Bjorn Yang-Vaernet examines which players on the waiver wire are worth prioritizing for Week 16 and highlights others to preemptively stash.

I want to share a quick story. In my oldest home league, I was down about 40 fantasy points heading into the Week 15 weekend — we have two playoff rounds of two weeks. I had also just lost Justin Herbert for the season to injury. The matchup seemed all but over, but it was still worth giving my best effort since anything can happen on an NFL weekend. So, I picked up Matthew Stafford off the waiver wire. Stafford ended up having a strong game and even outscored my opponent’s QB (Josh Allen). Miraculously, I pulled off the 40-point comeback and I am moving on to the final two-week sprint for the championship.

The main takeaway of the story is that managers need to keep working the waiver wire in the playoff weeks. Each week is so important and you never know who will be the player who will provide a huge game or step into a big role. No team is ever out of a matchup until the final whistle of the week, so keep believing!

As I mentioned last week, the players in this article will only be ones who can immediately contribute to a playoff starting lineup or players who have a path to a massive role in case of an injury. There is just too little time for players who do not meet the above criteria to gain enough value for playoff teams.

The waiver wire is one of the most important pieces of season-long draft leagues. It is the easiest way to acquire new players and every year there are gems to be found. The goal of this article will not only be to highlight which weekly breakout players to prioritize but find others to preemptively pick up before the breakout happens.

This article will only reference players that are less than 50% owned in ESPN leagues. The players are categorized by position group and within each group is the order of how I would prioritize them. 

Quarterback

Nick Mullens (Available in 94% of ESPN leagues)

It feels like a blast from the past, but Nick Mullens is my QB waiver wire stream of the week. Mullens was named the Week 15 QB starter in Minnesota after Joshua Dobbs’ magical run came crashing down. In Week 15, Mullens had a solid statistical line, completing nearly 80% of his pass attempts and passing for over 300 yards and two TDs. Importantly, Mullens was attacking every part of the field, including the middle of the field where he can let his talented receivers make things happen after the catch.

The Vikings play Detroit in Week 16. Detroit is a good matchup for QBs for a couple of reasons. The first is that the Lions’ offense has shown that it can be very successful — 30-plus points scored in four of their last six games since the bye week — which can either push opponents to the air or keep opponents aggressive in shootouts. Not surprisingly, the Lions have the tenth-highest pass rate against according to the pace app.

Second, the Lions defense has been vulnerable to QBs. Since the Lions’ bye week in Week 9, the defense has allowed the fourth-most fantasy points to QBs through Week 14 (Week 15 data is not yet available). During the last six games (Weeks 10 to 15), pocket passers that have had success against Detroit include:

• Justin Herbert: 323 passing yards, 4 TDs
• Jordan Love: 268 passing yards, 3 TDs

Mullens is not guaranteed to produce like those QBs. However, there is a good chance that Mullens could be forced into a lot of pass attempts, and with a trio of skilled receivers to work with, he should have a higher than expected chance to produce a strong fantasy score for QB-needy managers.

Running Back

Ty Chandler (Available in 54% of ESPN leagues)

Ty Chandler’s first start in place of an injured Alexander Mattison went about as well as anyone could have hoped for. Chandler played on 81% of the team’s snaps and handled 96% (27/28) of the RB opportunities. Chandler was not only efficient (5.7 yards per rush, 8.3 yards per reception) but consistent, producing a 48% rushing success rate, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. That success rate would rank as the no. 1 RB if sustained over the entire season. Altogether, Chandler gained 157 total yards and scored a TD, scoring nearly 25 fantasy points.

If Mattison ends up missing another week, Chandler is an easy plug-and-play starter off the waiver wire. The matchup doesn’t really matter when an RB is getting that strong of a workload. In fact, Chandler was one of only four RBs in Week 15 to earn more than a 70% rushing share and a 10% target share. His usage in all facets of the game makes him game script independent and increases the number of outs he has to a good weekly score.