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).
With that said, here are some quarterback waiver-wire options to consider heading into Week 8 (Yahoo! % rostered in parenthesis):
[Note: Players listed below are sorted by our preference to add.]
1. Teddy Bridgewater, Carolina Panthers (44%)
Whether looking for a bye-week replacement for Kyler Murray or Deshaun Watson, both on bye in Week 8, or streaming the position by design or out of necessity (Dak Prescott's season-ending injury), Bridgewater is an ideal plug-and-play option off the waiver wire this week.
Bridgewater has thrown multiple touchdowns and scored at least 19 fantasy points in three of his past four games. In Week 8, Bridgewater gets a repeat matchup against one of those teams (Atlanta). In his first matchup, Bridgewater completed 27-of-36 for 313 yards and two touchdowns.
It's not just Bridgewater that has had success against the Falcons secondary; every quarterback has. The only game in which they did not allow a 300-yard passer was due to the fact that the Bears benched Mitch Trubisky for Nick Foles, but the duo combined for 316 passing yards and four touchdowns. Heading into Monday Night Football, no team has allowed more fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks this season than the Falcons.
2. Derek Carr, Las Vegas Raiders (29%)
While Carr has never been an elite fantasy quarterback (and still isn't), he's been more productive than most have realized as he's never finished worse than the QB20 (2014, rookie season). Since Week 2, Carr has averaged 297.4 passing yards per game and thrown multiple touchdowns every week. During that five-game stretch, the veteran quarterback has compiled a 12-to-two TD-INT ratio.
Carr has now scored 20-plus fantasy points in three consecutive games and four of his past five. To help maintain his current hot streak, the Raiders quarterback gets a favorable matchup in Week 8 against the Browns, who have allowed the seventh-most fantasy points per game this season. In addition, they have allowed four games of 24-plus fantasy points to opposing signal-callers in 2020.
3. Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns (33%)
Mayfield is coming off his best performance of the season, by far. In a battle of former No. 1 overall picks (Mayfield vs. Joe Burrow), the Browns quarterback completed 22-of-28 for 297 yards, five touchdowns and an interception despite losing Odell Beckham to a torn ACL. Aside from Week 7, gaudy production has eluded Mayfield, but he has now thrown multiple scores in five of six games.
The loss of OBJ diminishes Mayfield's upside, but like the quarterbacks listed above him, he gets a favorable matchup as well. The Raiders have allowed the sixth-most fantasy points this season. While Mayfield isn't in the tier of quarterbacks the Raiders defense had to face over the past three weeks (Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady), they have allowed an average of 30.99 fantasy points over that stretch.
4. Jimmy Garoppolo, San Francisco 49ers (30%)
While his numbers include a benching (vs. Miami), Garoppolo has averaged only 24.8 pass attempts per game this season. Excluding the Dolphins game, the average increases to only 26.75 per game. As much as the 49ers love to run the ball, game script may force Garoppolo to sling it much more often as they try to keep up with Russell Wilson and the high-flying Seahawks offense in Week 8. Not only do the Seahawks average a league-high 33.8 offensive points per game, they have allowed the second-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks as well.
- More Fantasy Football Waiver-Wire Advice Heading Into Week 8
Positional Fantasy Football Rankings:
- Fantasy Football QB Rankings
- Fantasy Football RB Rankings
- Fantasy Football WR Rankings
- Fantasy Football TE Rankings
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