the end zone once again, averaging 15 yards per catch. The last time that we saw him, he was going out there in a tough matchup against the Rams before the bye week here for the Panthers, having four catches, 74 yards, a touchdown, had another explosive touchdown in that one in week 13. So, you're getting nice games now in back-to-back contests here. Solid fantasy performances as a wide receiver too or flex option for you. And now, when you start to look at it, his usage is ramping up. This is a guy who missed the first half of the season with injury. When he returned, he wasn't all that involved, somewhat getting ramped back up in his second season with the team, but now he's going out there as an every-down player. Terrace Marshall Jr., their top 10 overall pick, wide receiver one on this team, 90% of the routes as expected, but now a season-high 84% of the routes run for Jaylen Coker. He's going out there and starting to see more usage and even more playing time than Xavier Legette. And if Coker is going to get on the field and no longer be like this 50% of the snaps type player and he's out there almost every single time, he's going to have that upside like he did towards the end of last year and he's showing right now towards the end of this year to create explosive plays downfield and only earn more targets moving forward. So, I still view him as the clear-cut number two option on this team behind Terrace Marshall Jr., but Coker is obviously earning more volume and playing time right now. And there's not a lot of other players on this team. There's no elite pass-catching running back or tight end on this team. Xavier Legette is his biggest competition for the wide receiver two, isn't a lot. So, in most weeks where Bryce Young throws the ball 35 times, if 10 targets go to Terrace Marshall Jr., that's fine. There's still plenty of opportunities and target share available for a second player on this team. And right now, and lately, that's been Jaylen Coker. The upcoming matchups are great. They face the Bucs in two out of the last three weeks. If you go to week 18 in your fantasy playoffs, those are awesome matchups. The fantasy champion tough matchup at home against Seattle. So, that wouldn't be great. But for this specific week in week 16, I actually do think Jaylen Coker in your multiple flex leagues, your three wide receiver leagues, is somebody that could get into your lineups, especially if you're not sure what's going on with Davante Adams heading into this week with a hamstring injury, maybe even Christian Watson's shoulder. Coker could be a pick-up and play right away.

And speaking of pick-up and plays, he plays on Thursday night this week. Colby Parkinson. I mean, he's going to be ranked as a top 10, if not higher tight end for me this week because he's just been absolutely great lately. I mean, this past week, Davante Adams go down with an injury in the second half of that game. It was a hamstring injury. He came into the game with a hamstring. Normally, if you reinjure a hamstring injury, it takes even longer. We're talking like potentially a month plus to return. So, I don't think that Davante Adams is going to be out there playing on Thursday night this week. We'll see the practice reports, but I'm just going to guess that he's not. And that should help Colby Parkinson because he's been seeing red zone usage and if Adams is out, he might get even more. This past week, five catches, 75 yards, multiple touchdowns in that game. He's been looking good. I mean, if you look at his game logs right now, this is his first game of the year against the Texans. He's been seeing more usage. It starts right here. This column, look at the touchdowns. One, two, three, four, five, six. He's had six touchdowns over his last six games. He's been highly involved. He's coming off of a season-high seven targets before having season highs of five targets in back-to-back games before that. And now a lot more target share in red zone opportunities are going to be available if Adams has to sit for at least one week, possibly more. Now, over his last five games, if you look at it, just how good he's been, according to Ryan Heath, he leads the tight end position in touchdowns and red zone targets. Over his last five games, he's averaged 13.4 fantasy points per game, top five during that time, and a 14% target share. So, this guy has literally been over the past five weeks a top five fantasy tight end. He leads all tight ends in red zone usage. And now the biggest red zone wide receiver in the NFL, Davante Adams, is probably not going to play. Colby Parkinson might be a top five tight end this week in the fantasy playoffs. And he's currently available in over 90% of fantasy leagues. The matchup isn't great against Seattle, but again, it is a short week and the opportunity should be there. When your quarterback is MVP as of right now, Matthew Stafford, I'm not concerned about the matchup. And then in the fantasy postseason, or in the championship, I should say, matchup against the Falcons, Colby Parkinson is probably a must-start tight end the rest of the season, assuming you don't have somebody like Trey McBride already on your roster.

Now, speaking of that Davante Adams injury, right, where he was able to walk off the field after suffering an apparent leg injury, it has come out now that it was a re-injury to his hamstring. That's also going to affect the wide receivers who play on Thursday Night Football. Puka Nacua got his own injury, but he was able to return. So, we'll assume that he plays after that. Who are the next men up here? It's likely going to be Tutu Atwell and Jordan Whittington. But when you actually look at what the snaps looked like this past week, it was uh Tutu Atwell. Hopefully, I'm saying that right. I'm probably not. I'm butchering it. But he ran 46% of the routes compared to Tutu Atwell running just 10%. Jordan Whittington running just 10% as well. So, he was in there, Tutu Atwell in top three wide receiver sets. That can get shaken up a little bit. He might stay in his same role and somebody takes on that Davante Adams role. That's likely what would happen here. I would guess that it would be probably somebody like Jordan Whittington who profiles out more like Davante Adams compared to Tutu Atwell who's like 150 pounds, a downfield burner, right? I don't know what's going to happen there. We're going to have to see. Odds are there's a rotation for that wide receiver two and wide receiver three positioning. We didn't get much, uh, information this past week. All we saw was Tutu Atwell catch one ball for nine yards. Tutu Atwell and Jordan Whittington didn't have any receptions on like a handful of targets each. If I had to rank it right now, I would probably put Tutu Atwell slightly ahead of Jordan Whittington here because Jordan Whittington, although I do think he probably profiles out more like Davante Adams, he also overlaps a lot with where Puka Nacua is going to play. Think you're going to see a rotation here. I would rank it easily out of all these Rams players we've already talked about in the pass-catching core. Colby Parkinson's above all these guys, probably just don't mess around with the other wide receivers if you don't have to.

Now, before we get into this next situation that we have to talk about at the backfield dealing with injuries, if you find these videos helpful, entertaining, whatever it might be, be sure to hit the subscribe button. It really goes a long way into helping this channel grow as we push towards our goal of 200,000 subscribers.

Now, that situation we have to talk about is with the Saints because Kendre Miller had a hamstring injury and he did not return to the game on Sunday. Hamstring injuries usually are death sentences for running backs in terms of their ability to play the following week. I wouldn't be shocked if Kendre Miller's season is now over, but he's probably going to miss week 16. We don't have updates on that just yet, but what we do know is that Kendre Miller is dealing with a hamstring injury and Alvin Kamara has already missed three weeks, but he has yet to practice. So, as of Wednesday, we'll probably get a pretty good idea of what's going to happen this upcoming week. If Alvin Kamara is able to practice in any fashion at all, even if it's limited and not full, there's a good chance he's going to return this week. But he hasn't practiced in three weeks. So, if it starts off another week with him not practicing, probably not a good look for his early chances of playing in week 16. Which then makes us look at who else is available in this backfield. Well, you have Jamaal Williams, right, who was on the team, uh, before Audry Estime, but Audry Estime was the guy who this past week was a little bit more involved. Hall saw four carries compared to Estime's three, but Estime did go out there and catch three catches compared to Hall having none. At the end of the day, Estime played 39% of the snaps, Jamaal Williams 31% of the snaps. Once these guys left the game, it was Estime playing a little bit more than Jamaal Williams, but it was close to a 50-50 split. So, we didn't get a lot of knowledge there. We did see Audry Estime run more routes, but again, gross backfield. We're talking about like the running backs four and five on this team now at this point if Kendre Miller and Kamara don't play because Jamaal Williams got hurt earlier this year on an offense that's not like the greatest in the world. So, I'm not dying to pick up these guys. I would rank it as of right now though Audry Estime and then Jamaal Williams, but we have to get some more news on both Kendre Miller and Kamara as the practice reports come out later in the week. And the reason why it's at least a little bit appealing is because of the matchups to end the season. I mean, this week at home against the Jets who just got absolutely dominated this past week by Travis Etienne who went bonkers for 30-plus points, three touchdown game, looked amazing. So, yeah, whoever the Saints starting running back is if they were to see a larger workload, they're going to be appealing this week and then even next week in the fantasy championship against the Titans.

All right, next situation we have to talk about. Just want to bring up Chris Olave here. We can stay on the Saints a little bit because Chris Olave this past week. Another nice game. Five catches, 69 yards. It's now been about three weeks since he's taken on a bigger role in this offense. A couple of weeks ago, really a month or so ago, Rashid Shaheed traded away. Three weeks ago, Brandon Cooks was cut, which opened up more opportunities for Chris Olave to be the wide receiver two behind Chris Olave. Now, if we look at the game logs for Chris Olave, according to and courtesy of Player Profiler, you scroll down and these last three weeks, you got a 23-point performance where you had 93 yards from Chris Olave, a touchdown, eight catches, then seven points, three catches for 40 yards. So, nothing great. But then this past week, another 12-point performance, five catches, nearly 70 yards. So, you're getting two out of the last three games of him being very fantasy relevant since both Rashid Shaheed and Brandon Cooks have left this team. And a big part of this is because Derek Carr is playing better. He's extending drives with his legs. He looks more comfortable there. He's taking big shots. He's handling pressure better when the weeks go on. This is helping Chris Olave continue to be productive and now it's helping sustain a second option in the offense who at least for the past couple of weeks has been Chris Olave. In your deeper leagues, he's somebody who should be rostered. Adam Mitchell should also be rostered. He's still available in the far majority of leagues right now. Adam Mitchell, despite having Brady Cook as his starting quarterback this past week, still got you there. Six catches, about 60 receiving yards, and a touchdown. Put up nearly 18 fantasy points. That's now two out of the last three games with multiple different quarterbacks that he's looked pretty good. This is a guy, I mean, we saw it a couple of weeks ago as well with Tyrod Taylor. Eight catches, 102 yards and a touchdown, averaged 13 yards per catch. So, he's still been getting fed lately. And we don't have any updates on Garrett Wilson, who remains on IR. Now, maybe he comes off this year, or maybe his season is just done at this point because the Jets are playing with nothing with third and fourth string quarterbacks potentially going out there. But at this point, there's really just no other target competition. We saw John Michael Schmitz pop up a little bit here and there and maybe if Tyrod Taylor was to return, that John Michael Schmitz could look a little bit better from a target perspective, but at the end of the day, like Allen Lazard, Tyler Johnson, it's basically been Adam Mitchell. He's the guy who's the most explosive player with the ball in his hands after the catch and the most explosive player downfield right now. So when you look at the Jets schedule the rest of the season, uh, the Saints defense actually looked good last week, but overall not the worst matchup against the Saints. Fantasy championship against the Patriots is a little bit brutal. I don't really know where you're going to be playing Adam Mitchell. But if you're in one of those 14-team leagues, I do prefer Chris Olave and some of the other receivers, the Packers guys we talked about, but Adam Mitchell two out of the last three weeks has proven that he is an explosive player downfield who can make plays.

All right, quickly I just want to talk about the Lions and specifically the Lions defense because the next two weeks for most fantasy leagues are the fantasy semi-finals and finals in week 16 and 17. And this is a pretty good spot for the Lions defense. I mean, they're coming off of a game against the Rams where even though they gave up 41 points in real life, that is not good. But for fantasy purposes, when another quarterback is dropping back a ton against you, Matthew Stafford threw 38 times this past week, it's going to lead to opportunities. They got multiple sacks. They had an interception. I mean, and that was against the best quarterback in offense as of right now in the NFL in the Rams. It's going to get better moving forward. So, even though they just gave up 41 points, maybe that makes means they'll be more available in your leagues because next week at home against the Steelers, I feel good about that matchup. And then in the fantasy championship against J.J. McCarthy, who has looked better lately, but mostly because of good matchups, I feel good about that matchup as well. In the in the Flock Fantasy League, I've been holding on to the Lions defense for the past three to four weeks just because of their week 17 matchup. I'm in the semi-finals. In case I get to the finals, I want to be starting the Lions where they're fighting for a playoff spot against J.J. McCarthy for sure.

Next situation we should talk about. Chris Rodriguez missed this past week. Now, he could return easily next week. He was practicing to end the week, but that led to Jalen McKinnon, the undrafted, or I should say the seventh-round running back, late in the seventh round. Barely was drafted, but still got drafted. Seventh-round running back. Although, this is kind of a side note. Usually, you want to be undrafted because then you kind of get to control which team you go to and you can negotiate your contract more compared to being a seventh-round pick. But that's getting too inside baseball for this video. Anyways, Jalen McKinnon led the backfield, 18 carries, 96 yards, 5.3 yards per attempt. He's in this video because he's actually available in nearly 60% of leagues because for the past like six to eight weeks, he hasn't done anything in fantasy. He saw 55% of the snaps, but like at the end of the day, Jeremy McNichols still widely involved. 47% of the snaps was the clear pass-catching back in this game at 54% of the routes run and Chris Rodriguez could easily return next week just making this a messy backfield once again where Jalen Daniels is still hurt, so the offense might not move the ball as well overall. Jalen McKinnon, I'm sure if he's available and there's nothing else out there and you have somebody to drop, go for it. I just don't think we're going to get this performance again because the matchups are just terrible moving forward. Like the Commanders faced the Giants, maybe the worst run defense in the NFL last week where they got to play with the lead. I don't think they're going to play with the lead against the Eagles and against the Cowboys, they might play with the lead, but it's still an improved Cowboys run defense. So, you're not going to get the same great situation like you had last week. Probably moving forward, Jalen McKinnon is going to be an 8 to 12 touch guy, especially if coach Rodriguez returns. Usually, I'm going to say he could be kept on most waiver wires.

Speaking of the Giants, Darius Slayton had another good game for his second straight week. Darius Slayton went out there this past week with Jalin Hyatt. He ended up having four catches for 53 yards. Now, that's just nine fantasy points, but he did lead the team very quietly with a whopping 10 targets. And this was after him coming out of his bye week. And before that, he was returning from a hamstring injury that was lingering for most of the middle part of the season. And he was stable, still able to catch two balls, 41 yards, and a touchdown in a tough matchup against the Patriots. So, you're getting back-to-back solid performances based on volume and based on usage with Jalin Hyatt back under center again. Really good matchup this past week to earn 10 targets against the Commanders. It's not going to be like that moving forward. But Slayton in your deeper leagues is a guy who just continues to stick around as an outside wide receiver in an offense that still needs those guys with Wan'Dale Robinson working underneath and no Malik Nabers. Matchup at home next week against the Vikings isn't terrible. And then a matchup on the road against the Raiders is solid to close out the fantasy season.

Another quick hitter we could talk about is Rome Odunze. He did get banged up this past week, but in two and a half quarters of play, he had six catches for 85, 84 yards. He was easily going to have yet again, he's already had one, another 100-yard game this season if he didn't get banged up. Now, he hurt his ankle, so we're going to have to track this. This coming into this game, Rome Odunze did not play after aggravating a stress fracture in his foot. So, there's a decent chance that against the Packers in week 16, Rome Odunze isn't playing. We don't have an update. If Rome Odunze did not get a high ankle sprain and it was just a low ankle sprain, I think he's going to do everything he possibly can to be out there in week 16 in a big divisional matchup against Green Bay. And if that's the case, if Odunze was going to miss, it should be another big Rome Odunze game because as you can see right here, Rome Odunze led the Bears in target share for the second straight week at 25% despite leaving early in the third quarter in that one. And now in two games with Rome Odunze out, Rome Odunze is averaging 75 and a half receiving yards per game. That is top 10 amongst wide receivers. The simple answer here is if Rome Odunze is active and Rome Odunze is out next week, Rome Odunze to me is a must-start top 25 wide receiver.

So these are the players you should pick up on your waiver wire as soon as possible. Now, if you want to see all the takeaways from even more situations that happened in the NFL in week 15 that are going to matter to end your fantasy season, you can check out that video it released earlier this week right here. The top 10 takeaways that you must know from week 15 of the fantasy.