With four weeks of the NFL season in the books, we finally have enough of a sample to judge what each team is. And some of the “too early to panic” players are turning into legitimately bad news.
Whatever is ailing your team, dynasty waivers tend to be short on impact players and heavy on marginal improvements. For that reason, every team should be active on the waiver wire and churning the bottom of their roster, hoping to pick up somebody who sticks.
Our waiver breakdown this week starts with the fallout of the Tyreek Hill injury, leading to some potential opportunities for other members of the Dolphins’ pass-catching group.
Probably Gone, but Double Check
Darren Waller
Is Darren Waller going to catch two touchdowns every game? Absolutely not. However, he’s apparently still got enough in the tank to step back onto an NFL field and earn four targets, catching two touchdowns in the process.
Mind you, this is for the same Dolphins offense that spammed Jonnu Smith into a TE-Premium league winner. With Tyreek Hill suffering a season-ending injury, there are targets up for grabs, particularly the PPR scamming that has characterized the Mike McDaniel offense ever since Tua turned into a pumpkin.
Only contenders should be interested in Darren Waller. Owners in TE-Premium leagues in particular should kick the tires on him.
Malik Washington
Perhaps the biggest riser on the back of the Tyreek Hill news, Malik Washington has to this point been a designed touch kind of player, earning the occasional slot work and a smattering of rushing snaps. He’s next in line to step into a full-time receiving role after the Hill injury, and he showed himself capable of handling a huge workload in his final college season.
Of any player in this week’s waiver wire who might experience a true breakout and show himself to be much better than initially thought, Washington has the best shot at doing that. He’s turned heads while in Miami, but has been too far down on the depth chart to be considered a priority in the offense. If Washington is better than we realized, we’re going to find out in the next few weeks.
Any type of owner, contending or rebuilding, should roster Washington for the rest of the season.
Waiver Targets
Cooper Rush
In Superflex leagues, every starting quarterback needs to be owned. Lamar Jackson may miss next week with a hamstring injury, so if you’re short a starting quarterback due to the rash of injuries to the quarterback position afflicting the league, you should kick the tires on Rush.
Should your expectations be high? No. Should Rush outscore your 10th-best flex player? Most likely. Only contending teams should care, and of those, only the ones needing a one-week fill-in.
Darius Slayton
With the extremely unfortunate Malik Nabers ACL injury, Darius Slayton will likely step in as the Giants’ primary outside receiver. That doesn’t guarantee fantasy production, but it does mean he has big game potential if you’re ever forced to start him in a pinch.
Especially with Jaxson Dart taking over at quarterback, there are a lot of unknowns in this passing offense. You can do worse than increasing your “luck surface area” by buying into some of that ambiguity/variance.
Only contending teams should care about Slayton.
Isaiah Bond
Cedric Tillman is likely to miss multiple weeks with a hamstring injury, per head coach Kevin Stefanski. While I don’t like deep ball speed types for fantasy football, Bond is coming off a six-target game, and the Browns are feeding the ball to their rookie class more than any other team in the league.
He’ll get an extended showcase in a season where the Browns will leave no stone unturned looking to revamp their passing attack. Every type of owner should prioritize Bond if he’s available.
Tommy Tremble
I said last week that I preferred Mitchell Evans because we know who Tremble is. If you own Mitchell Evans, I insist you hold him until the dust settles on this tight end room.
In the meantime though, I can’t bury my head in the sand and ignore a 5-42-1 line at the tight end position under any circumstances. Particularly not on eight targets. Tremble played 75% of the snaps in Week 4, and at this point should be rostered.
Tremble should be on the radar for both contending and rebuilding rosters, but prioritized by nobody.
Deep League Stashes
Zavier Scott
Scott is clearly the pass-catcher in this Vikings offense until Aaron Jones returns from his hamstring injury. While his playing time this week was primarily due to a negative game script for most of the game, Scott played well and could be earning a longer look as this team’s 1B back after Aaron Jones leaves.
He’ll need to duck a lot of competition to make that happen, and could easily be churned out of your roster before any of that materializes, but in the meantime, he’s at least shown up on our radar.
Rebuilding owners could take a look at him if the bottom of their roster is otherwise meager.