Fantasy football waiver wire pickups - week 11
Yahoo Sports' Andy Behrens and Matt Harmon explain why fantasy managers should add Kansas City's Isiah Pacheco and Green Bay's Christian Watson this week.
Video Transcript
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MATT HARMON: All right, Andy. We have shoveled through some absolutely terrible waiver weeks recently.
ANDY BEHRENS: [LAUGHS]
MATT HARMON: Well, guess what. Here heading into week 11, we got a lot of guys that are really interesting that people can pick up out there. Let's give them two that we really, really like off the waiver wire this week.
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, you're totally right. We have to go through the motions a lot of weeks in these waiver segments--
MATT HARMON: Yes, we do.
ANDY BEHRENS: --but not this week. It's really good. It's pretty talent-rich. I think one of the biggest fantasy developments of week 10 was that the Chiefs' backfield kind of got whittled down from three guys to two guys. When any backfield is a three-person committee, it's a total nightmare. It is highly unusual for anybody in circumstances like that to emerge as an every-week starter.
But when we can get that down to two, good things can happen, especially when it's a team like the Chiefs that is just an endless source of yards and points, right? And so Isiah Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon are the two guys left standing in the backfield. Clyde Edwards-Helaire played four snaps in week 10, barely a rumor in the game. No fantasy noise whatsoever. He's probably a drop right now.
Pacheco, on the other hand-- 16 carries, 82 rushing yards. For the first time this season, played over 50% of the snaps. Now, we've seen seasons before-- Damien Williams, a handful of years ago, absolutely led fantasy managers to championships on a modest workload in the Chiefs' backfield.
So that is kind of the upside for Pacheco. I like McKinnon, too, especially if you're in a [? full-point ?] PPR league. But Isiah Pacheco is somebody who can-- can he average a touchdown a week for the rest of the season? That is definitely in play now that CH is out of the way.
MATT HARMON: Yeah, it's gonna be kind of tough for Pacheco to be like a full-blown league winner, you know, melt-your-face Kenneth Walker type of guy, with McKinnon around there. You know, obviously that's-- the passing game is gonna be tough to access. But do agree. Great pickup. Absolutely could be a fantasy starter the rest of the way.
Christian Watson, man. I think there's a chance he might be a volatile, but still a fantasy starter the rest of the way. You mentioned on the podcast, we kind of got the full Christian Watson experience-- two drops in this game, a couple of miscues that had Aaron Rodgers with his trademark trash body language on the sideline. Oh my god. Just give me a break.
But still, three touchdowns, over 100 yards, absolutely shredded the Dallas Cowboys man coverage with some of their secondary corners there. And look, I'm willing to be optimistic about Christian Watson for a couple of reasons. One, this is a guy who struggled with injuries pretty much every time he's been on the field this year. If he just gets healthy, he has the athletic upside to be the top receiver on this team.
My pre-draft comp for him was Martavis Bryant. You know, I don't think Martavis Bryant was ever gonna go out there and be in full true number one [? X ?] receiver. I don't know that Christian Watson's gonna go out there and be the full true number one [? X ?] receiver. They've kind of used him as, like, a pre-snap motion flanker receiver, probably his best home going forward.
But with Martavis Bryant, it was go routes, it was deep over routes, and it was slant routes. Get him crossing routes in the open field to make moves after the catch. I think that's what we can see with Christian Watson. So while he might not become a traditional true number one receiver at any point in his rookie year, maybe at any point in his NFL career, I still think we can get a guy that's really helpful for fantasy.
I have a Cooper Kupp team, Andy, where I've talked about this on the podcast. I got a Cooper Kupp team. Christian Watson's on the waiver wire. It's a good fantasy team. I'm thinking about just unloading for Christian Watson because the upside is clearly [? there. ?]
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, plenty of targets available in Green Bay. They've been waiting for anybody to step up all season, and finally someone did.
MATT HARMON: Yeah, let's just hope it's sustainable. All right, those are a couple of guys that we really like on the waiver wire this week. Get the podcast for a ton of other great recommendations [? for ?] Andy. Like we said, it's a very good waiver week out there heading into week 11. Good luck trying to navigate it.