Fantasy Football 2020 Week 5 Waiver Wire Advice

Is your fantasy team in need of new blood? Each week I’ll bring to you the best pickups to make ahead of the waiver deadline. All the players I list will be owned in fewer than 50 percent of leagues, with the ownership percentage coming from Yahoo.com.

Quarterbacks

Ryan Tannehill, Titans (49% Owned): Tannehill’s availability may be a product of the COVID outbreak on the Titans, but if he is available in your league he should be snapped up. He is one of the NFL’s most efficient QBs nowadays, and even though his last game was a fantasy dud, he still racked up 321 passing yards. Tannehill has six touchdowns and just one pick in three games, a fairly high rushing floor, and now has already had his bye week. He’s good enough that he can be a weekly, matchup-proof starter, but chances are you’re able to play matchups with another starter based on what his ADP was preseason.

Garner Minshew, Jaguars (46% Owned): Minshew rebounded from a dud against Miami to throw for 351 yards and two touchdowns in a loss to the Bengals. The Jaguars’ defense is not good at all, and RB James Robinson is good, but not special. Most weeks Minshew is going to have to throw a ton to keep Jacksonville in the game, and he has quality receiving weapons, including a borderline elite WR in D.J. Chark.

Kirk Cousins, Vikings (29% Owned): Cousins was effective and efficient last week, throwing for 256 yards and a touchdown vs. Houston. Cousins’ ceiling is lower than most because the Vikings are committed to running the ball, but he’s capable of explosions with Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson at WR, and Dalvin Cook catching the ball out of the backfield. Minnesota’s upcoming slate – at Seattle, vs. Atlanta, at Green Bay -- at could be a boon for offensive production. Don’t  shy away if you need immediate QB help.

Teddy Bridgewater, Panthers (19% Owned): Bridgewater is still too much of a dink and dunk QB for my liking, but this offense relies on him to throw the ball enough that production is still there. Like Cousins, Bridgewater is a low-ceiling, steady hand. He makes sense as a one-week add, as he will travel to Atlanta to face their porous pass defense. I don’t much care for him beyond this week, but he makes a lot of sense as a cheap plug-and-play Week 5 option, and he should be very cheap.

Daniel Jones, Giants (34% Owned): I really might be crazy, but even though Jones hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass in three weeks, I still think he can be started in Week 5. Dallas has proven they can’t stop a nosebleed, and their offense is going to thrash the Giants’ defense to the point where running is not an option for Big Blue. Jones has been abominable, but he’s faced four straight strong defenses with major disruptors (Steelers, Bears, 49ers, Rams). The Cowboys are a much friendlier opponent, and then he gets to face the banged up Washington defense, and the Eagles. The NFC East is the NFL’s worst division, so even though the Giants contribute to that, fantasy production should be there for all involved. Lastly, Jones has rushed for 45 or more yards in back-to-back games, which will continue behind this shaky offensive line. It raises his floor.

Running Backs

Phillip Lindsay, Broncos (49% Owned): There aren’t any great adds on waivers at RB this week, so Lindsay leads the Week 5 class. He should be returning this week, and while Melvin Gordon is the established leader of this backfield, Lindsay will get some work, and he’s capable of doing a fair amount of damage with limited opportunity. Prior to Gordon’s arrival, Lindsay posted back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons, and Denver’s next three weeks are against soft run defenses: at New England, vs. Miami, vs. Kansas City. He’s not someone I’d start right away, but he can be played in a pinch, and has a shot to be in a near 50-50 time share if he can outperform Gordon. Additionally, should Gordon get hurt, Lindsay suddenly becomes a strong RB2 at worst.

Justin Jackson, Chargers (5% Owned): Jackson has been hurt all season and during training camp, and was overtaken completely by Joshua Kelley. When all hope seemed lost, Austin Ekeler went down with what appeared to be a severe hamstring injury, that we already know will cost him several weeks. Just like that, Jackson is back in the mix, likely as a change of pace receiving back. Jackson has averaged 4.8 yards per carry in limited work over the past two seasons, and caught 80% of his targets. With that kind of efficiency, even if he doesn’t assume Ekeler’s full workload there’s a chance Jackson becomes fantasy relevant in a hurry.

Damien Harris, Patriots (32% Owned): Harris had a bit of buzz in the preseason as having potential to take ownership of early down work in New England before breaking his hand and landing on IR. With Sony Michel currently on IR, Harris returned and immediately made a statement, tallying 100 yards on the ground on 17 carries. Harris looked great, and he is clearly the highest-upside RB in the Patriots’ backfield, but he still ceded early down and red zone work to Rex Burkhead, and passing down work to James White. He certainly looked good, but the Patriots backfield is notoriously fickle, so i would not count on him as a bedrock moving forward.

Chase Edmonds, Cardinals (34% Owned): Edmonds hasn’t eaten into Kenyan Drake’s carries much this season, but he has been involved a bit in the passing game, and scored two touchdowns despite having yet to crack 40% snap share in any game. In this time, the Cardinals’ offense has sputtered in the past two weeks, and Drake has struggled to be productive. It’s not crazy to think Edmonds might see an uptick in carries moving forward if only to give the offense a spark. You shouldn’t start Edmonds yet unless you are incredibly desperate, but for teams who have avoided massive injuries he makes sense as a speculative add.

D’Ernest Johnson, Browns (1% Owned): Johnson saw 13 carries and gained 95 yards, as the Browns continue to show that they can absolutely murder teams on the ground. Kareem Hunt is a clear-cut RB1 with Chubb out, and no one should expect Johnson to step right in and assume the role Hunt was playing. With that said, Johnson will be playable in certain matchups against weak run defenses even if he’s just a FLEX.

Wide Receivers

Scotty Miller, Buccaneers (16% Owned): Miller caught five passes for 83 yards and a score, benefitting from seven targets in the absence of Chris Godwin, who will likely miss the Bucs’ next game on Thursday. Miller typically operates from the slot, which Chicago has been vulnerable to. Entering Week 4, the Bears had the NFL’s fifth-worst DVOA vs. slot receivers (21.6%), so even though the Bears’ defense is solid, Miller is in a great position to exploit their weakness, and his QB has an established rapport with him. This is a bit of a one-week desperation play, but he could perform well, especially in half-point and full-PPR formats.

Golden Tate, Giants (35% Owned): Tate is off to a very slow start, as is the entire Giants’ offense, but the target share is there to succeed, and his matchups are about to be a whole lot better. Tate has the Cowboys next, who have been gashed in every way possible through four weeks this season. In half-PPR and full-PPR leagues especially, but in any format, I’d recommend adding Tate even if you don’t need to play him right away. He’s capable of big weeks, but the real draw is he has a pretty high floor and can become very valuable when the bye weeks, or injuries, begin piling up.

Tee Higgins, Bengals (33% Owned): The Bengals spent a high second round pick on Higgins despite having talented receivers already on the roster, and it seems he has violently shoved A.J. Green out of the way. Higgins has been targeted six or more times in three straight games, and he’s making plays like Green used to, averaging 12.7 yards per catch. The upcoming matchups are a bit tough for Higgins, especially if the opposing defenses choose to correctly target him as the Bengals’ top option rather than Green, but this team is going to pass so much in 2020 due to their bad defense that he belongs on a roster in almost any size league.

Hunter Renfrow, Raiders (42% Owned): Renfrow is a full-PPR type player who has a nice matchup in Week 5 with Kansas City. Renfrow is not a high-ceiling play, but he definitely has a high floor at the moment based on rookies Bryan Edwards and Henry Ruggs being out. Derek Carr doesn’t take many chances, and when he’s not hypertargeting TE Darren Waller, he’s often looking for Renfrow. Don’t expect many touchdowns, but expect moderate FLEX production on a weekly basis, especially when there are multiple other option out for Las Vegas. But beware of Renfrow in standard leagues, because he isn’t much of a touchdown threat.

Mecole Hardman, Chiefs (36% Owned): Hardman scored for the second consecutive week, catching all four of his targets and taking one to the house. Hardman is the same explosive player he was last season, and the 10 targets the past two games are encouraging. He’s continued the trend of making his limited opportunities count, and the more he scores, the more involved he should be. There are still many mouths to feed in KC and there’s still a lot of Sammy Watkins; Hardman was only fourth on the team Monday night, and he’s fifth on the season.

Tight Ends

Jimmy Graham, Bears (50% Owned): It is shocking to me that Jimmy Graham is coming up in a fantasy article in 2020, but the Bears signed him for more than anyone expected this offseason, and they are throwing him the ball. Graham has seen 15 targets in the last two weeks, and scored twice in Week 3, and three times on the season. His upcoming opponents are actually a bit tough on opposing TEs, but that might not matter because of the type of targets Graham receives. He’s touchdown-dependent, but those type of targets are more reliable than they are for similar style players.

Greg Olsen, Seahawks (22% Owned): Olsen has been targeted 13 times in the last two games, and while he hasn’t scored or put up a ton of yardage, a consistent target share is the most you can hope for with TEs outside the elite tier. Olsen doesn’t have a high ceiling, but the way Seattle’s running their offense, he can reasonably be trusted to not drop an ugly zero on you.

Mo Alie-Cox, Colts (33% Owned): Mo Alie-Cox, the mountain that the Colts have at TE, has become intriguing. The Colts’ passing offense stinks, but when they get close, they seem to have realized that throwing it up to a 6’5, 275-lb. beast makes sense. He has scored in back-to-back weeks, and in Week 2 put up 111 receiving yards. Moving forward, he does have donut potential, but he’s emerged as an Eric Ebron-esque option in the red zone. Tread carefully, but I have optimism that we may soon look at him as reliable.