Week7 is in the books. I hope you were able to grab Dylan Sampson last week because he’s going to be tough to acquire on the waiver cycle. As a reminder, I expect Quinshon Judkins, who recently signed, to supplant Jerome Ford. Dylan Sampson will continue to be involved as a third down back and receiver.
Waiver Wire Strategy for Week7
Top 5 Waiver Wire Targets – Week7
Here are my Top fantasy football waiver wire pickups for Week7:
- RB, Kimani Vidal – 12.6%
- WR, Kendrick Bourne
- TE, Mason Taylor
- RB, Tyjae Spears
- TE, Harold Fannin Jr.
Waiver Wire Pickups by Position
Quarterbacks
- Sam Darnold: 23.1% rostered – We’re about 20 games into Darnold playing great football. He’s here to stay.
- Jaxson Dart: 35.4% rostered – Giants fans are excited. I don’t think Dart will be elite this year, but I like a QB who uses his legs.
- Trevor Lawrence: 37.3% rostered – The Seahawks were a tough matchup as are the Rams this week, but I still like Lawrence’s prospects moving forward.
Running Backs
- Kimani Vidal – 27.2% – I thought it’d be Haskins, but Vidal proved me wrong (emphatically).
- Tyjae Spears – 23.5% – I never thought coach Callahan gave Spears a chance to develop. Perhaps interim head coach Mike McCoy will?
- Bam Knight – 5.6% – I am not a fan of Michael Carter as a lead back. Knight is better and he significantly cut into Carter’s touches.
- Tyler Allgeier – 32.9% – he gets the crumbs Bijan Robinson leaves behind, but those crumbs often include goal line opportunities.
- Kendre Miller: 25.1% – I’m leaving him ahead of Kaleb because of the Kamara trade rumors. If Miller is the lead back in New Orleans, then he’ll have major value.
- Kaleb Johnson: 29.4% – always keep your eye on rookie RBs and WRs after their team’s bye week. Kaleb Johnson had as many carries as Kenneth Gainwell (but is still firmly behind Jaylen Warren). My issue with Kaleb coming into the season wasn’t his talent, it was his coaching staff and their utilization of him. If he gets more opportunities, we should see him perform well.
- Kareem Hunt – 34% rostered – Boring pick, but if you need an emergency back to plug in during bye weeks, Hunt won’t kill you.
- Kyle Monangai: 3.8% rostered – As I said, keep an eye on rookie RBs after their bye week. Monangai’s usage improved vs Washington.
- Joe Mixon (if you have an IR spot to stash): 53.8% rostered – Only worth picking up if you can stash him on an IR slot.
Wide Receivers
- Kendrick Bourne: 37.7% – I thought Pearsall or Jennings would come back and push Bourne back into obscurity, but both remain injured. The more opportunities Bourne has to shine, the more likely it is that he continues to produce even when San Fran is completely healthy.
- Romeo Doubs: 58% rostered – He’s a bottom flex option.
- Elic Ayomanor: 27.8% rostered – Ridley only had 1 target last week (which is awful player management by Callahan, btw). I think the new coaching staff will have Ridley more involved, but Ayomanor could also burst onto the scene. He’s worth grabbing to see.
- Tory Horton: 5.0% rostered – I don’t think we’ll see him break out until/unless Kupp is injured. The Seahawks get a bye in week 8 and perhaps they give Horton more targets at that point.
- Kayshon Boutte: 7.0% – He had his second good game of the season after a fool’s gold performance in week 1. The Patriots passing game is humming along, but Boutte needs more targets for me to be more excited.
- Luther Burden III: 8.1% rostered – He had more targets vs Washington, but his snap count percentage was in line with the rest of the season. He needs an injury to one of the other WRs to break out in 2025.
- Isaiah Bond: 3.4% rostered – He’s not doing much with his opportunity.
- Jordan Whittington 0.2% – If Nacua misses time, either Whittington or Atwell should see more targets. Atwell has never commanded a strong target share for what that’s worth.
- Darius Slayton: 19.6% rostered – I think he’ll start to get better as the season moves along.
- Brandon Aiyuk: 33.5% rostered –You’ll need an IR spot to stash him, but he should return on or just after week 10.
Tight Ends
- Mason Taylor – 35.7% rostered – Don’t worry about the lackluster game vs the Broncos. Taylor should be good moving forward.
- Harold Fannin Jr. – 29.1% rostered – The only reliable thing this passing attack does is throw the ball to tight ends.
- Oronde Gadsden – 0.7% – His snap percentage rose from 26% in week 3 to 48% in week 4, 54% in week 5 and 75% in week 6. That is with Will Dissly returning from injury. It looks like Gadsden has won the job.
- Cade Otton – 8.9% He’ll get good yardage when Baker has nobody else to throw to. It’s possible Evans returns, but it’s also possible the Bucs go into the game without their top 4 WRs suiting up.
- Michael Mayer – 3.1% He’s just a plug in until Bowers returns after the Raiders bye week.
- Darnell Washington – 0.1% That’s two weeks in a row for Pittsburgh where Washington led TEs in snaps.
- Theo Johnson: 7.9% rostered – He had a lackuster game vs the Eagles, but I still think we’ll see more targets for him moving forward.
- AJ Barner: 10.1% rostered – I keep waiting for rookie Elijah Arroyo to overtake Barner in snaps, but that isn’t happening. I similarly waited for Schoonmaker to overtake Ferguson years ago in Dallas. Sometimes the rookies can’t supplant the veet.
Defenses (DST)
- Jacksonville (vs LA Rams) – 31.9% rostered
- LA Rams (vs Jacksonville): 48.4% rostered
- Kansas City (vs Las Vegas): 13.3% rostered