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FantasyPros - Fantasy Football Podcast
Jake Ciely’s Top 6 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Targets For Week 4 (Ep. 1724)
00:16:18
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This is an iHeart podcast.
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Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Football Podcast. It is me, Joey P, Joe P. Zapia and it's time to stash some guys from the waiver wire onto our rosters. And I think the only man to not block a kick in week three is here to help us with week four. It's Jake Seeley from the Athletic Sealy. I know it's it was a crazy day of special teams, but we are on to week four and, and the waiver wire might appear a little thin, especially because some of the injuries we've had happen here to players like James Connor. We already know Trey Benson. Somebody's rostered in well over 50% of leagues already, so he is not readily available. So we're gonna have to dig a little deeper today, which I think is good because I think a lot of these names that you're gonna throw out here today and we're gonna start with Chris Rodriguez. People might still be ignoring on the waiver wire, especially when you look at the fact that Chris Rodriguez still just 10 rostered a guy that we've been talking about. Hey, there's you know, injury here with Austin Eckler. More opportunities are going to reach out here for guys like McNichols, guys like JCM and Rodriguez too. And he seems like he's the forgotten man.
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It does seem that way. And yeah, of course if Trey Benson is out there, I mean we're dropping talent off the bench of your rosters. If you have a. No, I'm serious. Like if he happens to be. Yeah 50%. Like you have a fifth wide receiver, you have a running back that I would go as far as to drop Pacheco at this point. Like that's what we're doing. Like you have to drop significant names if Benson happens to still be out there. By the way, we also don't have IU Manor because we've talked about him for the past three weeks. So it's like why repeat what we've already been saying? But the biggest thing at the top, as you said, the only person that didn't block a kicker, that's because I've blocked all of them for 15 years. Remember band kickers? Come on, they've already been blocked. But Chris Rodriguez, the interesting thing was that he was the lead run. He was Brian Robinson this week. As in he got everything as the lead option. The first two drives we didn't see Crosby Merit to start the game. And it was the same old Crosby merit from the first two weeks where Kingsbury was just saying you get your run, it's just not to start the game. Which is just really weird. I don't know why he's doing it. Maybe there's some explanation, somebody's smarter than I as for why he's doing that. But the truth is, is Rodriguez is the lead McNichols. You can't expect that every single week. In deeper leagues you got to get McNichols too. Of course, he's just not of Austin Eckler. He's kind of like 50% Austin Eckler's usage. So the real answer here is it's a Rodriguez Krosky Merit backfield. Also, Rodriguez got a target. He got a run out of that backfield there. So like it's not like he's getting only rushes. So you know, if you need running back help, as you said, it's kind of a dry week already given the.
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Fact of how much you and I.
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Have already talked about through the first two.
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Yeah. And you mentioned AO Manor just for, you know, public service announcement. He's obviously rostered more than 50 of leagues on on Sleeper, but on Yahoo, he's still just 21 rostered. I don't understand. I mean, I get it. In a sense, maybe there's just more 10 team leagues over there, so things are a little more shallow. Please. Or two wide, which is again, what are we doing? It's a wide receiver league. Why are we playing two wide receivers play one running back, three wide receivers and two flex. That's a little bit more fun. But you know, God forbid We go off the beaten path and do something different. All right, let's talk about one of my favorite things. One of my last picks in every Dynasty league this year was Tori Horton of the Seattle Seahawks. And you know, you heard some good things out of camp. He had a nice preseason little splash game too, and there was a little bit of buzz around him. And if you watched yesterday, not only was he making an impact on special teams and in some leagues that might count for you, and he's also starting to look like a guy who is emerging here as a legitimate target for Sam Darnold in this offense. So Horton, a guy right now that is just 8% rostered on sleeper, widely available. Let's talk about his future. Let's talk about how aggressive you want to be with your fab budget on a guy like Horton at this stage of his career development.
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So it's funny, it's funny you finished with that because I said at this stage of his career development when he's drafted out of college is like he's kind of coming out of college as Chase Claypool and obviously think more of him than Chase Claypool. And I would actually say at this point, development wise, he's a step past Claypool already.
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So let's take very long.
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No, it didn't, it didn't. But I just want to also give like people out there the idea of like who he is, what the upside is, what's his skill set, but he can still grow because he's only a rookie like this can turn into obviously more. But the thing here is just he's interesting as a stash. You're probably not going to want to put him immediately in your lineup. We saw Cooper cup in week two, woke back up a little bit, had a little bit of juice left and then week three he fell back off. But the bigger thing here is we're going to talk about a bonus name too is when you have three wide receivers, somebody has to fall off. And if the two and the three are rotational to a degree, like 80%, 70% of the routes for both of them. So they're both kind of mixing back and forth like we've seen for the packers for years, is going to be very frustrating for us in fantasy outside of baseball, like you're just not going to know when to necessarily, necessarily start them. So yes, grab Horton because if cup now is two out of three that were down and if cup continues to do this and the Seahawks are like, you know what, it was a one year deal, we're going to move on from Cup. Let's get Horton some more run. That's the appeal, let alone if cup got hurt. So yes, at under 10%. If you're looking for that highest ceiling option of the list today, it's probably him and our bonus player.
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I would say this, if cup is the only thing standing in his way, then I don't think he's going to be standing there very long. I think the history teaches us at this point about Cooper Cup. It's true. Look, he is a great player for a short window of time, a great player, but he's well past that point in his career and I just don't know how he's going to hold up over the season. So Horton, if for nothing else, is a guy that has tremendous upside as the season pushes on. Let's talk about a running back here because stashing running backs seems like a very good idea. As many as you can that could be viable. And Woody Marks, now that the Texans have started 0 and 3, perhaps he's going to get a little bit more of a look here because you know Nick Chubb, older RB coming off massive surgery, right. You know, he's been okay, I think out of the gate. We would all agree it's been fine, but it's not been Nick Chubb of old. This team also has to start looking in the mirror too, because an 03 start all but kind of pushes them to the back burner. It makes it very difficult even in a soft division to get to the playoffs. So when do we start seeing more talent evaluation from within on this Texans team? And is Woody Marks a part of that considering he's under 20% rostered on sleeper?
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Yeah, I think it's right now, honestly we're talking about it was 2/3 of the snaps to Chubb and one third to Woody Mark. Actually just over one third of the snaps went to Woody Mark. So it's already happening. And he got seven touches to 12 for Chubb, so he's already on the door. He's already possibly a timeshare going forward. The problem is it's the Houston Texans offense, so it's not like we're super excited about it, but if he continues to show some of the upside, we thought about him coming out of college and as you mentioned, Chubbs looked fine. It's like kudos to staying healthy, like kudos to producing at this point of his career after how many injuries and how many of them being leg and ankles and everything like that. So I think that Chubb Being productive is kind of like kudos, like, we love you, Nick Chubb, but at the same time, as you said, maybe a little bit more explosive, especially for the fact that the passing game is struggling because the offensive line is struggling. So we like to get into space. I'm not saying Marks can run through the line if Chubb can't, because he won't because the line stinks. But if you want to get into space more and kind of use Marks in that way, I think we could see this starting to lean. I don't think he'll ever take the lead, but maybe like a Pittsburgh Steelers last year, Najee Harris, Jalen Warren. And in that case, we all want a Jalen Warren for fantasy. And I think we could potentially see that in a week or two.
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And.
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And the link is in the description right now for fantasy Finance. Go check it out. It's a good time. If you're a big fantasy nerd like us, and I know you are because you're watching this video, let's talk about the injury in Tampa to Mike Evans. Hamstring once again. Oh, here we are with Mike Evans. It's always the hamstrings. It's never anything else. It's always the hamstring somehow. And the hope is you can get back on the field sooner than later. But in the meantime, with Godwin out as well, theoretically for next week and Mike Evans looking dicey, let's talk about Sterling Shepherd, a mecca Egg Buka can't do it alone. And he wasn't 100 going into yesterday's contest either. So Shepard obviously free square 2% roster. Is he streamable this week? Under the circumstances, we're looking at.
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Can I get my iPad out for a flowchart here? Can I get like if this. So because it's like if Evans is out there with a book up, we don't care if Evans is out there and Abuka is out there and Godwin comes back, we kind of still care a little bit because they're talking about it's possible. But they also said Godwin was possible for last year. But I'm just. I'm presenting the scenarios here. So Buka and Godwin are out there then it's kind of like yeah, we probably still still shepherd as a wide receiver 5 because we don't expect a full complement of the snaps for Godwin. And then of course if Mike Evans and Godwin are both out, then Shepard probably falls into the wide receiver three or four. I wouldn't put him into mustard territory. We've seen this before. Just last year we see shepherd try to step in and end up being McMillan because Shepherd is Shepard. He's kind of a fine NFL third or fourth wide receiver at this point. At his best he was maybe of true 3 close to a 2. So I think that's the biggest thing is that I don't think he's going to walk into Evans or Godwin's or whoever's role that he stepped. Now of course if like I book is out too of all three of them are out, then you might as well just roll the dice. But then they would obviously go further down the depth chart and all their options there. The biggest thing too is with shepherd. He's not that true outside Mike Evans play. He'll probably play out there some. But I think that. Did I flowchart it enough? Like did you come back around?
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Yeah, I came back around and all I could think about is one of my favorite How I Met yout Mother bits where Marshall says this is a pie chart of my favorite bars and here's a bar graph of my favorite such a great bit every time it makes me laugh. All right, let's get to another guy who's a free Square, Luke McCaffrey. So obviously last week we saw Marcus Mariota starting for the Washington Commanders. The hope is Jaden Daniels returns, but when he does is Luke McCaffrey. Somebody's going to finally work his way into that commander's offense more.
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Only 100%. Only if Terry McLaurin's out. Like that's just what it comes down to. Terry McLaurin left the game. No, Noah Brown still. Well, like he keeps getting hurt every other time we turn around. So you're coming down to Debo Samuel. And the interesting thing was that you would think Deebo Samuel. Okay. Where he plays. Let's get the replication of Terry McLaurin down the depth chart. Well, Noah Brown was already out, so they don't really have that big play down threat, downfield threat. But then you'd look down the depth chart and you're like, really look. McCaffrey's the next one and they did though. And once he exited the game. And of course this can change week to week with game plans. You know that Joe, we've seen this before. Like what happens in the game can sometimes change to the next week. But Luke McCaffrey mildly talked up in the preseason as there he was the clear fourth wide receiver and that's kind of what we're doing here. Of course it's probably the answer being Debo backfield Zach Ertz. However, if you're looking for a deep league, which we're trying to address everybody from top to bottom on the show and you're looking for a deep flyer where IU Manor's roster, Tory Horton's. Horton's already rostered. Then take a flyer, McCaffrey, because if Lauren's out and you need a desperation wide receiver, that's your answer.
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Well, you mentioned too about like these are scenario based situations, but at the same time you have CD Lamb out, you have McLaren out. Possibly you've had some brutal injuries at the running back position.
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Ask me about my James Conner dominant back to back unbelievable roster of a dynasty team that had CD Lamb and Malik neighbors yesterday. Ask me how that went.
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Oh, well, I'd rather not because I think that the words you use might get us kicked off YouTube.
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Yeah, it might be very possible.
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All right, so let's talk about a sexier name, potentially a guy who was a highly touted rookie here that I'm sure a lot of people are more aware of. Let's talk about Luther Burden because he is a guy in this Ben Johnson offense that took a lot of shots during preseason. We heard a lot of negative about him, right? About work ethic stuff, about him picking up playbook, all this stuff. But at 26 rostered and where we are currently, look, Caleb Williams is at the top of the board in terms of touchdowns thrown. I still think it doesn't look great when he's doing it necessarily. But win is a win and they are back on track there. So let's talk about Luther Burden too and how he can evolve in this offense. It already has DJ Moore and it already has Roman Dunes who seems like his favorite thing, Caleb Williams. So where's Luther Burden's role and a 26 rostered. Is this the guy, quote unquote to come out of week four waivers with?
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So I was gonna say you said know your role. Shut your Mouth because no, here's the answer. Luther Burden is actually potential sell high right now for anybody that did roster him smartly. But we're going back to the past two years. We've done this dance before with wide receivers going to teams as the number three as rookies and understanding yeah, this is great. Roma dunes on this damn team. He just did it to us. JSN before that. We'll talk next year for Luther Burden and I love Luther Burden. I had him pushing tier one of rookie wide receivers. Love the talent. The problem is do you know what Snapchat was yesterday? 31% 9 snaps. He was just barely out there and I reference this all the time and I'm not saying it can't happen, but I'm about to give you one of the best case scenarios we have from the past 15 years. Tyler Boyd with T. Higgins and Jamar Chase who by the way that's a good one.
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Yeah.
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Ja' Marr Chase's rookie season. People would probably, you could probably get like ask 10 people and 10 people would probably get it wrong. Who had more snaps in this first year of Jamar Chase With T. Higgins it was actually Tyler Boyd over T. Higgins. T. Higgins had fewer snaps over that season than Tyler Boyd and Tyler Boyd was still only a wide receiver four because he was mainly out there in three wide and then of course there. I think T. Higgins got banged up at some point. But any point being is the best case we've seen from three wides in a very pass happy offense. A very great offense. Very great offense. The best case scenario we see he's.
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So good with words.
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I know just such a wordsmith. A wordsmith is that you get a wide receiver four from somebody and that's why I bring it up because yeah, Luther Burden as a wide receiver 4 we'd be using him if he was a true wide receiver 4 we'd be using him in 12 team leagues. I'm just saying I'm going to get him if he's out there because I'm going to stash and be patent impatient if something happens to Moore or even A dunes a huge stock up for Burden. But he's still running behind Zacchaeus and I think that can change in time. But again, best case scenario, somebody's going to be the wide receiver four and it's likely the rookie, especially given what we've seen so far. So yes, you should be excited. Yes, you should absolutely stash him. But also if you didn't already have them on your team to go back to the sell high. This could be one of those opportunities where you say pick them up and then sell high for a need elsewhere.
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Yeah, that's fair. I mean, if Zacchaeus is what's stopping him considering the draft stock of Luther Burden, I think maybe eventually he wins out. But yeah, maybe he has more value as a trade chip as Jake is talking about. So again, the waiver wire is not just for making roster moves for your roster or it's making roster moves to make trades as well. So don't forget about that. It's about acquiring assets and talent. Even if you're off to a 30 start, it doesn't mean you should be lazy on the waiver wire. And if you need more help, go check out Waiver Central to see where Luther Burden is, whether or not you should pick him up. Go to fantasybros.com myplaybook or just go download the Fantasy Pros app to instantly use the Waiver Central portion. That way you will see what players to add to help your roster in week four and the rest of the season. That'll do it for us. But the story of the game goes on for Jake Seeley. I'm Joey P. We'll see you next time kids.
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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@fantasypros.com review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and TikTok at fantasypros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.
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This is an iHeart podcast.