Bjorn Yang-Vaernet examines which players on the waiver wire are worth prioritizing for Week 15 and highlights others to preemptively stash.

Welcome to the part of the season where all the money is made. By this point, nearly all season-long fantasy leagues should be in the playoff weeks. Since there are so few weeks left, I am going to tighten up the number of players mentioned in the article. The focus for these important weeks will be players who can immediately contribute to a playoff starting lineup or players who have a path to a massive role in case of an injury. In other words, players who don’t have a clear path to a ceiling outcome will be excluded from the article.

With that in mind, let’s get into it.

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

Matthew Stafford (Available in 66% of ESPN leagues)

Matthew Stafford is again my waiver wire streamer of the week. Stafford has been on a tear for the last few weeks. Before Week 12, I wrote:

The main reason for Stafford’s lack of ceiling is that he is running extremely cold on TDs. Through Week 7, only 46% of the Rams’ TDs have come from the pass. In 2021, when Stafford was healthy for the full season, the Rams scored 80% of their TDs through the pass. While both of those figures represent extremes for the Rams, there is no reason to believe that those pass TDs won’t regress in Stafford’s favor during the course of the season.

Since then, Stafford has thrown for three TDs or more in three straight games and scored more than 22 fantasy points in each game. Notably, the Rams scored 10 of 12 offensive TDs through the air in those three games.

Next up, the Rams play the Commanders, a defense that faces the fourth-highest pass rate in neutral game situations, according to the NFL Pace app. This dynamic has led to QBs in eight of the last 10 weeks throwing for 250 or more pass yards and passing for 2 or more TDs. Altogether, between Weeks 4 and 13, the Commanders have allowed an average of 23.6 fantasy points — the most fantasy points allowed of any team in this stretch. If that wasn’t good enough, the Strength of Schedule Streaming app ranks this matchup as the second-best matchup for QBs.

Pick up Stafford, he has a safe floor and the higher than usual ceiling in Week 15.

Running Back

Ty Chandler (Available in 76% of ESPN leagues)

Alexander Mattison once again left early from the game and Ty Chandler was the main player to benefit. Mattison exited Week 14’s game early in the second half with an ankle sprain and didn’t return. In his place, Chandler took 11 of the 13 RB opportunities for Minnesota. Chandler’s dominance over the RB touches was similar to how the RB workload was distributed in Week 10 when Mattison left early with a concussion. 

If Mattison ends up missing the next game or two, Chandler has a very good chance to get the vast majority of the RB work. As explored in the lead-up to Week 11, Chandler has great speed and that means there is always a chance for him to break off big plays on any touch. 

The Vikings play the Bengals in Week 15. According to the Advanced Team Stats Explorer, the Bengals are below average against the run, allowing:

• No. 2 highest rush yards per carry
• No. 2 highest rush success rate allowed (plays with positive EPA allowed)
• No. 9 highest rush yards after contact per rush attempt
• No. 10 highest explosive rush rate allowed (plays with 1 or more EPA allowed)

If the game stays close, Chandler should get plenty of opportunities to exploit the Bengals’ defensive weakness. Even if the Vikings play the game from behind, Chandler should still have a role in the passing game. Overall, Chandler has week-winning upside if Mattison misses.