Quarterbacks

Sam Darnold (CAR: FAAB Bid: 8%) We have to remember that quarterbacks shouldn’t be expensive commodities off the waiver wire. But if you really need help and this guy is floating out there, then spend up a little if you need to. Darnold has TEN touchdowns already this season and half of those have come on the ground. He’s thrown for over 300 yards in three straight games and could make it a fourth in Week 5 against Philadelphia. He does have four turnovers on the season so while he’s been great, he’s not perfect. But a change of scenery has clearly done him some good.

Daniel Jones (NYG; FAAB Bid: 6-8%) Daniel Jones truthers can take their victory lap. He’s good… For fantasy. I still have concerns about his ability to, ya know, not fumble. But what he’s done this year has been nothing short of excellent in the fantasy community. He offers some upside with his legs having rushed for at least 25 yards in every game this year, including a pair of touchdowns on the ground. The completion percentage (66.7%) is very good and he’s coming off his first 400-yard passing performance this season. He’s also not turning the ball over and if they can establish the run with Saquon Barkley then that’ll open things up in the passing game. They get a road matchup this week against Dallas, which could turn into a high scoring affair. Dallas’ defense is much improved from a year ago, but there’s a lot of fantasy appeal in this matchup. 

Trey Lance (SF; FAAB Bid: 3-4%) Trey Lance is going to get a chance to start at quarterback next week for San Francisco. Jimmy Garappolo believes he’ll be out “a couple weeks” with a calf injury. Realistically, we might only be looking at one start for Lance so he’s not a must add by any means. The 49ers have Week 6 off and it’s possible Jimmy G is back for the Week 7 matchup against Indianapolis. So we’ll have a ton of questions about Lance. His upside resides in his legs evidenced by the 41 rushing yards he racked up. Keep in mind one of his touchdown passes and about half his passing yards came on one play where the Seahawks just let Deebo Samuel run down the field and get open for a 76-yard touchdown. That won’t happen every week so you have to temper expectations for the rookie quarterback. The completion percentage isn’t great, but he can compensate if he’s running a good amount. 

Running Backs

Cordarrelle Patterson (ATL; FAAB Bid: 10-15%) I normally try to avoid mentioning players that are over 60% rostered. And truthfully, Patterson’s only available in about 25% of leagues so this is for you shallow leaguers out there. Patterson hasn’t been on the field much, but maybe that changes in the coming weeks after he scored three touchdowns on Sunday while playing just 23 snaps. He’s likely due for regression, which is why you shouldn’t go overboard with the FAAB bid. He may not be on the field much, but when he is he’s touching the ball and finding the end zone.

Kenneth Gainwell (PHI; FAAB Bid: 10%) I don’t know how likely I am to start Gainwell, but he does need to be rostered in more than 30% of leagues. The Eagles have done their best to get Sanders going, but to no avail. He had 33 touches through the team’s first two games, but only 15 total touches through his last two games. Additionally, he hasn’t found the end zone this season. Similarly, Gainwell has scored twice and caught six passes last week while looking good running the ball. Is that enough for a changing of the guard in this backfield? Not yet, but I’m certainly intrigued.

Michael Carter (NYJ; FAAB Bid: 10%) It’s not a great offense to get exposure to, but Carter found the end zone for the first time in his young career and was on the field for about half of the team’s offensive snaps. That’s very encouraging. He’s still only averaging 3.4 yards per carry but he does have an interesting matchup against the Falcons in Week 5 over in London. 

Damien Williams (CHI; FAAB Bid: 7%) I’m not incredibly excited about this waiver target. He’s a better option in PPR formats, but we’ve seen enough from him and this offense to not feel incredibly confident. David Montgomery will likely miss some time and while Williams was also hurt this past week, if he’s healthy he’s in line for most of the carries. He’ll split the workload with Khalil Herbert, but Williams probably gets the majority of work. Against the Lions he totaled 70 yards on ten total touches and he found the end zone. But more difficult matchups are ahead for the Bears.

Samaje Perine (CIN; FAAB Bid: 5%) There were some early “week-to-week” reports regarding Joe Mixon’s injury, but Zac Taylor acknowledged that Mixon’s more day-to-day so I’m less optimistic of Perine’s upside. But if you’re a Mixon owner, you might want to get a hold of his handcuff in the unlikely event Cincinnati’s lead back is forced to miss time. 

Brandon Bolden (NE; FAAB Bid: 4-5%) Bolden strangely might be better suited for PPR formats. This is Bolden’s ninth year in the league and he’s only topped 20 catches in his career just once. Hell, he’s only had more than ten catches in his career just twice. But with James White’s season ending due to a hip injury, the Patriots need a new running back to target out of the backfield. I initially though J.J. Taylor could fill that role, but it looks like Bolden submitted his resume for consideration. He has nine catches in his last two games and while you’re likely only starting him in the deepest of formats, we know how valuable the pass-catching running back in this offense can be.

Wide Receivers

Emmanuel Sanders (BUF; FAAB Bid: 10-12%) It was another solid week from Emmanuel Sanders. He needs to be owned everywhere even if he’s just a bench stash. The truth is the air yards are there as are the targets. He’s seen at least six targets in every game this year and he’s caught five in back-to-back games. And while there isn’t much evidence to support this theory, Cole Beasley’s been tempting fate on Twitter with his own beliefs regarding the Buffalo fanbase and the league’s handling of the COVID-19 vaccination. We’ve seen his targets go as follows: 13-4-13-2 over the first four games. Sanders has been a little more consistent and could be emerging as the second pass catching option in this offense.

Darnell Mooney (CHI; FAAB Bid: 10-12%) As long as Justin Fields is still under center, Mooney is relevant. The problem is that Matt Nagy is still committed to Andy Dalton as the starter when he’s healthy. Mooney saw seven targets in Week 4 and turned those into 125 receiving yards. Fields has attempted eight passes down field and Mooney has received four of those. He was a late-round target for many during draft season and he’s validating the price tag with ease.

Curtis Samuel (WFT; FAAB Bid: 10%) There’s a solid argument to name Samuel as the wide receiver to grab this week. He only ran a dozen routes last week, but caught all four of his targets for only 19 yards. We know the kind of ceiling he has and the fantasy commodity he can be. We have to like him even more knowing Logan Thomas is going to miss some time with a hamstring injury. His snaps, routes, and overall involvement should only go up now that Samuel’s healthy.

A.J. Green (ARI; FAAB Bid: 6-7%) Age is just a number. But even 33 isn’t that old these days in the NFL. I’ve previously written about Rondale Moore and Christian Kirk in the waiver wire article. There’s an argument for anyone to emerge as the WR2 in this offense. But if we’re just looking at numbers, Green has more receiving yards this year than DeAndre Hopkins. Green has exactly six targets in every game this season and he still possesses the big play potential. It’ll be tough to key in on who breaks out in this passing attack each week, but it doesn’t hurt to hoard the assets in Arizona.

Kadarius Toney (NYG; FAAB Bid: 5%) Most outlets might point to Jamison Crowder as the wide receiver to grab between the Jets and Giants, but I really like Kadarius Toney. With Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton out in Week 4, Toney played a bigger role and he seems like an absolute chore to try and tackle…

He finished with six catches for 78 yards and if the Giants are once again missing a couple pass catchers, then Toney could be in line for a large role once again. 

Tight Ends

Dawson Knox (BUF; FAAB Bid: 7%) I’m a big believer in Dawson Knox. I know there are the skeptics, but this isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned him in the waiver column. He has four touchdowns in his last three games and there’s been an emphasis to get the tight end involved more in this offense. And aside from that, his athleticism is pretty impressive…

He’s coming off eight targets in Week 4 and you have to imagine there will be a game script that will involve him next Sunday night against the Chiefs.

Dalton Schultz (DAL; FAAB Bid: 5-6%) James Grande and I had a fun debate regarding Knox and Schultz on this week’s Two-Minute Drill podcast. Both are top eight tight ends at the moment. But I believe Knox is the one more likely to finish as a TE1 at the end of the season. There’s more of an emphasis on Dallas to get other weapons involved while it’s quite possible Knox emerges as a consistent second option for the Bills. Either way, Schultz still has 15 targets over his last two games including three touchdowns. If you’re more of a believer than me then by all means go get your guy. He’s also pretty reliable when the ball is thrown his way. He’s caught 20-of-23 targets through four games and in three of those games he has six receptions.

Defense/Special Teams

New England Patriots – The Patriots D/ST is rostered in just 60% of leagues on ESPN and Yahoo! So if they’re available, you should go stream them. I don’t advise spending FAAB on a defense, but I see it happen all the time. The Patriots visit the Texans in Week 5. The over/under opened at 41.5 and it’s been bet down to 39.5 and the Pats are now favored by 9.5 points. The Texans are a mess and can’t withstand Matthew Judon and the Patriots defensive front. 

Arizona Cardinals – I’m willing to go back to Arizona this week in a divisional matchup against the 49ers. It’ll be a home game for the Cards and the over/under is high at around 50 points as of this writing. That could very well change, but with Trey Lance under center, we’ll need to see what he can do against a better pass rush than what Seattle threw his way last week. Arizona’s defense played well against the Rams last week. If it weren’t for garbage time, they wouldn’t have yielded yards and points to Los Angeles late in the game. Trey Lance has accuracy issues so I do believe turnovers are in play as well as a couple sacks.

Atlanta Falcons vs. New York Jets – If we’re being honest, both these defenses are terrible. I had much more faith in Atlanta coming into this season, but Dean Pees hasn’t been able to turn them around just yet. The Falcons and Jets will travel to London for the first of two games across the pond this year for the NFL. Now there have certainly been a couple shootouts in the London games, but we’ve also seen some teams struggle. In the four London games in 2017, the losing teams scored 7, 0, 0, and 16 points. The next year, the losing team scored 3, 19, and 18 points but it’s worth mentioning neither of those games totaled over 43 points. 2019 saw a couple shootouts, but a couple offensive duds as well:

  1. Raiders 24, Bears 21
  2. Panthers 37, Buccaneers 26
  3. Rams 24, Bengals 10
  4. Texans 26, Jaguars 3

So it’s really up to you on how you can approach this game and if you want to stream one of these teams. As of Monday night the Falcons are favored by 3.5 points and the over/under is currently around 46 but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was bet down a bit prior to Sunday’s game.