You gotta groove. You gotta sway. You gotta flow. It takes a certain amount of swagger (or just Latin hips?) to really pull off the salsa dance like we see above. And yet, spread the word to the masses, we finally got to see that beautiful salsa dance again on Sunday! Welcome back Victor Cruz! Thank you for letting us glimpse the joy, the beauty and the underrated nature of the salsa dance after you played your first game in 700 calendar days and scored a TD in the process. With you complimenting Odell Beckham Jr. and the sterling rookie Shepard (that was fun), the Giants passing attack should be among the best in the league. And would ya look at that, Cruz is widely unowned in leagues as of the Tuesday morning after Week 1.
Why do I highlight Cruz? Well, you can read that below you overzealous, impatient person who chooses to read fantasy football material instead of work! Ok, I applaud you for the priorities. As for the fantasy football priorities of what you’re about to read, keep in mind that you shouldn’t overreact to what happened this past Sunday. It’s Week freaking 1. Do you really think Todd Gurley won’t eclipse 1000 yards rushing this year and won’t score any TDs? Or how about Carlos Hyde rushing for 15+ TDs? Maybe you think Dez Bryant catches less than 45 balls even if he plays 16 games? Haha, what about Matt Stafford throwing for more than 5000 yards again? Well, that may actually happen. Point is, if you’re looking for a boost, experienced an injury, or are simply feeling trigger-happy (chill out) you can find a few names after just one week of football that present enough upside to be worthy of a look in your waiver wire. So, here’s how you work the wire for Week 2…
Note: The threshold for appearing as one of the targets is <25% ownership on either Yahoo or ESPN.
- Victor Cruz, WR – NYG (ESPN 19.7%, Yahoo 19%) – This will most likely be your only opportunity to see Cruz highlighted here, and with one more solid game, your only opportunity to grab him. If you’re hesitant to grab him you have every right to be; he’s coming off the most difficult injury in football to return from. However, the fact that he waited 700 days between games tells me that he didn’t rush back. And that’s a good thing. Eli has plenty of rapport with Cruz from years past, and having OBJ on the opposite side of the field should do nothing but help him get open. On his TD catch Eli didn’t check all the way across the field and then end up finding Cruz…he targeted him. He won’t be a revitalized WR1 like three years ago, but he could easily provide top 30 numbers, especially in good matchups.
- Eli Rogers, WR – PIT (ESPN 12.3%, Yahoo 8%) – Sure, no one doesn’t look as good as they could when playing next to Antonio Brown (wait…more on him below), but Rogers was really impressive in the Steelers Monday night win over the Redskins. The rookie was the second best receiving option for Ben Roethlisberger, ahead of Sammie Coates and Markus Wheaton. I’d imagine that WR2 in PIT will be more of a revolving door than a cemented expectation, but I love what I saw in Rogers and in that offense. As the season progresses should get even better, and if his targets continue adding up to the second option in PIT Rogers will definitely be worth the add. Get on him early.
- Jamison Crowder, WR  WAS (ESPN 2.5%, Yahoo 3%) – One of the more surprising stats from 2015 was the final tally of receptions by rookies. We all know how great Amari Cooper was (and is), but second on the list was the Duke product Crowder. As the, arguable, second option in any given game Crowder should see plenty of targets throughout the season. He’s a really tough receiver that plays well across the middle of the field. After a 6/58/0 line in Week 1 Crowder showed what may become a floor for him. The Redskins are not good, and will likely be playing from behind often. Add that to the fact that the DC Grudens (I see you, Joe House!) will air it out as much as possible (wouldn’t you with Matt Jones as your lead back?) Crowder is a sneaky good PPR/.5PPR option that gets no love. He’s the Theo Riddick of WR: great floor, minimized ceiling, really reliable.
- Marshawn Lynch, RB – SEAÂ (ESPN 10.7%, Yahoo 13%) –Â There he is! If you’re savvy enough to catch the spelling of the article title you figured out this was coming. Lynch indicated this past week that he’s pondering a return to football sometime in 2016 and may not be done after all. Well, go ahead and invest in some skittles and go get those damn cleats off the wires because now is your opportunity to add Beast Mode. As soon as news breaks that he is coming back (if he does. Oh, please, do it Marshawn!) this ownership % will skyrocket. Get ahead of the crowd and add him to your bench. Why? Because you could add a potential RB1 to your bench. Or, you could just stick with Shane Vereen or Darren Proles. Or a second DEF or second TE. That’s easy. Hold my diiiiiiiiiii’!!!!
- Chris Thompson, RB – WASÂ (ESPN 8.2%, Yahoo 3%) – The path to Thompson getting 20 touches per game is really easy to spot. Matt Jones a) loves to get hurt and b) just isn’t that good. On only 6 touches Monday night Thompson showed his value with two big catches and four rushes, including one in the end zone that resulted in Washington’s lone touchdown. If he is already getting some red zone carries, and owns 3rd down packages in WAS already, he’s a potential breakout player that’s largely unowned. In PPR/.5PPR formats it’s easier to roster him right now, but soon he could be an option in all leagues due to that offense and the other horses in that stable.
- Jesse James, TE – PITÂ (ESPN 10.4%, Yahoo 21%) –Â Will Jesse James win you a Championship? Um, no. He’s no Jordan Reed. but he just might win you a week. When a plethora of TE all finished with similar numbers, you can almost take your pick, however, the shrewd owner will look deeper into history to determine future potential. Big Ben loves throwing to his TE, as we saw from under appreciated Heath Miller for 10 years, and James was used in all kinds of packages Monday night. He didn’t blow anyone away with his stats (5/31/0) but showed he’ll get enough volume to carry a decent floor. Mix that with his size, and the fact that he’s the only healthy TE on that roster, and you have a great replacement for Rob Gronkowski while he waits for Tom Brady to return before making his season debut, as well. Haha, I mean, do you blame him?
And for good measure, Antonio Brown is still the greatest receiver on the planet. Even more so that this happened (in case you didn’t see it in Jay’s post this morning).
Eat your heart out Hingle McCringleberry. Yep, that’s a lot of Monday night highlights, but that’s who’s sitting on the wire. Good luck in Week 2 working it as Thursday approaches! DROP THOSE COMMENTS!
