RADIO
This article and analysis was written by our friends at RosterWatch.
Welcome back, RotoBallers. We are happy to be sharing another article from our friends at RosterWatch. In case you are not familiar, you should be! RosterWatch is one of the industry's leading resources for year-round NFL and fantasy football analysis, led by a group of great people. You can find them on the SiriusXM Fantasy Sports channel throughout the year.
Today, they are here to provide you with sneaky zero-dollar pickups you can add to your roster today that may be of great value down the road. The idea is to identify players that have a plausible path to be the high-priced free agent in the coming weeks. The bottom of your fantasy roster should always be used to cycle through high upside pickups that can easily be cut to speculate on another player. Heading into the fantasy football playoffs it becomes not only important to look ahead and project the needs of your roster in WK14-16, but also those of your potential opponents by employing a strategy called "waiver wire defense", where you block adversaries from important pickups on the waiver wire!
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Defense and Special Teams (DST)
During the regular season, there is rarely a reason to carry more than one DST at a time. There will be weeks when you have two, if you want to hold an elite DST during a bye. For the most part you are holding one DST or streaming one DST. Zero Dollar Bidding suggested picking up teams like Seattle a couple of weeks ago, since they face the Giants (week 13) The Jets (week 14) and Washington (week 15.) Hopefully you have them rostered, but if not, RosterWatch wants you to go to your waiver wire and look at matchups for DSTs in weeks 14, 15 and 16. It is ok to roster three DSTs in exchange for letting go of positional depth. Here are a few teams with plus matchups to consider rostering for a ZDB.
Week 14
Dallas (16% rostered): vs Cincinnati
Tennessee (32% rostered) vs Jacksonville
Arizona (20% rostered) vs NY Giants
Week 15
Minnesota (56% rostered) vs Chicago
Cleveland (38% rostered) vs NY Giants
Tennessee (32% rostered) vs Detroit
Week 16
Cleveland (38% rostered) vs NY Jets
Houston (11% rostered) vs Cincinnati
Darrel Williams (RB, KC) 2% rostered
Williams is a player many were excited to draft in August as a hedge or handcuff to first-round ADP rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire. It was clear early on that Darrell Williams was not going to hold much fantasy value and he has been sitting on waiver wires ever since. The Chiefs added veteran Le’Veon Bell pushing Williams further down the depth chart. CEH was questionable all week with an “illness” and though active in week 13, he delivered a zero to your fantasy team.
The defending champs know they will need their star rookie and Lev Bell at full health for the playoffs, and there is reason to explore that Darrell Williams may see some extended run. If your team is solid throughout, but you have been cycling through RB2s, D-Will may be a player you can start if the Chiefs are without either veteran RB for a game over the next three weeks. A perfect zero dollar bid player for the fantasy playoffs.
Rashard Higgins (WR, CLE) 9% rostered
As we spoke about in the introduction of this article, we don’t want to add depth to our rosters for the fantasy playoffs for the sake of having a non startable player. We want to add players that we can proactively play over the next three weeks or block an opponent from using the startable player against us. Higgins fits the bill.
He has always been a capable NFL player and his nine targets in week 13 are a signal he may have serious fantasy value as a top 36 WR the rest of the way. He caught six footballs last week, which he turned into 95 yards and a touchdown. Baker Mayfield had time to throw and it is clear that Jarvis Landy and Higgins are the preferred targets. He is not a flashy name that could be overlooked by your leaguemates. He certainly is worth a zero dollar bid for the fantasy playoffs.
More From RosterWatch.com
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This column was provided to RotoBaller by RosterWatch, www.rosterwatch.com. The author of this column is Alan Seslowsky (@alanseslowsky).
