5 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Stashes to Add NOW Before Week 3 (Ep. 2223)

This is an I Heart Podcast, Guaranteed Human. Yes, we are back to help make you a smarter fantasy football manager. The manager that is staying two to three moves ahead of their lead made specifically on the waiver wire. Who should you be stashing before they break out in fantasy football this week? I'm Lucas Wenzel here with fantasy pros bringing you my top five waiver wire stashes ahead of week three and next week's waiver run as well. Now, before we dive on into that list of five players, we do have a special deal going on for you all right now, where you can get up to six months of fantasy pros premium for free. Just head over to fantasypros.com/premium, click go premium for free, choose polymarket or one of our partner sports books, make it a deposit and complete your first pay contest. Again, that's fantasypros.com/premium, new users only terms apply. The first player on our list this week is New York Giants wide receiver Malachi fields who is rostered in 24% of leagues. Now, the number one thing we're considering for Malachi fields here is the injury to Malik neighbors. After this recording, neighbors has logged limited practices to start the week, but what's peculiar about his shoulder injuries that there wasn't a collision or major fall that happened on Monday night football. He was fighting off coverage and it was actually his right shoulder on the outside that dislocated and then he ended up popping back in on the sideline himself. Deepak Shona of sportsman analytics had this to say about the potential fantasy impact for Malik neighbors. So in the NFL, it is common to play through shoulder dislocations as neighbors did in week two. However, it typically comes with a relatively high in season recurrence risk and major limitations on production. Having the arm overhead or away from the body or rotated out can place the joint at a position of most instability for a wide receiver. His catch radius would therefore be expected to shrink significantly. He also went on to say that to protect Xavier worthy after his 2025 shoulder dislocation and he read admitted that they actually had to shrink his route tree to accommodate the injury. Overall, the data suggest relative relative optimism about neighbor's ability to keep playing, but less optimism about his ability to maintain his typical level of performance and avoid re injury. Now, nobody is going to sit here and debate that Malik neighbors and Xavier worthy are on the same playing field, right? Neighbors is the much better wide receiver than Xavier worthy. But could accommodating for neighbor's shoulder injury mean more opportunity for a player like Malachi Fields, who appears to be the next man up at wide receiver? He has 10 targets through two games, he's played 72% and 81% of snaps and Per Heath Cummings of CBS. He's one of two wide receivers to have at least 10 targets this year, but also have a catchable target rate below 70%. I'm not here to tell you that gets fixed with James Winston at quarterback, but I am here to point out that there's been yards and fantasy points left on the table. So I would stash Malachi Fields purely on the contingent upside if this shoulder injury continues to hinder neighbors for the foreseeable future. The second player on our list this week is Carolina Panthers tied in Darren Waller who is rostered in 23% of leagues. Look, the man just has a nose for the end zone. He had a touchdown called back in week one and in week two, we made up for it by scoring twice. We already saw this in Miami last year. We already played this game, right? He scored four times on 10 catches in his first three games before getting injured, even in his 11 game since returning to the NFL last year. Darren Waller has already scored eight times. If the Panthers are for real and Bryce Young continues playing at the level he's been playing out through the first two weeks, then Darren Waller is absolutely a rosterable piece, even if it is just for his role in the end zone in the red zone area. The snapshot has already been growing for Darren Waller as well, 35% of the snaps in week one, 44% of the snaps in week two. And you have to remember, Darren Waller signed with the Carolina Panthers in August. He missed a bulk of training camp and all of preseason. So he's still getting up to speed with everything in the Panthers offense in their playbook. There's still plenty of room for his role to grow. Now how much will that role grow? It's to be determined, but even looking ahead to week four specifically, he's going to be one of the most popular streaming options at tight end when the Panthers play the Detroit Lions. And you already know the Panthers are going to have to score a ton of points to keep pace with Detroit's offense and more points leads to more red zone opportunities, which leads to a higher chance of Darren Waller finding the end zone for your team. That's the entire case, right? This is not a hero fan in situation where a waiver wire ad at tight end is going to give you six to eight targets per game, but you're chasing touchdowns here. And those fantasy points add up very, very quickly at the tight end position. Next up on our list is Denver Broncos wide receiver Pat Bryant, who was rostered in 16% of leagues. Pat Bryant is one of those players that you're probably going to have to let simmer on the end of your bench for a while. He was involved instantly in week one drawing six targets and catching four of them for 42 yards. He failed to catch his lone target, gave you a goose say, however, if you do dive a bit deeper into his week two participation, I become a bit more intrigued. He played 41 snaps, which was ahead of Jalen Waddle and trailed only court and Sutton. He also ran 24 routes, which was two more than Jalen Waddle ran. Obviously, Waddle is still going to get all the buzz with his eight catch 138 yard day. And I would never tell you that Pat Bryant is going to be a thorn in Jalen Waddle's side. But what about court and Sutton? Sutton is drawn nine targets in the first two games, but he's only total 36 yards. Bryant topped that himself in week one with 42 yards. This is like nothing earth shattering, but at nearly 31 years old, is there a possibility court and Sutton slowly gets phased out of this offense for a younger talent? Like Pat Bryant Sutton is six four. Pat Bryant is six two Sutton has only about 12 more pounds on Pat Bryant, both our physical perimeter players and red zone threats for this team. Like I said, Pat Bryant may need some time to simmer out the end of your bench, but if this Broncos offense starts to click, it's clear Pat Bryant is already involved and could become an intriguing option eventually if he does start to chip away at court and Sutton's role. The fourth player coming in on our list this week is Minnesota Vikings running back to Monc Leiborne, who is rostered in only seven percent of leagues. Claiborne made my list last week once Jordan Mason landed on IR and as of this recording, things have only gotten murkier with the Vikings backfield. I mentioned there were two paths forward for getting value out of Claiborne last week. The first was Claiborne playing a handful of snaps alongside Aaron Jones to see what the Vikings actually have in their rookie that really didn't happen. But the second was KOC running the brakes off of Aaron Jones and burning what juicy has left early on in the season. That is exactly what happened so much so that Aaron Jones came out of last week's matchup with a knee injury and as of this recording, he's questionable for week three. That was my closing remark as well. If there's a world where Aaron Jones doesn't even make it three to four games before Jordan Mason can return, we actually may have something with the Monc Leiborne in the meantime. Now, I fully recognize DJ Dallas was the next man up last week. He got the additional touch when Aaron Jones came off the field. But wouldn't you know, he also came out of last week's game, banged up with a toe injury. So as it stands, the Monc Leiborne is the only 100% healthy Minnesota Vikings running back entering week three. I'm not promising you the world out of a sixth round rookie, but at some point you have to look at the opportunity in front of the player and recognize their potential here. All it could take is two to three splash carries for the Monc Leiborne to earn himself a larger piece of the pie in this Vikings back field, especially if Aaron Jones and or DJ Dallas can't stay healthy when Jordan Mason returns. At worst, what you did is you stashed a rookie who can be dropped for the next new hotness on the waiver wire. So that's the beauty of a player like the Monc Leiborne. He's extremely low risk with opportunity in front of him that could lead to a very high reward. And the final player on our list this week is Tampa Bay Buccaneer's wider receiver Ted Hurst who is rostered in 7% of leagues. Ted Hurst made my list in week one for the reason that I believe he could overtake Jalen McMillan in this offense as the primary ex-receiver and so far through the first three weeks, he's been exactly that for the Buccaneers. Big Milla didn't miss week one with a lingering knee injury, but even as returned in week two, he only played seven snaps and ran two routes. And while Ted Hurst on the other hand, played 48 snaps, ran 26 routes, and earned a team high seven targets on the afternoon. Now those seven targets only turned into two catches for 20-70 yards, but that's enough to catch my eye and remain optimistic for the rookie moving forward here. Again, this is a player who was drawing small school George Pickens comps in the NFL draft cycle this year. He's a trifecta for this Tampa Bay offense. He gets off the line quick and tracks a deep ball well. He's lethal after the catch. He's a beast in the red zone at six foot three in a 79-inch wingspan. I fully understand you have a mechabook ahead of him playing the more lucrative zero in this offense instead of the, you know, sacrificial X-roll that Ted Hurst seems locked into. But again, seven targets this past week against the Browns is something I just can't ignore for a rookie. And as soon as Hurst logs one big game this year, like it's going to be too late. Everyone begins drooling over these rookies with standout performances. Just think of Denzel Boston already. And looking at the schedule coming up as well, it's Minnesota. And Green Bay at home who have exploitable secondaries. And then the Cowboys in Dallas, which could be a high scoring affair. So again, get ahead of your lead mates on this one, stash the high upside potential of Ted Hurst this week. There you have it. Those are my top five waiver wire stashes ahead of week three. Ghost frontier waiver wire right now, just to make sure that none of these guys are still available. They're only rostered in 30% or less of league. So there's actually a good chance that some of them might be floating out on your waiver wire still. Before we sign off here, though, remember we do have a special deal going on for you all right now where you can get up to six months of fantasy pros premium for free. 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