Fantasy Football Week 7 Waiver Wire Pickup 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 rostered in fewer than 50 percent of leagues, with the roster percentages coming from Yahoo.com.

Quarterbacks

Sam Howell, Commanders (38% Rostered): Howell often doesn’t look pretty when he plays, but he’s been putting up stats all season. He threw for 388 yards vs. the hapless Bears, and then was held to only 151 yards this week, but tossed three touchdown passes. He’s got a bad secondary on the slate this week in the Giants, and continues to be a better option than a lot of bigger names who are tough to bench.

Derek Carr, Saints (25% Rostered): Carr has been underwhelming in New Orleans, only putting up big yards twice in six games, and failing to surpass two touchdowns in any game so far. But, he has gone over 300 yards twice, he does have an explosive receiving corps, and he has the Jaguars, Colts, Bears and Vikings over the next four weeks, which could be blowup games for him if he gets hot.

Running Backs

Jordan Mason, 49ers (6% Rostered): Mason could be a trap! Christian McCaffery went down with an oblique injury in the loss to Cleveland, and Mason looks like he might’ve usurped the next man up role from Elijah Mitchell, who has battled injury – again – this season and only carried the ball twice on Sunday for -3 yards. Mason only has 64 career totes under his belt, so I can’t give a very informed take on him, but he rushed for 69 yards on 10 carries last week and is still playing on one of the league’s best offenses. The question is will he have a bigger share of work if CMC misses games, or if Mitchell works his way back into an even timeshare with the team given time to prepare for CMC’s absence.

Tyjae Spears, Titans (48% Rostered): Spears’ roster percentage is ticking up weekly, so people are realizing how much he’s on the field, and what the opportunity is if Henry goes down. Spears has big play ability, so in a pinch he can be played as an emergency FLEX, but really he is holding the title belt as fantasy’s most desirable handcuff.

Elijah Mitchell, 49ers (28% Rostered): Mitchell’s had a nightmarish fantasy season, doing basically nothing when he has played, battling injury, and losing whatever standalone value he had in training camp. CMC appears like he is set to miss some time, and if he’s going to rebound, now’s the time. It looks like Jordan Mason has passed him, but Mitchell is a home run hitter who, one, doesn’t need big volume to produce, and two, could easily surpass Mason once again with a big game. I would not blow my budget on either player because we don’t know the breakdown, nor do we know the severity of CMC’s injury yet, but small bids on both make sense.

Kenneth Gainwell, Eagles (42% Rostered): Like Spears, Gainwell has very little standalone value playing behind D’Andre Swift, but he will be a solid RB2 if Swift gets hurt. Running behind the Eagles’ offensive line, most able-bodied humans could pick up yardage.

Wide Receivers

Rashee Rice, Chiefs (45% Rostered): Rice has graded as a Top 15 WR this season per PFF, and is the answer if you’re placing bets on any one Chiefs receiver becoming a consistent fantasy contributor. Rice hasn’t had blowup games yet because Travis Kelce is such a target hound, and because Pat Mahomes loves spreading the ball to multiple receivers. However, Rice is the best pass-catcher on the team after the catch, and the next-best graded WR is Justin Watson, PFF’s No. 64 receiver. Of course, the Chiefs aren’t ruled by PFF ratings, but it does illustrate the gap between Rice and his in-house competition, and as that bears out he’ll inevitably begin to see more snaps and earn more targets.

Curtis Samuel, Commanders (34% Rostered): Samuel hasn’t been earning a monster target share, but he has been on the field consistently, drawn 4+ targets in five of six games, and scored a touchdown in four of Washington’s six games. Samuel is the most versatile pass-catcher in Washington, so he’s on the field a ton, and the team designs ways for him to get the rock. His upside isn’t tremendous because he does have to share the field with Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson, but he’s also established a high floor through six games, making him a decent FLEX as injuries and bye weeks are now affecting roster choices.

Josh Downs, Colts (33% Rostered): Downs is pretty heavily targeted in this offense, and while he hasn’t spiked for any huge games, Gardner Minshew is going to be under center long term in 2023 and improving Downs’ target quality. He’s a very startable player in full-PPR formats, and is looking currently like a safe bet to not goose managers on a weekly basis.

Jameson Williams, Lions (49% Rostered): Using Williams is playing with fire. Since returning from suspension he’s seen three targets in back-to-back games. Last week he had two receptions for two yards. This week he had two receptions for…53 yards and a touchdown. His snap rate leapt from 23% to 47% this week, which means two things. The first, is bad news for Josh Reynolds. The second is that he’ll see more opportunities as that snap rate, and when he makes catches he does so for massive gains and touchdowns. That’s not a player profile I’m very comfortable with, but he’s certainly a fun dart throw to use in weeks with a thin roster or against loaded teams.

Tight Ends

Jonnu Smith, Falcons (19% Rostered): Smith caught a touchdown this week, and has caught 4+ passes in five of Atlanta’s six games. We’ve also seen an uptick in production from Kyle Pitts the last two weeks, but that hasn’t stopped Smith from being useful. Utilizing Falcons pass-catchers is terrifying stuff, but Smith is proving to have a pretty consistent baseline of production. He’s not looking like a guy who will spike very much, but 4-5 catches and 35-50 yards a week isn’t bad at all this year at a brutal position.

Luke Musgrave, Packers (18% Rostered): Musgrave is probably at the end of the line for chances this season, but he he has caught six balls in two of his last three games, and he does get Denver this week. He’s on the field, he’s running routes, and he has big play ability. And guess what…if you play him and he bombs, he probably won’t be significantly worse than your opponent’s TE anyway.

Taysom Hill, Saints (7% Rostered): Hill is back on the list! Seeing Hill get eight targets and catch seven passes was wild, and not something I expect to be repeated. Hill is just about the most unique player in the league right now, and his big game upside dwarfs a lot of the other TEs on the wire. More often than not he’ll get a few touches for a few yards, but for managers who can stomach big risk, that upside outweighs the dud games at a position that produces majority duds.

Possibly Available

Jaleel McLaughlin, RB, Broncos (54% Rostered)

Tank Dell, WR, Texans (59% Rostered)

Dalton Schultz, Texans (51% Rostered)

Drop Candidates – HODL or Say Goodbye?

Brock Purdy, QB, 49ers (88% Rostered): HODL. It could get gross if CMC misses a lot of time, but don’t cut bait just yet. See if Kyle Shanahan has a workaround.

Geno Smith, QB, Seahawks (67% Rostered): Say Goodbye. He looks like he’s turning into a pumpkin, and while the receiving talent is there, he’s not running nearly enough to justify the mid passing production.

D’Onta Foreman, RB, Bears (56% Rostered): Say Goodbye. Roschon Johnson is probably back next week, and without Justin Fields you don’t want to play any Bears anyway.

Cam Akers, RB, Vikings (66% Rostered): Say Goodbye. Alexander Mattison is probably just a better player, and there are better handcuffs available.

Tutu Atwell, WR, Rams (55% Rostered): Say Goodbye. Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua are this entire offense now.

Jerry Jeudy, WR, Broncos (79% Rostered): HODL. Give it one more week.

Zach Ertz, TE, Cardinals (55% Rostered): HODL. That was bad last week in what should’ve been a good matchup, but consistent target share at TE is really scarce.