Transcription
Good morning, friends and enemies. In today's video, we're going through the week eight waiver wire, as we do every single Tuesday. So, if you're new here, subscribe.
We will be going through all the trending up players, letting you know the guys that you need to be adding to your rosters, guys you need to be spending top dollar on, and then the trending down tab guys that I think that I will allow you to drop from your team. Not an overly spicy waiver wire this week. There is a top name on it. It is Tyrone Tracy, courtesy of the unfortunate injury to Cam Scatabo, fractures his ankle. Going to be out for the remainder of the season. Tyrone Tracy, rostered in 35% of leagues. So, he is available in some leagues, but if he is sitting there out on the waiver wire, this is the guy you drop your FAB on. We are halfway through the season. There's not going to be a ton more guys really that I think are league-altering, league-changing type of dudes. And I don't, I don't necessarily think Tracy is that either, but you don't see a ton of plug-and-play RB2s for the remainder of the season really become available on the waiver wire.
Up to this point this year, I've kind of been thinking about it. There haven't been that many like great free agent pickups in leagues where dudes weren't already stashed. Like, for the most part, I'm thinking about long-term plays. Like Rico D was awesome for two weeks and we'll probably be like a flex play for the remainder of the season, but there really haven't been like the Bucky Irvings, the Puka Nacuas, or anyone that I, that I'm thinking through, unless I'm, I think forgetting someone off the top of my head, but there haven't been a ton of like long-standing dudes. Even like the Woody Marxes of the world were, you know, owned and drafted in most of the leagues that I play in. So, it, there haven't been a ton of waiver wire fodder for you to really like go in on and kind of drop everything on that weren't drafted. And that's why I'm saying like, at this point in the season, a lot of people probably have a lot of FAB remaining. And Tracy seems like a guy that if he's available on your waiver wire, RB2, he's going to play that 65-70% snap role. Deon Singleary will definitely have a role here, but it'll probably be somewhere in like the six to eight carry range, some short down and distance stuff. But Tracy was a former wide receiver. He's going to catch a ton of passes. Him and Singleary will probably split some goal line work, but the rushing offense has been what most of it's good because of Cam Scatabo, but I think their offensive line has played a little bit better than probably given credit for once Andrew Thomas returned from injury early on in the season. So, Tracy's the dude. He's the top dog this week. If you can get him, you've got to plug and play probably like RB 20. I think he'll normally be within like the RB 16 to 24 depending on matchups, depending on by weeks, how many guys are not able to be put into your roster for that given week. But Tracy's the, the top jewel of the week for sure. Singleary, his backfield mate, I'm not overly like spiced up to roster him right now. We do have byes. We do have a ton of injuries. So, those are not guys that I'm looking to like hold on to and really pad the bottom of my roster with.
Tank Bigsby. The only reason he's really on here is 'cause Saquon has the groin strain that he's dealing with. From everything we've heard, it's not overly serious. They have their bye in week nine and he's projected to be able to play in week 10, which makes Tank Bigsby just a high-end handcuff at this point. Though, he's probably more valuable than a lot, a lot of other high-end handcuffs because we've actually seen him now play on the field, be the guy that they turn to when Saquon was hurt. So, we know that for sure. A lot of other times we see guys and we're like, they're probably the handcuff here, but maybe not. If the other guy goes down, maybe it's a committee, but it feels like it's Tank for sure. So, Tank's a guy that if I have Saquon, I probably want to hold him through the bye and see what happens afterward. Maybe he misses a game, but it does not feel like it's trending that way. So, I wouldn't overspend on a dude like Tank Bigsby.
Dylan Samson gets on the list because Quinshawn Judkins is dealing with an AC sprain in his shoulder. They also have a bye. Very likely that he's good to go after week 10. If you want to hold on to him and just kind of, you know, roll the dice on a roster spot and the off chance that Judkins does miss the, the game coming out of the bye, I don't think it's going to happen, but you could do worse. Emanuel Wilson is the high-end handcuff to Josh Jacobs. Zonovan Knight is actually really interesting. 28% owned and the Cardinals did just cut Michael Carter. So, I don't expect Trey Benson back following their week eight bye. He's got to miss week nine at Dallas. I think he'll likely open that practice window after week nine. So, he could return week 10, week 11, week 12. And I do think once Trey Benson is back, it will be his backfield again. But for right now, you do get a really good matchup with Zonovan Knight. They only have Zonovan Knight and Amari Demarcado right now. We know how they feel about Demarcado. Zonovan Knight will play a pretty significant role for just week nine. So, I actually think there's four teams on bye. Zonovan Knight will probably sneak into that like RB 22 to 26 range and, and super, super viable for week nine against Dallas.
Samajae Pine, I'm not overly interested in. He is taking more snaps from Chase Brown, but this was a game against the Jets where they both kind of blew up. I don't expect Samajae Pine to turn his eight carries into 100 yards and a touchdown again. Kareem Hunt could be interesting depending on what happens with Pacheco's knee. It looked serious in last night's game when he injured it, but then he popped off the bench. It looks like it could be an MCL sprain. We don't have a lot of word on it. There, there's definitely a chance that he misses a week or multiple weeks. They play at Buffalo in week nine and then have a bye. So if it is tweaked a little bit for Pacheco, there's a chance they sit him in week nine and sit him through the bye and then he'll return in week 11 at Denver. So we saw what Kareem Hunt turns into last night. Gets two short-yardage touchdowns. That's kind of been his role all year. And he'll have a significant role in that offense if it's just him and not Pacheco. So Kareem Hunt's another guy that is super flex-worthy in week nine if Pacheco were to miss. Again, none of these guys are really like long-term fixes for your lineup, but definitely worth touching on.
Ali Gordon, he's kind of like a handcuff to Devin Singletary, even though Jaylen Wright is now back, so I can't even say that confidently. The two names I do want to point out in terms of the trade deadline coming up. So, the trade deadline is on November 4th. That is Tuesday of next week, I believe. And we could look at Isaiah Davis and Taj Spears. Taj Spears is already almost jumping Tony Pollard in terms of snap count. He's been back for four weeks, and he's now out snapped Tony Pollard in two of those four weeks. And on Sunday, he performed really well. He's now had three receptions or more in three straight games. He got the rushing score. Tony Pollard just isn't really giving them any sort of juice. And they use Taj Spears in the two and four minute drills. They use him down by the goal line. Tony Pollard is definitely a dude that I could see getting some name intrigue around the trade deadline. So Spears needs to be owned because one, I think he's got some standalone value in games where they're in comeback mode, which is most of the time for Tennessee. But two, there's, there's a world where Tony Pollard gets moved as a veteran running back and, uh, Taj Spears just takes over like a high-end RB2 role in that Tennessee offense playing on 80% of the downs. So Taj Spears needs to be owned. And then Isaiah Davis, I've obviously been yapping about him for a month or so. Had a big game against Cincinnati Bengals. Breece Hall also had a big game. They got their first win, but they're still 1-7. They're definitely going to be a team that teams are calling about before the trade deadline to see about guys like Breece Hall. So, Breece Hall definitely a candidate to be moved and that would make Isaiah Davis a pretty much, you know, every-down back in that Jets backfield.
Moving over to the receivers, there's not a ton of guys that I'm overly interested in. Shamari Woods has two big games back-to-back coinciding with Calvin Ridley missing time with his hamstring strain, obviously, but it is very much a split wide receiver room between Woods, Eli, Mayer, and Van Jefferson. They're all running 75, 85, 90% of the routes. So, I think on any given week a guy like this will put up a zero in your lineup. He obviously is gaining a little bit of chemistry with Cam Ward and he's making plays and I do think he's probably pretty good at football, but I also think there's a chance they play the Chargers in week nine. They have their bye in week 10 and then Calvin Ridley will probably be back after the trade deadline. I mean, he, he's also a candidate that could possibly be moved to another team as well, which would open up looks, but we've seen it like the first month of the season was Eli and then Calvin Ridley broke out and now it's Shamari Woods. I don't have, there's no real rhyme or reason for when these guys are going to break out or who's going to have the big game here. So, I get it. Stashing, you know, maybe a high upside flashy rookie. He was the first pick in the fourth round for the Titans and that's like, you know, you're sitting after day two, they're probably getting a ton of calls for teams trying to move up to that first pick and they didn't move off of it and they ended up taking this guy. So, they clearly like him. So, maybe they do have a plan for him second half of the year. But it does feel like it's a lot of moving parts where a lot of things have to go right in order for him to be a real fantasy asset down the stretch. He's a high upside guy, I think. But ultimately, I do think all these Titans receivers are extremely low floor plays on a weekly basis.
Troy Franklin, we know what he is. You know, in games where the defense sells out to stop Courtland Sutton, he can have his pop weeks like he did back in week two and then he had five, six games in a row where you were disappointed if you started him and then he popped off against Dallas. They get a tough game at Houston next week. So it could be a game where Stingley shadows Courtland Sutton and Troy Franklin does open up, but he's that, everyone knows what he is right now. He's, he's a boomer bust like wide receiver for that you could have fill in because there aren't a ton of receivers that actually offer you that type of upside on a weekly basis. And then there's Christian Watson, 15% owned. So he came back, he had a 56% snap rate. However, he ran 65% of the routes. So, he played on a lot of the passing downs for the Packers, which was big because it's his first game since tearing his ACL back in week 18 of last year. And he showed up in a big way. Caught all four of his targets for 85 yards. His ADOT was 18 yards downfield. He basically pushed Dontayvion Wicks to a player that's only seeing targets around the line of scrimmage. And Wicks was kind of drafted to be the dude that like took over Watson's role as a downfield separator, one that stretches the field. Watson came back for one game and immediately took over that role. Now, Romeo Doubs is still the wide receiver one there. He's still the possession guy. He's still seeing more targets. He's still running the more valuable routes right now. But Watson's clearly going to have a role in this offense. And I don't know that it necessarily makes me feel, you know, warm and fuzzy inside about about picking up Watson. But it does make this receiver room even messier than it was prior because Jayden Reed will be back probably within the next month or so. And then you have like four or five legit pass catchers in this offense that it's going to be impossible to predict on a week-to-week basis. Though Christian Watson, off that first week, like first week back looked really good making plays downfield. Jordan Love, uh, trusted him immediately to get back onto the field, throw him targets all over the place. So Watson absolutely needs to be owned.
And then outside of that, we have the Houston wide receivers. So we'll talk about the situation more holistically here. The tricky part about the Houston receiver core is nothing from the last like week or two feels predictive because Nico Collins and Christian Kirk have been out. Kirk dealing with the hamstring strain and he's already missed two games because of it. I actually do expect him to miss a little bit more time because it was a late in the week hamstring strain and usually those are multi-week injuries and they're past that. Nico Collins will likely clear the concussion protocol this week and play, which does mess everything up. In both of their absences, uh, Xavier Hutchinson and Jalen Higgins, Xavier Hutchinson and Jalen Higgins were basically full-time players on the outside. Jaylen Nowell still was only playing around 45% of the snaps here, running a route on 50% of the drop backs because they continued to play Braxton Barrios. Braxton Barrios did injure his chest in this one. I can't find a single like injury report update status on Barrios. If he's out, that's where Jaylen Nowell, I think, would end up thriving and playing a lot of snaps. And they've, they all got home last week. They all caught four to six passes. Nowell and Hutchinson were both in the 60-ish yardage mark range. Jalen Higgins got home with the touchdown. But Higgins and Hutchinson are both going to take a monster step back with Nico Collins on the outside here because them two are just going to split snaps on the outside. If Barrios is out, I really like Jaylen Nowell. Even if he's running, he's shown now in back-to-back weeks putting up really, really strong weeks, showing really good separation, really good route running skills while only running about half the snaps on C.J. Stroud's drop backs. So, I like what we've seen from him and if Barrios is out, he should be in that 60% range of running routes. And I think he's an explosive enough player to be able to kind of get home due to that. Ultimately though, it's one of those situations where I think the fantasy community kind of like wish casts these players into roles and then production and then you follow a bunch of like Texans beat reporters and they're always like, this team really likes Barrios and this team really likes Xavier Hutchinson and this team likes these guys and then the snap counts reflect what they're saying and it doesn't line up that way. So ultimately because of the messiness of the situation, it's not one that I want to dump a ton of FAB into. With Nico Collins returning, I do think I want to roster both Higgins and Jaylen Nowell. Even though if you told me Hutchinson was the, the highest producer over the rest of the season, wouldn't really surprise me. I just think we have more upside with those two as day two rookies, second half of the year, post-bye type of thing. And I would actually prefer Nowell slightly to Higgins because I think there's a chance that he outright just takes over the slot wide receiver role. Even if the ceiling of what that role is leads to fewer snaps than a guy like Higgins or Xavier Hutchinson, I like that role more in this offense. So I would rank it Nowell, Higgins, Xavier Hutchinson.
And before we move off of wide receivers, the only other guys that I would really think about that I feel like there's real smoke behind trade rumors would be Rashid Shaheed from the Saints. He's one that's not going to like be overly costly for another team to come acquire. So I think there's a chance he moves, though that's not really opening up any targets for anyone in that offense that I feel like would emerge in the wide receiver room. I do like that for Juwan Johnson, it might, uh, mix things up for him a little bit so he could be a tight end target coming off of back-to-back strong weeks now. And then I think the steam behind the Jakobi Meyers trade rumors feels super legit. So I would actually probably be more surprised if he does not get moved. And in his absence, they did just pick up Tyler Lockett where I don't know if Tyler Lockett has anything left. Sometimes Tennessee is just where receivers go to die. So maybe that just happened to be the situation and he does play, you know, 60, 70, 80% snap role in Vegas now with his new team. But I also think it opens up the door for a guy like Trey Tucker, who was a day two pick for the Raiders this offseason. He played 80 to 90% of the snaps in these recent weeks where Jakobi Meyers missed the game. So maybe he doesn't really produce at a high level, but this does open up targets for Trey Tucker, Jakobi Meyers, and then Brock Bowers is expected back after the bye. So just some names to keep an eye on if you want to take some, some dart throw shots at the end of your roster based on the trade deadline.
And for tight ends, I got nothing on the trending up tab here. I mean, you guys know the streamers, I think, up to this point, and the last one I just threw on there was Juwan Johnson in the case of one, he's been playing well recent weeks, but also because of the trade speculation for Rashid Shaheed that would just open up targets in this offense. You know what? We'll circle back to quarterbacks because we have two possible Superflex pickups. One would be Tyler Shough. They did not announce a starter for week nine for New Orleans. They play at the LA Rams. Spencer Rattler got benched halfway through the game. Tyler Shough came in, he didn't play any better, but also he didn't have any like practice reps. He's not been playing with the first team. Rattler's gotten all that preparation. So, I think it's unfair to judge him for the first time. That being said, I don't, I don't think just the fact that they benched Rattler halfway through the game means that they're going to start Shough going forward. That being said, though, if you're in a Superflex league and you're in a pinch with a quarterback, Shough should probably be owned at this point.
I also think if you want to get sneaky, if you want to get a little bit sharp here, this is probably the time to get ahead on a dude like Shedeur Sanders. Dylan Gabriel's just not giving that team a chance to win games right now. And I think, you know, they're probably a lost cause. And, uh, with how that defense is playing, they've got to see if they've got upside in a dude like Shedeur Sanders. He didn't play this previous week. He was inactive with an injury and Bailey Zappe was the backup and that would just be vomit-inducing if they were like, "Yeah, we're going to start Bailey Zappe." But I do think again in a Superflex league, if you were rostering Dylan Gabriel or you're in a league that rosters a guy like Dylan Gabriel, this might be the time to to look for a Shedeur Sanders. They do have a bye in week nine, so maybe that's good. Maybe they implement him as a quarterback in week nine. Or you might have to sit on him for two weeks then and maybe wait till next week to do that. But I do think the change is coming eventually.
All right, let's rip through the trending down tab here.
Bashard Smith, I'd hold on to until we hear about Pacheco's injury.
Zamir White, absolutely hold on to.
Kenneth Gainwell. Yeah, I'm not overly injured. He's just not a guy that I like to hold on to. He's a, again, high-end handcuff. He's just falling into that tier for me. There's one of 10 guys that are all the same. You could just roll a dice and kind of hope the dude that you're holding on to, his guy above him gets injured. There's no actual good logistical analysis here to be had.
Cordarrelle Patterson, droppable. Justice Hill, droppable. Cam Scatabo, droppable. Pacheco, definitely not. J.K. Dobbins, definitely not. Sam Howell, you can drop. Jordan Mason, definitely do not drop. Tyler Allgeier, in handcuff. Tony Pollard, do not drop yet. I mean, he's another dude that could benefit from moving to a better team as well, despite how he's played up to this point.
Darnell Mooney, getting dropped? Nope. Would not drop him. Drake London's status is unknown. And I know he had an extremely disappointing day on Sunday against Miami, but we know Darnell Mooney is a better player than looking at one week sample size. We're not playing DFS out here.
All right. Mims stinks. Drop. Jerry Jeudy, getting damn close to droppable territory. The dude has not put up double-digit PPR points since week one and they're on a bye. Yeah, listen. If you need to replace him, I got no problem with you dropping Jerry Jeudy, unfortunately.
Sterling Shepard, droppable. Courtland Sutton, I would hold on to.
Keon Coleman, I would probably hold on to, but he's been wildly disappointing as well. Hasn't had a real game since week one when we had that 25-point performance, but really, really disappointing up to this point. They do get some really good matchups down the stretch. Miami, Tampa Bay, Cincinnati. Uh, a little bit tougher in the playoffs for sure, but ultimately I think I'd be okay dropping Keon if you need to.
Calvin Austin, droppable. Kendrick Bourne, probably droppable now that Brock Purdy is going to be back. Romeo Doubs, definitely not droppable.
Luther Burden, I think he's in concussion protocol now. The thing with Burden that I, I really don't like dropping him because he feels like a handcuff to three different receivers, right? A lot of times you're holding on to running backs or receivers and they're like a handcuff for a single guy, so the chances of that happening are very low. But we're waiting for a A.J. Brown or a D.J. Moore injury for Luther Burden to really like capture that wide receiver two role there. And that percentage chance is a lot higher. So it's not like, it's not like, you know, Burden is a must-add at this point, but I do think it would be wise to hold on to him.
Trey Tucker, absolutely hold on to.
Elijah Moore, can drop, cannot drop. Don't care.
T.J. Hockenson, would definitely hold on to. Why are we dropping T.J. Hockenson? He put together another like pretty strong performance. What are we doing here?
Tight ends. Uh, T.J. Hockenson would hold on to through the bye if you could. Uh, I mean, most, I guess most people are probably rostering one tight end at this point. If you're streaming, you don't need to hold on to him.
Mark Andrews, you could drop. Evan Engram. Yeah, he's been really disappointing this year, but he's put together usable back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back games in this one. So, I don't, I don't hate the idea of holding on to him.
Zack Ertz, I also would not drop him. He's been really usable most weeks, more often than not.
Dallas Goedert, you could drop. Michael Mayer. You could also drop with Brock Bowers coming back after the bye.
All right, well, that is the waiver wire video for week eight. As always, if you want my exact FAB suggestions, if you want my actual waiver wire rankings, they will be up by the time you watch this video on BDGE.co. For all the Big Dog members, you got to sign up for the Big Dog membership. That is the only way to get these rankings as well as my sit-start rankings for each week. The cheapest and the best way to support the brand, the cheapest way to get them is by going to our partner website or app MGM using code BDGE when you deposit just $10 or more for the very first time. Play any slip on that app or website and they will send you a free promo code to use on our site BDGE.co. That will get you three months free for the Big Dog membership. Three months will put you right at the end of the fantasy season, but we do have some dynasty stuff, dynasty rankings and things like that within the Big Dog membership. All right, so it does go into the offseason. All right, thank you all for hanging out today. Subscribe to the channel if you want to see running back rankings tomorrow, wide receiver the day after that. And I will see y'all when I see you. Smoochies.
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