Week 8 Waiver Targets

We’ve crossed the midway point of the regular season. Up to this point the mantra has been be patient and don’t panic. At this point, however, if you find yourself at 2-5 or worse, it might just be time to hover over that panic button. As the season progresses, barring injuries to top running backs or receivers, the waiver wire gets thinner and thinner from week to week. If you’re looking to find your savior on the wire this week, I recommend looking elsewhere. Regardless, here are two guys to target that can marginally improve your team as we head towards the home stretch of the regular season.

Oronde Gadsden

I’ll be the first to admit that I did not buy the hype on Gadsden after his week 6 performance. He was targeted 8 times, catching 7 of those passes for 68 yards. Despite this, I strongly felt as though this performance was a fluke, and was a product of Quentin Johnston being out. However, this past week against the Colts, Gadsden doubled down in a big way. He was targeted 9 times, again catching 7 passes, this time for 164 yards and a touchdown! He was simply electric. Even though Johnston was back in the lineup and even caught a touchdown, that didn’t stop Gadsden from being one of QB Justin Herbert’s primary weapons throughout the afternoon. One word of caution moving forward on Gadsden has to be the acknowledgement of this week's game script against Indianapolis. The Chargers fell behind 23-3 in the first half, and thus, were throwing the ball all afternoon long. LA’s two running backs, Kimani Vidal and Hassan Haskins, totaled only 10 carries for a measly 23 yards. Whereas QB Justin Herbert threw the ball a whopping 55 times, and actually led the team in rushing yards with 31, as well. So while fantasy managers shouldn’t expect this type of explosion on a weekly basis, Gadsden’s numbers these past two weeks are now impossible to ignore.

Alec Pierce

Before the season started, I wrote an article about how sometimes one of the best strategies to take going into your fantasy draft is simply investing in players from high performing offenses. I talked about the Lions, Buccaneers, and Eagles offenses as teams you absolutely should be targeting players from. Now, through week 7, as crazy as it may be to say, the Indianapolis Colts are one of those offenses. During Sunday’s 38-24 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, Alec Pierce was targeted a team high 10 times, hauling in 5 of those for 98 yards. Pierce certainly isn’t the most athletically gifted receiver, but he’s a smart and shifty receiver who has clearly developed a strong rapport with star, yes star quarterback, Daniel Jones. This is a high octane offense worth investing in, and Pierce is the number one guy to target on waivers heading into week 8.