Early Week 5 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire

Here are a few players to consider grabbing off the waiver wire heading into Week 5.

Every week, the SI Fantasy team will post a full waiver-wire column early in the week so be on the lookout for that column. Every Sunday night, however, I will take an early look at a few waiver-wire options that could help you in the upcoming week or on a rest-of-season basis.

Some weeks, there are (multiple) obvious additions off the waiver wire. For example, last week’s early waiver-wire post featured one of those players—New York’s Wayne Gallman as the fill-in starter for injured Saquon Barkley. There are fewer, if any, must-adds to include this week.

[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 5 (Yahoo! ownership in parenthesis):

Ronald Jones II, RB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (43% owned)

Appearing on last week’s early waiver-wire post as well, Ronald Jones II set a season high with 20 touches in Week 4. While he was less efficient this week (3.7 YPC) than he was in his first three games (5.3 YPC), Jones scored his first touchdown of the season and totaled 82 scrimmage yards. After a dismal rookie campaign, Jones has 50 carries for 234 yards (4.68 YPC) and a touchdown with three catches for 71 yards through Week 4.

Tampa’s offense will implode at times with Jameis Winston under center, but it should also remain one of the league’s highest-scoring offenses as well. Jones has at least 14 touches in three of four games and he has either exceeded or matched Peyton Barber’s touches those weeks. Provided Jones maintains or even increases his edge over Barber in workload, he’ll become a useful fantasy asset as byes increase over upcoming weeks.

Cole Beasley, WR, Buffalo Bills (12% owned)

Not the most exciting fantasy option, Beasley has zero touchdowns this season and should never be expected to be a major touchdown producer. That said, the volume is making him relevant, especially in full PPR leagues. On Sunday, Beasley had a team-high 13 targets and finished with seven catches for 75 yards, also team highs.

With back-to-back games of double-digit targets, Beasley has at least nine targets in three of four games this season. Through the first quarter of the season, Buffalo’s slot receiver has 24 catches for 246 scoreless yards, which puts up on pace for close to a 100/1,000 season.

Jacoby Brissett, QB, Indianapolis Colts (35% owned)

Even with T.Y. Hilton (quad) inactive in Week 4, Jacoby Brissett had another productive fantasy outing—265 passing yards, three touchdowns and 23.5 fantasy points. Brissett has thrown multiple touchdowns in all four games and compiled a 10:2 TD-to-INT ratio this year. While he completed a season-low 52.2 percent of his throws this week, he also set a season high with 46 attempts on Sunday.

In Week 5, Brissett will face Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs on the road. It will be difficult to keep pace with Kansas City’s high-powered offense, which could lead to another high-volume passing day for the Colts quarterback. Especially if Hilton returns next week, he will be a viable streaming option in Week 5.

Chris Herndon, TE, New York Jets (16% owned)

Chris Herndon didn’t play in Week 4—Jets’ bye—and won’t play in Week 5—final week of his suspension. As a rookie last season, Herndon started slow—typical for rookie tight ends—but finished strong. From Weeks 6 to 16, Herndon scored the sixth-most fantasy points among tight ends last season. It’d be reasonable to expect at least a top-12 performance rest-of-season from Herndon, and it makes sense for the forward-thinking fantasy owner to add him a week early if you have the available bench space.

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.