Fantasy Football Week 15 Waiver Wire Pickups

Is your fantasy team in need of new blood? Each week I’ll bring to you the best pickups to make ahead of the waiver deadline. All the players I list will be owned in fewer than 50 percent of leagues, with the ownership percentage coming from Yahoo.com.

**Now that every league is in the fantasy playoffs, this list will be shorter, and only include immediate contributors.

Quarterbacks

Sam Bradford, Vikings (11% Owned): Bradford has a terrible rep, and really, he’s not a great QB. But he has some nice playoff matchups coming up – vs. Colts, at Packers – and he’s put up better yardage lately than you’d expect, averaging 270 over the last two weeks. If you are a Matthew Stafford owner, Bradford is a guy you might want to consider now that he’s got torn ligaments in his throwing hand.

Running Backs

Bilal Powell, Jets (46% Owned): It happened. Matt Forte went down with a knee injury, and he’s unlikely to rush back to a no-hope team playing out the string. In his absence, Powell went wild on the 49ers, scoring two touchdowns and racking up 179 total yards. With Miami coming up this week, he’s a must-start as long as Forte doesn’t play.

Matt Asiata, Vikings (46% Owned): Asiata just keeps scoring touchdowns. This week the Vikings will face the Colts, the second-worst run defense in the NFL. Don’t expect many yards, but a touchdown is all but inevitable.

Ty Montgomery, Packers (37% Owned): Forget James Starks, and forget Christine Michael. They’ll both get work in addition to Montgomery, limiting the converted receiver’s upside, but he’s the “back” to own on this team. He will receive a similar workload to your other favorite third-down backs, except he is more explosive than most of them, and he’s in a more loaded offense.

Kenneth Dixon, Ravens (44% Owned): Dixon continues to be the most talented back in Baltimore, but he’s limited by Terrance West’s presence, as well as Jim Harbaugh’s love of using Jusczyk on third downs. That said, Dixon has the potential to rip off big plays, and he still offers touchdown upside. You won’t have to worry about him putting up a doughnut.

Charles Sims, Buccaneers (19% Owned): Sims is in a similar role to what Powell had pre-Forte injury. He returned last week and saw a handful of touches, totaling 50 yards. That’s nothing special, but if you look around your league, it’s nothing to sneeze at either. He’s guaranteed touches, and for some injury-riddled squads that is enough to put him in the lineup.

Wide Receivers

Taylor Gabriel, Falcons (48% Owned): He’s a human highlight reel at this point, and if Julio Jones is out again, he’s a mid-to-high level WR2. He’s seen five or more targets in each of his last five games, and has a mouth-watering matchup against the 49ers this week. He’s close to a must-start in any size league unless your WR corps is chock full ‘o’ studs.

Dontrelle Inman, Chargers (23% Owned): Inman has seen five or more targets in seven straight games, and scored a touchdown three weeks in a row. His matchups for your fantasy playoffs – vs. Raiders and at Browns – couldn’t be better. If you’re in a league of any depth, its hard to imagine a better FLEX play off the waiver wire than Inman, especially in a PPR format.

Adam Thielen, Vikings (19% Owned): Thielen has delivered rock solid production for four straight weeks, and gets to take on the Colts this week. If you’re picking up Bradford, you may want to pair him up with Thielen. He’s becoming a target hound, and he catches everything.

Robby Anderson, Jets (2% Owned): Anderson is high risk as a rookie on the Jets, but he’s clearly Bryce Petty’s favorite target. With Petty as the starter, Anderson saw 11 targets. He turned that into six catches for 99 yards and a touchdown. Over the last two games, in which Petty has played six quarters, Anderson has been targeted 23 times. They have a bond, and the Dolphins don’t have an elite defense.

Alshon Jeffery, Bears (69% Owned): Just check your wire, because the Jeffery owner may be out of it, and may have dropped him. He’s off suspension.

Tight Ends

Hunter Henry, Chargers (18% Owned): Henry caught two passes last week, and yet still turned that into a quality fantasy outing by scoring a touchdown. Henry has scored in three of the last four games he’s played, and looks very much like diet Tyler Eifert. There ain’t nothing wrong with that, especially with the kind of wasteland tight end has been in 2016 in terms of consistency.