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✍ MUST ADD Waiver Wire Players

✍ MUST ADD Waiver Wire Players

Who's too good to pass up in fantasy football?

Joe Holka
October 24, 2023

WE ARE BACK.

It's The Touchdown Press Newsletter. Your #1 source for all things fantasy football, DFS, and sports betting, along with 10,000+ fellow degenerates.

There were a few upsets in the NFL this week. Hopefully your fantasy team wasn’t toppled unexpectedly, but if so, I got you covered.

Today in 5 minutes or less, you’ll learn:

The Studs and Duds of Week 7 📈
Who to blow your FAAB on next 🤔
Trade targets your friends won’t suspect 😈
Player news and notes from around the league 🏈

STUD QB: Patrick Mahomes (KC)

Forget about the pick. Mahomes torched the Chargers’ defense to the tune of 424 yards and 4 TDs on 32 of 42 pass attempts. It was Mahomes’s first game in 2023 where he surpassed 30 fantasy points, and something tells me it won’t be his last.

With all due respect to the monster fantasy game that Lamar Jackson had on Sunday as well, Mahomes is the best QB in the NFL and he’s showing no signs of slowing down at all.

DUD QB: Jared Goff (DET)

Road Goff didn’t have his best stuff on Sunday, as the Ravens defense clamped down and held the Lions to 6 points.

Goff completed 62% of his passes but failed to surpass 300 yards and did not throw a TD. His 3rd quarter interception wasn’t a great look either.

Goff owners know by now that he’s a better QB in the comfortable confines of Detroit, so here’s hoping he can bounce back next Monday night when the Lions host the Raiders.

STUD RB: D’Onta Foreman (CHI)

Foreman carried the day for Chicago in a big win against Las Vegas. He was great in the ground game with his 16 rushes going for 89 yards and 2 TDs, and was also the team’s 3rd-leading receiver. He got 3 catches for 31 yards and a bonus TD.

If you started Foreman this week, you were absolutely satisfied. We’re still unclear on the progress of Khalil Herbert’s ankle injury or Roschon Johnson’s recovery from a concussion, so Foreman may stay relevant for at least a few more weeks.

DUD RB: Bijan Robinson (ATL)

Maybe it isn’t fair to Bijan to put him here. By all reports, he was either sick or dealing with a migraine. The team is well-within their rights to keep his playing time low.

But if you’re a fantasy manager who owns him, Sunday’s surprise benching must have been one of the more frustrating twists of the 2023 season so far. He only played a small handful of snaps, and had just one single touch for 3 yards. Bijan is a rising star, so he’ll be alright, but this week he and his coaches most certainly screwed over a few fantasy rosters.

STUD WR: A.J. Brown (PHI)

Brown had a robust 15 targets against the Dolphins in Week 7. He caught 10 of them for 137 yards and a TD to finish as Sunday’s WR1. The guy is still a monster on one of the best teams in football.

Fantasy Life’s utilization report shows Brown leading all WRs in air yard percentage, which is unlikely to change too much as the season continues to rage on.

DUD WR: Amari Cooper (CLE)

The targets were there. The production was not.

Cooper was able to haul in just 2 of the 8 balls thrown his way, for a mere 22 yards in the thriller against Indianapolis. Deshaun Watson didn’t target Cooper at all, and P.J. Walker’s throws just didn’t seem to connect.

It seems as though he’s always been somewhat of a boom or bust guy, so fantasy managers just need to find the right spots.

STUD TE: Travis Kelce (KC)

The dominance continues.

Kelce is doing his best to impress Taylor Swift and it’s working out pretty well for him. 12 catches for 179 yards and a TD is no joke for any player, and it’s especially enjoyable for a TE in another season where finding consistent production at the position has been difficult to do.

DUD TE: Tyler Higbee (LAR)

With Cooper Kupp back in the lineup, some of the guys further down in the pecking order were bound to suffer some regression, and Higbee was unable to get it done this week.

Matthew Stafford only looked Higbee’s way 3 times in the loss to the Steelers, and he was only able to secure 1 grab for 7 yards.

THE BEST TUESDAY LINKS

Things your friends probably already read this week… so you’ll probably want to catch up 👇🏻

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#5: RB Emari Demercado (ARI)

Of the Cardinals’ RBs, Demercado received 12 carries and Damien Williams received 1. So it wasn’t close in terms of volume. We’re always chasing volume with these waiver wire RBs, so it’s enough to bring him into my top-5 this week.

Just be aware of the difficult matchups the Cardinals have in the next few weeks. This would be an add for me only if you really need RB help.

#4: TE Michael Mayer (LV)

Mayer got kind of buried in the loss to Chicago on Sunday. He only had 2 catches for 13 yards, which is hardly the kind of production we’d normally be chasing. However, he’s clearly the top TE option on the team and possibly the 3rd overall receiving option after Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers.

Combine that with the fact that the Raiders have some favorable TE matchups coming up, and Mayer becomes a stash.

Fantasy Life’s air yards tool shows some encouraging metrics, particularly that Mayer is TE5 in ADOT, with a very strong 126% RACR number. If the volume rises, he’ll be an asset.

#3: QB Kyler Murray (ARI)

I get that health is always a concern, but Murray is expected to suit up for practices this week, and could be on the road to reclaiming his starting spot for the Cardinals.

While he has missed games in each of the last 3 seasons, including this one, he has been a very strong fantasy starter his entire career, never finishing out of the QB1 range in fantasy points per game:

2019: QB11 (18.2)
2020: QB3 (24.4)
2021: QB4 (22.2)
2022: QB7 (18.9)

Unless you have a top-end starter, or maybe even if you do, it might be wise to grab him before your league mates.

#2: WR Josh Downs (IND)

Downs is starting to look absolutely spectacular for fantasy purposes. He led the Colts in targets, receptions, and yards in Sunday’s loss to Cleveland. He was able to get behind the coverage for a 59-yard TD catch too.

Gardner Minshew likes him a lot too. Over the last 3 weeks he has a 19.7% target share (PFF). It makes him more than a usable fantasy WR. If you called him a WR2, I wouldn’t argue.

CLICK HERE for my #1 Waiver Wire Pickup of Week 8

#5: TE Cole Kmet (CHI)

Kmet had a couple of big games during Weeks 4-5, scoring 27.6 and 15.2 points respectively. A lot of that was tied to the successful passing games Justin Fields had, but Kmet’s production has declined along with Fields’s absence.

The good news is that Fields avoided going on IR, and there’s some internet speculation that he could return as soon as the Bears’ November 6th matchup with the Saints.

Kmet would represent a solid piece at TE for the stretch run of the fantasy football season.

#4: QB Justin Herbert (LAC)

After surpassing 20 fantasy points in each of the first 4 weeks of the season, Herbert hasn’t looked as sharp coming out of the Chargers’ Week 5 bye. He had his worst fantasy performance of the season in Week 7, mustering up just 12.9 points in his team’s loss to the Chiefs.

But considering all of LA’s weapons and high-powered scoring potential, coupled with a defense that’s looking more and more suspect, Herbert should be considered an elite fantasy option for the remainder of the year.

As it stands now, he’s QB7 in fantasy, and I don’t foresee him falling any further than that.

#3: RB Aaron Jones (GB)

After a stellar fantasy Week 1 that saw him score 26.7 PPR points, Jones and his bum hamstring have had some trouble getting back to form. Now there are also concerns around this Packers team and their ability to score points on offense.

However, there are some encouraging signs. In the admittedly bad loss to the Broncos, Jones received fewer carries than A.J. Dillon but was the more efficient back, going for 4.4 yards per carry to Dillon’s 4.1. He also received 5 targets in the passing game where Dillon only got 2.

Sure Jones might be a bit game flow-dependent, but he’s a worthy roster, especially if you can get him cheap from a frustrated owner at the moment.

#2: WR Davante Adams (LV)

Adams is suffering from poor QB play, but we all know what his ceiling is and what kind of a star he can be.

He hasn’t scored over 15 PPR points since Week 4. He only saw 4 targets in Week 5 and 5 targets in Week 6. The target share went way up this Sunday, but Adams was only able to flip those 12 into 57 receiving yards.

The good news is that Jimmy G. is on track to return to the lineup as early as this week, which should help Adams get back to his weekly potential. Now’s the time to buy low on a superstar.