Fantasy Football Waiver Wire 2014: Top 10 Week 1 pickups

Jonathan Grimes-RB-Houston Texans (3.4%)

The fact that Grimes is owned in less than four percent of ESPN leagues tells me that 95% of Arian Foster owners either aren’t paying attention (read auto-draft) or have complete faith in Foster to stay healthy.  To be sure, Foster is great when he’s on the field and healthy and is a true three-down feature backe, but his health has been so sketchy lately that it only makes sense to have Grimes ready on your bench if Foster’s in your lineup.

Even if you don’t have Foster, Grimes has enough potential to be worth a back-of-your-roster stash.  This preseason, the Texans cut Andre Brown giving Grimes the primary backup role behind Foster, and Grimes took all the starting snaps this preseason while Foster rested his latest nagging injury.  If at any point this season Foster misses time, Grimes showed he can step in and take the same workload and be at least a solid flex play.

Grimes is another long-term running back pickup since he may not see work while Foster is healthy, but at some point this season he will have fantasy value and whoever has him will be able to play or trade him to an injury-riddled owner.  With the Texans offense still a work in progress expect Coach Bill O’Brien to lean on his running game heavily which could make Grimes as high as an RB2 if he takes over the starting job.