Welcome to the Fantasy Football Week 6 Waiver Wire pickups, where we give you the players to start immediately, stash at the end of your bench, or stream for a week or two.
That said, let’s look back at Week 5 and dissect the top prospects for the Fantasy Football Week 6 Waiver Wire.
Week 6 Bye Weeks: Packers, Steelers
Note: Roster % based on Yahoo leagues and should have roughly 50% ownership
WEEK 6 WAIVER WIRE PICKUPS
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- Roschon Johnson, RB Chicago Bears (41%)
- KJ Osborn, WR Minnesota Vikings (9%)
- Logan Thomas, TE Washington Commanders (15%)
- Justice Hill, RB Baltimore Ravens (26%)
- Josh Reynolds, WR Detroit Lions (41%)
- Curtis Samuel, WR Washington Commanders (17%)
Khalil Herbert suffered a flukey high ankle sprain that could sideline him for some time. Rookie Roschon Johnson would be next in line, assuming he recovers from his concussion on Thursday night. Luckily, he’ll have extra time to work past that, but Johnson would see lead-back work and receiving upside for an offense trending upwards. The staff has chosen Johnson over D’Onta Foreman thus far.
Justin Jefferson is dealing with a hamstring injury that has since landed him on injured reserve, meaning he’ll be out a minimum of four weeks. KJ Osborn will slide into a more significant role, where he’s been sneaky good in the past. Over the last two seasons, Osborn has scored over 14 points in 10 of 12 games when seeing six or more targets. Jefferson’s fantasy replacement is on his own team.
Commanders tight end Logan Thomas saw his best game of the season in Week 5. A 9-77-1 stat line on 11 targets is quite impressive. Thomas finds himself in a pass-heavy offense dictated around the tight end, and Howell slings the ball to a handful of weapons. Thomas’ red zone work is a big plus and Eric Bienemy is clearly a fan.
It appears Justice Hill has a slight leg up on Gus Edwards in fantasy upside. Hill led the backfield in total snaps (39 to 30), goal line snaps (4 to 1), and two-minute drill snaps (15 to 0). We know what Hill is at this point, and he is pretty capped as a talent, but the pass-catching and goal-line volume is there right now.
Josh Reynolds has turned in two top-10 receiver weeks and is the man who’s benefiting most from Amon-Ra St. Brown’s injury. Even with a healthy Sun God, Reynolds has scored fantasy points in this high-flying Lions’ offense. Reynolds is a WR3 or Flex option with St. Brown out of the lineup, and definitely rosterable with St. Brown active.
Curtis Samuel is coming off back-to-back double-digit scoring weeks and is playing an integral part in Washington’s offense. His snap count has been consistent all year, but the targets weren’t flowing until Weeks 4 and 5. Now, he seems to be a reliable pass catcher for an offense throwing significantly more than ever.
STASH
- Tyjae Spears, RB Tennessee Titans (26%)
- Quentin Johnston, WR LA Chargers (39%)
- Dalton Schultz, TE Houston Texans (36%)
- Kendre Miller, RB New Orleans Saints (12%)
- Jeff Wilson, RB Miami Dolphins (26%)
- D’Onta Foreman, RB Chicago Bears (7%)
- Josh Downs, WR Indianapolis Colts (9%)
- Rashee Rice, WR Kansas City Chiefs (39%)
- Keaton Mitchell, RB Baltimore Ravens (26%)
The Tyjae Spears roller coaster goes up and down, and it was an up week just now with yet another >50% snap share and a rushing touchdown. His receiving upside will keep him relevant, so he makes for a questionable flex play in pass-heavy game scripts, along with his elite upside in the event of a Derrick Henry injury.
Quentin Johnston hasn’t done much in the NFL through the first four weeks of his career, but he still has a chance to land one of the juiciest receiver roles in the league as the Chargers WR2. Hopefully, Johnston was glued to the playbook during the bye week and comes out of the gate with a more significant role for the remainder of the season. You’re buying the first-round talent and the Bolts’ high-powered offense here.
Back-to-back weeks now with a touchdown, Dalton Schultz is putting together a stretch of productive games after a slow start to the Texans’ chapter. The Falcons’ talented secondary kept the Texans’ receivers in check, allowing Schultz to be the guy with ten targets on the day. He’s a borderline starter right now.
While the game was a blowout, we saw New Orleans work rookie Kendre Miller into the offense and show his receiving upside. A discount Kamara practically, Miller has shown he would be able to handle a three-down workload if needed.
Miami activated Jeff Wilson to return in the 20-day window from IR, which is big news after the sketchy De’Von Achane knee injury popped up in the news today—something to monitor if Achane misses time.
After being inactive the last few weeks, we should see D’Onta Foreman back in uniform after Khalil Herbert’s injury. Roschon Johnson should lead the way, but Foreman has a history of being a lead back with goal-line potential, so he could factor in.
Rookie WR Josh Downs is clearly the Colts new WR2 despite playing less than Alec Pierce, who is really just out there doing some cardio. Gardner Minshew, who’s filling in for the Colts, will also open up the passing game, so Downs is a guy to consider as long as Richardson remains sidelined. Downs had three receptions of over 20 yards on Sunday.
Rashee Rice saw another dip in snap share this week, but he scored his second touchdown of the year, and I’m convinced he’s too talented to be ignored. The Chiefs deploy 6,000 different receivers out there, but none of them actually do anything except for Rice in various moments. He can be a long-term difference-maker once a role is carved out.
One of our favorite deep stashes, Keaton Mitchell, returned to Ravens’ practice last week after starting the year on IR. Mitchell is an intriguing talent who brings some spark to a blah Ravens’ backfield. It wouldn’t hurt to stash Mitchell now, especially because he still has the IR designation.
STREAM
- Emari Demercado, RB Arizona Cardinals (1%)
- Wan’Dale Robinson, WR New York Giants (24%)
- Tyler Boyd, WR Cincinnati Bengals (48%)
- Las Vegas Raiders D/ST (1%)
- Los Angeles Rams D/ST (2%)
James Conner went down with a knee injury in the second quarter and did not return to the game. With Keontay Ingram (neck) already ruled out, the RB1 duties went to Emari Demercado, an undrafted rookie out of TCU. Arizona presents a high usage role for whoever is in the RB1 slot, so if Conner is out for some time, then Demercado is poised at some serious upside — especially as a pass-catcher.
Wan’Dale Robinson left the game to be evaluated for a concussion and then returned. But, he is making his mark in the Giants’ offense. It’s not great to see Daniel Jones go down, so who knows what the offense would look like with Tyrod Taylor under center. But, Robinson is proving he can be a spark for an offense struggling to get anything going. He gets a leaky Bills secondary this week.
We’ll continue to monitor Tee Higgins’ injury to see if Tyler Boyd is moved up to WR2. Burrow and the Bengals look like they’re fully back so this offense will continue to soar and increase numbers.
Chuba Hubbard is gaining some traction in the Carolina backfield, getting nine carries and leading in snaps over Miles Sanders. The team’s new signing also fumbled in a key moment and has looked abysmal as a runner, averaging only 3.1 yards per carry. Hubbard isn’t the most exciting player, but he could start for needy fantasy squads.
The Raiders will welcome the horrific New England Patriots offense next week, fresh off scoring 3 points over their last two games. Last year in Las Vegas was the historic Jakobi Meyers lateral turned game-winning touchdown, so let’s see what tomfoolery this shit team can come up with next.
The stingy Rams defense gets a divisional bout with Josh Dobbs and the Cardinals next week. The Cardinals offense looks like it came back down to Earth, and took a big hit losing James Conner.
