Fantasy football waiver wire pickups - Week 13

Yahoo Sports’ Andy Behrens and Matt Harmon explain why fantasy managers should add the Jaguars’ Zay Jones and the Chiefs’ Melvin Gordon this week.

Video Transcript

MATT HARMON: All right, Andy. We're heading into week three. And, oof, the waiver wire. Bro, it is not pretty this week. So we only have two recommendations for the people out there. And I don't think either one of them is even close to a full-throated recommendation. But Andy, why don't you get us started?

ANDY BEHRENS: Oh, these are big Cyber Monday specials on waiver adds. No. Yeah. It's kind of icky out there. But I'm going to start with Zay Jones because you can feel any kind of way about Zay Jones, but he's been targeted 24 times in his last two games. He's coming off a 14-target game. Caught 11. 145 yards. That's basically an automatic add in 10 and 12-team leagues.

I'm not saying that you have to lean on him going forward or that he's a wide receiver two or three going forward. But Trevor Lawrence played an exceptional game against the Ravens in week 12. He's got the Lions coming up. It's a friendly match-up. And, again, Zay Jones seems to have settled into a high-volume role. If he's seeing 8 to 12 targets, that's going to be useful rest of season.

Again, we're not talking about the most explosive player in the league. But he's made fantasy noise now for a couple of weeks straight. I have no reason to think that he can't keep that rolling in week 13 in a friendly match-up.

MATT HARMON: Well, I'll talk about a guy who did nothing last week because he was not on a roster. But we found out just Monday here right around noon Pacific time that Melvin Gordon is going to sign with the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad. And as you mentioned, Andy, anybody-- anybody-- that signed with the Chiefs people get their juices flowing about it. So I think we got to talk about Melvin Gordon here.

Do I think he's a big threat to Isaiah Pacheco, who's run pretty well and had a clear-cut dominant share of the team rushed him the last couple of weeks? No. But I do think this tells us something about CEH's injury. I think he's probably unlikely to be back any time soon. We already know he's on IR. And for Melvin Gordon, he certainly has not looked as good as he did even just in 2021 with the Denver Broncos. He didn't look that good this year. He obviously had a fumbling problem.

But I think he could probably overtake Ronald Jones, who they clearly were not happy with even though he got a little bit of burn last week. So Melvin Gordon might become a guy that, look, this is the time of year where you need to have just upside stash bench lottery guys on the back of your roster. You don't care if a guy is going to get you one point in the week. You're not considering starting those pros.

I think Melvin Gordon, you know, he's probably not playable right now. But I think he might be a guy that if you are in a playoff push you stick on the back of your bench. And if something happens to Isaiah Pacheco, he gets hurt or whatever, Melvin Gordon could be a guy that's carrying the ball, I don't know, 13, 14, 15 times for the Kansas City Chiefs to end the season in the event of an injury. That's really all you care about on waivers at this point if you're a good team.

ANDY BEHRENS: It's just a great flyer for the Chiefs. And not that anything will necessarily come of this. But we're just a year removed from Melvin Gordon being really good. He was great last year for the Broncos. And everybody wanted the Javonte Williams total takeover to happen. But the reason it didn't is because Melvin Gordon was just right behind Williams in terms of every elusiveness metric. He was efficient. A very effective pass catcher. So it is a wonderful flier for the Chiefs. And if he can recapture any of what he very recently was, that's a huge win for Kansas City.

MATT HARMON: Has one more game against the Denver Broncos on the schedule. So you get yourself a nice little revenge game if you're Melvin Gordon perhaps. And then a match up with the Texans the week after. So again, just makes sense to hold someone like this on your bench. And that's about all we've got for you folks this week. Week 13, not the great waiver wire week that you're hoping for late in the season. But those two guys, hey, maybe you can pick them up and Zay Jones gives you a couple of weeks, Melvin Gordon gave you some upside. That's the best we can do for you here in week 13. Good luck the rest of the way.