Monday, October 29, 2018

2018 Fantasy Football RB Waiver-Wire Options Heading Into Week 9

Every week, we examine players that may be available on your league's waiver wire that could help your team in the short and/or long term.

For a player to be listed, he must be owned in 50 percent (or less) of Yahoo! leagues. The goal is to provide recommendations of players that have a greater chance of being available on your league's waiver wire. Of course, your league's size and settings could significantly impact whether these players (or better options) are available in your particular league(s).

Embed from Getty Images

With that said, here are some running back waiver-wire options that I like heading into Week 9 (Yahoo! ownership in parenthesis):

[Note: Players listed below are sorted by my preference to add.]

1. Peyton Barber, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (46 percent)

For the second time in three weeks, Barber rushed for 80-plus yards and scored a touchdown. Barber now has double-digit carries in three consecutive games and five of his seven games played this season.

Rookie Ronald Jones left Sunday's game with a hamstring injury and is expected to miss a few weeks. Averaging 2.6 yards per carry and 6.0 yards per reception, Jones has been a major disappointment this season.

Barber will continue to lead the backfield the rest of the way and should approach back-end RB2/flex value. While he hasn't been much more efficient (3.5 YPC, 6.2 Y/R) than Jones, Barber has been more effective since the team's bye (4.58 YPC).

2. Wendell Smallwood, Philadelphia Eagles (43 percent)

The Eagles head into a bye following their win across the pond, but Smallwood is in the flex mix the rest of the way and he has been more effective than teammate Corey Clement. In addition, Smallwood has out-touched Clement in each of the team's past three games -- 19 to 14 in Week 6, 11 to 10 in Week 7 and 10 to five in Week 8.

Since Week 2, Smallwood has finished no worse than the RB41 and has been a top-20 fantasy running in three of six games. (He's currently the RB18 this week through Sunday Night Football.)

3. Frank Gore, Miami Dolphins (22 percent)

Gore extended his streak of double-digit carries to five games as he rushed 12 times for 53 yards in Thursday night's loss to the Texans. Kenyan Drake has four touchdowns in his past four games and is more of a threat as a receiver (17 catches over the past four games), but Gore's consistent workload should keep him in flex range until Miami's bye (Week 11).

4. Ito Smith, Atlanta Falcons (37 percent)

Before their Week 8 bye, Smith rushed seven times for 16 yards and added two catches for 29 yards. Smith failed to extend his scoring streak to four games, but he's a threat to approach double-digit touches on a weekly basis in Atlanta's high-powered offense as the 1(b) to Tevin Coleman. In his past four games, he has finished as the weekly RB24, RB31, RB25 and RB37, respectively.

5. Elijah McGuire, New York Jets (6 percent)

Before landing on IR, McGuire generated some preseason buzz. Now eligible to return and with teammate Bilal Powell (neck) placed on IR last week, McGuire has some value in deeper leagues.

6. Devontae Booker, Denver Broncos (5 percent)

With Royce Freeman (ankle) out, Booker had his best of the season, by far. Forming a 1-2 punch with Phillip Lindsay, Booker had nine carries for 78 yards and four receptions for 23 yards. Heading into MNF, Booker is the RB22 so far this week. If Freeman's high-ankle sprain keeps him out another week, Booker will have fantasy value this week against Houston. Denver has a Week 10 bye.

- More Fantasy Football Waiver-Wire Advice Heading Into Week 9

Check out more of our content:
Keep track of our site's updates: (1) follow us on Twitter and/or (2) LIKE us on Facebook.