Week 14 Waiver Wire Pickups
If you’re reading this, there’s an excellent likelihood you’ve made the fantasy playoffs after a grueling regular season. Congratulations. Now the real work begins. Half of the teams in your league usually make the playoffs but only can be crowned champion. You’ve worked hard, made the right moves, and had some luck bounce your way, and you’re still alive for the title. Let’s see if we can’t find you a player or two to help you towards that goal.
QB Waiver Wire Pickups
Taysom Hill
New Orleans Saints (41% Sleeper Rostership / 35.9% ESPN Rostership)
Despite completing just 46% of his passes and throwing four interceptions, Taysom Hill enters Sunday Night Football as the QB13 on the week, after scoring 20.7 fantasy points on Thursday Night Football. When you’re able to rush for 101 yards, as Hill did in the Saints loss to the Cowboys, you’re going to be a threat to produce top 12 scoring weeks every week. Though Hill was objectively awful against the Cowboys, Saints head coach Sean Payton has already stated Hill is the starter next week against a Jets defense that is giving up the eight-most fantasy points per game to quarterbacks. A Jets defense that just got picked apart by Gardner Minshew completing 20 of 25 pass attempts for 242 yards. Hill doesn’t need to be as efficient as Minshew was this week, not with his rushing ability; he just needs to be less awful than he was against the Cowboys to produce a QB1 week.
RB Waiver Wire Pickups
Dontrell Hilliard
Tennessee Titans (49% Sleeper Rostership / 36.1 ESPN Rostership)
Fresh off a bye, you’ll want to keep an eye on the practice reports coming out of Tennessee. Jeremy McNichols missed the Titans past two games dealing with a concussion, and in his place, Dontrell Hilliard was added to the roster and has flashed in both those games. In those two games, Hilliard had 19 rushing attempts for 166 rushing yards and added nine receptions (on 12 targets) for another 49 yards. To be blunt, Hilliard has looked better in his two games than McNichols has at any point this season. Against Houston in Week 11, Hilliard was targeted ten times, a total that McNichols has met or exceeded just once this year, despite playing in eight more games than Hilliard. And Hilliard’s 131 rushing yards in Week 12 nearly doubled McNichols 67 rushing yards in 10 games. It could also be argued that Hilliard has looked better than current starter D’Onta Foreman, but that is almost a moot point. This week, all Hilliard needs to be a fantasy option to get the bulk of playing time over McNichols. If the Titans make any noise about sitting McNichols for health or production reasons, you need to pick up Hilliard.
Ameer Abdullah
Carolina Panthers (9% Sleeper Rostership / 1.8% ESPN Rostership)
After being given a whole week to think about the Carolina running back situation, I renounce last week’s recommendation of picking up Chuba Hubbard. Instead, pick up Ameer Abdullah. Abdullah has exceeded Hubbard in snap share in each game since Week 9, excluding Week 10 when they both had a 21.3% snap share. In Week 12, when Christian McCaffrey went down with an injury, Abdullah (49.1%) led the running backs in snaps over Hubbard (20%). Abdullah is the receiving back on the roster, with 20 targets since Week 8 (including six in Week 12) compared to five targets for Hubbard. Abdullah has been getting more time on the field and more targets and is the back-to-own in Carolina going forward.
Kenneth Gainwell
Philadelphia Eagles (23% Sleeper Rostership / 11.5% ESPN Rostership)
It’s been a roller-coaster season for rookie running back Kenneth Gainwell. After being a vital part of the Eagles offense during the first four weeks of the season, he’s seen a decrease in both usage and especially snap share since. He was a healthy scratch just three weeks ago when the Eagles played the Saints. But with Jordan Howard still unable to go with a bad knee and Boston Scott battling an illness, Gainwell was the backup running back for the Eagles on Sunday. Midway through the second quarter Gainwell was able to cash in this opportunity, scoring his first touchdown since Week 9 against the Chargers.
Kenneth Gainwell 18-yard touchdown❗️#FlyEaglesFly
— TWSN (@TWSN___) December 5, 2021
This is a bit of a luxury waiver wire add suggestion considering the Eagles have a bye week in Week 14, and Howard and Scott will likely return fully healthy in Week 15. But that doesn’t mean the Eagles backfield will be back at full strength in Week 15. In the fourth quarter, Miles Sanders re-injured his ankle that caused him to miss three games earlier this season. Though Sanders said he expects to be back after the Eagles bye, this situation is still worth monitoring since this is the same ankle that caused him three full games that he retweaked just last week against the Giants. Seven of Gainwell’s 12 rushing attempts came after Sanders was injured Sunday, and it’s unlikely he maintains the feature back role if Sanders is forced to miss time. However, he should still be heavily involved in the offense as a receiver and mixed in as a rushing threat.
JaMycal Hasty
San Francisco 49ers (2% Sleeper Rostership / 0.5% ESPN Rostership)
If you play in deep, and I mean deep leagues, you might want to stash JaMycal Hasty. Elijah Mitchell suffered a concussion on Sunday, and Jeff Wilson’s knee “flared up” on him. Trey Sermon is already on the I.R., which means if everything goes right for Hasty (and wrong for so many of us), then he could be the only remaining back on the 49ers roster. San Francisco would obviously sign a street-free agent or promote someone from the practice squad, but Hasty would be the starter.
Rashaad Penny
Seattle Seahawks (12% Sleeper Rostership / 1.7% ESPN Rostership)
Alex Collins was unable to play Sunday, dealing with an abdominal injury that’s been hampering for weeks, and the newly signed Adrian Peterson got the start for the Seahawks. Peterson continued to show that he is now dust, just like he showed during his three weeks with the Titans, running for 16 yards on 11 attempts for an abysmal 1.5 yards per carry average. What you may have missed between Peterson starting and Travis Homer ripping off a 73-yard run is that Rashaad Penny saw his most extensive action since the 2019 season, with 11 touches on Sunday. While he didn’t produce any earth-shattering stats, he did outperform Peterson on the ground with 35 rushing yards on ten attempts, he also added a 27-yard reception that showed off some of the skills that so many of us fell in love with during the 2018 NFL Draft season. If Penny can just stay healthy, for once, he could be the Seahawks RB1 as soon as they realize that Peterson is fully washed.
WR Waiver Wire Pickups
Russell Gage
Atlanta Falcons (53% Sleeper Rostership / 24.9% ESPN Rostership)
Entering the 2021 season, there was some chatter that Russell Gage could approach 120 targets this season. He ended the 2020 campaign with 110 targets, and the departure of Julio Jones left a big target hole on the Falcons offense. Though Gage missed three games this year and had a couple of games with three or fewer targets, which makes his pursuit of 120 targets almost impossible, he has started to come on over the past three weeks. In that span, Gage leads the Falcons with 27 targets, 22 receptions, and his 27.3% target share dwarfs the next most targeted Falcon, Kyle Pitts (18.2%). On Sunday, Gage set season highs in targets (12), receptions (11), receiving yards (130) on his way to putting up 20+ fantasy points. Sunday marked the fourth time in the past five games that Gage has led the Falcons team in targets. As long as Calvin Ridley is away, Gage is the WR1 in Atlanta and is worth at least a flex spot in your lineup.
Josh Reynolds
Detroit Lions (11% Sleeper Rostership / 2.5% ESPN Rostership)
Amon-Ra St. Brown
Detroit Lions (22% Sleeper Rostership / 6.6 ESPN Rostership)
This is a choose your own adventure selection. Suppose you like high-volume wide receivers than Amon Ra-St. Brown is worth picking up this week. St. Brown is coming off his third game in a row that he’s exceeded an 85% snap share. He’s been targeted 26 times in the past four weeks, with 12 coming against Minnesota on Sunday. He’s not flashy, he won’t produce big plays downfield, but his volume is as good as you’ll find for any wide receiver sitting on your waiver wire. If you’re looking for a bit more upside, then Josh Reynolds is your man. Over the past two weeks, Reynolds has averaged 19.9 yards per reception, with 139 receiving yards on just seven receptions. Reynolds is the Lions big-play threat but has seen enough volume, 17.4% target share, that he can still produce even if he doesn’t have a long reception.
K.J. Osborn
Minnesota Vikings (7% Sleeper Rostership / 4.2% ESPN Rostership)
I am in no way a medical doctor (or a doctor of any kind for that matter), but I will go ahead and diagnose Adam Thielen’s ankle as “pretty jacked up.”
Replay of the Adam Thielen injury. His left leg gets rolled up on. He’s in the medical tent pic.twitter.com/0ow2HS5JEl
— Sean Borman (@SeanBormanNFL) December 5, 2021
While also not a doctor, Adam Schefter is a bit more plugged into the NFL than me, and he reported that Thielen suffered a high ankle sprain Sunday. Thielen will miss some time, I don’t know how much, but I’ll go ahead and say he’ll definitely miss this coming Thursday’s matchup with the Steelers. Thielen was injured on the Vikings first drive, allowing K.J. Osborn to see his most targets (7) since Week 6. Osborn turned those seven targets into four receptions for 47 receiving yards and a touchdown. The production might have been modest, but the targets were encouraging. The Vikings have few pass-catching weapons, and with Thielen and Dalvin Cook shelved Thursday, I fully expect Osborn to see a significant target share for the foreseeable future.
TE Waiver Wire Pickups
Cole Kmet
Chicago Bears (32% Sleeper Rostership / 13.3% ESPN Rostership)
Most of the year, Cole Kmet has been a boom/bust option with seven games under 8.9 fantasy points, but when he booms, scoring at least 14.5 fantasy points in two of his past four games. While scoring is hard to predict for tight ends, you want to see them receiving targets. And that’s something that Kmet has excelled in this season, taking advantage of other Bears players missing time. Since Week 5, the Bears have been without either David Montgomery, who missed four games, or Allen Robinson, who has missed the past three games. Kmet has cemented himself as the Bears second receiving option. On the year, he’s commanded an 18.7% target share, the sixth-highest target share of any tight end in the league.
