Early Week 7 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire
Cardinals RB Chase Edmonds has made the best of his opportunities over the past two weeks.
Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Be on the lookout for a full waiver-wire column from the SI Fantasy team each week. Every Sunday night, however, I will take an early look at a few options that could help you in the upcoming week or on a rest-of-season basis.
[Note: All players referenced in this post are available in more than half of Yahoo! leagues as their ownership levels are all below 50 percent.]
With that said, here are a few waiver-wire options to consider heading into Week 7 (Yahoo! ownership in parenthesis):
Mark Walton, RB, Miami Dolphins (4% owned)
Seeing an uptick in playing time and opportunities this week, Walton had six carries for 32 yards (5.4 YPC) and five receptions for 43 yards (8.6 Y/R) on six targets Sunday. Kenyan Drake (16) had more touches than Walton (11), but the latter was more effective and efficient as Walton racked up more scrimmage yards (75 to Drake’s 70). Kalen Ballage was a distant third in both (three touches for seven yards).
The Week 7 matchup against Buffalo is an across-the-board unfavorable one for Miami’s skill-position players, so there won’t be any recommended plays on the roster, including Walton next week. As the season progresses, however, Walton will have the potential to secure a larger role and could work his way into flex range over the stretch of bye weeks.
Chase Edmonds, RB, Arizona Cardinals (34% owned)
Edmonds had just seven touches on Sunday, but he turned in another productive performance in his matchup against the Falcons. Edmonds carried the ball five times for 34 yards, which tied David Johnson for a team-high, and added two catches for 33 yards and a touchdown. Over the past two weeks combined, Edmonds has 102 rushing yards and a touchdown on 13 carries and five catches for 51 yards and another touchdown.
The rookie is the clear-cut handcuff to Johnson, who has been playing through a back injury. Even if Johnson remains healthy enough to play his usual allotment of snaps, Edmonds could maintain a sizable role—8 to 10 weekly touches—in the offense going forward. Johnson, Edmonds & Co. get a favorable matchup in Week 7 against the Giants, who have surrendered the fourth-most fantasy points to opposing running backs entering this week.
Josh Allen, QB, Buffalo Bills (49% owned)
In single-QB leagues, it’d make sense for Buffalo’s Josh Allen to be on your league’s waiver wire. Unlike an every-week starter (e.g. Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, etc.), Allen is a streaming option not worth rostering through his bye week. Coming out of Buffalo’s Week 6 bye, however, Allen gets a dream matchup in Week 7 as well as a nice stretch of matchups over the next month or so.
Not only will Allen face the Dolphins in Week 7, but he will face them again in Week 11. In between the two Miami matchups, Buffalo faces Philadelphia, Washington and Cleveland. Four of those five matchups will be against teams that ranked in the bottom 10 in passing defense entering this week. Scoring the 13th-most fantasy points from Weeks 1 to 5, Allen will be inside my top-12 fantasy quarterbacks in Week 7 and several times over the next five weeks.
Auden Tate, WR, Cincinnati Bengals (23% owned)
Once again, Tate had another productive outing as he finished with five catches for 91 yards on 12 targets in Week 6 against the Ravens. The second-year receiver now has a minimum of six targets in four consecutive games and he has at least 50 yards or a touchdown in all four of those contests. During that four-game span, Tate has 18/255/1 on 34 targets. Especially if A.J. Green misses another game, Tate will be in the WR3/flex mix against the Jaguars in Week 7.
Jamison Crowder, WR, New York Jets (42% owned)
Jets quarterback Sam Darnold returned in Week 6 against Dallas after missing Weeks 2 through 5, including the team’s bye (Week 4). With Darnold under center in Week 1, Crowder had a league-high 14 catches for 99 yards on 17 targets. In Sunday’s win over the Cowboys, Crowder had six catches for 98 yards on nine targets.
With a difficult matchup against the Patriots next week, Robby Anderson will likely see shadow coverage from Stephon Gilmore. That could mean another week of Crowder approaching double-digit targets and that potential volume could push him into WR3 territory in full-PPR formats in Week 7.
Kevin Hanson joins SI for the 2019 season. His fantasy rankings have placed him in the Top 20 in each of the past two seasons among all the industry experts tracked by FantasyPros.com, and he has been in the Top 25 in six of the past eight years.
