Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Stashes: 5 Hidden Gems Rostered in Under 30% of Leagues (Ep. 2255)

0:01 You already know what time it is. It is time to help make you a smarter fantasy football manager. The manager that is staying two to three moves ahead of their league mates. The manager that's beating their league mates on the waiver wire because you're already thinking about which players to stash before they break out. I'm Lucas Wentzel here with Fantasy Pros, bringing you my top five waiver wire stashes ahead of week five and next week's waiver run as well. So without further ado, let's just dive right on into our list of players. The first player on our list this week is Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Trey Harris, who is rostered in 21% of leagues.

0:35 Last week when we talked about Trey Harris, we named the reality that Quentin Johnston might not be cutting it for this Chargers team. Thus, Harris could start to chip away at the wide receiver to roll in this Chargers offense. And that already started to unfold in week four. Harris led the team in routes run. His five targets outnumbered QJ's two. And Harris has just dominated Quinton Johnson in every important advanced metric. 2.47 yards per route run versus QJ's 1.5. He's drawn a target on 22% of his routes compared to Quinton Johnston's 14%. And Harris has averaged 12.2 expected points per game over the last two weeks compared to Quinton Johnston's 7%. There is simply just no denying that Trey Harris has been better than Quentin Johnson

1:21 this year, and we have a large enough sample now through four weeks to validate that. And not only could Trey Harris take over Quentin Johnson's role, but QJ might be out of the picture entirely come midseason. Johnson is in a contract here with the Chargers, and... With how things have been going thus far, I'm thinking it's pretty unlikely that the Chargers want to bring him back this offseason.

1:41 And at what point do you just consider trading Quinton Johnson to guarantee you at least get something in return for his services this year? It's not that a ton of work would just immediately fall into Trey Harris's hands, but it is one less wide receiver in the room. After Ladd-McConkie, Trey Harris immediately slots in as the wide receiver two for this Chargers offense. You still get a solid red zone threat in Trey Harris. He can stretch the field for this team, and he might just be flat out better at playing the wide receiver two role Mike McDaniel is looking for in this offense. I know what we've seen with our eyes is that this Chargers offense has just been pitiful this year. But if you're

2:17 reading the tea leaves of this situation, right, Trey Harris could sneak his way into wide receiver three relevance with Quentin Johnson potentially just falling out of the picture entirely. The second player on our list this week is Miami Dolphins wide receiver Chris Bell, who is rostered in 15% of leagues. Another player who made my list last week, and we were literal centimeters from Bell being scooped up in another probably 10 plus percent of leagues out there.

2:43 Bell had a 68-yard touchdown called back against the Vikings because his literal toenails stepped out of bounds before Malik Willis found him on a scramble drill catch-and-run touchdown. But this was the entire case that we made for Chris Bell last week. Without Devon Achan now, this Dolphins team, goodness, they need to target their playmakers and create explosives themselves.

3:03 by any means necessary. Even if it was on a dissolved play, Chris Bell can be that kind of playmaker for Malik Willis. This is why he was in talks of being a first-round wide receiver in the NFL draft this past year if it weren't for his ACL tear. But man, he was a semi-finalist for the Bolitnikoff Award, which goes to the nation's most outstanding receiver. His 83 receiving yards per game was top 15 in the nation.

3:26 His 72 receptions in just 11 games was 17th in the nation. He's lethal in space. He's fearless at the catch point. He has the deep ball tracking to make the complex catches downfield just look simple. If you're worried about Caleb Douglas inevitably coming back after this team's bye, I wouldn't stress too much about that. They clearly wanted to get him involved right away as Chris Bell was ramping up. And Malik Washington, he's been reliable for this offense.

3:50 He's been a stable wave wire pickup, but the Dolphins might not have any other choice but to get these two playmakers on the outside involved. I think we're going to see Bell have a surge after the Dolphins' week six bye when these rookies typically start to make their leap. It's going to be Bell and Douglas on the outside in two wide receiver sets. And I think it's just better to get him stashed now before your league mates think they can actually snag Chris Bell on his bi-week when you're not expecting it. The reality is you're already one step ahead of them and you're stashing Chris Bell now.

4:19 The third player on our list this week is Washington Commanders wide receiver, Antonio Williams, who is also rostered in 15% of leagues. How about another player who was robbed of an explosive touchdown last week? If not for an illegal shift, Williams would have tallied an 87-yard touchdown in London against the Colts. Just like Chris Bell, his roster percentage would have easily shot out by another 10-15%. These are the type of players that your league mates are just satisfied box score hunting, right? And not acknowledging the context, which actually reveals the true upside of these players. Without Terry McLaurin on the field last week, Williams saw his route share jump to 73.2%, which was tied with Stefan Diggs

4:58 for a team high on the day. On said route share, he drew seven targets while being targeted on 23% of his routes. Now, I get it didn't amount to much, only three sections for 21 yards in the morning, but zooming out and looking at the whole season, the opportunity has been there for Antonio Williams when he has been on the field. He's been targeted on 25% of his route so far. One in every four routes, Antonio Williams has been drawing a target. So trust what your eyes are seeing here on the football field. This is a young and explosive player who can make plays after the catch.

5:28 He's savvy with his route. He can work over the middle of the field. So long that Terry McLaurin is out. And as of this recording, we're unsure where his status is for week five. You're going to get Antonio Williams a lot more on the field. And once he hits on a big play that isn't called back for a penalty, the commanders won't be able to keep him off the field.

5:47 And that's just in the NFL. Like I said earlier, if that 87 yard touchdown actually counted last week, there's a possibility Williams wouldn't have even qualified for this video because he would have been rostered in more than 30% of leagues. Now, before we get to the last two players, if you want a chance to give your fantasy league the ultimate championship upgrade, courtesy of our good friends at Trophy Smack, the number one destination for epic fantasy football hardware, then this is your shot. We're giving away a 26 to 36 inch custom football trophy. It's a massive centerpiece built to make your league championship feel like a big deal.

6:21 And the best part, you can make it your own. Choose your topper, personalize the center and front plaques, customize the columns and create a trophy that represents your league. To enter, all you need to do is subscribe to the Fantasy Pro's Fantasy Football YouTube channel right now and drop a comment below on any of our videos. That is it. That is the only thing you have to do.

6:40 We'll be announcing the winner right here on the channel, so be sure to turn on those notifications so you don't miss your chance to claim your prize. The fourth player up on our list is Los Angeles Chargers running back Kamani Vidal, who is rostered in only 5% of leagues. Keaton Mitchell was a relatively popular waiver wire ad after his backfield leading 45% of touches in week four. But Kapani Vidal also chipped in to Amarion Hampton's workload. Vidal actually played more snaps than Hampton did last week. Vidal got seven touches of his own, which he turned into 36 yards and a touchdown, making him a borderline top 25 running back on the week in week four. You remember that quote from Mike McDaniel before the season started

7:18 about this backfield quote, bad news, fantasy owners. Good news is I see all three of these guys producing at a very high level. Bad news is I can't tell you which games those are like hand up. I brushed off that comment probably a little bit too willingly this offseason, thinking Hampton would have no problem separating himself from Keaton Mitchell and Kamani Vidal. But now we need to actually consider the reality of what it looks like to have three different running backs involved in this backfield because we just saw it happen in week four. So what is that reality now? To McDaniel's point, I'm not a wizard or a fortune teller, right? I have no clue which week is going to be a Kamani Vidal week, a

7:54 Keaton Mitchell week, and a Marion Hampton week. But what I do know is that if Keaton Mitchell or Marion Hampton misses any time, that is one less running back to figure out in this rotation. Is this a long-shot stash? Yeah. Is this stash definitely meant for deeper leagues? It definitely is, but the reality doesn't change. Kamani Vidal is relevant and firmly in Mike McDaniel's plans of how to deploy this Chargers backfield, and thus, he should be a speculative stash to see how things evolve throughout the course of this season.

8:24 And the last player on our list this week is Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Laquan Treadwell, who is rostered in only 2% of leagues. First and foremost, shout out to Laquan Treadwell, who manages to still find his way to stick around in the NFL after seemingly being a boss of a first round pick in the 2016 NFL draft.

8:41 Now he actually finds himself playing a very relevant role in this Indianapolis Colts offense 10 years later. Treadwell has been thrust into the Alec Pierce role after Pierce found himself on IR. Over the last two weeks, Treadwell has actually led the Colts wide receivers in snap share at nearly 82%. In week four, he ran only three less routes than Josh Downs, but he was targeted on 21% of those routes, which resulted in five catches for 42 yards. Look, It's nothing astounding, but there are a lot worse options out there than Laquan Treadwell over the last three weeks.

9:14 Just to name a few bigger names that have recorded less fantasy points than Laquan Treadwell. How about Brian Thomas Jr., Marvin Harrison Jr., and Cortland Sutton have all scored less points than Laquan Treadwell over the last three weeks. The earliest Alec Pierce can come back is in week seven against the Vikings, but let's pause and be honest with ourselves for a moment. How confident are you that Alec Pierce returns after only a four game minimum stint on IR?

9:39 This is the same injury that kept Alec Pierce out for the entirety of training camp, the entire preseason, and it flared up not even a month into the season. So much so that it forced him to land on injured reserve, not just miss two or three games. Look, I want nothing but the best for Alec Pierce. He is a talented football player. I love watching him on the football field, but nothing whatsoever about this situation makes me confident that he'll be 100 percent healthy, healthy and ready for action by the end of this window. And we likely actually won't get any clarity until after week six, until we we see if his IR stint is actually up.

10:13 Treadwell may be in this role longer than we realize in this Alec Pierce role, and this Colts team is becoming just starved for wide receiver options, with Keenan Allen also dealing with a groin injury and having two misdemeanor charges hanging over him as well. And there you have it, my top five waiver wire stashes ahead of week five.

10:30 Go sprint to your waiver wire right now just to make sure that none of these guys are still floating out there in your league. They're all rostered in less than 30% of leagues, so there's a good chance they still might be available in yours. Thanks again for tuning in and make sure you're subscribed and turn on the notification bell as well. So you're alerted when all of the newest fantasy pros content comes out.

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