Fantasy Football Waiver Wire: Week 5

By Faraz Majid Oct 1, 2019, 4:00pm EDT

The fantasy football season is 4 weeks finished and we’re all either panicking or in trash-talking heaven.

Whether you’re sweating bullets, or exercising the use of your favorite WWE/WWF/WCW brags, the waiver wire is an important tool to improving your roster.

Let’s look at some players you can bring on, following an eventful week 4.

% owned is based on Yahoo Fantasy Football

Shallow Leagues

Jordan Howard, RB, Philadelphia Eagles – 56% owned

I know – Howard is part of a committee with the beloved Miles Sanders as his counterpart. However, the running back position is rough this year and most of us are desperate for help with bye weeks and injuries stacking up. Howard has scored at least 1 touchdown the last 2 weeks and received 11 carries against the Lions (Sanders had 13) and 15 carries (Sanders had 11) and 3 catches against the Packers. Howard is carrying a noticeable workload and seems to be hitting the pay-dirt more often than his committee buddy – that merits a waiver claim.

Golden Tate, WR, New York Giants – 50% owned

Tate is coming back from a 4-game suspension to a wide receiver room that was giving significant playing time to 5^th round pick Darius Slayton. Daniel Jones has somewhat rejuvenated this New York Giants pass game and, sure, Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram will eat up a large chunk of targets, but there are plenty more to be had by a talent such as Tate. Tate may not be what he used to be, but he’s a quality upgrade from what the Giants have and should see a healthy volume of passes come his way.

Intermediate Leagues

NFL: New York Giants at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Ronald Jones, RB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 44% owned

The Jones hype train finds itself back on track. He started the season off strong, then had a dud in week 2 and brought himself back to life the last 2 weeks. Sure, his numbers aren’t sexy but he’s available in a lot of leagues and he’s starting to show that he deserves more carries than the less talented Peyton Barber. Jones is worth a waiver claim moving forward.

Jaylen Samuels, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers – 30% owned

Samuels is as swiss army as a swiss army knife can get. He finished with 3 pass attempts for 31 pass yards, 10 carries for 26 rushing yards and a touchdown, and 8 catches for 57 yards. It seems, with Big Ben on the sidelines, the Steelers are getting creative with their offense and that includes the use of a large amount of wildcat plays with Samuels at the helm. Samuels is one of the best handcuffs in the league, while also providing some bye-week flex value in the meantime – go out and get him if you can.

Geronimo Allison, WR, Green Bay Packers – 24% owned

Davante Adams will be out a few weeks and there will be a large share of targets available to whoever fills in for him. Allison is the man to take the torch and he’s more than up to the task. He finished with 3 catches for 52 yards and a touchdown against Philadelphia. He’ll be helping replace the 36 targets (9 targets per game) that Adams will leave behind for a few weeks.

Deep Leagues

NFL: Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers

Chris Herndon, TE, New York Jets – 19% owned

This will have to be a stash for a week but may be well worth it. Herndon has another game left on his suspension before he can play but the tight end position is extremely weak this year, as per usual. Herndon was a popular target for Sam Darnold and finished with 39 catches, 502 yards and 4 touchdowns in his debut season in 2018. Most of us are desperate for an upgrade at this spot and Herndon might be a quarter-season savior.

Cole Beasley, WR, Buffalo Bills – 12% owned

This obviously depends on the health of Josh Allen but despite that, he may be a good stash till we know more about Allen’s concussion. Beasley is more of a PPR-league pick-up but he has seen double digit targets in his last 2 outings (13 in week 4 and 10 in week 3). That’s an extremely heavy workload and Beasley is capable of continuing that trend – you’ll just have to accept the fact that he won’t be dipping his toe in the end zone all that often.

Preston Williams, WR, Miami Dolphins – 9% owned

Williams was Josh Rosen’s favorite target in the pre-season and that didn’t change once the real games started. Williams has 19 targets the last 2 weeks and 30 targets on the year. Volume is king in fantasy and Williams is an excellent pick up as a bench stash and bye week flier option.

Diontae Johnson, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers – 7% owned

James Washington believers, it may be time to throw in the towel. Mason Rudolph isn’t throwing the ball deep all that often and Randy Fichtner, Rudolph and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense seem to be finding creative ways to get the ball to Johnson. Johnson now has 6 targets in each of the last 2 games and has found his way to the end-zone in each of those match-ups as well. Sure, he may not be able to continue this trend, especially with the lack of involvement from JuJu Smith-Schuster this week and the absence of Vance McDonald – but still, Rudolph seems to favor Diontae Johnson and was even able to find him wide open on a deep ball against the Bengals.

Shoot me with your questions and opinions/complaints in the comment section or on twitter @brownmamba13.