Week 14 Fantasy Football: Waiver Wire Adds Guide

Wading through the waiver wire each week can be a daunting task, no matter what kind of league you’re in. Do you play in an eight-teamer with small starting lineups? Then there’s a plethora of options and it’s hard to figure out which to grab. Maybe you play in a 16-teamer with 12 starting spots; then it’s hard to figure out which flier is on the verge of breaking out.

Each week, I’ll help you find potential players to add off the waiver wire who will provide additional value to your fantasy football team. We’ll limit ourselves to players rostered in 40% of Yahoo! leagues or less, meaning these are players that should be available in most leagues.

Don’t force yourself to pick through the player pile alone; I can be your help in winning from the wire. Which players are must-adds, interesting options, and deeper sleepers for Week 14’s waivers?

Must-Adds

WR Russell Gage, ATL (35% rostered)
The Atlanta Falcons’ de facto wide receiver one these days, Russell Gage has just one game since Week 9 with fewer than seven targets. It doesn’t hurt his fantasy case that the Falcons are constantly playing from behind or in close matchups, because that feeds the volume of receiving looks for the whole team. Of that increased-size pie, then, we should be mightily impressed that Gage’s 26.8% team target share since Week 9 both leads the Atlanta receiving corps and is the 10th-highest mark among all pass-catchers in that span of time. Gage is a legitimate WR2/3 option in any given week with these peripherals, so the fact that he’s available in two-thirds of Yahoo! leagues right now is a borderline fantasy football crime. Go out and grab him if you can.

Interesting Options

RB Dontrell Hilliard, TEN (41% rostered)
RB D’Onta Foreman, TEN (41% rostered)
The twin Tennessee Titans running backs — Dontrell Hilliard and D’Onta Foreman — are rostered in the same number of leagues, meaning it might be a crapshoot for which one is available in yours (if either are). Based on per-touch efficiency, variety of role, and scoring upside, Hilliard is the preferred option: in his two games with the Titans this year, Hilliard has totaled 215 yards from scrimmage and a score on 19 rushes and 12 targets. Foreman is also a fine bench stash, though: he has collected 259 scrimmage yards on 42 rushes and four targets in four games. You won’t want to start either, likely, but Hilliard can operate as a deep-league RB2 or a standard FLEX.

RB Carlos Hyde, JAX (12% rostered)
For the second week in a row, Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer has benched 2020 fantasy phenom James Robinson for fumbling. That has allowed Carlos Hyde a chance to step in and prove himself. The results, however, haven’t exactly been awe-inspiring. Hyde has rushed 15 times for 40 yards and a touchdown, seeing just two targets, and catching one for -1 yard. That said, we’re at the point of the season where if a player is seeing regular touches, it’s hard to turn our collective nose up at that. There’s a non-zero chance that Hyde moves into more of a timeshare or even unseats Robinson going forward, which means he’s worth a bench stash at the very least.

RB Ameer Abdullah, CAR (4% rostered)
With Christian McCaffrey exiting Week 12’s game with an ankle injury, it wasn’t Chuba Hubbard who saw the Carolina Panthers’ backfield receiving work slide his way. Instead, Ameer Abdullah saw six total targets in the game, though he caught just two for 20 yards. He ran 21 receiving routes from the backfield, meaning he was given plenty of opportunities to be a pass-catcher in CMC’s absence. With Carolina in a competitive death spiral, it seems likely that Abdullah’s electric agility and sure hands will be called upon in the waning weeks of the season.

WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling, GB (21% rostered)
In the two games before the Green Bay Packers’ Week 13 bye, Marquez Valdes-Scantling turned in a 10-target showing and a nine-target eruption. He caught just eight of those looks but turned them into 173 receiving yards and a score. MVS is the sole downfield threat in the Packers’ offense and has actually captured a higher team target share in that two-game sample than even Davante Adams. He’s an up-and-down kind of player, but MVS has the week-winning upside you look for entering the fantasy playoffs.

WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, TEN (14% rostered)
Easily the top Titans receiver over their last two games, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine has seen 14 targets in that span of time. He caught nine of those targets for 132 yards and a touchdown, averaging 11.9 half PPR fantasy points in that span of time without Julio Jones and with a hampered A.J. Brown in on one game. NWI looks to be the Tennessee receiver to roster while the Titans limp their way to a playoff berth, and their mishaps on defense and lack of elite ground game to control the clock should mean they throw his way often on the tail end of the fantasy season.

Deeper Sleepers and Streaming Options

QB Taysom Hill, NO at NYJ (34% rostered)
QB Teddy Bridgewater, DEN vs. DET (23% rostered)
RB Alex Collins, SEA (36% rostered)
RB Latavius Murray, BAL (33% rostered)
WR Robby Anderson, CAR (37% rostered)
WR Josh Reynolds, DET (4% rostered)
TE Ricky Seals-Jones, WAS vs. DAL (5% rostered)
TE Tyler Conklin, MIN vs. PIT (30% rostered)