Trade your Busts for Booms — Week 2 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Advice

MathBox™’s assessment of this week’s trendiest waiver adds and drops based on our model projections and our opinions

It’s back! The rush of watching your WR5 bench player outscore your ‘steal of the draft’ Amari Cooper.

As we all know the best thing about fantasy is getting to disappoint — uh improve — yourself every week. And here at Fantasy Outliers we help you do just that. Read on to get a feel for some players that you should rage quit on after one week, and who you should pick up to replace them.

Quarterbacks

Matt Stafford was projected to go 8th(!) of all QBs in terms of Expert Consensus Rankings. That’s crazy. You knew that. So you waited on a QB but he waited with you. And when you were ready how could you not pull the trigger. Well, Fantasy Outliers’ models had Stafford as the season’s 22nd best QB, and while there is a long way to go before the season’s over, the warning signs were abundant in his 4 (Four! Cuatro! IV!) interception game against the Jets. Beyond that he left the game briefly with injury once and nearly left a second time. The O-line just isn’t there and there’s no run game to keep defenses honest. Part ways with Stafford, there are better QBs around like …

Our models were admittedly high on Cleveland across the board, notably Josh Gordon and their RBs, but coming out with a tie in their first game against the not-a-pushover Steelers was impressive. People have forgotten that Tyrod Taylor isn’t a bad QB and Cleveland has given him some weapons to work with. Taylor plays New Orleans this week and Tampa Bay just walked all over that defense with Harvard Graduate Ryan Fitzpatrick, a plastic trashcan at RB, and a WR corp of Mike Evans — Mike Evans in a mustache and Mike Evans in party glasses. Give Tyrod the Wheel!

Other Quarterbacks to drop:

• Marcus Mariota — I’m a titans fan but with his injury, loss of Walker and divisional game against Houston he shouldn’t be rostered.
• Blake Bortles — There’s no pass game here. He went 18/33 and the team will rely on the Run and the D early.

Other Quarterbacks to add:

• Joe Flacco — you can’t argue with 3 TDs even if it was against Buffalo. Baltimore is still discovering their run game and in the meantime a healthy Flacco will try to keep the ball up. Going into the season, Expert Consensus Rankings had him as the 28th ranked QB and our models had him more in the middle of the pack. We’ll see how it plays out.
• Jared Goff — He might not be available in your league but if he is he looked good in his opener against Oakland. The Rams are reliant on Gurley but he can catch from the backfield which adds value to Goff

Running Backs

Alex Collins was not in MathBox’s good books as we had him 13 positions higher than his ADP. He did not do much Sunday with his 7 touches. Worse for him was that Dixon looked strong, as did Lamar Jackson. Collins got a goal line touchdown to salvage the day, but I’m not starting Collins this week unless my league has a weird Collins Bonus rule.

As much as it physically ails me to type this, why not take a look at what T.J. Yeldon is up to in Jacksonville. Yeldon became a more prominent feature in Sunday’s game with Fourenette’s injury and things are cautious at best for Fournette returning this week. Jacksonville plays New England who let Lamar Miller run for nearly 100 yards. If you’re hard up at RB then jump into that time capsule and get in on the Yeldon hype — maybe a little more so in PPR.

Other Running Backs to Bench:

• Breida/Morris in San Fransisco — The 49ers aren’t a good enough team for two fantasy relevant RBs (even 1 is pushing it). While these two split the load they should ride the pines.
• Royce Freeman — Death, Taxes and the Bronco’s mucking a perfectly good RB situation. Freeman’s split touches and wasn’t featured in the passing game. Let the dust settle in Denver before re-boarding the hype train.

Other Running Backs to Add:

• This is a hashtag deep add but I like Marcus Murphy in Buffalo. He’s the #2 there, looked as good as an RB can in a 47–3 loss and we know L. McCoy’s fragility.
• We saw the Dolphins backfield and while Drake got plenty of the ball I was surprised how much we saw of Frank Gore. He certainly looks relevant in that offense and is worth a bench spot.

Wide Receivers

Derek Carr threw the ball 40 times Monday and targeted Amari Cooper only 3 times. The team is going to have to find a way to get Cooper open more often, but until they do, Cooper can’t be trusted. I’d sit him for just about anyone this week against Denver.

Quincy Enunwa shined under a surprising rookie QB performance as he lead the Jets in targets and secured a touchdown. Riding the team’s momentum into a home game against the Dolphin’s, I think ole Quince will look good again. Our models had him at +0.11 Points Per Opportunity relative to other Wide Receivers in PPR. Get him now while he’s available.

Other Wide Receivers to Bench:

• Mohamed Sanu is WR2 in a high powered offence but just like bad mashed potatoes he’s too inconsistent for me. Atlanta will look at Jones, Freeman, Coleman and Hooper before Sanu and that should keep him out of your lineup
• Dallas was uncharacteristically bad and while I’m not dropping Allen Hurns yet he’s on a short leash. He’ll need to prove to Prescott that he’s worth the looks sooner rather than later in order to be a relevant fantasy play this year

Other Wide Receivers to Add:

• I don’t believe in chasing points, but Kenny Golladay looked good while his team crumbled around him. Targeted 12 times for 114 yards, I think Golladay continues to be a flex option in Detroit.
• With Keelan Cole named the #1 WR in Jax, it was Dede Westbrook that had more catches in the Jacksonville offense. The team is run first but Westbrook is a go to when Jacksonville is behind (and they play New England this week)

Tight Ends

With Delanie Walker and Greg Olsen’s injuries, a lot of us are looking for replacements off of the waiver wire.

• Jared Cook’s big first game will likely damper a bit in the coming weeks, but the trend could continue, especially as long as long as defenses try to take away Cooper. Worth rostering for sure
• Eric Ebron — Our models were a high on both Ebron and Jack Doyle going into the season relative to Expert Consensus Rankings. Turns out, both had good games on Sunday against the Bengals. We’ll see how it plays out, but he has Andrew Luck chucking it to him now — so he could be a viable plug-and-play at a scarce position group.

While we wait for our weekly projections (which beat ESPN last year) to be ready, our 2018 Fantasy Football Season Projections may still be helpful and are available for free in this Glorious Google Sheet.

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Chris Seal contributed to this article.