Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Fantasy Football WR Waiver Wire Week 2

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 rostered 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).

With that said, here are some wide receiver waiver-wire options to consider heading into Week 2 (Yahoo! % rostered in parenthesis):

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

1. Rondale Moore, 4. Christian Kirk, Arizona Cardinals (27%, 14%)

Arizona's offense was clicking on all cylinders in Week 1 as Moore ended the day with four catches for 68 yards on five targets. On the other hand, it was a disappointing debut for A.J. Green (2/25 on six targets).

While Christian Kirk (5/70/2) had a monster game, we've seen up-and-down performances from him. During a five-game stretch from Weeks 4 to 9 last season, Kirk totaled 20/343/6 (17.15 Y/R) as he performed as fantasy's WR7 during that stretch. He finished as the WR50 (or worse) in eight of his other nine games last season.

If I had to rank the non-DeAndre Hopkins receivers in Arizona for the rest of the way, I'd rank them Moore (1A), Kirk (1B) and Green (distant second). On a positive note for Green, he played 55 snaps (80%), which was significantly more than Kirk (39, 57%) and Moore (20,29%).

2. Terrace Marshall Jr., Carolina Panthers (20%)

With Christian McCaffrey missing almost all of 2020, the Panthers had three highly productive wide receivers. In fact, all three of Robby Anderson (WR22), D.J. Moore (WR23) and Curtis Samuel (WR25) finished as top-25 wide receivers in half-PPR scoring.

That likely won't happen in 2021, especially given that CMC is healthy (knock on wood), but it's conceivable that Marshall outperforms his ADP and returns flex value for his fantasy managers. Longer-term injury concerns may have led to a draft slide to the end of Round 2, but many viewed Marshall as a first-round talent and he joined the team having familiarity with Joe Brady's offense from their days at LSU. Marshall had just three catches for 26 yards on six targets in his debut, but I expect better things to come from the promising rookie.

3. Tim Patrick, Denver Broncos (2%)

Jerry Jeudy (high-ankle sprain) is expected to miss 4-6 weeks, which is obviously disappointing for those that roster a receiver that seemed destined to breakout in 2021. With the injury, however, it opens up opportunities for the team's other pass catchers.

While K.J. Hamler may offer more weekly upside, Patrick is the more consistent option. Patrick had a relatively quiet breakout season in 2020 as he finished with 51 catches for 742 yards and six touchdowns. In fact, Patrick (WR41) scored more fantasy points than teammate Jeudy (WR44) in 2020.

4. Kirk (see above)

5. Sterling Shepard, New York Giants (39%)

Shepard was one of Week 1's top-performing wide receivers with a 7/113/1 line on nine targets. Kenny Golladay had noted that the offense could take some time to develop chemistry due to injuries, so it wasn't necessarily surprising that Daniel Jones found comfort targeting Shepard as successfully as he did.

Golladay should emerge as the team's No. 1 receiver, but Shepard has some extra short-term value since the Giants have a quick turnaround with a Thursday Night Football matchup against WFT. Not only is Saquon Barkley still at less than full strength, but Evan Engram earned a projected DNP on Monday after sitting out Week 1.

6. K.J. Osborn, Minnesota Vikings (0%)

In an OT shootout against the Bengals, Osborn ended Week 1 with seven catches for 76 yards on nine targets. It was a nearly even three-way split between Adam Thielen (10 targets), Justin Jefferson (nine) and Osborn (nine). That is unlikely to happen very often and the Vikings want to run the ball as much as possible, but they face a couple of offenses -- Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks and Cleveland Browns -- that could force the Vikings to keep their pass attempts high over the next few weeks.

Fantasy Football Waiver-Wire Advice Heading Into Week 2

Check out more of our content:

Keep track of our site's updates: Follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook and/or Subscribe to our newsletter.

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,