2014 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire: Week 7

One of the running backs on last week’s list of waiver-wire recommendations was San Diego’s Branden Oliver.

With a favorable matchup last week against the Raiders, Oliver rushed for 100-plus yards for a second consecutive week and has finished as fantasy’s RB6 in Week 6 after being the top scorer at the position in Week 5.

Oliver is now owned in 79 percent of Yahoo! leagues and won’t appear on this week’s list due to my own self-imposed maximum of 50-percent ownership in Yahoo! leagues.

That said, three of the running backs listed below finished as top-15 fantasy running backs last week and could help your fantasy team(s) going forward.

With that said, here are some players to consider adding to your fantasy roster(s) (Yahoo! ownership in parenthesis):

QB – Carson Palmer, Arizona Cardinals (31 percent)

Returning after a three-game absence, Palmer threw for 250 yards and two touchdowns in Week 6 even though he’s not yet 100 percent. As he continues to improve health-wise, Palmer has a few favorable matchups coming up against the Raiders, Eagles, Cowboys and Rams over the next four weeks.

QB – Kirk Cousins, Washington Redskins (49 percent)

With three interceptions on Sunday, Cousins has now thrown seven of them in the past three games, but he also threw for 354 yards and two touchdowns in Week 6. Cousins has multiple touchdown passes in four of five games and has finished as a QB1 (top 12) in three of his five games played.

QB – Teddy Bridgewater, Minnesota Vikings (17 percent)

On Sunday, Bridgewater had a horrible performance as the Vikings scored only three points and he threw for just 188 yards and three interceptions. The Lions have allowed the fewest fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks this season, but the upcoming schedule is very favorable. In his next three games, Bridgewater and the Vikings face the Bills, Bucs and Redskins before Minnesota’s bye. Tampa and Washington both rank in the top-three most generous defenses to fantasy quarterbacks.

QB – Ryan Tannehill, Miami Dolphins (35 percent)

Tannehill has had solid fantasy performances in back-to-back games with at least 18.66 fantasy points in each contest. In both of those games, he has thrown a couple of touchdown passes and has run for at least 35 yards. The Dolphins are tied for 10th in the league in pass attempts per game so Tannehill should have the opportunity for some more productive games.

QB – Derek Carr, Oakland Raiders (four percent)

Carr threw for 282 yards and four touchdowns against the Chargers on Sunday and finished as the QB7 in Week 6. While I wouldn’t expect another four touchdowns this week, Carr has a favorable matchup in Week 7 against the Cardinals, who have allowed the seventh-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks.

QB – Brian Hoyer, Cleveland Browns (11 percent)

Like Bridgewater, Hoyer has a nice upcoming three-game schedule as well against the Jaguars, Raiders and Bucs. Hoyer has posted an efficient seven-to-one TD-to-INT ratio and has averaged 8.2 yards per attempt. From a fantasy perspective, however, the problem is that the Browns would prefer to run the ball as much as possible as his 17 pass attempts last week show. In other words, don’t expect gaudy stats despite the favorable matchups, but he could serve as a solid bye-week replacement if you have a bye coming up.

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RB – Ronnie Hillman, Denver Broncos (46 percent)

For as long as Montee Ball (groin) is out, Hillman is in store for major workloads in one of the league’s most explosive offenses. Hillman and the team’s backs have another tough matchup against the 49ers this week, but Hillman ran 24 times for 100 yards against the Jets last week. At a minimum, Hillman is worthy of flex consideration despite the difficult matchup this week.

RB – Jerick McKinnon, Minnesota Vikings (38 percent)

An athletic freak, McKinnon led the Vikings running backs in touches and snaps and finished with 82 yards from scrimmage against the Lions on Sunday. McKinnon has another tough matchup against the Bills, who have allowed the fewest fantasy points to opposing running backs this season. Although McKinnon had 29 touches in his previous two games, he had 17 touches on Sunday compared to Matt Asiata, who had just three after getting 38 touches in the previous two games.

RB – Isaiah Crowell, Cleveland Browns (20 percent)

Although Ben Tate is the clear starter, while healthy, Crowell has moved past Terrance West on the depth chart and would be in line for the largest workload should the undurable Tate miss more time. In five games, Crowell has averaged 5.39 yards per carry (44 carries for 237 yards) and scored four touchdowns. Currently the RB27, Crowell has three RB16 (or better) performances this season.

RB – Darren McFadden, Oakland Raiders (41 percent)

In each of the team’s past four games, McFadden has finished as a top-36 running back with three of those performances with three of those as a top-27 back. In those four games, McFadden is averaging a little less than 17 touches per game while Maurice Jones-Drew has only nine total touches in his past two games.

RB – Brandon Bolden, New England Patriots (two percent)

With Stevan Ridley out for the season with a torn ACL, Shane Vereen should get more opportunities overall, but I’d expect Bolden to get the most carries between the tackles out of the team’s running back group. James White is also worth adding as well, but guessing how Bill Belichick will allocate carries on a week-to-week basis is always risky business.

RB – Antone Smith, Atlanta Falcons (29 percent)

Despite having only 23 touches through six games and no more than six touches in any game, only eight running backs have more fantasy points this season than Smith, who once again scored a long touchdown in Week 6. Finishing as a top-12 fantasy running back in three consecutive weeks, Smith is averaging a ridiculous 3.16 fantasy points per touch.

RB – Carlos Hyde, San Francisco 49ers (46 percent)

Hyde gained only 14 yards on his 11 carries last night, but he now has three consecutive games of double-digit carries. In addition, Hyde is tied for eighth in the NFL with a team-high 14 carries in the red zone. Even though Frank Gore is having a great season and generally underrated, Hyde would be in line for a massive workload if the 31-year-old Gore were to miss any time.

WR – Cecil Shorts, Jacksonville Jaguars (39 percent)

Few wide receivers struggle with durability as much as Shorts does when it comes to minor injuries that may or may not keep him out of the lineup. Returning to the field last week (and finishing the game), Shorts had 10 receptions for 103 yards on 16 targets in Week 6. If he’s able to play/finish the remaining 10 games, which is certainly questionable, I would expect Shorts to lead the team in receptions, yards and targets across the board.

WR – Odell Beckham, New York Giants (38 percent)

With such a high usage of three-WR personnel by the Giants, Beckham, Jr. was going to be a significant part of the team’s passing attack now that he’s healthy, but they will rely even more on the 12th-overall draft pick with Victor Cruz being lost for the season. The Giants offense struggled (perhaps struggled is too kind of a word) last week and OBJ had just 2/28 on four targets after 4/44/1 in his debut in Week 5. Going forward, I would expect eight or so targets per game and better days for OBJ.

WR – James Jones, Oakland Raiders (38 percent)

Once again, Jones had another useful fantasy outing with 5/56/1 on seven targets against the Chargers in Week 6. In five games this season, Jones has finished as a WR3 (or better) in four of five games. Especially considering the Raiders have already had their bye and the heart of bye season will soon be upon us, Jones’ ownership should certainly exceed his current 38 percent.

WR – Andre Holmes, Oakland Raiders (nine percent)

With a whopping 20 targets in the past two games, Holmes now has 195 yards and three touchdowns in those two games and has finished as the WR12 and WR2, respectively. Both Holmes and Jones (and the Raiders receivers in general) have a great matchup this week against the Cardinals, who have allowed the second-most fantasy points to the position this season.

WR – Allen Robinson, Jacksonville Jaguars (12 percent)

Robinson had a season-high eight receptions last week for 68 yards. He now has at least five receptions in four consecutive games with more than 50 yards in four of his past five games, but he has yet to score a touchdown this season. Over his past five games, Robinson is averaging 8.6 targets per game.

WR – Davante Adams, Green Bay Packers (seven percent)

Yet to finish any higher than WR36 this season, Adams will continue to see his role and the trust of Aaron Rodgers expand as the season progresses. Last week, Adams had six catches for 77 yards on eight targets, all of which were season highs for the second-round rookie out of Fresno State.

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TE – Jared Cook, St. Louis Rams (29 percent)

Cook has yet to score a touchdown this season and has more than four catches in only one game this year, but the positive news is that he is getting the opportunities. Cook had a season-high 11 targets last night and now has double-digit targets in back-to-back games.

TE – Jace Amaro, New York Jets (two percent)

Even with their offseason signing of Eric Decker, few teams have a weaker group of pass-catchers than the Jets. The team’s second-round pick, Amaro had a season-high 12 targets, 10 receptions and 68 yards and scored his first NFL touchdown last week. Over the past four games, Amaro has three games with at least 50 yards.

More fantasy football resources:

• Week 7 Fantasy Football Rankings (to post Tues. night)
• Rest-of-Season (ROS) Fantasy Football Rankings
• Fantasy Football Strength of Schedule

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