Waiver Wire Pickups and The Dump List for Week 14

So these lists are small and only going to get smaller as the weeks progress through the playoffs.  In fact, this week’s list is more of a catch-all list of guys that simply shouldn’t be available.  This isn’t laziness on my part, I assure you.  It’s MORE important to make moves during this time, if you are still alive that is. The reason that the number of guys worthy of a pick-up shrinks is that there isn’t much time left! Many waiver wire additions require time for you to develop enough trust to start them and this is a ten times more relevant point in the playoffs.  You lose and you are done, are you going to trust someone that you know nothing about other than a single game’s stat line? Not very likely.

Pickups

Danario Alexander, WR, SD – I’m not regaining any confidence in Rivers or the Chargers as a whole but in 5 games, this guy has 467 receiving yards and 3 TD’s.  This is better than ANYONE has done on this offense all year and since they have stayed a bad team throughout this production, I don’t see it dropping off any time soon.  He’s a solid flex-play the rest of the way and he just might be sitting out there for you to pick-up.

Bryce Brown, RB, PHI – The LeSean McCoy injury situation is murky still and even if it was clear, Brown has been statistically more productive than McCoy was all season.  The season is a lost one for the Eagles and given that they will want to evaluate talent for next season, I can’t imagine that Brown takes a back seat when McCoy does return.  Next week is a bad match-up though so if McCoy plays, neither will be worthy of a start for fantasy owners.

Brandon Meyers, TE, OAK – The Raiders are not a great team and they aren’t going to be.  Myers isn’t an elite tight end and he isn’t going to be.  What he is however, is safe.  Myers has had just ONE game below 5 receptions since week 6 and that is an impressive feat for a tight-end this season.  He has just as good of a chance to find the end zone as any other non-elite tight end and is too important to the Raider passing attack to suddenly disappear from the stat sheet. I wish I wasn’t so skeptical about this guy for as long as I was because he is gone in all of my leagues and if he isn’t in yours, your incredibly lucky.

Josh Gordon, WR, CLE – In my one-liners column, I talked about how this guy was a possible flex-starter this past week and I mentioned how sweet his match ups are going forward too.  A big game from him this week should mean he’ll get scooped back up in a lot of leagues but make sure you at least put in a waiver claim if he is out there.  This should happen even if you don’t want to start him (and I’d really rather not in the playoffs) but given his high upside, I don’t want an opponent hitting the lottery when I could have blocked him from picking up his ticket in the first place.

T.Y. Hilton, WR, IND – I know, Avery had the better game… I don’t care.  Hilton has been providing fantasy value for a good long while now.  His targets might not knock you out of your chair but he’s been getting it done and on an offense that passes a LOT.  Teams can’t focus on him with Wayne out there having one of his best seasons either.

Dump List

I know you might think this is a cop-out but you can drop ANYONE that you wouldn’t play AND that your opponent wouldn’t start against you.  Listen, if your holding Donnie Avery and you need a receiver. Drop him for Josh Gordon.  I would personally love it if an opponent picked up my garbage and started it against me in the playoffs.  Also, maybe you own RGIII and Andy Dalton… the three other teams in the playoffs have Brady, Rodgers and Brees.  You can just drop Dalton now because the other teams are not going to waste a roster spot on him.