Hey, you know what’s the worst? Injuries.
Marcus Mariota left with a hamstring injury.
— Fake Teams (@faketeams) October 1, 2017
Julio Jones left with a hip injury.
Dalvin Cook left with a knee injury. pic.twitter.com/tM5ZDDUJuL
Luckily Julio Jones is heading into a bye week and the team thinks he’ll be fine. Unluckily, the Vikings think Cook tore his ACL. While Fantasy Football can sometimes be a cruel mistress, Injuries are always a cantankerous hermit whose sole purpose in life is to destroy everything you’ve ever loved. DAMN YOU INJURIES!
But there’s hope, (do you like how every single one of these preambles turns out to be some kind of inspirational statement?) and that hope comes in the form of the waiver wire. While injuries may decimate your team, they leave opportunities for those on the real teams.
Here are the guys you should be instantly trying to add to your fantasy team (percent owned in Yahoo leagues).
QB Deshaun Watson, Houston Texans (33 percent owned)
I had him on the list last week and boy are you a happy camper if you went and got him and had the steel nerves to start him. Watson has been getting better and better with each coming week and if you need a quarterback, there might not be a better one on the market than him. He’s coming off a dominant performance against the Titans and is showing he has what it takes to not only lead this Texans offense, but be it’s franchise quarterback. Get him before he’s gone.
RB Alvin Kamara, New Orleans Saints (45 percent owned)
Kamara has been flirting with top notch fantasy production for a while now and he finally cashed in, catching all 10 of his targets for 71 yards and a touchdown against the Dolphins. He’s been an established member of the Saints passing attack since the start of the season and given his recent success, that won’t change. I think the Saints are quickly realizing that Adrian Peterson doesn’t fit anything they want to do on offense and that shocking realization just means more targets and opportunities for Kamara.
RB Latavius Murray, Minnesota Vikings (16 percent owned)
This is a waiver wire dedicated to injuries, none more damaging than rookie sensation Dalvin Cook possible tearing his ACL. Still no official word on the rookie’s knee but it seems the Vikings aren’t expecting the best. Enter Murray who was brought in from Oakland in free agency to be the big bruising back in Minnesota. He’ll share time with Jerick McKinnon but given Murray’s size advantage, he’s likely to be Vikings red zone running back, something he did extremely well for Oakland last year, tailing 12 touchdowns.
RB Aaron Jones, Green Bay Packers (11 percent owned)
The Packers backfield got walloped by injury Thursday night against the Bears. (It’s almost like the human body isn’t meant to play the game of football, let alone play two games within four days of each other.) Both Ty Montgomery (ribs) and backup Jamaal Williams (knee) left the game due to injury and in stepped rookie Aaron Jones. Jones made the most of his opportunity, rushing for 49 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. No one’s quite sure on the timeline for Montgomery or Williams, but if they both miss time, Jones is next in-line in Green Bay.
RB Elijah McGuire, New York Jets (2 percent owned)
Of course the week I bench Bilal Powell he goes off the rails and just scores all the fantasy points. Just my luck. While Powell was everything we thought he’d be with Matt Forte off the field, you can’t ignore what McGuire did on only 10 touches. He made the most of his 10 carries, running for 93 yards and a touchdown. I’ll bet good money he’s out there in most every single league so if you want to take a chance, McGuire should be the first in line.
WR Will Fuller, Houston Texans (31 percent owned)
Welcome back to the NFL Will Fuller! After missing the start to the season because of a broken collar bone, Fuller made his first start of the season worth it, catching two touchdowns in the Texans’ thumping of the Titans. Fuller adds the big play, home run ability that the Texans offense has been missing and you can bet that he’ll be heavily featured in the game plan moving forward.
WR Devin Funchess, Carolina Panthers (25 percent owned)
MVP CAM IS BACK! Well, not really but he certainly showed flashes his 2015 self Sunday and Funchess was the biggest beneficiary of it. And the biggest beneficiary of a maddeningly awful Patriots defense. Seriously, this defense is going to be the death of me and cause me to go bald at a young age. But this isn’t a Patriots blog and I can save my fandom rantings for the lovely website Twitter.com. Funchess led all receivers in snaps played (92), targets (nine), receptions (seven), and touchdowns (two) Sunday and has shown the ability to get open and make plays. Without Greg Olsen and with Kelvin Benjamin struggling with injuries, Funchess could quickly become Newton’s favorite target.
WR Geronimo Allison, Green Bay Packers (13 percent owned)
As Jon mentioned on last week’s RB1 podcast, Allison has fantasy value as long as someone in the Packers offense is injured. Well, Davante Adams suffered a horrendous hit to the head Thursday and will very likely miss significant time. Allison has already shown that he can be a weapon in Green Bay’s offense—he had 122 yards against the Bengals in Week 3—and he’ll have a bigger role on the outside taking Adam’s spot.