FlurrySports discusses how Chig Okonkwo should be viewed as a top-tier fantasy football waiver wire pickup in Week 8.
Add us as a preferred source on Google searches!
The Washington Commanders are coming off their bye week, so some of their players may slip under the radar when you go to make fantasy football waiver wire pickups in Week 8. It is a common practice for the less-experienced fantasy owners to head to waivers and sort by points scored last week. Honestly, recency bias may be the most powerful thing to understand in fantasy, whether it be a season-long league or daily fantasy.
We last saw Washington in Week 6 when they nearly defeated the San Francisco 49ers. Of course, the biggest headline from that game was the season-ending injury to Terry McLaurin. This injury takes away the player Jayden Daniels has the best chemistry with, so where does he turn now? If history is any indication, much of his attention will be turned towards tight end Chig Okonkwo.
Impact of the Terry McLaurin Injury
Terry McLaurin unfortunately suffered a season-ending knee injury, meaning everyone in the receiving corps shifts up one. In the game he played, McLaurin played 72.2% of the snaps, which is the highest snap rate amongst the Commanders WRs. McLaurin also had a 17.9% target share, per our Opportunity Index. So many of the stats I will reference in this article come from the Opportunity Index on the FlurrySports Playbook, so go check it out!
He was averaging 5.4 targets per game, which obviously have to go somewhere else now. The veteran Stefon Diggs will now operate as the WR1. While he is the most valuable fantasy WR in Washington, he also sees the defense’s top coverage now, so his fantasy situation may actually not improve much. In terms of targets, he was already averaging 7.6 per game, which isn’t expected to rise at all.
Instead, the player to step up as the WR2 will see the biggest bump in value in that room. The expectation is that it will be rookie Antonio Williams. No receiver (WR/TE) has played more snaps than Williams this season for Washington. Across his 220 snaps, he averages 0.2 fantasy points per snap. This efficiency should improve as his role increases starting in Week 8, and he certainly has the potential to become a WR3 for the rest of the season. However, it’s Chig Okonkwo’s fantasy football value that may be the most intriguing.
Chig Okonkwo Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickup
It seems like a lifetime ago, but that Week 6 game where McLaurin was injured was a great one for Chig Okonkwo. He finished the game with seven receptions for 69 yards.
Okonkwo battled injuries early this season. He was injured in Week 1, and then he played a reduced role in his Week 4 return. However, across Weeks 5 and 6, the Washington tight end played over 70% of the snaps in both games and saw a 22.4% target share. This is no fluke.
Jayden Daniels has really leaned on the tight end position early in his career. Prior to this season, about 22% of his passes went to the TE position. That was once the reliable veteran Zach Ertz. Across his two seasons in Washington, 75% of Ertz’s receptions went for either a first down or a touchdown. This offseason, Washington signed Chig Okonkwo to fill this role. And given the injury to McLaurin, he will be relied on even more now.
If you are uneasy about your tight end position, Chig Okonkwo absolutely should be a priority pickup for you off the fantasy football waiver wire. Of course, if you are feeling good about your starting TE, that doesn’t mean this information is a waste. You absolutely should be playing all of the Chig Okonkwo props until the fantasy sites and sportsbooks catch up.
My favorite NEW fantasy site to play on is SmackTok. You can sign up here with the SmackTok promo code FLURRY to get a $50 bonus and a profit boost! Like other sites, you can pick higher or lower on a player’s stats to win money. But unlike other sites, every entry you place gets you points that you can use to buy real sports cards, collectibles and more!
Make sure to use SmackTok promo code FLURRY when you create your account to get these bonuses!
