Welcome to the Fantasy Football Week 16 Waiver Wire pickups, where we give you the players to start immediately, stash at the end of your bench, and stream for a week or two.
Last week, we highlighted Isaiah Likely, Ty Chandler, and Jerick McKinnon as players who you could start off the waiver wire.
So, let’s dive deep into Week 15 and dissect the top fantasy football Week 16 Waiver Wire targets that’ll help you hoist your league’s fantasy football championship trophy.
Note: Roster % based on Yahoo leagues and should have roughly 50% ownership
FANTASY FOOTBALL WEEK 16 WAIVER WIRE PICKUPS
FIRST CHECK:
START
- Ty Chandler, RB Minnesota Vikings (52%)
- Noah Brown, WR Houston Texans (40%)
- Zamir White, RB Las Vegas Raiders (15%)
- Curtis Samuel, WR Washington Commanders (37%)
- Jake Browning, QB Cincinnati Bengals (47%)
- Hunter Henry, TE New England Patriots (24%)
With the lead-back role all to himself, Ty Chandler had an absolute day for the Vikings — 23 carries for 132 yards and a score, averaging 5.74 yards per carry. He also added three catches for 25 yards. The workhorse back provided RB1 results and should be the No. 1 priority of all waiver wires. He was already trending up compared to Alexander Mattison, who was on his way down, and this will likely swing that pendulum even more in Chandler’s favor. Chandler is an elite athlete who drips in massive upside if given the chance.
The injuries to Nico Collins and Tank Dell have pushed Noah Brown into a lead role as the WR1 for the Texans. He responded with eight catches for 82 yards and a score on 11 targets with Case Keenum under center. Should Nico Collins miss another week, Brown would have another prominent week.
The absence of Josh Jacobs in Week 14’s drumming of the Chargers allowed the Raiders to feature Zamir White as the lead back. The Raiders fed him 17 carries for 69 yards and a score while catching three balls for 16 yards. His 70% snap share matches the team’s past of heavily featuring one lead back. White will continue to play a crucial role as long as Jacobs is sidelined with injury.
He’s one of the more polarizing receivers in the league, but Curtis Samuel had quite the ‘boom’ game with 2 touchdowns and a 19 point outburst in Week 15. Sure he’ll follow that up with the occasional 1 or 2 point game, but the Washington offense throws a ton, and Samuel has good chemistry with Sam Howell. He hasn’t supplanted Terry McLaurin, but Samuel is either right on par or slightly above Jahan Dotson in the pecking order.
We’ve had some late QB runs this season with all the new backups forced into the game, but Jake Browning might be leading that group in production. It helped to play a bad Vikings defense to throw on, but Browning has thrown multiple touchdowns in back-to-back games and has thrown for 300+ yards in two of his four starts. Hopefully, Ja’Marr Chase isn’t sidelined to keep the weapons cabinet stocked in Cincinnati.
It’s been a late-season push for the 29-year-old tight end, but the shift to Bailey Zappe in New England has done wonders for Hunter Henry. The veteran tight end is clearly the top option and first read for Zappe as the two have connected for ten catches for 106 yards and three touchdowns over the last two games. The Patriots’ offense has been pretty sub-par, but Henry has been one of the few bright spots when it comes to the passing game and showing some consistency.
STASH
- Tyjae Spears, RB Tennessee Titans (45%)
- Roschon Johnson, RB Chicago Bears (21%)
- Jerick McKinnon, RB Kansas City Chiefs (41%)
- Chase Brown, RB Cincinnati Bengals (20%)
- Jameson Williams, WR Detroit Lions (22%)
- Dontayvion Wicks, WR Green Bay Packers (3%)
- Demarcus Robinson, WR Los Angeles Rams (8%)
- Parker Washington, WR Jacksonville Jaguars (5%)
- Joshua Palmer, WR Los Angeles Chargers (29%)
- Tucker Kraft, TE Green Bay Packers (10%)
- Justice Hill, RB Baltimore Ravens (13%)
- Clyde Edwards-Helaire, RB Kansas City Chiefs (40%)
- Isaiah Spiller, RB Los Angeles Chargers (0%)
In what should have been a smash spot for Derrick Henry, turned into a snooze fest and utter disappointment from the big fella. Tyjae Spears is creeping his way up the touch chart and is becoming a real threat to take over Henry’s lead role sooner rather than later if the production doesn’t increase.
It’s a messy backfield at the moment, but Roschon Johnson has emerged as the proverbial lead guy. He played 51% of the snaps this week, and his nine touches (lol) lead all three backs. Johnson saw a huge spike in playing time this week while taking a large chunk away from D’Onta Foreman in the process. While Johnson sits roughly half the snaps, the other two backs are evenly at 25% so this backfield looks like Johnson’s for the time being.
Isaiah Pacheco is expected to return to action this week for the Chiefs, but that doesn’t mean Jerick McKinnon is now irrelevant. McKinnon is continuously used in the passing game and down at the goal line which is where the true value in fantasy football lies. If Pacheco can’t go or is hampered that drives up McKinnon’s value tenfold. He was a league-winner last year and is once again thriving down the stretch.
Slowly creeping into Joe Mixon’s rearview mirror, Chase Brown is holding enough value showing big play ability to be worthy of an ‘end of bench’ stash. He didn’t have a huge play this week but still managed 51 total yards and a few receptions.
Lions receiver Jameson Williams set a new season high in snap percentage with 68% against the Broncos. Ideally, we want to see that number be much higher, but he’s slowly and surely working his way up the ladder. His talent flashes every touch he gets as he also set season highs in all receiving categories minus the touchdown.
Packers receiver Dontayvion Wicks saw a significant bump in usage this week thanks to the absence of Christian Watson and a downgrade from Jayden Reed. Wicks led the Packers with six catches for 97 yards on seven targets. All that was missing was the touchdown, which would have led to a very nice day.
Taking the place of injured Tutu Atwell, Demarcus Robinson was a full-time guy with 95% snaps and caught a touchdown against the Commanders. The touchdown saved an otherwise uneventful day, but Robinson has scored in three straight games.
The Jaguars struggled against the Ravens on Sunday night, but what was worse for the offense was Zay Jones’ hamstring injury which did not look good. Jacksonville is already without Christian Kirk and could be without Jones for some time, leaving rookie Parker Washington to fill in as the WR2 behind Ridley. Washington had scored in two straight while playing about half of the team’s snaps. He could be looking at a big playing time bump next week.
In his first action since Week 8, Joshua Palmer was the Chargers’ WR1 and caught a long touchdown toward a big Thursday night game. The Chargers have many injuries: Justin Herbert, who is done for the year, and Keenan Allen, who put Palmer into the lead receiver spot. There’s no real reason to rush Allen back from injury, especially at this stage. If Palmer remains the WR1 moving forward, he can be very productive for a bad team forced to throw heavily.
With Luke Musgrave shelved on IR, rookie Tucker Kraft has seen elite usage with 95%+ of snaps played each week. He’s scored in two of four games while commanding a healthy amount of targets. His involvement in the red zone is obviously a massive plus, fantasy-wise.
The Ravens suffered yet another massive injury, when they lost rookie stud Keaton Mitchell to a nasty ACL injury that will end his season. The team will look back to Justice Hill to be Gus Edwards’ primary backup. Over the first nine weeks, when Mitchell was MIA, Hill averaged 7.3 carries for 31.4 yards, with 1.9 receptions for 8.4 yards.
If it weren’t for the return of Isaiah Pacheco, Clyde Edwards-Helaire would be much higher up this list. CEH was the lead back, playing 62% of snaps and getting 17 touches on the day against New England. He did find the endzone, but the combination of Pacheco and McKinnon covers everything the Chiefs’ offense needs. He’s yet to clear 30% of snaps played when both are active.
The Chargers have been an absolute mess but have also expressed a desire to open up their running back committee, which many thought would increase Joshua Kelley’s usage. Instead, it’s been second year back Isaiah Spiller who got 37% of the snaps and 16 touches against the Raiders. It could be because the game was so out of hand that LA wanted to see what Spiller could offer, but after not playing since Week 8, Spiller has dressed and played in back-to-back games now with 22 total touches.
STREAM
- Baker Mayfield, QB Tampa Bay Buccaneers (54%)
- D’Onta Foreman, RB Chicago Bears (46%)
- Joe Flacco, QB Cleveland Browns (25%)
- Derek Carr, QB New Orleans Saints (39%)
- Josh Downs, WR Indianapolis Colts (51%)
- Nick Mullens, QB Minnesota Vikings (4%)
- Tyler Boyd, WR Cincinnati Bengals (49%)
- Alec Pierce, WR Indianapolis Colts (3%)
Talk about saving your best for when it matters. Baker Mayfield had a star performance with 381 yards and four touchdowns against the Packers. Mayfield gets the Jaguars in Week 16, who have been a struggling defense that the Bucs can feast on.
We mentioned that Roschon Johnson had the inside track on the Bears’ backfield. With next week’s game against the Cardinals, it could be D’Onta Foreman week, as Chicago would be down around the goal line more often, and Foreman is their best option in that area.
Elite QB Joe Flacco has now put up three straight 20+ point performances for the Browns. He takes on the Texans this week and should continue that trend as the Browns get closer and closer to the playoffs.
Iron Man Derek Carr threw for three touchdowns this week to basically ex-Beverly High School football players, finishing with 26 points. He should get Chris Olave back to start, along with some other options against the Rams.
Colts receiver Josh Downs hasn’t been the same since his injury earlier in the year, but he may be thrown into the fire with Michael Pittman trying to unscramble his brain due to that insane hit by the Steelers player. The Colts are still fighting for the playoffs and have the Falcons on deck this week.
In his first start, Vikings QB Nick Mullens looked pretty good in a close loss to the Bengals. He finished with 302 yards and two scores thanks to the insane talent of Jordan Addison and Justin Jefferson. A stacked weapons cabinet will help, and Mullens gets an iffy Lions’ defense while still fighting for the playoffs.
In the event that Ja’Marr Chase is sidelined for Week 16, Tyler Boyd will become very serviceable for the Bengals against the Steelers’ defense.
Similar to Boyd above, Alec Pierce could be in for more targets if Michael Pittman remains out. Pierce is arguably the best cardio participant in the NFL, playing nearly 90+ percent of snaps every game while totaling 28 catches through 14 games. There’s no way the production can go down with Pittman removed. It would be comical, though.
