Week 4 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Stashes: 5 Players to Grab Before They Break Out (Ep. 2239)

This is an iHeart 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 leaguemates, the manager that is beating the waiver wire so that you have a better chance of beating your leaguemates this year. I'm Lucas Wenzel here with fantasy pros bringing you my top five waiver wire stashes ahead of week four and next week's waiver run as well. So without further ado, let's dive on into our list of players. Starting off our list this week is Miami Dolphins running back at Jalen Wright who was rostered in 27% of leagues. All the Gordon was the player. Everyone sprinted to the waiver wire to pick up this week and appropriately so Wright has been dealing with a foot injury that held him out of week three. Although reports did say he was quote very close to playing last week. So so here's the deal. The majority of managers right now are operating as if they have the Miami Dolphins lead back. But let's be honest with ourselves for a minute. There is no one for one replacement for Devon H&N in this offense. This is going to be a committee backfield approach. And Jalen Wright will be involved once he's fully healthy. I don't want to put too much stock into the glimpse that we got last year under a different regime. But in week 14 last season, Devon H&N did exit early after only playing 34% of the snaps. It was Jalen Wright then who was given 24 carries and racked up 107 yards and a touchdown. Now this was against the New York Jets who they absolutely walloped 34 to 10. So by no means do I want to promise you riches here with Jalen Wright. But there is a world out there where Jalen Wright returns is back on the field and overtakes all the Gordon as the like the facto primary back in this offense. Will that happen in the next two weeks? I'm going to guess probably not because you get Brian Flores's sick of Vikings defense here in week four and then you get an improved Bengals front seven in week five with sexy dexia front and then the dolphins are on by in week six. But with Devon H&N done for the season, we can play the long con here. There's plenty of time for this backfield to shift, especially when the schedule lightens up over the back half of the season. Again, I'm not promising you riches here with Jalen Wright. But the discrepancy and roster percentage between Ollie Gordon and Jalen Wright just simply shouldn't exist right now. And there's still a window for you to stash Jalen Warren and squeeze some fantasy value out of him. The second player on our list this week is Miami Dolphins wider receiver. Chris Bell who is rostered in 15% of leagues. Starting all this off with two Miami Dolphins players this week. What could possibly go wrong? Look, I was initially shocked when the Dolphins made Chris Bell available to start the season. After coming off in November, ACL tear in his final season at Louisville. But we're actively watching the ramp up happen. And we're getting pretty close to being it too late to stash Chris Bell on your bench before your league mates actually catch on to what's happening here. They'll play 52% of the snaps in week one. Went down to 41% in week two, but in week three, he shot up to 71% of snaps, which turned into four catches for 67 yards. And I have to imagine that level of participation is here to stay now. Now that the Dolphins have lost their biggest playmaker in Devon H Ann Bell, ran a very healthy 2.48 yards per route last week. That was 19th here to target on 26% of his routes. And he racked up 36 yards after the catch, which was top 10 in the league last week. None of this should honestly be overly surprising. Because the other factor with Chris Bell is that he wasn't talked to be a first ground receiver in the NFL draft this year if it wasn't for his ACL tear. And just 11 games in his senior year, he posted 72 catches for 917 yards, and six scores while racking up three straight games of 135 plus yards in mid-October. That earned him semi-final honors for the bullet and a cough award, given out to the nation's most outstanding receiver. The dude's built like a full back. He's dangerous in space. He's fearless on contested catches and over the middle of the field. Yet he also has this deep ball tracking and makes these difficult catches look extremely easy. Malik Washington might be the most experienced wide receiver on this team, but I'd guess they don't want to keep rolling him out into wide receiver sets if they don't have to. This team got Caleb Douglas involved almost immediately right away in week one. And I imagine the duo of Chris Bell and Caleb Douglas says actually who they want out on the field. So again, you're running out of time here before your league mates realize this has all been a ramp up period for Chris Bell. And he could have some flex appeal after the Dolphins week six by when we typically see Rookie start to take the leap in the league. Third up on our list is Los Angeles Chargers' wider receiver, Trey Harris, who is rostered in 12% of leagues. Obviously, most people sky high expectations for the Chargers have fallen completely flat so far, but that's open the door for a player like Trey Harris to take advantage in out China player like Quentin Johnson, who's been on the absolute struggle bus to start the season. Even while playing a season low 58% on the snaps in week three, Trey Harris still ran 3.18 yards per route. That was 10th in the league last week. He drew a target on 29% of his routes. That was 20th and he gained a first down on 12.5% of his route, which was once again a top 20 mark. There is a greater than 0% chance here. That Trey Harris starts to chip away at Quentin Johnson's role in this offense because there is a long game to play here too with Trey Harris. Quentin Johnson is in a contract year and with how things have been going, I'm not positive the Chargers actually want to bring him back for next season. If QJ doesn't hop off the struggle bus soon, I don't think it's unrealistic to think that the Chargers could deal him at the trade deadline to at least get something in return. That of course would then boost the stock of Trey Harris and immediately slot him into the wide receiver two role in this Chargers offense. And Harris could step into that role with ease actually. He's strong at the catchpoint. He has great field awareness and can work down field in the red zone as a big threat for this team. I don't want to sit here and promise you the world of a wide receiver in this Chargers offense. That's absolutely struggling right now, but the T-Leaves are showing us that Trey Harris is on the rise and QJ is on the decline, which generates some intrigue in Harris, especially if this Chargers offense starts to figure it out by mid season. Now before we move on to the final two players here, if you want to give your fantasy league the ultimate championship upgrade courtesy of our good friends at trophy smack the number one destination for epic fantasy football hardware, then this is your shot. We're giving away a 26 to 36 inch custom fantasy football trophy. It's a massive centerpiece built to make your league championship feel like a big deal. And the best part, it can make it your own. Choose your top or personalized center and front plaques, customize columns, and create a trophy that represents your league. To enter, all you need to do is subscribe to the fantasy pro's fantasy football YouTube channel right now and drop a comment below on any of our videos. That's it. That is all you have to do. We'll be announcing a winner right here on the channel, so be sure to turn on notifications as well so you don't miss your chance to claim your big prize. Next up on our list is Tampa Bay Buccaneer's wider receiver Ted Hurst, who is rostered in 8% of leagues. Look man, I love me some Ted Hurst. He's my first frequent fly home. My waiver stashes video for this year appearing for the third time already. But I will admit this may be the last week depending on how things go in week four. Obviously you have undrafted rookie Jalen Daniels out of Kansas starting from the next three plus weeks while Baker Mayfield recovers from a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand. And I'm being honest with y'all. I'm actually curious to see if things get better in this offense with Daniels at QB. Baker Mayfield has just been very, very bad to start the season. A 43.8% success rate. That is 23rd in the league. He has a negative 0.256 EPA per dropback. That is 31st of all qualifying quarterbacks. Only to Jimis Winston who has a worse EPA per dropback. He also has an 11% sac rate. That is 2% higher than anybody else in the league. Now I'm not promising you that Jalen Daniels comes in and immediately finds success, fixes everything and makes everything better. All I'm saying is that there's a pretty low bar that's been set here by Baker Mayfield. Plus, Ted Hurts pretty much feels locked into his role as the ex-receiver in this offense. Jalen McMillan continues to deal with injury. And unfortunately that might just be the reality for his career. Hurts says log a 3rd straight game of playing at least 74% of the snaps. And we saw what we knew he was good at coming to fruition in week 3 with his 40 yard touchdown down the seam of the defense. From what we've seen from Jalen Daniels in preseason to get a little foretaste of what we have to look forward to, we know he's willing to stand in the pocket. We know he's willing and actually wants to push the ball down field. And he's willing to attack the middle of the defense too. All those could benefit. Ted Hurts in the long shot scenario that Jalen Daniels becomes the next irrelevant quarterback in the NFL draft that turned competent pro. So I'm curious enough to see if anything comes out of Daniels' first start and what it actually means for Ted Hurts moving forward. The upside he's already shown is there. I'm willing to stash him at the end of my bench still. And the last player on our list this week is New York Jets running back Isaiah Davis who was rostered in 5% of leaks. Yes, I am telling you to stash the guy who has yet to play a snap on offense this year. But we should see that change here in week 4. As of this recording, Breeze Hall is labeled week to week with a quadriceps injury and isn't expected to play this week against the Bears. Obviously your league mates already sprinted to the waiver wire and picked up Braille and Alan. But again, I don't expect this to be the Braille and Alan show. This is pretty clearly going to be a committee approach in this backfield. During his first two seasons in New York, Isaiah Davis has averaged 5.6 yards per carry on 73 totes. And he's also caught 30-40 targets thrown his way too. I think you're probably going to see Braille and Alan on the early downs with some Isaiah Davis rotated in but then Isaiah Davis getting majority of the passing down and receiving work in this offense. And I get why this might seem like a short-term stash just to help give your roster some immediate relief at running back. But again, I could see this being a long-term stash too. Breeze commits anywhere from two to four weeks and what happens then if this injury continues to bother him throughout the season or he re-injures it again at some point. And we're not rooting for this obviously but Breeze has hasn't been without injury concern for portions of his career. All of a sudden, people see that this Jets backfield is a committee without breeze, and they not only go re-hunt for Braylon Allen on the waiver wire if anybody dropped him, but they go looking for Isaiah Davis this time then too. This is one where I want to make sure I just want to have all my bases covered for potential options and outcomes, and worse comes the worst, you know Isaiah Davis is an expendable piece for the next new hotness that comes along in one of these videos. But before we sign off here, remember if you want a chance to give your fantasy league the ultimate championship upgrade courtesy of our good friends at trophy smack the number one destination for epic fantasy football hardware, then this is your shot. We're giving away a 26 to 36 inch custom football trophy. And the best part? You can make it your own. Choose your top or personalized the center and front plaques, customize the columns, and create a trophy that represents your league. To enter, all you need to do is subscribe to the fantasy pros, fantasy football YouTube channel right now and drop a comment below on any of our videos. That is it. We'll be announcing a winner right here on the channel. So be sure to turn on those notifications so you don't miss your chance to claim your big prize. And there you have it. My top five waiver wire stashes ahead of week four goes frontier waiver wire right now just to make sure that none of these guys are still sitting there and available in your leagues. They're all rostered in less than 30% of league. So there's a good chance they still might be on your waiver wire. Thanks for listening to the fantasy pros fantasy football podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple podcast at fantasy pros dot com slash review or on Spotify. Follow us on X, Instagram and TikTok at fantasy pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube dot com slash fantasy pros. This is an I heart podcast guaranteed human.