Week 8 Waiver Wire
Note: Every suggestion will be pulled from either the Yahoo or ESPN rostership, and everyone in these articles will be less than 50% rostered on at least one of those sites. Only some leagues are cut and dry the same so this is just a template for a 12 team full PPR league. There may be players that would have made this article but are rostered in over 50% of the leagues on both sites so they were not included because you’re either in a smaller league or bigger league. If you have questions, please get in chat and ask. Going forward, I will list the bye week schedule below as it is going to become more important as we plan for that moving forward.
Week 5: DET, LAC, PHI, TEN
Week 6: KC, LAR, MIA, MIN
Week 7: CHI, DAL
Week 8: NONE
Week 9: PIT, SF
Week 10: CLE, GB, LV, SEA
Week 11: ARI, CAR, NYG, TB
Week 12: ATL, BUF, CIN, JAX, NO, NYJ
Week 13: NONE
Week 14: BAL, DEN, HOU, IND, NE, WAS
QB
Tua Tagovailoa (Miami Dolphins) – 8%
Miami needs Tua back BAD and I expect him to return in Week 8. As I’ve been mentioning to stash him, now you’ll have to pay some bucks to get him. Four of the Dolphins next five opponents are plus matchups with them being ARI, @ BUF, @ LAR, LV, and NE before visiting GB on Thanksgiving.
Sam Darnold (Minnesota Vikings) – 3%
Darnold has now scored 16.3 or more points in four of his last five games, topping 20 in three of them . They visit the LA Rams on a short TNF week, a defense that has been sliced up and down all year, allowing the 4th most pass yards per play (7), has the 9th highest EPA/Pass, and has the 24th ranked pass DVOA (14.7%).
Drake Maye (New England Patriots) – 1%
I’d have Maye higher but this team is a mess right now. Their offensive line is in shambles and their WR group can’t get open all while Maye pushes through his rookie mistakes. Over his two starts he has scored 19.5 and 20.8 fantasy points, offering a nice floor with 56 rushing yards over those two games and throwing for five TDs in the process, playing from behind most games.
RB
Ray Davis (Buffalo Bills) – 0%
RB is a dumpster fire this week in terms of RBs so at the top of the list is Ray Davis who offers the elite handcuff upside and potential spelling opportunities like we saw in Week 7. Davis didn’t play a ton but then again the Bills didn’t run a lot of offensive plays and almost all of Davis’ work came when the game was out of hand. He ended up finishing with 41 rushing yards on five carries and a score. The Bills visit the Seahawks in Week 8, a team with a very bad run defense.
Alexander Mattison (LV Raiders) – 0%
Mattison is seeing the majority of the RB snaps right now with Zamir being all but phased out after returning from his injury with Mattison taking 30 of the possible 41 first half snaps. Mattison took all of the goal line work and ended up taking 39 of the 49 early down snaps and splitting the third down passing work with Ameer Abdullah. Even if Zamir earns his way back into an early down role over Mattison, he won’t this week with the Raiders playing the Chiefs and we can suspect they play from behind and in pass mode more snaps than not.
Kendre Miller (New Orleans Saints) – 0%
Miller looked solid in his short look on Thursday Night against the Broncos. He ran the ball six times, accumulating 36 rushing yards in the process. He will all but spell Kamara as the season progresses while acting as his handcuff and in the off chance Kamara gets traded, Miller will rise to a prominent role in this Saints offense.
Blake Corum (LA Rams) – 0%
Tough week for RBs and this is the best handcuff widely available with the Rams getting healthier and their playoff hopes still alive.
Top RB Handcuffs
- Braelon Allen (New York Jets)
- Zach Charbonnet (Seattle Seahawks)
- Tyler Allgeier (Atlanta Falcons)
- Blake Corum (LA Rams)
- Ray Davis (Buffalo Bills)
- Ty Chandler (Minnesota Vikings)
- Kendre Miller (New Orleans Saints)
- Emanuel Wilson (Green Bay Packers)
- Roschon Johnson (Chicago Bears)
- Dameon Pierce (Houston Texans)
- Jalen Wright (Miami Dolphins)
- Ezekiel Elliott (Dallas Cowboys)
- Tyler Goodson (Indianapolis Colts)
- Antonio Gibson (New England Patriots)
- Trey Benson (Arizona Cardinals)
WR
Juwan Jennings (San Francisco 49ers) – 35%
With Brandon Aiyuk going down with a torn ACL the Niners will look to Jennings to fill that vacancy. He will be a full time perimeter WR for the 49ers for the rest of the season and be a weekly starter. Through six weeks Jennings has a 67% route participation with a 24% TPRR and a nice 12.3 ADOT (24% of SF’s air yards).
Jalen McMillan (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) – 10%
This unfortunately comes on the heels of the Bucs losing Chris Godwin for the year. McMillan is my logical target to replace that production in this offense as he played primarily out of the slot in college (67%). Nothing more to really go off of there since we haven’t seen it but the Bucs will be without Evans as well for 4-6ish weeks with him pulling his hamstring on Monday Night against the Ravens. The Bucs host the Falcons in Week 8.
Jalen Tolbert (Dallas Cowboys) – 3%
Tolbert has played well as he is taking over as the WR2 in Dallas with Cooks hurt and he probably keeps that role even when Cooks returns. Tolbert scored 13.2 or more PPR points in three of his last five games and since Cooks has gone down he has a 94% route participation and a 17% TPRR and a 12.8 ADOT which is the highest on the team. The Cowboys defense is one of the worst in the NFL so the Cowboys are likely to find themselves in catchup mode more times than not, giving Tolbert the volume we covet. The Cowboys visit the 49ers in Week 8, a team that has beat the snot out of the Cowboys in recent years under Head Coach Mike McCarthy.
Romeo Doubs (Green Bay Packers) – 0%
Waivers overall are tough this week so if you need a fill in, you could do worse than Doubs. Someone is likely to put in a hefty bid for him thinking his production will sustain but he still only has an 18% TPRR which is going to limit his consistency.
Ricky Pearsall (San Francisco 49ers) – 0%
I’d take a stab in deeper leagues on the 1st round rookie now that Brandon Aiyuk is out for the year but it is unlikely Pearsall offers much in terms of weekly fantasy output given Shanahan’s history of focusing solely on veterans and making rookies earn their stripes. Best case scenario for Pearsall (assuming no injuries) is he is 5th on the Niners in target share behind Deebo, CMC, Jennings and Kittle.
TE
Hunter Henry (New England Patriots) – 15%
Fresh off of an eight catch, 92 yard performance, Henry has now averaged 15.15 PPR PPG in the two games with Drake Maye. He has a 77% route participation and 20% target share with a respectable 10.1 ADOT and a nice 85% catchable target rate. Henry should be viewed as a low end TE1 rest of the season.
JT Sanders (Carolina Panthers) – 5%
Things are chaotic in Carolina but someone will catch passes for this team and it appears lieklier each and every week that Diontae Johnson doesn’t finish the season in Carolina. Over the last two games Sanders has a 74% route participation and 28% TPRR with a 92% catchable target rate with an ADOT on the lower side of 5.6 but he has accounted for 22% of the Panthers air yards. With the Panthers certainly trailing in almost every game this year, Sanders should continue this volume and be seen as a high end TE2 the rest of the season with a chance to grow as he gets more comfortable with the game of football.
Noah Gray (Kansas City Chiefs) – 0%
It isn’t sexy but neither is the TE position overall. Gray is still second fiddle to Travis Kelce and by no means will he overtake him but since Rashee Rice got injured, Gray has a 49% route participation and a 16% TPRR and 14% of KC’s air yards. This is the Chiefs offense now and his main competition to be 2nd on the team in targets behind Kelce is Juju Smith-Schuster.
DST
LA Chargers – 0%
The Broncos are a better defense than the Chargers but in Week 7 they were able to go into New Orleans on a short week and drop a 20 burger in fantasy against this shell of a team. While I do expect Derek Carr to return, I view it as a downgrade at QB given his inefficiencies against pressure, something the Saints won’t be able to avoid with their decimated OL. The Chargers will get you double digit points this week.
Kansas City Chiefs – 0%
I know the Chiefs usually lay an egg against the Raiders but I’ll take a top tier defense against Gardner Minshew any day of the week. The Chiefs are now DST13 on the year with 6.8 PPG and are fresh off a 3 interception performance against the 49ers.
Miami Dolphins – 0%
Miami’s defense isn’t that good but Arizona doesn’t pose much of a threat. Every DST has scored between 5 and 10 fantasy points against them this year except the putrid Rams defense in Week 2.
