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Top fantasy football waiver wire adds for Week 4

Here are the players you need to be adding off waivers.

Getty Images/Pete Rogers Illustrations

While the first two weeks of the young NFL season have been all about quarterback injuries, Sunday saw a few star skill position players go down. Saquon Barkley, T.Y. Hilton and Julian Edelman all left their respective games with injuries and you can bet we’ll all be waiting with bated breath to see how long they’ll be out. But don’t wait too long or else you’ll miss out on the guys who’ll benefit and other waiver wire adds for the week. The waiver wire sleeps for no one!

So whether or not you won this week, it’s time to move on, place your claims, get your guys, prep for Week 4 and WIN! Here are 11 players you should be targeting and working hard to get onto your fantasy team this week (percent owned in Yahoo leagues).

QB Jacoby Brissett, Indianapolis Colts (19% owned)

If you lost Drew Brees or Ben Roethlisberger last week or you own Cam Newton or you’re a Giants fan and wanted to really show off your fandom by making Eli Manning your starting quarterback, chances are you’re in the market for a new QB. Brissett has been solid to start the season and is coming off his best game so far, throwing for 310 yards and two touchdowns. I also strong suggest taking a gander at the young guys Kyle Allen and Daniel Jones, both of whom had BIG games in their debut.

RB Alexander Mattison, Minnesota Vikings (20% owned)

If I were to hazard a guess at the Vikings’ ideal offensive game plan, it would be run the ball, run the ball some more, and run the ball once more to keep it out of Kirk Cousin’s hands. Minnesota’s ground game dominated yet again Sunday against the Raiders and while you won’t be able to get your hands on fantasy MVP Dalvin Cook at this point, let me offer you the next best thing. Alexander Mattison looked great Sunday, rushing for 58 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries. In both the Vikings’ wins we’ve seen a commitment to the ground and at least nine carries for Mattison. He’s more of a stash play but if anything happens to Cook, or if the Vikings are just torching a team and want to run the clock out, Mattison is a good guy to have on your roster.

RB Darrel Williams, Kansas City Chiefs (5% owned)

Trust the Chiefs offense to do exactly what you predicted, but with a different player. When reports came out that Damien Williams would miss Sunday’s game against the Ravens, I started pumping up rookie Darwin Thompson as the back who’d most benefit from the injury. Welp, I was right that the back behind LeSean McCoy would have fantasy value, just was wrong about the back. Williams seems to be the number two guy behind McCoy with Damien Williams out and this offense provides enough firepower for both backs to have fantasy relevance.

RB Jeffery Wilson, San Francisco 49ers (4% owned)

Two touchdowns last week, two touchdowns this week, it’s tough to ignore Jeffery Wilson now. He clearly is the goal line back and derives all his value solely from that. He had eight carries for 18 yards Sunday which would’ve bee nothing to write about if not for the double touchdowns. I wouldn’t recommend giving up everything to get Wilson though as he is extremely touchdown dependent.

RB Wayne Gallman, New York Giants (2% owned)

I’m going to use this spot not to talk about Wayne Gallman, but rather to pray to the Fantasy Gods that Saquon Barkley comes back healthy and nothing serious is wrong with his ankle. Please, join hands with me and bow your head. Dear Gods of the Fake Football, we humbly ask you this day to bless the ankles of Saquon Barkley and prevent them from any lasting harm. Please return his healthy to its highest level with the speed that we know you possess. Listen to our prayer. Amen.

WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Green Bay Packers (52% owned)

MVS breaks my “no one above 50% rule” but I’m too excited for him to have finally done something not to include him on this list. MVS balled out Sunday against the Broncos, catching six balls on 10 targets for 99 yards and a touchdown. Of course this comes after I dropped him in one of my leagues, but I can still be excited that at least one of the wide receivers in Green Bay is finally doing something. At what point do we start worrying about Davante Adams?

WR Golden Tate, New York Giants (37% owned)

So, and this is a shocking revelation , it seems that Eli Manning was what was holding back the Giants offense. Who would have thunk? Danny Dimes lived up to his name sake Sunday, throwing for 336 yards and two touchdowns. Tate still has one more game left in his suspension but now is the time to stash him on your roster since he could easily be the number one receiver in New York and step into a HUGE workload on suddenly possibly a good offense.

WR Phillip Dorsett, New England Patriots (31% owned)

I have tangible proof that Dorsett is the best receiver on the Patriots: he has caught every single one of his last 23 targets. Every. One. With Julian Edelman possibly set to miss time—he left Sunday’s game with a rib injury—and of course the Patriots releasing Antonio Brown Friday, Dorsett has a chance to see his already large role in the offense increase further. This might be the last chance you have to get him onto your fantasy team.

WR Diontae Johnson, Pittsburgh Steelers (4% owned)

We were all guessing what this Steelers offense would look like with Mason Rudolph at the helm and what we got was the return of JuJu Smith-Schuster and the emergence of Diontae Johnson. Johnson was announced as a starter late in last week, taking over Donte Moncrief’s role. He won’t be giving that job back anytime soon as Johnson caught three balls (on six targets) for 52 yards and a touchdown. He even threw in a carry for six yards for good measure. The rookie receiver certainly seems to be a player worth monitoring as we start seeing more of what Pittsburgh’s passing game will look like with Rudolph at the helm.

WR Preston Williams, Miami Dolphins (3% owned)

That’s right, I’m doing the unthinkable: I’m telling you to willingly roster a Miami Dolphin on your fantasy team. In all likelihood, nothing will ever come of Williams this season and we’ll laugh that I even mentioned him in this article. But he had 12 targets Sunday against the Cowboys which is something I can’t ignore. Yes he only caught four of them, but 12 targets is nothing to scoff at and if that’s any kind of a trend moving forward, that’s enough volume to make at least something happen fantasy wise.

TE Dawson Knox, Buffalo Bills (0% owned)

With Tyler Kroft out, we finally saw Knox breakout in a big way Sunday, catching three of his four targets for 67 yards and a touchdown against the Bengals. Given how top heavy the tight end position is, any kind of production is worth noting. Hopefully Knox can build upon this performance and continue to be an integral part of the Bills offense moving forward, especially if Kroft misses anymore time.

Poll

Which wide receiver are you rushing to claim off waivers?

This poll is closed

  • 19%
    Marquez Valdes-Scantling
    (55 votes)
  • 31%
    Golden Tate
    (86 votes)
  • 41%
    Phillip Dorsett
    (116 votes)
  • 3%
    Diontae Johnson
    (11 votes)
  • 3%
    Preston Williams
    (9 votes)
277 votes total Vote Now