By Chris Dell
Week 3 is now officially in the books, and with that, we get into my personal favorite part of the weekly grind: the waiver wire! Whether you play in a league that does standard waiver claims or FAB (free agent bidding), we will highlight players below based off roster percentages in ESPN leagues. In Week 2 I focused on players owned in less than 40% of leagues. However, while doing that, I soon realized that many of the players I'd mentioned weren't available in literally all seven of the leagues that I'm in, five of which are fairly standard size 12-team leagues. Because of this, I will be keeping the players listed below to those owned in roughly 33.3% of leagues or less. If you happen to play in a 10-team league or smaller, this article will serve more as a "watch list and stash" report, rather than a guide to directly making your top pickups of the week. Always do your best to prioritize these adds based on your roster's most glaring needs, or in some cases, the most glaring needs of your opponents. In Week 4 I know that the latter is tough to truly act on, but down the stretch of the regular season it can prove extremely valuable.
RB's are often our main targets on waivers each week over other positions, simply because they add both trade value and depth/insurance at the position, especially in such an unpredictable year with COVID-19 related risks. Also , in regards to prioritizing certain players over others, we want to constantly chase volume and usage, which for WR's/TE's will be primarily tracking target share % as opposed to just overall touchdowns and overall fantasy points scored. While we don't want to overreact to just a three-week sample size, we do want to jump on the opportunity to improve our rosters as often as humanly possible. We do this through waivers, trades and streaming positions at QB, TE, D/ST and/or Kicker.
The ability to drop these positions at the start of the week and make at least one or two additional, speculative adds, can often be the difference in hitting on a league-winner off the waivers and not. It's the owners who stand pat and stay stagnant who often see their fantasy fortunes fade down the stretch each year. This is why it's so important to grind the bottom of your rosters each week and not be afraid to cut bait on players with "household names" who simply aren't seeing enough usage.
Have a specific add/drop question or anything more specific that isn't covered? Hit me up on Twitter @maddjournalist or @betpredators. I will do my best to address each one of you before our first set of claims go through on Tuesday night. Without further adieu, here is our weekly addition of "Hunting The Waiver Wire" below. I will keep this short and sweet, with just one graph or less on each guy:
QUARTERBACKS
RUNNING BACKS
WIDE RECEIVERS
TIGHT ENDS
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