Bjorn Yang Vaernet examines which players on the waiver wire are worth prioritizing for Week 4 and highlights others to preemptively stash.
What a strange, strange Week 3 Sunday. I can’t remember the last time a Sunday had so many secondary fantasy options producing relevant scores. However, it does present an opportunity for savvy owners to determine which players are worth the waiver wire pickup and which may have just run hot on that week.
The waiver wire is one of the most important pieces of season-long draft leagues. It is the easiest way to acquire new players and every year there are gems to be found. The goal of this article will not only be to highlight which weekly breakout players to prioritize but find others to preemptively pick up before the breakout happens.
This article will be published once on Mondays with a quick run through my favorite pickups and again on Tuesdays with more charts and data points added in.
This article will only reference players that are less than 50% owned in ESPN leagues. The players are categorized by position group and within each group is the order of how I would prioritize them. In lieu of free agent acquisition budget percentages, which are highly dependent on the makeup of each league, I have highlighted which players I would prioritize on the week.
Quarterback
Marcus Mariota (Available in 75% of leagues)
I’ve written about Marcus Mariota in the previous two weeks and I will continue to leave him in here as a reminder that he is a good plug-and-play as a dual-threat QB. I would even consider him more viable than QBs like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers who are lesser options now that their offenses are struggling. Of course, Mariota has a low floor, but he doesn’t even need to be that good in real life to have a productive fantasy week — Week 3 is a perfect example as he passed for less than 250 yards, ran for less than 10 yards and had two turnovers, yet still had more than 15 fantasy points because of a rushing TD.
Jared Goff (Available in 70% of leagues)
I needed to see it to believe it from Jared Goff, but he has some waiver wire value in a strong offense (30 points scored in two out of three games) that routinely plays in shootouts (game totals of 73, 63, and 52). He isn’t a very high-ceiling option in an offense that tends to play balanced, but he does have a fine floor. Through three weeks, Goff has scored between 13 and 26 fantasy points. In short, on a fantasy team that is dealing with QB injuries or underperformance, Goff is a strong play in the right matchups.
Running Back
Jamaal Williams (Available in 56% of Leagues)
News dropped on Monday morning that D’Andre Swift suffered a shoulder sprain during Sunday’s game and will likely miss some time. Jamaal Williams has been included on this waiver wire column each week and this week he is the No. 1 priority pickup. The Lions’ offensive line is strong and as detailed in the Goff section, Detroit scores a lot of points.
While Williams is not likely to take over the entire backfield (Craig Reynolds will get touches) he will likely be a modern-day workhorse. By that, I mean he will have a share of the early-down work and retain nearly all of the passing and green zone touches. In Week 3, with Swift limited by his injuries (less than a 50% snap rate), Williams received more than 20 RB opportunities including two targets and all of the green zone touches.
Although Williams was dealing with injuries himself when Swift was out in 2021, he received 18 and 19 opportunities when he started and that type of volume is excellent for a waiver wire addition.
