Fantasy Football Week 3 waiver wire pickups: Top 10 WR’s
Wide Receiver continues to be a deep position in fantasy football, and there are a wide variety of options if you’re hitting the waiver wire to beef up, deepen up, or touch up your roster. Depending on what you want, there are options with long-term upside, short-term upside, high ceilings, and low-risk. Getting the right fit for your team can be tricky, but unlike at RB or QB, there is plenty of depth at WR to be found on most league’s waiver wire.
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For the sake of all our waiver wire posts, all players listed are owned in less than 50% of ESPN leagues. If you have a specific question about a WR on your waiver wire or whether or not you should make a move, you can ask always find us at @FansidedFantasy on twitter. I’ll do my best to answer as many questions as possible as quickly as I can to help you get your roster in the best place it can be headed into week three.
Without further prelude, here are the top ten available WR from the waiver wire heading into week 3:
5.9% owned. Week 3 vs Titans. Mohamed Sanu. 1. player. 56. Sanu offers immediate value and is a great option headed into this week where he’ll be the Bengals #1 receiving option against a Titans team that just let Dez Bryant go for 103 yards on 10 catches with a touchdown last week. Sanu is a big target for Andy Dalton and seems to be a very good fit for Hue Jackson’s scheme. Last week, he threw a 50-yard pass and caught three of his four targets totaling 84 yards and a touchdown. He’s a very good WR3 or flex option this week if A.J. Green is out and should continue to have a role going forward.
42.8% owned. Week 3 vs Steelers. Kelvin Benjamin. 2. player. 87. Benjamin doesn’t have the immediate upside of Sanu, but he’s a better long-term option as he continues to play the lead receiver role for the Panthers. Benjamin co-led the team in targets in week two even though his receiving yards dropped from 92 in week one to just 46 last week against the Lions in week 2. Benjamin will continue to be a little inconsistent in his rookie season, but his quarterback Cam Newton and the team trust him and will continue to make him a regular target making him one of the receivers on this list with the most long-term upside.
3. player. 51. The receiver available this week with the highest ceiling in my opinion is Brian Quick. Like Benjamin, Quick is the top receiver on his team and should continue to get plenty of targets going forward. Quick is on a team that will probably throw the ball more the rest of the season, and he also is in his third year so should be over some of the typical rookie issues. There is definitely risk involved with Quick, though, since he’s on a team that will struggle and he hasn’t found the end zone yet in either of his two games. In both games to open the season, Quick has seven catches for 99 and 74 yards while leading the team in targets in each game. On twitter, I’ve said that Quick could be this year’s version of Josh Gordon–I really think he has that much upside as a top receiver on a team that will be behind and aggressive down the field, but there is definitely no sure thing that Quick will make the “third-year jump” so stash him on your bench for now.. 13.4% owned. Week 3 vs Cowboys. Brian Quick
49. Another player with a ton of upside that’s worth stashing is Davante Adams who has emerged as the Packer third WR in the early going this year clearly passing Jarrett Boykin for looks in the Packers high-passing volume offense. Last week, he caught five passes for 50 yards in Green Bay’s comeback win over the Jets, and he’ll have some good games if he can hold his third WR position. The problem is that barring injury to Randall Cobb or Jordy Nelson he’ll be inconsistent from week-to-week since his workload will vary from game to game. Adams is a nice stash but hard to play in his current situation.. 0.7 % owned. Week 3 @ Lions. Davante Adams. 4. player
42.9% owned. Week 3 @ Patriots. James Jones. 5. player. 28. Jones broke out against the Texans this past week catching nine passes from rookie QB Derek Carr while scoring a touchdown and piling up 112 yards. He was the top player on my preseason waiver wire add list because of his big play potential in an offense that will play from behind quite a bit. This week against New England isn’t a great matchup and his upside is limited by his rookie QB, but he’s worth owning in most leagues and could make a very nice play as we hit the bye weeks..
player. 53. Hawkins has been targeted over ten times in each of the Browns’ first two games and has a total of 14 catches for 157 yards. In PPR leagues, Hawkins is a good option who will keep getting plenty of catches in Browns offense. He isn’t a big, tall red zone threat, but he gets so many targets that he is worth a look to deepen your corps.. 15.0% owned. Week 3 vs Ravens. Andrew Hawkins. 6
Wheaton is a receiver with plenty of upside going forward in a good offense. Pittsburgh has installed Wheaton as their #2 receiver across from Antonio Brown and the second year receiver has shown some flashes of potential. He has big-play threat and will be very involved in the Pittsburgh attack in the weeks to come... 24.7% owned. Week 3 @ Panthers. Markus Wheaton. 7. player. 55
87. In Cam Newton’s first week under center, Avant was involved in the Panthers passing game and caught a touchdown as part of his five-catch, 54-yard game on Sunday. Avant would be a hard start this week, but has potential to grow in his connection and role moving forward for Carolina.. 1.4% owned. Week 3 vs Steelers. Jason Avant. 8. player
52. Lee has upside and will continue to get some run in the Jaguars offense. He’s the only healthy receiver the Jags have with Cecil Shorts and Allen Hurns both hurting. If fellow-rookie Blake Bortles takes over at QB, his stock could get an even bigger bump, so stash him on your bench in deep leagues. . 5.6% owned. Week 3 vs Colts. Marqise Lee. 9. player
Jermaine Kearse. 10. player. 36. For my last pick, I wanted to emphasize a flier with some serious upside that isn’t getting much attention. The Seahawks are committed to getting Kearse involved and the former Washington Husky gives them some nice size which should draw him red zone targets. After a quiet week 1, he hauled in four passes for 61 yards week 2 in San Diego, and he could continue to see his role grow since he offers more of a contrast to the speedy Percy Harvin. Watch carefully to see how Seattle uses him going forward, since when he gets looks from Russell Wilson he has shown he can turn in meaningful contributions.. 2.8% owned. Week 3 vs Broncos