In this edition of Win the Waiver Wire, Curtis Patrick shares his top waiver targets for Week 11 in seasonal fantasy football leagues.
We’ve reached the point in the season where some teams are mathematically eliminated, but hopefully you’re not among them. Stay active even if your team is on life support; you never know if your next waiver claim or two could combine with a few hot players on your squad to help you make an improbable run. If your team is in great shape, you still need to make claims to make sure you have strong roster depth and also to prevent your competitors from catching you.
There’s no way for me to reasonably know how much FAAB you and your leagues mates have left this deep into the season. Until now, I’ve been using my own leagues as a guide, but over the past two weeks I’ve seen a few teams run it down to just a few dollars remaining while others haven’t really been active on waivers at all. Moving forward, I won’t be including FAAB percentage recommendations, instead I’ll be simply listing players in order of preference or adding commentary regarding when to make a situational claim.
*For the purposes of this week’s article, I’ll be using ESPN “percentage rostered” data. Players are listed in the order of priority, by position. To make the most of my time and yours, I only provide analysis for players who are available in around 50% of leagues.
Quarterback
Jameis Winston (available in 99.4% of leagues)
Sean Payton is being coy about who his Week 11 starter will be, but I think it’s going to be Jamies Winston taking the majority of snaps, even if Taysom Hill sees an expanded role.
For all his on the field warts, Winstonhas never failed to be a fantasy football live wire. Winston was the QB8 in fantasy points per game and QB4 overall in 2019. Over his past two seasons as a starter he finished as a QB1 in 48 percent of games and averaged over 22 points per week.
Winston’s downfield arsenal in New Orleans won’t be as impressive as it was in Tampa Bay, but he’ll hardly be lacking for weapons. Even at his advanced age and playing sans Michael Thomas for an extended period in 2020, Drew Brees has still managed to produce at a QB16 overall clip thanks to short dump-off TDs to Alvin Kamara and company. I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest Winston has higher upside in this offense than Brees at this point in their careers.
Looking ahead, Winston has the second-best QB fantasy schedule from Weeks 11 though 14, including two bite-my-fist matchups with Atlanta on indoor tracks over the next three weeks. I’d be comfortable plugging him in and expecting low-end QB1 numbers immediately.
Claim Winston and hopefully you’ll be “eating Ws” in your fantasy leagues in Week 11 and beyond.
