Fantasy football waiver wire pickups - Week 6
Yahoo Sports' Matt Harmon and Andy Behrens offer up a few replacement RB and WR options —the Seahawks' Kenneth Walker III, the Cardinals' Eno Benjamin and the Colts' Alec Pierce.
Video Transcript
MATT HARMON: All right, Andy. A lot of mess in the fantasy streets to clean up. People are running to the waiver wires. Who should folks be adding heading into Week 6?
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, without question the biggest add for Week 6, potentially the biggest add that we've had this year, is Kenneth Walker of the Seattle Seahawks. Really unfortunate injury for Rashaad Penny in Week 5. He's going to be lost for the year with a fractured leg. Kenneth Walker is a huge talent. He was great at Michigan State in his final collegiate season, 1,600 rushing yards, over 6 yards per carry. Not particularly active as a receiver, but that's not something that the Seahawks have traditionally asked their early down thumper to do. Kenneth Walker is going to be really good. He needed like eight touches to score a long touchdown in his first real taste of a full-featured role. He played almost every snap after Rashaad Penney checked out. So he's a guy if you've got fab resources remaining, you're just going all in on Kenneth Walker. He's going to be great rest of season.
MATT HARMON: He certainly looks like the first season saver that's emerged at the running back position. I'm not so sure that Alec Pierce is going to be a season saver, but if we're looking at rookie wide receivers that could be guys that you're considering starting almost every single week in the second half of the season, I do think he is a guy to monitor right now. I think he's a guy that probably try to get in a little bit early and just go ahead and add to your rosters now. He's not playing a ton. He does need to surpass Parris Campbell as the number two receiver on this team, but I think we're trending that way, right, Andy?
I mean honestly, Alec Pierce looks the part. He's an underrated athlete, as you said on the podcast this week. Loved that call out by you. And look, over the last three weeks he's running around in about 55% of the drop backs. In Week 5 alone, he was closer to 75%. So again, more playing time for Pierce. I know the Colts offense doesn't look that great. But Michael Pittman is a great receiver, but they are still desperately, desperately in need of a burner guy here. I think Pierce can be that player for them.
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, Pierce hasn't really missed in the last three weeks, which, considering the context, considering the offense that we're talking about, is super impressive. So I think that's a good call. One other name I'll mention here, Eno Benjamin of the Arizona Cardinals. He is the healthiest Cardinals running back right now. James Conner checked out with a rib issue this past week. Darrel Williams has a knee issue. Eno Benjamin is about to face Seattle, and that is the league's worst defense by a fair amount. They've been getting in shootouts every week. They are dead last in the NFL in terms of yards per play allowed. They've just been dreadful. So Benjamin, in a role where he's probably going to see double-digit touches, perhaps, if he's the guy we're talking about 20 touches, that's going to be an enormous week for him.
MATT HARMON: All right, those are three players you can add and give yourself a boost to your fantasy roster heading into Week 6.