Antonio Brown tops our list of wide receiver waiver wire adds, following a 102 yard perofrmance against Arizona in week 6. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
Mark Sanchez, QB New York Jets- This one is a bit of a reach as a “waiver wire pickup”, but I will tell you why he is on this list. If you look at the top 15 fantasy quarterbacks so far this year, Sanchez is the lowest owned of all of these quarterbacks, and by a relatively large margin (owned in only 62% of leagues). Yet Sanchez is actually the 9th ranked QB in scoring thus far in the season. If you remove his pathetic -1.94 point performance against Baltimore a few weeks ago, his per game average is just .4 under Matthew Stafford, and is ahead of the likes of Eli, Fitzpatrick, Romo, Roethlisberger, and Schaub. Shonn Greene is going to continue to be inconsistent at best, and Sanchez is going to be continually asked to put the team on his shoulders and win games for them. This is a scary proposition if you are a Jets fan, but this should mean that Sanchez is going to continue to put up healthy fantasy numbers for the forseeable future.
John Beck, QB Washington Redskins- John Beck came out and had another respectable fantasy outing in his first start of the season. He amassed 279 yards passing, with one touchdown and one interception. But he also had himself a rushing touchdown, which gives him a rushing score in both of his last two weeks. If you are familiar with my love affair with Cam Newton and Tim Tebow, than you know how I feel about rushing quarterbacks. Now Beck by no means qualifies as a traditional rushing QB (he is not going to take to the streets at the first sign of pocket collapse), but you like to see a QB who isn’t afraid to run it in for the score, much like Beck did this last week. He faces off against a porous Buffalo pass defense this week, making him my top pick for bye week fill-in at QB.
Tim Tebow, QB Denver Broncos- I will make this short and sweet since I have had Tebow up here for the past two weeks- He is owned in 64% of leagues right now, meaning he may be available in yours. If he is, make picking him up your absolute first priority. Seriously. He put up 22.94 points in a game where he may have had the worst first three quarters of any QB all season. Oh yeah, and he also lead his team from 15 down with roughly 3 minutes to go to win the game in OT. No big deal, just the kind of things that happen during Tebow Time.
Other QB pickups: Carson Palmer, Christian Ponder
Runningbacks
Demarco Murray, RB Dallas Cowboys- I will start out with an obvious one, but only because you people are making me. Even after his ridiculous Emmit Smith-record breaking 253 yard rushing day (including a 91 yard touchdown run), somehow Murray is still only owned in 63% of leagues. Murray has likely stolen the starting job from Felix with this performance alone, but even still it will be at least a couple more weeks before Felix Jones will see the field again. In the meantime, Dallas is going to be pretty enamored with their new found toy. This is a team that has wanted to rush the football badly the last couple of years, and they just haven’t found a way to be effective at it. Murray may be the answer to all of those prayers, so I would expect that he is going to get the rock a healthy number of times this next week against a very weak Philadelphia run defense. Depending on how Dallas handles the return of Felix Jones when he gets back to health, Murray could be the RB waiver wonder of the year.
Jackie Battle, RB Kansas City Chiefs- Jackie looks like he is locking down the starting job in Kansas City. This is about as good a fantasy situation as one can hope for in a waiver wire claim. Jackie has now run for 195 yards the last two weeks, to the tune of a 5.6 yard per carry average. And there is all sorts of room for his production to grow. Keep in mind that this team dominated the league in rushing last year, and while they are not going to repeat that without Jamaal Charles, the Chiefs can still run the football very well. Jackie has clearly established himself as the lead runner for this team, and at some point the coaching staff in KC will realize they need to stop giving the ball to Thomas Jones so much (only 3.2 ypc on the season) and Jackie will be the benefactor. With Jamaal Charles on IR the starting job is likely going to be Battle’s for the remainder of the season, giving him a ton of upside, especially as the Chiefs continue to win games.
Knowshon Moreno, RB Denver Broncos- With the broken hand injury to Whatchu Talkin Bout Willis McGahee, Moreno is set to pick up the majority of the carries in his absence. Moreno ownership has jumped up 12% in the last couple of days, but he is still only owned in 58% of leagues. This is a guy who was drafted in the first round in 2009, and had the starting job on this team prior to injuring his hamstring before the start of the season. He has been less than impressive in his limited appearances since he has been back, but the upside is certainly there for Moreno. If he plays well enough he may even be able to recapture his starting role for good, with McGahee requiring surgery on his hand that should keep him out of the lineup for at least two weeks.
Delone Carter, RB Indianapolis Colts- Well Joseph Addai made it back into the starting lineup this last week after his a hamstring injury kept him out week 6. And then he promptly reaggrivated the injury after 2 carries for 8 yards. Delone Carter and Donald Brown both picked up the slack, but Carter was once again the more impressive of the two runners, amassing 89 yards and a touchdown on just 10 carries. Before you say “wow, 8.9 ypc is amazing”, please keep in mind that this was achieved going against defensive sets designed to protect against the pass, almost exclusively. The Colts got taken to the wood shed in this one, and at no point in the game were the Saints worried about protecting against the run. All that said, Carter is emerging as the more dominant runner between him and Donald Brown, and you should expect him to see a larger workload because of this. I cannot imagine that they are going to be in a hurry to rush Addai back, so Carter has some solid value for the next couple of weeks.
Other RB pickups: Pierre Thomas, Monterio Hardesty, Alfonso Smith, Maurice Morris, Leon Washington, Javon Ringer, Keiland Williams
Wide Receivers
Antonio Brown, WR Pittsburgh Steelers- I have mentioned Antonio Brown in the article before, stating that if Big Ben and the Pittsburgh offensive line can get their poop in a group that Brown stands to be a huge benefactor. Well over the course of the last couple of weeks they have been figuring things out a bit in Pittsburgh, and Big Ben has gotten their passing game rolling. And low and behold, this last past Sunday Antonio Brown had a very nice day at the office, racking up 7 catches for 102 yards. Brown now has 25 targets and 15 receptions over the last 4 weeks, compared to Mike Wallace who has had 24 and 14, and Hines Ward who had only had 20 and 14. I am not trying to suggest that he is going to usurp Mike Wallace as Pittsburg’s number 1, or that his numbers are even comparable over this stretch. Mike Wallace has an insane average yards per catch, and he finds the end zone frequently, unlike Brown who has not made a visit all year. But I am arguing that the stats are in favor of Brown coming on, and stealing a few targets away from Hines Ward is certainly possible as Ward continues to battle injury. Brown also has a lot of big play potential, so his upside is fairly high. Consider this your last notice to pick him off the wire if someone has not already done so.
Demaryius Thomas, WR Denver Broncos- This one is going to be a bit of a gamble. Tim Tebow looked great in the 4th quarter of last week’s game, but looked nothing short of abysmal during the first 3, particularly when throwing the football. In order for Thomas to really succeed Tebow has to find a way to become a more consistent passer. However, Thomas possesses all of the skills required to be a big time receiver in this league- big, fast, and great hands- but most importantly of all he seems to have a rapport going with the new starting quarterback. This past week he was targeted a team high 10 times by Tebow, which amounted to three receptions for 27 yards and a touchdown. Another concern regarding Thomas is his proneness to injury, which is pretty darn high. He had missed the first 6 weeks of this season with a finger injury, and was injured the last six weeks of the 2010 season as well. This situation is certainly worth monitoring, because if Tebow can get a passing game going and Thomas can stay healthy, he could very well be the Denver receiver to own.
Michael Jenkins, WR Minnesota Vikings- Christian Ponder took the NFL field for the first time in his young career this last Sunday, and he looked alright doing it. Aside from that, he seemed to have a thing for Michael Jenkins, as the receiver went for over 100 yards (111 to be exact) for the first time in his eight year career. He also led the team in targets with 8, converting for 3 receptions including one touchdown, and one 72 yard bomb. I don’t know if we can expect a performance like this out of Ponder every week, and Jenkins as well for that matter, but the opportunity is certainly there. Percy Harvin is technically this teams number one wide receiver, but with him leaving the game halfway through with a recurring rib injury, Jenkins and Ponder are going to get plenty more practice time together leading into this next week, so expect the chemistry to continue to build.
Other WR pickups: James Jones, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Steve Breaston, Jason Hill, Jabar Gaffney, Greg Little, Dezmon Briscoe
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FanSided
Zach Thompson
