Maybe it was just me, but it felt like a strange week in fantasy football and around the NFL in general. Then again, every week of football is full of surprises. As we enter the second half of the fantasy football regular season, now is the time to be doing the surprising and not being surprised. A great place to start is by shoring up your roster with the best fantasy football waiver wire pickups available in your league. It’s now or never to round your roster into form for a playoff push!
As always, managers are advised to prioritize situations, snap counts, workload and target shares over a one-week scoring output when deciding on which players to claim. These are the stats and trends that will better predict sustainable success. Let’s dive into our top fantasy football waiver wire pickups for Week 8.
Note: Players must be owned in less than 50% of ESPN leagues to be included in the best fantasy football waiver wire pickups column. Ownership percentages will reflect their status on Tuesday mornings ahead of standard waiver processing.
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Best Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 8
QB Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups
Jared Goff, Detroit Lions (48.1%)
While his ownership continues to trickle upward, Jared Goff remains available in over half of ESPN leagues as we turn the page to Week 8. Since Week 2, Goff has only 15 incomplete passes spanning 91 attempts. He also threw nine touchdown passes across the Detroit Lions’ four games in that span. The fact that he ranks as the QB12 on the season despite already having had a bye week cannot be overlooked. The Lions’ offensive bread and butter may be running the football, but Goff has a rock-solid O-line and plenty of weapons to continue being serviceable in fantasy.
Russell Wilson, Pittsburgh Steelers (5.2%)
Raise your hand if you had Russell Wilson finishing as the QB3 in fantasy scoring heading into Week 7! If your hand is raised, you are a liar. Literally no one had that outcome on their bingo card. While he only completed 55% of his passes against a solid New York Jets defense, Wilson was very effective. He elevated George Pickens to his best performance of the season and added a rushing touchdown to his line. It remains to be seen whether this can continue against more functional franchises, but Wilson is immediately a fantasy football waiver wire pickups option with another favorable matchup against the New York Giants looming.
MORE: NFL Power Rankings Week 8 – Deshaun Watson Gives Fans Something to Cheer For
Our NFL Power Rankings are as consistent as the weekly ref show! Click through the latest update to see where your team stands heading into Week 8!
RB Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups
Alexander Mattison, Las Vegas Raiders (42.5%)
What if I told you that the RB19 in PPR scoring for the season is available in nearly 60% of ESPN leagues? Well, not only am I telling you this, but it’s the reality. Even with Zamir White back in the fold this past Sunday, Alexander Mattison still dominated the work out of the Las Vegas Raiders backfield. He played a season-high 70% of the team’s offensive snaps. This also resulted in him setting season-highs in carries (23) and yards (92). Mattison is far more than a change-of-pace-back or red-zone vulture at this point. He is the Raiders RB to own going forward.
Jaylen Warren, Pittsburgh Steelers (45.1%)
Despite still playing second fiddle to Najee Harris on Sunday night, Jaylen Warren had the most involved game of his season to date. While it would likely take an injury to his backfield cohort to really see a bump in usage, we already know that Warren can provide FLEX-caliber production on any given week. His 12 carries and 51% of snaps played in Week 7 both represented season highs. Injuries of his own have caused a dip in ownership, but if the Pittsburgh Steelers offense looks as good as it did in Russell Wilson’s season debut, Warren once again qualifies as a nice fantasy depth piece at the very least.
WR Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups
Jauan Jennings (45.6%) and Ricky Pearsall (5.5%), San Francisco 49ers
Rookie wideout Ricky Pearsall finally got to make his NFL debut this past Sunday. Three receptions for 21 yards looks like a modest stat line, but Pearsall saw five total targets and wound up playing 76% of the team’s offensive snaps. Both of those numbers have a real chance to predict future success, especially after the San Francisco 49ers lost Brandon Aiyuk for the remainder of the season to a torn ACL/MCL.
Aiyuk isn’t the only casualty in the 49ers’ WR room at present. Deebo Samuel missed Week 7 due to illness and was actually hospitalized on Monday with what appears to be a serious case of pneumonia. If he misses another game, Pearsall could be joined by Jauan Jennings (remember him?) as the top targets for Brock Purdy in the passing game. Jennings missed last week’s contest in his own right with a hip injury but is eyeing a Week 8 return. The veteran is the preferred fantasy football waiver wire pickups candidate, but both players can be rostered at this juncture.
Keon Coleman, Buffalo Bills (44.4%)
Amari Cooper joining the Buffalo Bills wide receiver corps might actually help the other players more than hurt them. Rookie Keon Coleman certainly enjoyed the veteran’s presence in Week 7, as he saw a career-high seven targets in the game. He managed to reel in four of them for 125 yards, by far his best output to date. Although Coleman hasn’t exactly delivered on the perhaps too lofty expectations many in the fantasy community bestowed upon him from the jump, he appears to be gaining traction in the offense. He continues to play 60-70% of the snaps with regularity and now has four straight games with at least four targets.
TE Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups
Hunter Henry, New England Patriots (27.4%)
We are two weeks into the “Drake Maye Experience” in New England. As expected, Hunter Henry has arguably been the greatest beneficiary of the quarterback change when it comes to the Patriots’ pass-catchers. Maye peppered Henry with nine total targets over in London this past week, and the veteran TE rewarded fantasy managers with 92 yards receiving on eight receptions. In an offense void of any reliable WR talent, expect Henry to continue being funneled targets as Maye’s security blanket.
Will Dissly, Los Angeles Chargers (1.2%)
While it’s tough to promise his performance from Monday night will be replicated again this season, Will Dissly needs to at least be on the fantasy football waiver wire pickups radar. It’s no secret that the Los Angeles Chargers have a very limited passing attack this season due to a shortage of weapons. In the absence of Quentin Johnston, Dissly garners a whopping 11 targets in Week 7. He caught eight of them for 81 yards in what was by far the busiest game of his NFL career. The fact that he had five targets two weeks ago further supports the idea that a stable role is viable.
