Dynasty Fantasy Football Waiver Wire: Week Nine
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In case you are reading this, there is one bit of information to know before you start reading names. Just like last year’s series, we will be utilizing player rostership percentages, courtesy of real dynasty rosters from 1,700 MFL leagues. While this may not be entirely accurate for every individual league, it is very reflective of how managers view who is worthy or not of a roster spot. Now that that’s covered, let’s dive into the waiver wire after week eight!
Players to double-check availability and immediately add:
- Taylor Heinicke, QB WAS
- Kenyan Drake, RB BAL
- D’Onta Foreman, RB CAR
- Latavius Murray, RB DEN
- Kyren Williams, RB LAR
- Darius Slayton, WR NYG
- Terrace Marshall, WR CAR
- Foster Moreau, TE LV
Sam Ehlinger, QB IND and PJ Walker, QB CAR
I wasn’t able to write about Ehlinger last week since the news of Matt Ryan’s benching came after this article was posted, but I’m thankful now that I at least got to see one game with him as the starter before drawing any conclusions. In superflex leagues, obviously Ehlinger needs to be added because he’s a starting quarterback for the remainder of the season (according to the Colts’ plan). Whether or not he’s a good quarterback still remains to be seen, but he at least looked decent enough this week, which gives me more confidence in him. Ideally, you’re never starting Ehlinger, but he could make for a decent trade chip off the waiver wire if you aren’t desperate for a starter, so picking up a second-round rookie pick with just FAAB is always a good thing. If you had to play him, I think we can at least believe he is a better play than your WR4 or RB4 on your team in the superflex spot, so there’s that too.
As for PJ Walker, he will always have a special place in my heart from his XFL days, but this is two weeks in a row now where he’s turned in a really solid fantasy day, with nearly 18 points this week and over 15 last week in a blowout win against the Buccaneers. He has become a quarterback I would feel moderately confident in as a spot start for my injured or bye-week quarterback if I had to. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the Panthers stick with Walker the rest of the year instead of going back to Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold, so there’s the upside here too that you have a starting quarterback for half the season. In normal superflex dynasty leagues with 22+ man rosters, if either guy is still available, I’d be willing to drop the rest of my FAAB on either to secure them for the remainder of the year.
JaMycal Hasty, RB and Snoop Conner, RB JAC
Another topic I couldn’t speak on last week was the James Robinson trade to New York. I have been saying for a while now that JaMycal Hasty should be added in dynasty leagues as a team RB3 who could see a value spike if either or both Robinson and Travis Etienne got injured, similar to Deon Jackson. If you picked up Hasty on my recommendations then, congratulations, but if you waited till now, the cost might have gone up.
Hasty is now the Jaguars RB2 with Robinson gone and while that doesn’t account for much now with Etienne getting 27 touches (which I love by the way as an Etienne truther), but should Etienne miss any amount of games, Hasty would be the next man up with the same opportunity. In a season where we have already gotten big games from backup running backs like Jamaal Williams, Tony Pollard, Eno Benjamin, Jeff Wilson Jr, and D’Onta Foreman, you can’t afford to miss out on potentially the next one if he’s still sitting on the waiver wire.
I also included Snoop Conner here as a speculative add. I got yelled at on YouTube when I didn’t talk about him last week in my Robinson trade reaction video (like there was anything to miss about a healthy scratch rookie who has made zero impact on the team), but now Conner finds himself where Hasty was just a week ago, which in deep leagues is worth the speculative add.
Ronnie Rivers, RB LAR
Last on the list this week, we have the new starting running back for the LA Rams? Shoutout Matthew Berry for the call on this on Saturday, as Rivers did take over as the lead back for the Rams, even though it was an unimpressive 36 yards on 12 total touches. I have a couple of takeaways from this happening though, but neither of which really end in really wanting to add Ronnie Rivers.
The first takeaway is that Kyren Williams is going to get a shot at being the guy. He’s been on IR this entire season with an ankle injury, but the team expects him to be back soon, eyeing week 9 or 10 as his return to action. Darrell Henderson has been really bad all season, Cam Akers is with or not with the team, I don’t know, and so to try out something new, McVay decided to give Rivers a shot. Well, Rivers didn’t look good either, so my assumption is that Williams will get his chance at a starting role as an effort to see what they have in him and see if he can rejuvenate a stale backfield.
The second takeaway is maybe we just don’t want to ever have to play a Rams running back this season? Through eight games now, the Rams’ best fantasy performance has been 13.2 PPR points back in week six, and they only have three other weeks with double-digit points under that 13.2. That is… not good. So the theory here is, even if Ronnie Rivers is “the guy” moving forward, do we really want him? Or to combine with takeaway #1, if Kyren does prove to be the guy, then Rivers is an afterthought. There are also the reports that Akers will return if he’s not traded, which adds another name back into this committee and this whole situation is just one I don’t want to be a part of. So basically, I wrote all of that to say – don’t waste your time adding Ronnie Rivers this week.
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