It is Championship Week for most season-long fantasy leagues, so your next moves could be the most important ones you make. It is now more important than ever to buy low on some waiver wire fliers and get those big splashes from unexpected places. Before all of your opponents snatch them up, we have some names to set your eyes upon as you make your NFL Fantasy Football Week 16 waiver wire additions and adjustments.
Pickings are getting pretty slim since most rosterable players have long been, well, rostered. However, with a few injuries this past week, we have four guys who you could target on the waiver wire to fill in large holes in your fantasy lineups for the playoff stretch. Most notable among those are a breakout Greg Ward and a potential new starter in Mike Boone.
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Mike Boone, Minnesota Vikings
Dalvin Cook‘s shoulder was deemed a pain management issue prior to last week, so who knows if his exit Sunday has any long-term ramifications. However, with him and Alexander Mattison both missing time yesterday, Mike Boone stepped in and performed well enough. While the yardage volume was not particularly substantial, Boone had a big fantasy day with a pair of touchdowns. The Vikings have not yet clinched a playoff spot, but the Bears and Rams both lost, so it would not surprise if Minnesota chose to shut Cook down until the playoffs and roll with Boone and/or Mattison, should the rookie return from injury.
Boone has been a preseason star for the Vikings the last two years, but has been little more than an emergency ball carrier. Ameer Abdullah typically sees more touches in the general flow of the offense, while Boone takes on bulk carries when starters go down. He is perfectly capable, averaging 4.6 yards per carry on 21 touches this year, but he simply has not seen much opportunity. His 13 carries Sunday were by far the most of his career.
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That said, given the nature of the Vikings offense, their running backs are worthwhile starters no matter what in most cases. The lead back almost always produces decent fantasy output thanks to sheer volume, as Minnesota’s 49.9 run play percentage is second-highest in the league. And now that the Vikings are virtually locked into a wild card spot—97 percent to make playoffs, nine percent to win division per FiveThiryEight—they could lean even more heavily on the running game to preserve Kirk Cousins. This all sounds like a great windfall of circumstances necessary to make Boone viable, but all these things have strong possibilities of holding true. If nothing else, Boone is certainly worth a waiver wire pick-up. From there, wait and see how the Vikings proceed with their offensive personnel and gameplan.
Greg Ward, Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia’s depleted receiver corps was a big topic of discussion entering Sunday. With Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson out for the year and Nelson Agholor inactive Sunday, fantasy players had to decide between Greg Ward and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside which would take over the bulk of the targets. Obviously, with the Eagles’ two-tight end sets dominating, Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert were the primary beneficiaries, but someone in the receiver room had to step up, at least, one would assume as much. It ended up being Ward, as he caught seven of nine targets for 61 yards, including the game-winning touchdown. Arcega-Whiteside, by the way, did not have a catch on two targets. So now despite playing a third as many games, Ward has eight more targets this year than the rookie.
Ward presumably is going to be one of the main targets for Carson Wentz the rest of the way. He played in the slot and outside about evenly Sunday, so he can mix and match if and when Agholor comes back. Ertz and Goedert will likely be the primary focus of the Eagles passing game, but Ward should still figure in a good amount. The big thing working against him here in fantasy championship week is opponent Dallas, who ranks ninth in pass DVOA and 11th in PFF coverage grade. Given Wentz and the Eagles’ somewhat streaky results throwing the ball this year, Ward is by no means a must start. However, for deeper leagues, Ward can fill in receiver holes on your roster and bring some volume upside off the waiver wire.
Danny Amendola, Detroit Lions
After a strong debut, the last few weeks have shown that David Blough is a limited-returns quarterback. That said, he is still throwing the ball over 40 times per game, so his receivers are still viable fantasy options. And now that Marvin Jones is on IR, Kenny Golladay and Danny Amendola should both be in line for strong fantasy volume the final fantasy week. That did not really manifest itself for Golladay with only 44 yards on three catches, but Amendola put up 100 yards and eight catches on 13 targets, his third-highest yardage output of 2019 and tied for his highest catch and target totals.
The news of Jones should have elevated Amendola’s ownership, but for whatever reason, he did not get a lot of adds on the waiver wire last playoff week. Given the high-paced opponent in Tampa Bay, one would assume that would have been the time to grab Amendola. Maybe players were turned off by Blough starting, and this week’s matchup in Denver is not quite as good as the Broncos have the 10th-rated coverage unit by PFF. That said, they are third-worst in pass rush grade, so Blough could be more comfortable in the pocket. But truth be told, with Amendola and Golladay sucking all the volume, the veteran slot receiver would be a strong play regardless of matchup. There is simply too much passing volume and too few other options. Amendola should make more rosters this week and he is FLEX worthy in mid- to larger-sized leagues.
