October 25, 2016

Tony Peters identifies deeper 2016 fantasy football PPR sleepers & Week 8 NFL waiver wire pickups. These PPR RBs, WRs & TEs should be added off the waiver wire as fantasy football sleepers.

Welcome, welcome, RotoBallers. Please join me for my deeper PPR league sleepers column for Week 8 of the NFL season.

In this weekly article, we are going to take a look at some deeper waiver wire options for PPR leagues and target players who could help out your team in the upcoming week.

The following waiver wire suggestions for Week 8 of the NFL season are all owned in 15% or less of Fleaflicker leagues.

Editor's Note: Once you're done here, be sure to read about even more Week 8 waiver wire recommendations, for all fantasy-relevant positions. Just click on any link: ALL - RB - WR - TE - QB - DEF - FAAB - CUTS

PPR Wide Receiver Waiver Wire Adds

Brandon LaFell (WR, CIN) - 12% Owned

Don't look now, but wide receiver Brandon LaFell is not just a PPR-friendly option anymore. He's fully on standard scoring radars after scoring a touchdown for the third week in a row Week 7, as the Bengals are finally starting to play up to their scoring potential. LaFell caught 4-of-5 targets for 83 yards and a touchdown against a slowly improving but still soft Browns' defense. The Bengals' Week 8 opponent, the Redskins, are no pushovers when it comes to defending against wide receivers, but as the Lions's top two wide receivers--Marvin Jones Jr. and Golden Tate--showed Week 7, they aren't bulletproof either. Ride the hot hand here.

Marquise Goodwin (WR, BUF) - 4% Owned

With wide receiver Robert Woods out with a foot injury, fellow receiver Marquise Goodwin took over as the defacto number uno in the Bills' passing game Week 7, which isn't much to write about for all but us deep PPR peeps. This led to him setting new season-highs in receptions with four and targets with seven while collecting 93 yards and a touchdown. While Woods' Week 8 status is currently unknown (though he missed practice all last week), if he were to sit again, Goodwin would be a sneaky PPR add against an unfortunately (for prospective Goodwin owners at least) stingy Patriots' pass defense.

Marqise Lee (WR, JAX) - 1% Owned

If you were wondering just how upside down the Jaguars' offense currently is, wide receiver Marqise Lee was the shining star in the team's head-shaking 33-16 Week 7 loss to the Raiders. He caught 7-of-8 targets for 107 yards while the three receivers ahead of him on the catching depth chart--Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns and Julius Thomas--combined to catch 9-of-22 targets for 74 yards and a touchdown. With quarterback Blake Bortles seemingly incapable of taking advantage of the receivers who helped him be a fantasy beast last season, he has found a growing chemistry with Lee as of late. With a Week 8 matchup against a Titans' defense that was just burned for 353 passing yards and three passing touchdowns by the Colts, there's certainly an opportunity here for him to put up a third straight PPR-useful day.

Cordarrelle Patterson (WR, MIN) - 1% Owned & Adam Thielen (WR, MIN) - 5% Owned

The Vikings looked like anything but an undefeated team in their return from a Week 6 bye, getting thumped by the Eagles 21-10 to drop to 6-1. One thing that did stay consistent with their recent winning ways was the involvement in the passing game of wide receivers Cordarrelle Patterson and Adam Thielen. Patterson finished the day catching 7-of-7 targets for 67 yards and a touchdown while Thielen caught 2-of-5 for 52 yards. Fellow receiver Stefon Diggs' return from injury didn't dig into Patterson's targets, giving credence to him being able to produce again Week 8 against a Bears' team only good at getting hurt. Thielen is falling behind Patterson but still worth a stab-in-the-dark in the deepest of PPR leagues.

Brian Quick (WR, LA) - 7% Owned

STASH PICK: Week 7 was a bit of a disaster for the Rams, a team struggling to decide if they want to be competitive or an absolute embarrassment. Wide receiver Brian Quick's role in that game is a great embodiment of that: he caught 4-of-9 targets for 92 yards while blowing a chance to tie the game with 50 seconds remaining, leading to an essentially game-ending interception. While he won't be seeing nine targets every week--quarterback Case Keenum's season-high in attempts coming into this game was 35 back in Week 1 before he threw 53 Week 7--he's now averaging six targets per game over the past four weeks. With a Week 9 home game against a Panthers' defense that came into this week as one of five averaging at least 30 fantasy points to wide receivers groups per week, Quick is bound to have two real good weeks in a row.

PPR Running Back Waiver Wire Adds

Chris Thompson (RB, WAS) - 11% Owned

I know this man seems to make this list every week, but what can I say? Finding a running back with PPR value owned in less than 15% of leagues is a needle-in-the-haystack sort of search. But here's the thing: Chris Thompson has been seeing his involvement in the offense increase recently, to the point that he lead the backfield in touches and carries Week 7 with lead back Matt Jones fumbling yet again. He finished the game rushing for 73 yards on 12 carries while catching seven balls for 40 yards. Even if the Redskins continue to lead with Jones, it is clear Thompson has an important part to play on this team and it is not limited to catching back. They'll face a Bengals' team Week 8 that is averaging seven targets per game to running backs over the past five weeks.

PPR Tight End Waiver Wire Adds

Ryan Griffin (TE, HOU) - 0% Owned & C.J. Fiedorowicz (TE, HOU) - 8% Owned

Two tight end packages do the Texans good. While I've been singing the praises of C.J. Fiedorowicz the past few weeks, his teammate and fellow tight end Ryan Griffin has quietly been sneaking ahead of him in the target department. So much so that he ranks sixth overall in targets among all tight ends over the past four weeks leading into Week 7 with 26, with Fiedorowicz coming in with 21. While as a whole they complicate each other's value in shallow standard leagues, deep PPR leagues could do worse gambling on either, though Fiedorowicz is the likelier of the two to take advantage of a Week 8 matchup against a Lions' team that has given up three touchdowns to tight ends over the past five weeks to push their NFL-leading total up to seven.

Lance Kendricks (TE, LA) - 1% Owned

STASH PICK: As discussed above, the Rams' offense as a whole is still a messy work-in-progress and draws a bye Week 8, but it does have deep PPR value as they try to find some consistency in the passing game. Tight end Lance Kendricks continues to keep quarterback Case Keenum's attention, catching 7-of-9 targets (both season-highs) for 55 yards Week 7 against a Giants' defense that was suppressing tight end production fairly well this season. When he returns Week 9, he'll start one of the most fantasy favorable schedules a tight end can get as he'll face the Panthers, Jets, Dolphins, Saints and Falcons in five of his next six games, all teams ranking within the top-12 in points allowed to tight ends over the past four weeks.