Week 9 Waiver Wire Pickups: Must-Add RBs, Top WR Targets & FAAB Advice (Ep. 2311)

0:01 What's up friends and welcome in to fantasy pros this is the week nine waiver wire show i'm chris welsh we've got pat fitzmaurice the athletic zone jake seeley and a whole bunch of players some running backs some wide receivers depth and we'll have a conversation about that but we'll be making a full waiver wire plan of the top five for each of these guys we're going to be looking positionally top streamers at other positions we got the whole thing locked in here But let's just jump right into it and let's talk about who rules the day of the waiver wire. And it's kind of a twofer here. So in the shorter percentage leagues of roster percentages, so if a lot of guys are owned and it's kind of like an under 30% type of player that's

0:44 sitting out there for you, we're looking at Mike Washington. Mike Washington is the top dog this week. 25 carries, 83 yards, 27% rostered across Yahoo!

0:50 Leagues.

0:55 Taking over the gig, they told Ashton Gentile, apparently before the game, would have been cool if we all knew, that he was not going to be carrying the ball a whole bunch. And essentially it would give Gentile like one carry, and then they would go to Mike Washington, and they did that throughout the game. So we might have a change brewing. But there's another player that we've got to stare at that has a higher roster percentage in Tyler Algier. He is over 50%, around 52% in Yahoo! League's.

1:22 but he had a ridiculous week. 11 carries, 147 yards, a touchdown, caught five for 44 in a touchdown. I believe, yeah, he was running back one, scoring over 33 points, and he's kind of on that fringe. So this is a versus situation here of Mike Washington versus Tyler Algier. So Jake, why don't we jump to you on this one? You're really adamant about Tyler Algier, and I don't think it's necessarily a disagreement here. Just higher roster percentages. Jeremiah Love's out there. Talk to us about the top two guys in waivers this week of Washington versus Tyler Algier.

1:59 There is a disagreement because there's three. This isn't even my top running back if it's not Algier. I don't agree with Mike Washington. So I don't know if you want to get into that now or later. But when we talk running back specifically, but these are probably the two most popular ones. Algier is obvious just because Jeremiah Love got hurt again. And then it was all Bam Knight.

2:17 Let's make this clear. This is why kudos to Jeff Erickson who tweeted out and said, thank you, Tyler Algier, for all the times we trusted you. And then we finally dropped you. And this is when it happens. But that's what we do in fantasy. It came down to, it was going to be Bam Knight. And then Bam Knight got concussed in like a really bad hit. So I would assume he's out for at least this week.

2:36 The question is, well, two things. One, is he even available, that being Algier? And do you want the temporary solution? Because if Bam Knight is back, again, I don't expect him to clear. That was a pretty nasty concussion hit. If he was somehow back, this is like, we've seen it. They were going to go Bam Knight. He was getting all the touches. Algier's living on life support, basically, if either one of them come back. So Love continues to get banged up. Don't know if he's going to be healthy at all this season. So if no Love, if no Bam Knight, Algier just by volume alone, nobody's expecting that kind of game. I would not even call it an RB1 performance because he hasn't been that exceptional outside

3:10 of that game.

3:11 He'd be volume.

3:12 He'd be Woody Marks for the Texans. An RB2, that's going to get all the volume. The Mike Washington situation.

3:17 Like, I don't know.

3:18 Do you want me to dive in?

3:19 No, you know what?

3:20 Let's talk about Mike Washington because I don't agree with the Mike Washington one.

3:23 No, it's 100%. You're 100% right. As you were talking, I was like, you finished the Algier conversation because like on volume alone or on production alone, it's really good. But every single week, you're going to step into it with a question. And I think the Algier thing with picking him up is like, okay, yeah, cool. There's no Bam Knight and there's no Jeremiah Love. I think it makes sense. When there's another guy- Maybe two weeks. Yeah.

3:43 How much do you really want to put him out there?

3:45 Yeah.

3:45 But then so there's a temporary code that's attached to Algier. But Mike Washington, Fitzy, let's talk about that. He was the first name I put up on Sunday. You're in agreement here. It's huge volume. I think we definitely have a question of what the Raiders are doing and what's going on with it. But 25 carries. It wasn't like massively productive necessarily with it, but a massive amount of carries and workloads. So talk to us about your positive take on number one waiver for Mike Washington this week.

4:14 Yeah, and only two carries for Ashton Jenty, the number six overall pick in the 2025 draft, who less than a season and a half into his career is now relegated to.

4:24 Passing down work.

4:26 So you just wonder how long that's going to hold, if that is maybe that holds for the rest of the season, and maybe that's just sort of a temporary, I don't want to say punishment, but like just a temporary shakeup. And we see Jenty back in more of a full-time workhorse role soon that's just unknowable but going forward you would think Mike Washington has some short-term value like I don't expect this to revert back next week and I don't know I mean 25 carries is 25 carries and next week kind of a tougher matchup that's the thing both Algier and Mike Washington pretty tough matchups the next two weeks the Raiders play the at 49ers at home against Seattle, the Cardinals go to Seattle and then get the Rams at home.

5:20 And then the Chiefs after that.

5:21 So yeah, it's just brick wall as far as matchups for both of these guys.

5:26 So is there like, and you kind of said a little bit different, is it maybe Algiers short term, Mike Washington's more of the longer term bet for the season at RB? Would you look at it a little bit like that, even though there's some rough matchups in there?

5:42 It could be.

5:43 If you're just, I need to get through week nine and I need a running back who's going to play.

5:46 Algier is the one who makes sense.

5:48 Although, and Jake just talked about this, it's always really hard to predict concussions. And yes, it looked bad for Bam Knight. He was basically out on his feet when they were taking him off the field. But he could clear this week by some miracle.

6:02 Or he could be out multiple weeks. You never know.

6:05 I don't think we're going to see Jeremiah Love this week.

6:08 And.

6:09 it looks like a very.

6:10 Strong possibility that Tyler Algier gets 20 touches in week nine. Granted, 20 touches against the Seahawks aren't as valuable as 20 touches against, you know, the Dallas Cowboys. Still, if you're hunting volume and need to plug a hole at running back in week nine, I think Algier.

6:26 So I want to save the, the, your real second name, Jake, for a little bit later when we jump into that RV market. But what's, what's your negative case on Mike Washington? And then let's talk about the percentages for Algier and Washington.

6:40 And it'll tie into why the other running back is number one for me. So the big thing is that he wasn't productive. He wasn't productive or efficient or whatever way you want to call it on the volume that he had. Because it really comes down to the offensive lines. This offensive line was supposed to be so much better.

6:54 And it's really having the same issues. And if you look at this game, the one good thing that Washington has over Jenty has nothing to do with the two players. Jenty had negative 1.15 yards before contact. Mike Washington had positive 1.12. It just comes down to the situations. Now, I'll say that as like that's one of the arguments I was making for Mike Washington before this is that he fits a little bit better with the way that they run. He can do more between the tackles and bounce off a little bit more, but that's just how the offensive line was blocking for the two of them.

7:20 But when I go to where the inefficiency is there, six goal line rush attempts, 0 for 6 for Mike Washington. Between the two players, do you know how it had the higher percentage of rushes for zero or negative yards? Chenty had zero. rushes of negative yards or in zero. Yeah, two rushes. Which is kind of crazy.

7:38 I know.

7:39 But that was the tongue-in-cheek thing. But it's more about Mike Washington. 24% of his carries went for zero or negative yards. So again, it's not necessarily a Mike Washington issue either. I'm a fan of the talent. Again, I think he fits better. It's just the offensive line is doing them no favor. So where I'm going to this is that he didn't really have that much more success on that volume. We heard Kubiak, and this isn't even a coach speak. I don't really necessarily believe Kubiak's like, oh, he's going to get all the touches. He's a big part of our game plan. It's just now a split backfield.

8:09 I don't like most split backfields unless you're on a powerhouse rushing offense. Those are two different things. Like the Steelers, like Steelers even before this year, like the Chuba Hubbard thing, like all these kinds of situations where you can even now say, Fitz talked about this on the ranking show, kudos to him, Blake Corms and RB2 on the Rams.

8:26 That's one where I'll get invested with both. If they're Splitting this kind of volume and where it's like we might get one's the runner, one's the pass catcher, and now we have to play game script and then the offensive line is trash. No, he's not going to be my number one. Do you still pick up Mike Washington?

8:41 A hundred percent. He's still, but I would pick up a different running back first.

8:44 All right.

8:44 Let's talk about the percentages and we'll talk about that other guy. It'll be a good conversation in the RB ads, but at the top of the waiver wire, Fidzi, you are recommending Mike Washington at the tippy top. So what does the percentage, what does the fab look like? And are you comfortable with the number one waiver claim?

9:02 I'm comfortable with it if you're in dire shape at running back. If you're just doing it for depth and you think he's going to be some awesome number three or number four the rest of the way, I don't think it's worth spending the number one waiver claim. I mean, we've got him in the 20 to 40 range, and I think that's going to be what it takes, but I would not want to pay more than $ 20 for Mike Washington.

9:22 Sealy, for Algier, I know I guess he's your number two kind of in this list here. Let me do it like this. What does your number one for this week look like in terms of percentages or number one waiver? two, and then three, if we're tiering these into buckets of three. You're mystery number one.

9:40 So if you had to, especially if you're a dicey RB2 that's kind of been playing, I'll even go as far as Quinchon-Junkins now with Dylan Samson's back as a dicey RB2. So if you're in that range, what Fitz said, you probably got to go 30 plus percent, maybe even 40 plus percent, depending on what your need is. And fortunately, there's only two teams on a buy, but we're going to hit back to more teams on a buy after this.

10:01 So I'm going to be mildly aggressive for the first one, and then probably 20 to 30 percent for number two, and then in the teens for number three.

10:08 Okay. The buy, by the way, you got Pittsburgh and Tennessee. That is your only two team buy, which is pretty nice. The third running back we're going to talk about, we'll talk about in just a second. It's going to make sense, but you got Mike Washington, Tyler Asher, kind of robust at RB this week, which is nice. We've definitely had weeks where it has been a barren wasteland. So we'll jump into RB ads. But before we do, let's talk about my friends over at Fabletics. We all fall into that same routine with our clothes, where we're putting on blinders when we need to replace them. Or sometimes it's a little too late and you stare down and you've got bad wear and tear, rips and holes, or, you know,

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11:26 up as a new VIP. Take a quick style quiz and be sure to select Fantasy Pros when prompted to unlock this offer. The best styles sell out fast, so don't wait. Again, that's Fabletics.com slash Fantasy Pros for 70% to 80% off everything as a new VIP. And I can 100% attest, Fabletics is like number one here at Fantasy Pros. We are all rocking it, whether it is the pants, the hoodies, the pullover, light hoodies, or the hats.

11:54 We've got a whole group of it. I have an awesome new backpack as well from Fabletics. So highly suggested. You're going to see us rocking it a ton on our show. So go check them out over at fabletics.com slash fantasy pros. Top running back ads. So who is that mystery running back? Well, he's a running back. that I think makes a lot of sense that I will say we talked a ton about last week in picking him up before the guy in front of him is traded.

12:21 And I definitely think this is a good kind of one C or, you know, he's in the group of the top tier, but the production wasn't there. That number one running back for you, Mr. Jake Seeley is.

12:35 Yeah, this is why it's changed. It's Seth McGowan. And we have talked about him previously multiple times, but We're getting a lot of smoke in the potential fire here. So much so that we all woke up disappointed because we got that news last night where it's like, expect the Broncos to make a trade tonight for a running back.

12:52 And nothing happened. Thank you for that tease, whoever that was. But the tell here is that Jonathan Taylor is like, we want a first rounder. They're pulling back. There's multiple teams involved and they're going to go after them if they can. And I know there's potentially like you pick up McGowan and nothing happens. And he just, Jonathan Taylor is back on the Colts in two weeks because the trade deadline is like the 10th, I think. So maybe Taylor goes nowhere. But if Taylor is gone, you have an RB2. And I'm not even the biggest Seth McGowan fan.

13:19 I keep bringing up Woody Marks from last year because I just think he's the perfect example when we talk about running backs that maybe aren't premier talents or even elite talents. They're just kind of NFL middling talents, but volume is king. And no matter the quarterback situation, no matter what it is, to go back to the whole talk that we were having about the Raiders. If you told me one of the other, Jenty's hurt, done for the year. Blow your fab number one spot on Mike Washington.

13:44 Why?

13:45 Because the volume is going to be there. As bad as it could be yesterday, that's probably your worst case scenario. There'll be better days. And that's why I bring that up for McGowan, because 15 plus touches week in and week out, if Jonathan Taylor is gone, it's going to be an RB2. And it'll be ugliest sometimes because the Colts are ugly. But the value is there and that's why I would go for him first because I don't have to deal with that split in the Raiders and figuring out, well, okay, they go back to Genti 70% next week. Does that mean they're actually going back to him or is that just like maybe they're behind or maybe they're up early and it's all Mike Washington and you're kind of chasing like, oh, I don't know which

14:18 way to go. The one thing that's going to be the most clear is if Jonathan Taylor's traded. So that's why McGowan would be my number one. I would put him over Algier. I would make him my most aggressive. He didn't already. Hopefully everybody in the comments is going to be like, I already did this three weeks ago because I listened to you guys or like I do my own thing, whatever it is.

14:33 Good.

14:34 You did the right thing. And he would be the number one if he's still out there.

14:37 I think we've talked about it pretty at length from whether it was even the tailgate show where we weren't talking fantasy or not. It was pretty obvious, like with all the rumors that were going on with Jonathan Taylor, that picking up Seth McGowan where you could made a lot of sense. I think there's a couple of things in there, though. It's like. Is he going to be, you know, that? I mean, like he's going to it's like the maybe it's like the Mike Washington situation where it's a volume thing. I'm not sure he's a guaranteed like banger, you know, when given the opportunity, but it is volume and he should be put in that conversation.

15:06 He went from I want to say it was in the low teens to around 31 percent rostered. He's currently at low output, five for twenty nine this week. But 50, what do you think about the Seth McGowan situation there? versus when we're talking about like Mike Washington and Algiers, is it same tier for you? Are you really worried about what that offense is going to look like once and if Jonathan Taylor is traded? What do you think?

15:28 I'm pretty worried about what that offense is going to look like when Jonathan Taylor is gone. And absolutely, he is probably a guy you, well, he's absolutely a guy you can start if Jonathan Taylor is traded and he's their starting running back. But it might be something closer to flex value than locked and loaded, double-digit, fantasy points every week value. That's my concern. And this is a team that's already traded Quentin Nelson. I'm not sure yet whether Seth McGowan is actually good. We don't really know that.

15:59 So yeah, volume is king at the running back position. But sometimes you're the king of Lichtenstein rather than the king of England. And that might be the case with Seth McGowan.

16:12 Some other running backs that are floating out there, because we've already talked, Fitz, he's got Mike Washington. Sealy, you've locked in with McGowan. We've talked out here. Some other backs that are out there. Kenny, I just want to throw Kenny Gainwell. I mean, if you don't complete a pass, you're going to have to run it. But he was 25 for 140, 42% rostered. Kalon Black, in all the conversations we've had and what he did when Christian McCaffrey got banged up in that last game, yes, you had to buy. He's still only 31% rostered. Coming into this week, Devin Singletary, around 5%. Fitzy, let's just jump to you on the RBs. Anybody else of interest in this group?

16:48 Was it you that audibly yucked me when I said Kenny Gainwell's name? Who else do you like or dislike?

16:55 Kenny Gainwell had not had even 20 rushing yards in a game until two weeks ago when the Buccaneers have had these two bizarre game scripts where Baker Mayfield has thrown for, what, 61 yards in two games? Total blowout of the Panthers. Rain-soaked, comfortable win over the Falcons. So, Kenny Gainwell, I don't think he has any standalone value.

17:16 I think he's a handcuff and that's it. Like, Bucky Irving's better, period.

17:21 That's it.

17:22 The guy I like more than Seth McGowan is Kalen Black. Like, we're swinging for the fences, and that's how you win leagues by... picking up Caelan Black and having something happen to Christian McCaffrey because Caelan Black, unbelievably valuable if anything happens to Christian McCaffrey. Oh, and by the way, there was a minor, minor Christian McCaffrey hamstring strain before the 49ers went on by. At least we're being told it's minor, but we know that Kyle Shanahan isn't exactly forthright sometimes about injuries. I mean, I'm sure a lot of people can remember back to 2024 in the summer when Oh, Christian McCaffrey is dealing with a mild calf strain. And everyone's like, yeah, it's fine. I'll take him 101.

18:11 That's cool. He'll be okay. Kyle Shanahan doesn't seem too worried.

18:15 Turns out he has double tendonitis in both feet and doesn't play his first game until November of 2024.

18:22 So I don't know. Is his hamstring okay? Maybe.

18:27 I'm just surprised Kalen Black wasn't picked up more in leagues. I know the 49ers had a week eight bye, but man, he's still out there. in like 70% of Yahoo leagues. And this guy is a potential, I hate the term league winner. I really do Welsh, but I mean, like he is a potential plug and play, absolute no brainer guy.

18:49 We're ranking in the top 10 or 15 every week. If he is the guy in Christian McCaffrey is not on the.

18:54 Same roster percentage as Seth McGowan, which is pretty crazy. Jake, what do you think outside of the group? I mean, I don't remember the last time we've been able to talk like comfortably about three plus running backs here. Is there anybody else that has your interest?

19:07 Yeah.

19:08 So when it comes down to that though, so for me, two things can be true. Is Kalen Black the better running back to have as a backup plan if something were to happen?

19:16 Yes.

19:17 But also, is it more likely that we have a trade than Christian McCaffrey is hurt? Then also, yes. And that's why I go with McGowan. If you told me Christian McCaffrey is hurt and Jonathan Taylor is traded, I would take Kalen Black 10 times out of 10. So two things can be true, I think, in that situation.

19:32 It comes down to, of the list, same thing like Kenny Gainwell. I would have scoffed at it too. Singletary, next one up, they've been floating over trade rumors with the Scataboo situation.

19:41 Fine, whatever.

19:42 If something happens to Scataboo again. I threw on Elijah Mitchell because he's clearly the number two to Saquon Barkley. Not that I'm super excited. about it, but if anything were to happen with Barkley, who continues to play through that injury, saved his day with the touchdown, they get a really favorable matchup revenge game for Barkley against the Giants this week. But if he can't go, Mitchell's the next one up. Again, we're talking for deeper leagues. We're talking people with 14 teams and running back desperation. And then Threw Marshawn Lloyd on there. I know it's already been a mess. I know we already had Caleb Johnson get into the mix when Marshawn Lloyd wasn't performing as we had hoped. But he's looked good, at least as

20:16 a pass catcher over these games. Maybe he just needed some more time to get his NFL legs because of all the injuries to this point. But because of that situation, everybody knows what it is at this point. Could drop at any given week.

20:28 The new potential legal stuff.

20:31 I would just stash Marshawn Lloyd as further down the list. I'd probably go Mitchell than Lloyd, just because there's the risk that Barkley, again, he's playing through an injury. And at what point do the Eagles be like, hey, we appreciate how much you want to do for this team, but let's chill out. We're not trading you. And then they kind of start to shut him down, not shut him down for the season, but like, we're going to take you out because you can't keep playing through an injury.

20:53 Yeah. It's a crazy situation too with RVs because like we're sitting here talking about a robust amount of guys. Like I think there's a core four, you know, between Algier McGowan, Mike Washington and Kalon Black.

21:04 Kalon Black.

21:05 But also, you know, we're faced with like what the waiver waivers could destroy some RV situations too. That's why you'd want to be more aggressive. Just think like, you know, if you picked up Jonah Coleman, who is our number one waiver wire and dah, dah, dah, like he's a Jonathan Taylor trade away from being irrelevant unless he was in the move. And There's just a couple of running back situations.

21:25 Yeah, the Broncos thing last night. That's a really good point. I will say, sorry, the other thing too is as you said that, you made me think of it. Also, this is the time of year. It happened last week. I saw in a couple of leagues. This is about the time where you really start paying close attention to the waiver wire drops, like you always should be. But now is when people start to get like really like impatient.

21:44 They have people on buys. They have multiple injuries. And I'm like, like you, you're talking about like, oh my God, I have to start Laquan Treadwell because I have nobody else. So they drop people that are on buy or maybe banged up and not playing this week and they don't have an IR spot. So sorry to like, I just thought that was a really good point that you made.

21:59 And I think that ties into it.

22:01 Yep, and let's talk about some wide receivers. There are a few wide receivers to hit. There's a couple interesting names, especially much better than Laquan Treadwell. But before we do, I'm going to talk to you guys about Polymarket. Basketball season is here, and there's a new way to trade on it, and it's Polymarket. Polymarket, it's a prediction market.

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22:50 So Jake, why don't you kick us off here with your number one wide receiver that you would be targeting this week in waivers?

22:56 Yeah, it only took us nine weeks to get some disagreements between Fitz and I on waivers. It's kind of nice. My number one is Antonio Williams. I know we've already talked about him multiple times, and we talked about him with the bye situation for the commanders before, and now the injuries and everything with Terry McLaurin. But Antonio Williams, the good thing about it here is it wasn't great in that game last night. We saw Traylon Burks had the biggest day on his catches, and that's what he can do. And actually, if you look at the schedule going forward, it's part of the other reason that I'm really leaning into this, is it helps Berks if you want to go after it because the Rams this week,

23:29 not the greatest, but Giants, Bengals, Cardinals, Titans, Texans, Falcons. The Titans outside of the Rams is the worst matchup in there. And then you talk about Giants, Bengals, Cardinals, Texans, Falcons. Where do you attack these teams? On the outside wide receiver. So that's actually a testament to maybe in deeper leagues if you want to go for Traylon Berks and play that wide receiver for Hail Mary play every single week.

23:51 But I am going with Antonio Williams because... The commanders actually told us the truth is that Stefan Diggs was going to see a slight uptick, but he wasn't going to be out there 90% of the time. He had the touchdown. Stefan Diggs would still be my top commander's wide receiver. He still will be going forward. But Antonio Williams was out there almost 90% of the routes, led the team. Nobody else was close. He had the highest team target percentage. And I know the volume was a lot of underneath, but you saw him, especially on that one play, what he can do after the catch. And that's really why I like Antonio Williams. I think we could potentially have a wide receiver three going forward. Of all the names in this list, There are some that

24:24 can get into that conversation. I especially agree with Fitz if there's an injury, but I think that Antonio Williams going forward right now, you're talking about seven targets week in a week. If you told me seven targets every single week from Jaden Daniels, even with the matchup with the Rams this week, but then that schedule coming up, I think Antonio Williams is going to be startable in most leagues.

24:41 I feel like I had like 700 different conversations around the commander's wide receiver situation. I kept saying the same thing. What is it going to look like? Is it going to be Traylon Burks playing the stretch role of McLaurin? How do they implement Antonio Williams? And I think we kind of got all the answers. I think I was kind of right about the Burks thing, but it was really going to be, how is Antonio Williams used? And the seven targets makes me feel good. So I agree with you. He's definitely near the top of this list of a guy that should be picked up.

25:07 Comparison I made was last year's Wandel Robinson for the Giants. It was like, you want more downfield and you might get it every so often, but that volume is going to be able to boost him to wide receiver three value.

25:18 And 26% rostered. So very, very readily available out there. But Fitz, you got a different name for the top of your list. So who's your number one wide receiver waiver claim?

25:28 For me this week, it's Ryan Flanoy. And thanks to Jake on last week's show for saying the, I even included the pronunciation in this week's waiver article, just so people know, can correctly pronounce the name of the guy they're bidding on this week. But I mean, he continues to have some interesting little standalone value and you wouldn't think a number three wide receiver could, but I guess the Cowboys are one of the teams where a number three receiver actually can have standalone value. And George Pickens has been dealing with hamstring and shoulder issues. So it's possible if Pickens were to, I don't know if any of these issues were to get worse and he were to miss time, man, I think Flannoy is a guy

26:10 you would want to throw in your lineup every week. And as far as this week, Flannoy is taking more than half his snaps in the slot. And the Colts, the Cowboys opponent this week, have been terrible against slot receivers this season. So I think he does have some week nine playability.

26:27 34% rostered for him. I'm very curious about this. You both skipped over the number three wide receiver in fantasy this week, Adonai Mitchell, who was, I mean, at this point, we saw Monday Night Football, so it might get knocked down a peg or two. But Nine targets, seven catches, 142 yards, a touchdown made Omar Cooper become who? Nobody.

26:51 And he was just right back into it. We've been a big question around his hands. I'm just curious. Both of you did not pick him at the top spot. He is rostered less than those other guys and was a top five wide receiver performer this week. So, Fitzy, what's the deal? No Adonai Mitchell? No interest? Is he Kenny.

27:08 Gainwell of wide receivers for you?

27:10 What's going on?

27:11 It's like.

27:12 You're a squirrel and you come to a clearing in the woods and there's a plate of cheese with this box hovering over it. That's what Adonai Mitchell feels like this week. I mean, look at the people who were excited about picking up Omar Cooper a couple of weeks ago. What happened to Omar Cooper this week?

27:29 No catches.

27:31 And it was the big week for Adonai Mitchell. And I kind of had that Jets game on one of the screens. And every time there's a catch, like, oh, was that Cooper? Was that Cooper?

27:39 Nope.

27:40 Mitchell, Mitchell, Mitchell. That's the thing. Garrett Wilson, very good wide receiver.

27:45 Omar Cooper, very talented rookie wide receiver. Adonai Mitchell, super crazy athletes, big, fast. And he's had some focus and hands issues. But man, when he can actually pull on the balls, he's pretty good. So you've got three good receivers and Geno Smith as the distributor. Not exactly Joe Burrow as far as a point guard and keeping three guys fantasy relevant. So that's the catch. You can pick up Adonai Mitchell. He's really good. But boy, week to week in this offense, it's going to be really unpredictable. Like, Jake, I'm not looking forward to ranking Adonai Mitchell and Omar Cooper this week.

28:23 Are you?

28:23 No, here's where I'll make the comparison. This is the one I did. It's the Colts with Michael Pittman, Alec Pierce, and Josh Downs. They are Josh Downs and Alec Pierce. You're going to pick wrong every single week. I'll tell you that right now. And the thing was, Omar Cooper was out there. They were actually both out there for the same amount of routes. Omar Cooper was out there almost a dozen more snaps because he was pass blocking or run blocking on those. Sorry, I'm going to speak there.

28:46 But they were both out there for the same amount of routes. It just happened to be it was an Adonai Mitchell game. And of course, Garrett Wilson got some of the squeaky wheel. But that's why I bring up the Colts is to go back to it because Michael Pittman was the one that we trust. But at that time, there were still down games for Michael Pittman. Same thing for Garrett Wilson. But that's the clear one. It was the game that we played of trying to figure out if it was a downs or a Pierce week and a downs or a Pierce week and downs. And it ended up being like, just stop. Play both of them as a wide receiver four. You're going to understand the floor in this case is legitimately a zero, but the ceiling is also potentially 15, 20 points. So as wide

29:19 receiver fours, that's why I didn't put Mitchell as number one because Mitchell is Cooper. Cooper is Mitchell. Finkel is Einhorn. They're just same thing.

29:27 So then what are you, give me your guys' top three at wide out. Celia, you can go. What are your top three picks? picks for this week obviously you've got who do you have you have Antonio Williams at one so.

29:36 This list or outside, who are your other two? My other two are the Douglases. Both the Douglases. I would go Caleb and Demario.

29:45 Demario!

29:45 Douglas. Flanoy would be next. And if you're in the deeper leagues where he's still floating out there, the problem with him, Flanoy, I would compare to Tyler Boyd from years ago, is that the third on the Bengals churning offense was still only a wide receiver four, not with the touchdowns that Flanoy is getting. He was actually more of a reception volume situation than touchdowns, but you're relying on the number three in offense. But the reason, I don't know if people who were watching, but I pointed and said, went like that to Fitz when he said it, is Pickens has been banged up. If Pickens were to miss time, I said this on my podcast, if Pickens missed time, Flanoy would be a top 25 wide receiver,

30:21 maybe even top 20 or higher. So that's why he's really valuable. He would just be Behind guys that I think you can start. And I keep bringing up the Miami Dolphins down the stretch schedule, especially in the fantasy playoffs, I think have one bad matchup. It gets really tasty. He is still only the same thing as a Denzel Boston, just on the Dolphins. But that's, again, wide receiver four, you're shooting for upside. I put him in the same bucket as Cooper and Mitchell.

30:46 Caleb, four for 43, 28% owned. Pop was 37% owned, three for 76, and he had that score.

30:54 Fitzy, what is your top three wide receivers? Double-digit scores. Double-digit points for DeMera. Doug goes three of the last four games.

31:00 Pop, baby. What's your top three?

31:03 Yeah, Jake, I think, convinced me I need to reorder my wide receivers in the waiver article a little bit. I think I'm going to go Flannoy because of the upside. Antonio Williams, number two. And I'm going to move Caleb Douglas up to number three. Caleb Douglas has missed a few games, but he is averaging the same number of half-point PPR fantasy points per game as Justin Jefferson. so far now granted that's more of an indictment of justin jefferson than it is uh feather in caleb douglas's cap it's like good for wide receiver 29 in fantasy points per game but like i think douglas is the dolphins best wide receiver and to me it seems pretty obvious and you're actually starting to get more life out of

31:43 the miami passing game like over his first five games malik willis had two touchdown passes now he's had two in each of the last two weeks and and he's thrown for 200 yards or more in each of the last two weeks.

31:54 By Monday night, the advice is in, your lineup is locked, and now all you can do is watch. Maybe you're protecting a one-point lead. Maybe you need 12 from your flex. Or maybe your opponent has one kicker left, and suddenly every field goal attempt feels personal. Make one part of the night perfect. Get DiGiorno pizza ready for kickoff. Then settle in. Enjoy restaurant-quality taste fresh from your own oven, and stay locked into the matchup through the final snap.

32:18 You don't want to step away when one target, one touchdown, or one unnecessary extra point can decide your week. Buy DiGiorno pizza on the weekend run so you know at least Monday night dinner is already covered. Rankings can guide you, and the waiver wire can save you, but once the game starts, fantasy brings the chaos. Dinner doesn't have to.

32:37 It's not delivery, it's DiGiorno. Let's do some Keeper Cut, and I love this because Fitzy put some of the Keeper Cut names on there, so I didn't have, and it's hilarious, I can't put like waddle back on here let me ask you something real quick buddy you feel super confident coming out of that week that waddles back you're gonna you're gonna confidently start him next week i i'll.

33:02 Make the same argument i made from the week before before he left the game hurt he looked decent and he's a wide receiver three does that game change my opinion of him been wide receiver three no he's still a wide receiver three mostly because the what fitz was saying an indictment of justin jefferson is more the indictment on the quarterback Same thing with Waddle. It comes down to the quarterback.

33:20 Yeah. Well, this will be the week everyone's going to start him, and then it's going to just be two for 11. It's going to be awesome.

33:26 Corliss Sutton's finally going to have a huge game.

33:28 Yeah, exactly. Marvin Mims is actually going to get more involved.

33:32 Do the Panthers have anybody left healthy in the secondary at this point? If Bo Nix can't put up 250-plus and two or three passing touchdowns against the Panthers this week, stop with Bo Nix.

33:43 You got the dogs excited about that one, too. You start screaming about Bo Nix and dogs are yelping. All right.

33:51 Keeper cut, though.

33:51 These were not mine, but I love that you put them on here. And this first one's a great one, though. I think it falls in the school of trying to cut Travion Henderson of Ashton Genting. Ashton Genting being relegated to a really weird role. So, Fitzy, it was the first one you put on here. I probably would have asked this one... To be honest with you, the first two I definitely would have brought up in some capacity.

34:13 But where are you at on Jenty after this kind of just throwaway RB thing? He's not involved in it. Mike Washington's taking over. How hard do you want to hold?

34:25 I want to hold unless it's a very shallow league with either a 10-teamer, 8-teamer, something with really short benches.

34:35 I just.

34:35 I don't know that it's going to be this way forevermore with Mike Washington in the main early down back and Jente just playing on passing downs. Can't start Jente like this unless maybe it's a flex guy in a PPR league. But I don't know that this situation is going to be permanent, so I'm just holding for now.

34:53 Jake, who scores better rest of season, Ashton Jente or Seth McGowan?

34:59 Oh, Jente, because unless we get a trade. But I think you have a serious conversation. I was going to say, if you tell me the trade happens, I think that's a coin flip. That's how crazy it is. Okay.

35:11 Well, that was kind of the question of like, you know, you say McGowan because you believe Jonathan Taylor is going to be traded. Yeah. Okay. I don't believe. What about Gentee then for you? Were you out on Gentee?

35:22 No.

35:23 Hell no on Gentee. I'd rather cut Rashad White. I'd rather, like, if you told me of somebody like, I'd cut both Vikings running backs before I cut Gentee.

35:31 Okay.

35:32 Okay.

35:33 So how about, oh, Marion Hampton, we came back off the buy.

35:37 Sabotage drop weeks ago. You should have done it already. This one, you should have already done it.

35:42 We're still the same. We're still the same. So you were fully in on dropping a Marion Hampton.

35:49 Yes.

35:49 Who is?

35:50 This was the Marvin Harrison, Brian Thomas, Quinton Johnston. We've already done these sabotage drops. This was weeks ago for Hampton. You should have sabotaged somebody else.

35:59 Well, guess what? No one did it because it's 94% roster.

36:05 94%.

36:06 Well, I guess technically 6% because he was a second round pick.

36:09 So I guess maybe a Marion Hampton Fitzy.

36:14 Do you guys know what his overall ADP was in Fantasy Pro's half point PPR?

36:19 Oh my God.

36:19 ADP?

36:19 16th overall? Yeah, I would say 16 overall too. 15.

36:24 Ah, we were so close. 15 overall. RB9, 15 overall.

36:27 Were you going to say higher, Chris? Did I pull you down a spot?

36:30 No, no.

36:31 16, 17.

36:31 That's right where I was going to go. Because I was thinking of like RB for a second that I was like, well, overall, he was like an early to mid second round pick. That's where he always was.

36:38 He was a top 10 running back.

36:39 People were pushing him into the first round.

36:42 Oh, I know.

36:42 I think the only hope for a Marion Hampton was that we got some sort of offensive sea change for the Chargers coming out of their bye.

36:52 Like they.

36:53 Went back to the drawing board. Mike McDaniel decided to do different things. Reemphasize the focus on the downhill running of O'Marion Hampton.

37:01 Didn't work. Still a three-way backfield.

37:04 Still, I think all those guys averaged, what, under two and a half or under three yards per carry yesterday. It was just same level of badness yesterday. Go ahead and drop a Marion Hampton.

37:16 Now, Fitz, I'm really curious about this one. You put him on here. I want to see where you are at. But you put Josh Downs. Josh Downs was absolutely saved by a touchdown. He caught four for 23. It would have been another disastrous day. But I think a lot of people assume that the trade is going to happen.

37:31 Is the idea of not being invested in Josh Downs about him not getting moved? Or regardless of the move, do you think like, you know, Ryan Flanoy or him? Like, where would you go? Josh Downs or him?

37:46 I think I'd rather have Ryan Flanoy. I think there's more upside to be had. I don't know if there are that many landing spots that could really revive Josh Downs' fantasy value.

37:55 What if he's traded to Kansas City?

38:01 Yeah, I don't know.

38:02 I mean, that says a lot that your, your hesitation of like a trade doesn't do much for you. Like I always liked the idea of, I don't know, like a Rams, you know, having like a little bit more there, but it doesn't sound like anything is really pushing you. So at that point, that's why you, it looks like you're willing to cut bait on downs.

38:18 Rams would be one of the ones that would be one of the reasons I might hold out for it, but there are other places he could.

38:24 Go where I don't think would necessarily help him.

38:26 Like the Packers need a slot receiver, but He's not dramatically cutting into the target share of Christian Watson and Matthew Golan. I don't know that he's walking in his even seven targets a week in Kansas City. So I want to hold and see where he lands, but I think most of the landing spots probably don't help him that much.

38:44 Jake, Josh Downs goes to the best situation, whatever that is to you. Josh Downs or Antonio Williams rest of the season?

38:51 Antonio Williams, they're holding Josh Downs because you can trade him as soon as the trade happens because of the perception.

38:56 Like that's the thing.

38:57 It's like that's the only reason I'm holding on Josh Downs. I'm holding him until the trade deadline. And if he's with them, drop him. He's droppable for Illinois. He's droppable for Antonio Williams 100%. But I would hold him because you've seen it. Like look at the Marvin Harrison trades that happen. Look at the people excited for Brian Thomas if he gets traded. And we do this every single year.

39:15 Look at Shahid last year. So like if Josh Downs does get traded to the Rams or the Chiefs, People are going to pay up in trades in your fantasy league, and that's the only reason. And then you immediately trade Josh Downs. But if we're talking about after the 10th. and he's not traded, then he should have been dropped.

39:32 That's the only thing we're holding on to. That's his only– Life is trade value and fantasy, honestly.

39:38 But I like that you mentioned some of those other guys because I actually think Hampton and Jindy, it's fun to talk about whatever. Downs legitimately might be a player that someone's staring at and they're like, hey, Antonio Williams or Flanoy are available on waivers and the only guy I could really legitimately cut is Josh Downs. Would you do it?

39:55 I would go get Antonio Williams because you're just waiting. Unless he gets traded and then you're trying to make a trade. At least you're getting value with Antonio Williams.

40:02 Yeah, exactly. All right, we're going to talk about our top streamers and then the overall waiver plan. But if you guys want to take the guesswork out of your waiver plan with Fantasy Pros, you can do it with Fantasy Pros' Waiver Wire Planner to get a complete customized waiver plan for every league, including suggested fab bids and backup options, in case your top targets are taken. Once your plan is set, you can submit your waiver claims to most major sites with just one click. Save time, stay prepared, and maximize your chances of landing the player's your team needs. Build your personalized waiver plan today at fantasypros.com slash plan. That's fantasypros.com slash plan. All right, top streamers.

40:43 This is quarterback, tight end, defense, and only kickers for Fitzy. Let's start with Fitzy since he's going to give us some kickers here. Who are your top plays at each non-running back wide receiver position, Fitz?

40:55 Malik Willis at quarterback.

40:57 Really good matchups coming up in the next two weeks with the Lions and the Colts. And Willis is showing signs of life in the passing game. Again, 200 yards or more each of the last two weeks. A couple of TD passes each of the last two weeks.

41:13 And he runs.

41:14 He's quietly been QB8 in fantasy points per game over the last three weeks, averaging 20.8. And good matchups. I think the return of Caleb Douglas is... having something to do with his improvement in the passing game. I hate chasing touchdowns Welsh, but Mike Kosicki has now scored a touchdown in five straight games. And he's got the ultimate rainmaker at quarterback in Joe Burrow. The odds of Kosicki keeping up this level of touchdown scoring, probably not good.

41:43 He scored a touchdown on, I believe a quarter of his targets so far this season, but man, again, Joe Burrow, like, I'd rather take my chances with him than with a lot of other streaming tight end options attached to far, far lesser.

41:59 By the way, just on that, I just had to point out, I, we were talking off air in the flex league, Sealy's flex leagues this week. Not only did I lose Lamar Jackson and get a zero, I faced Joe Burrow. So that person had like 59 points from their quarterback and I had zero. And I still think only lost by 20 points. And I was just like, Oh, Joe Burrow, thank you. That was an awesome performance.

42:23 All right.

42:24 So what did you say? You had your tight end. You got your quarterback. We need now a defense and a couple kickers.

42:31 I'll go with the Chiefs on defense. They've not been getting a lot of sacks this year. That's probably going to change this week because they run into Geno Smith, who's been sacked 23 times.

42:39 So I kind of like the Chiefs. They're also forcing a lot of turnovers.

42:43 And then kickers. Tyler Bass. Bills are averaging like 33 points a game. And Tyler Bass has been accurate. And Tyler Bass has been his roster ship has been low all season.

42:55 I don't know why.

42:56 So and then Matt Gay, who's like had at least eight fantasy points in all but one game. And his dud game was six fantasy points. This guy's just the most consistent fantasy kicker, I think, out there so far in 2026.

43:08 All right, Sidley, your top streamers.

43:10 What are you looking at?

43:11 Can we celebrate? I think that was the doinkiest week of field goals I've seen in my life. That was like, lots of doing such a beautiful sound, but yes, quarterback. I hate, normally I get my streamers in before Fitz does. And he left me with nothing because this week is gross. Like there's nobody, Joe, Joe Fagnano. No, I'm just kidding.

43:30 Like there's, it's just so bad. And I mean, if you want to go Sam Darnold, cause the matchup only against Arizona at home, uh, panics in a bounce back game against Cincinnati. Like, I don't want to say completely throw that game away that like Pennix did like the weather in the first because there's no excuse in the second half. The rain was gone. The field wasn't even that messy in the second half. It was as bad as it gets. But we went from one of the most efficient quarterbacks heading into that game to that was God awful.

43:58 It was so inefficient. There were more interceptions than completions in the first half. He completed more passes to the other team than completions. I saw that that was going on, and I looked, and I was like, wow. He really did complete more passes to the defense. And by the way, that's total completions. Because Baker had no completions in there.

44:20 It's not just like he completed more passes.

44:23 No, no, no.

44:24 Both quarterbacks, there were more interceptions than completions. Crazy.

44:28 I will say, this is how gross streaming quarterbacks are. The fact that I'm saying Penix and Darnold. If there is no Drake London, and he came back into that game, but just in case. If there's no Drake London, Darnold would be my only other option besides Malik Willis. It's a bad week. At tight end, because Hunter Henry got hurt, Eli Raritan, I think, is in play as solidly. Although, The interesting thing, there was the uptick in that game was actually for Efton Chisholm after Hunter Henry left that game, by the way. Something to watch if you're super, super deep league and you like Chisholm or whatever. But I think going against the Packers and what we can hope to be kind of a shootout-ish.

45:00 Rarity of play.

45:01 And then the Lions. The Lions actually since week two, the fourth– was it fourth highest? Because I know over the past three weeks, they're actually second highest in getting pressure when sending an extra defender. They do need to blitz to do it. But they're at the top three, top four for the entire season, top two in the past three weeks, getting pressure. And that's really what it comes down to against Malik Willis. It's still not a bad streamer. I would still take him because of the upside there. But the pressure could still, you could still find the Dolphins scoring 20 plus points, but getting sacks and turnovers from Malik Willis because of the pressure. So I always like to try, if you're looking for streaming

45:35 defenses and you're down this low, it's also not a great week for streaming defenses. Find ones that get pressure after the quarterback and can run up the score because that's where you get the potential turnovers.

45:44 All right.

45:44 The overall waiver plan. So your top five, Jake, we'll jump to you. This is everybody and everything that we've talked about. What is your overall top five waiver plan look like for week nine?

45:55 So we talked about Algier, so I won't put them in there. And the fact that I just wanted to throw that note out is what it is. So my number one would be Seth McGowan. I would go for him if people waited. Number two would be Antonio Williams. Three, Mike Washington. I agree with that. That's where he is.

46:08 The Douglases, I smash them together. I'm giving you a bonus because both Douglases are in the same bucket. You get You get your different taste here. Do you want Caleb Douglas for the boom or bust or do you want Mario Douglas for the consistency? And then Kalen Black because I think we do need to keep mentioning the fact that he should not be– like rectify that immediately even if you don't need him.

46:31 Going down the line of it real quick, what are like the percentages slash number ones look like?

46:37 So McGowan, number one.

46:41 I don't even.

46:42 Remember if you even said would you do your number one. You told me to blindly because to give what I would be if he was my number one running back.

46:50 You would bust the number one waiver claim on him though, right?

46:53 On McGowan?

46:54 Yeah.

46:54 Yeah, because you shouldn't let that happen because you're going to hate yourself if he does get traded. Of course, again, the downside is that Jonathan Taylor doesn't go anywhere. Depending on your league size and your needs, I'd even think about the number one for Antonio Williams. I really think that this could be somebody that you're putting, like I said, as a wide receiver three, At this point of the season, I mean, the number one spot– you got to think about, especially the people who are watching us, like the number one claim is like, oh, week 10, something happens to Christian McCaffrey. Well, the people watching us, Kalen Black probably is rostering a lot of them or they're rectifying that

47:24 right now. So that's why I'm not so much like, oh, hold on to the number one, hold on to the number one, hold on to the number one.

47:30 Gotcha.

47:30 Because you might be holding it on for somebody that might not ever be out there because they're already rostered. So Williams would be in the conversation for me. Mike Washington– Someone– like I'd think about it hard with the number one spot. The Douglases and Black, no. Black– if everybody we've talked about is gone, then Black, yes, should.

47:49 Be the number one. And then like the money, are you single digits on the Douglases and like Black?

47:58 So the Douglases and Black single digit dollars, if your percentage like at this point– yeah, like I go up to $ 6, $ 7, $ 8 on all those. Washington would be in the teens, dollars. Like I said, Williams would be in the teens as well. Perfect.

48:12 All right.

48:12 That's a perfect plan there. Fitzy, same thing, top five, and then we'll take a look at the ones and the money and stuff.

48:20 Yeah, Mike Washington, I think he's my number one. I have many of the same reservations Jake does on him, and I just think the cold hard fact of it is you're going to need to spend $ 20 to $ 40 to get him this week. But Kalen Black has more upside than Mike Washington.

48:35 Yeah.

48:35 We recommended 9-17 on Kalen Black this week. But man, the upside potential if anything happens to Christian McCaffrey, who's already got a mild hamstring strain.

48:46 Worthwhile.

48:47 Seth McGowan, I'm a little lower on him. I think like 5-10 is right. I just worry about the Colts offense being kind of a miasma that I'm not excited about RB1 value, even for whoever winds up being the lead back. Guy we haven't talked about yet is my number four.

49:05 It's Terrence Ferguson.

49:08 Was not ready to come off IR last week, even though he was eligible. He remains eligible. Wouldn't be surprised if they activated him this week unless it's, you know, this a super severe high ankle sprain.

49:19 But.

49:20 If he does come back this week he could be the number two pass catcher and a very good rams offense behind puka nikua and uh number five ryan flannoy okay and and ferguson and flannoy are you know single two to five dollar pickups.

49:34 And a little fun side note a guy you guys literally put on this list for like a month jordan tyson they're now talking about him uh potentially coming off of the ir being available this coming week if not it would be the following week he's up to 51 so he kind of crosses that 50 roster yeah but he might even be floating out there as well so but it's just funny because we talked about him for weeks and weeks and weeks and he's now kind of moved on from that list. So those are the top five for both of these guys. Don't forget, we've got our weekly waiver wire live streams, and those are going to be on the YouTube channel where you can come and ask any of your specific waiver wire questions. If you're planning, there's kind of a lot to it this week,

50:13 a ton of running backs. There's some pretty valuable wide receivers. So maybe it was similar to last week or the week prior, but we've had a couple of weeks where there's been some pretty good ones. We'll be on Tuesday at 3 p.m. Eastern. So if you're listening on the podcast, youtube.com slash fantasy pros, subscribe, Click the bell, get notified, don't miss out on it. And that's it. Tons of waiver wires. You guys can drop below who you're putting your bids on and who you're hoping to get. I think the perfect plan is set out there. You can also find everything that Fitzy was talking about in the article over on Fantasy Pros if you want to read a little bit more and get through. That is going to do it for this episode. Good luck on your

50:46 waiver wires for the athletics. Jake Seeley and Pat Fitzmorris. I'm Chris Welsh. Good luck bidding and we'll talk to you next time right here on Fantasy Pros.

50:53 Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts at fantasypros.com slash review or on Spotify. Follow us on X, Instagram, and TikTok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash fantasypros.