What to Do on the Waiver Wire

Week 1 is done, it's time to focus on roster management

Today's Winners Club is focused on the Waiver Wire, Free Agent Pickups and who to drop. Outside of setting your lineup, this is the second most important decision of the fantasy season. Let's get right into it.

Waiver Wire Wants and Needs

Leagues are won and lost through in-season management. So much emphasis is rightly put on the draft, but things fall apart once the season begins. Injuries (Raheem Mostert, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Jerry Jeudy) and disappointments (Aaron Rodgers, Ezekiel Elliott, Derrick Henry) can sink a week and, potentially a season, early on.

That’s why Jennifer Piacenti outlined the priority waiver wire adds for this week and included her suggested FAB allocation.

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The Droppables

There isn’t a big enough focus on who you can drop. As you read in Piacenti’s piece above, there are plenty of desirable players available to add. But who exactly should you be dropping to make room on your roster? That’s a harder question to answer. I came up with a few players who I believe you’re safe saying bye to after one game.

Matt Ryan: Atlanta mustered just six points with Calvin Ridley and Kyle Pitts on the field. Ryan averaged 4.7 yards per attempt and the former MVP was entirely outclassed by Jalen Hurts. There were enough surprise quarterback performances in Week 1 to move on from him. Check in on Ryan and Arthur Smith again in a few weeks.

Jets Running Backs: There was a lot of preseason jostling about who “the guy” would be in the New York backfield. After one ugly game and an injury to tackle Mekhi Bechton, it’s entirely possible there’s no one you want in this committee. Tevin Coleman led the team with nine carries for a whopping 24 yards, Ty Johnson took four carries for 15 and Michael Carter totaled six yards on four carries. The Jets figure to be losing often, forcing them into passing situations — Zach Wilson threw 37 passes in his debut. Next up, New York has the Patriots and Broncos on deck. In redraft I’m out on all three, but hold out hope for Carter in dynasty.

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On the Bubble: There’s a few players I couldn’t bring myself to add to this list but are still worth mentioning. Zack Moss was a healthy scratch against the Steelers and Devin Singletary played well as the lead back. Singletary turned 14 touches into 80 yards against a strong defense. It seems Matt Breida beat out Moss for the RB2 role. I’m also concerned about all Packers receivers not named Davante Adams. Randall Cobb and Amari Rodgers each had one catch on one target and Allen Lazard grabbed two passes on four looks. Marquez Valdes-Scantling led the team in targets (8) which was encouraging, but Green Bay (Aaron Rodgers, really) did not look like itself in a blowout loss to New Orleans.

Reading List

Fantasy Baseball Rankings and Projections: Shawn Childs has detailed positional breakdowns and projections for this week’s MLB games. Big week ahead for Gerrit Cole.

49ers Backfield Breakdown: With Raheem Mostert on injured reserve, I took a look at how the running back situation in San Francisco is shaking out.

Jimmy G is QB1: Albert Breer wrote about Jimmy Garoppolo’s unique situation for Monday’s Daily Cover after he threw for 300 yards in a victory on Sunday. Trey Lance scored, but it was still Garoppolo’s big day.

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

No Plays Today

There’s no football today, so I don’t have any picks or plays! I’ll leave the baseball to our MLB team and the projections to Childs. Seriously, you need to check out his NFL and MLB spreadsheets, they’re both unreal resources and I know it takes loads of time to put together.

I’ll be coming out with an article series Wednesday on si.com/fantasy focused on volume and efficiency in fantasy football, so look out for that. That’s all for today, folks. Remember to spread the word about Winners Club and hit me up at winnersclub@si.com or @Kkylewood with lineup questions or any topics you want me to hit on. Follow @SI_Fantasy and @SI_Betting to keep up with news and the SI team’s coverage throughout the week.

May the waiver wire fall in your favor. I’ll talk to you on Thursday.