2018 Fantasy Football Week 16 Waiver Wire

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A big welcome to everyone who made it through the Week 15 minefield. Many top-ranked players produced absolute duds that definitely took out some top seeds. Just take a look at this potential lineup:

• QB - Aaron Rodgers (14.46 Fpts)
• RB1 - Saquon Barkley (5.60 Fpts)
• RB2 - Aaron Jones (0.80 Fpts)
• WR1 - Keenan Allen (0.00 Fpts)
• WR2 - Tyreek Hill (4.10 Fpts)
• WR3 - Adam Thielen (1.90 Fpts)
• TE - Zach Ertz (2.20 Fpts)
• FLEX - JuJu Smith-Schuster (4.00 Fpts)

While it's unlikely that any team in a 10-team league has all these players, this potential all-star lineup only totaled 33.06 points in standard leagues. Meanwhile, the 17% of owners who started Mike Williams are probably on their way to the finals. That's Fantasy Football for you! Hopefully, you're still in the running and can use a last-minute pickup to win your league.

This will be the last Waiver Wire article of the season and I wanted to thank everyone for reading. If there's anything you would like to see changed or added for next year, please let me know on Twitter @jchan_811. I'll see everyone for baseball season!

As always, the Waiver Wire will focus on players owned in under 35% percent of Yahoo! leagues. Players listed as "Other Options" are between 35-50 percent owned.

2018 Fantasy Football Week 16 Waiver Wire

Quarterbacks

Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills (23% Owned)

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Allen's name keeps coming up and it will keep coming up until people realize how consistent he's been. Covered under the veil of "avoid Buffalo", Allen has come through since returning from injury. Over the last four weeks, Allen is the top-ranked QB in standard leagues. Over that span, he's only thrown for 801 yards but has rushed for 350 yards and three touchdowns.

In Week 16, Allen will take on a suddenly reeling Patriots team. The New England defense has given up the eighth-most Fantasy points to the QB position and was shredded by a young, running QB in Week 7 when Mitchell Trubisky rushed for 81 yards and a TD on six attempts.

Injuries have torn through the Bills' backfield, meaning Allen will have the ball in his hands a lot come Sunday. With the Buffalo passing attack suddenly looking competent (more on that later), Allen should have the trust of any owner needing a QB for Championship Sunday.

Sam Darnold, New York Jets (4% Owned)

Darnold hasn't had a statistically successful rookie season, but he has a chance to finish it in style. Despite the tough matchup against the Texans, Darnold managed two touchdown passes and no interceptions on his way to a 21 point performance. This week the Jets will play the Packers, whose defense ranks 25th in DVOA.

Darnold does have a tendency to throw some horrible interceptions, but the Packers have only picked off seven passes all year, tied for the fourth-worst mark in the league. Owners in deep 2QB leagues can look at Darnold as a dart throw option, but his floor in Sunday's game will be very low.

Other Options: Lamar Jackson (46% Owned)

Running Backs

Kalen Ballage, Miami Dolphins (1% Owned)

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Sunday's game gave owners one of two realizations:

1. Kenyan Drake's shoulder injury is worse than Miami is letting on.
2. Adam Gase REALLY hates Drake.

After Frank Gore went down with an injury, last year's late-season hero was out-touched 13-4 by Ballage. Gase has shown no inclination to use Drake in a featured role this season, and Week 15 seemed to show that Ballage will get the majority of carries in the coming weeks.

Ballage showcased great game-breaking ability on his 75-yard touchdown run, which was the exclamation point on his 12 carry, 123-yard day. His next matchup against the Jaguars is extremely tough, but the game will likely be a possession battle, which gives Ballage plenty of chances to break a big run.

Jamaal Williams, Green Bay Packers (17% Owned)

Williams is another beneficiary of an injury to a starting running back. After the injury to Aaron Jones, Williams is in line for bell-cow touches while Jones heals from a sprained MCL. Filling in last week, Williams carried the ball 12 times for 55 yards and a touchdown. He added an additional 42 yards through the air.

Williams has been in this spot before, so we know what he's capable of. He is a volume dependent RB whose ceiling depends on a touchdown. The Jets defense has been average against the run this season but has recently given up big games to Sony Michel and LeSean McCoy. If Williams is given the majority of the carries, he will be a solid high-end FLEX option for Week 16.

Other Options: Elijah McGuire (33% owned), Kenneth Dixon (27% owned), Wendell Smallwood (14% owned), D'Onta Foreman (5% owned)

Wide Receivers

Robby Anderson, New York Jets (27% Owned)

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Anderson is making a late-season surge for the second straight year. Since Darnold's return to the lineup, Anderson's season has been resurrected. Over the last two weeks, Anderson has been targeted a team-high 18 times, catching 11 passes for 172 yards and two touchdowns.

We already know the Green Bay defense has struggled this year, so Anderson goes into Week 16 with the advantage of a good matchup. The Packers have given up the third most Fantasy points to wide receivers this season. Green Bay has been especially generous to opposing teams' No.1 receivers.

Few receivers possess the big play potential that Anderson can provide. However, his team situation isn't ideal and like his QB, his floor will be low. Owners needing a high risk, high reward option should put a claim on Anderson.

Robert Foster, Buffalo Bills (13% Owned)

Foster cannot be ignored any longer. His most recent performance (4-108-1) makes it four times in the last five games where he's had either 100 yards or a touchdown. While he was third on the team in targets, Foster led all NFL receivers in air yards per target (23.8) in Week 15.

Josh Allen isn't afraid to sling the ball down the field, which has resulted in Foster leading the league in average distance per target and target quality. The point is, Foster is being targeted with a lot of deep, catchable passes from Allen, and the two should continue to hook-up on big plays to end the season.

Other Options: Tim Patrick (3% owned), Jordy Nelson (47% owned), DaeSean Hamilton (22% owned)

Tight Ends

Matt LaCosse, Denver Broncos (7% Owned)

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LaCosse had a serviceable game in Week 15, catching four passes for 43 yards. Case Keenum cannot get anything going deep and is relying on short-to-intermediate passes (or handing it off the Phillip Lindsay) in order to move the ball.

LaCosse saw a season-high six targets against the Browns and could see 4-6 per game moving forward. A matchup against Oakland is as good as you can ask for, as they've given up the most Fantasy points to tight ends this season.

LaCosse is likely a low ceiling option but could provide decent PPR value for owners in desperate need of a TE.

Blake Jarwin, Dallas Cowboys (1% Owned)

Move over Geoff Swaim, there's a new Cowboys TE ready to disappoint owners! As far as TE goes, Jarwin hasn't been bad over his last two games. He's been targeted 14 times, catching 11 passes for 101 yards.

With Dak Prescott throwing the ball more often, Jarwin has found himself as his go-to safety blanket. Like LaCosse, Jarwin has a great matchup this week, as Dallas will host the lowly Buccaneers.

Jarwin is a desperation option but could produce a solid floor, provided that he can maintain his target share.

Deep League Special

Isaiah McKenzie, WR, Buffalo Bills (1% Owned)

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I can't believe I'm going to talk about a third Buffalo player. Allen has done wonders for the Bills passing attack, which is now able to support multiple receivers. Over the last two weeks, McKenzie has caught 10 passes (on 14 targets) for 100 yards. He also carried the ball four times for 22 yards and a TD against the Jets in Week 14.

McKenzie led the team in targets last week, despite briefly leaving the game with a leg injury. McKenzie is the underneath threat to compliment Foster's deep routes. As such, his ceiling is limited, but his floor in PPR leagues is surprisingly solid. He plays a similar role that DaeSean Hamilton does for the Broncos. If Hamilton can be owned for his PPR floor in a bad offense, then so can McKenzie.

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