Zero Dollar Bidding: Waiver Wire Look-Ahead in Week 8

This article and analysis was written by our friends at RosterWatch.

Welcome back, RotoBallers. Today, we are happy to be sharing another article from our friends at RosterWatch. In case you are not familiar, you should be! RosterWatch is one of the industry's leading resources for year-round NFL and fantasy football analysis, and led by a group of great people. You can find them on the SiriusXM Fantasy Sports channel throughout the year.

Today they are here to provide you with sneaky zero dollar pickups you can add to your roster today, that may be of great value down the road. The idea is to identify players that have a plausible path to be the high-priced free agent in the coming weeks. The bottom of your fantasy roster should always be used to cycle through high upside pickups that can easily be cut to speculate on another player.

Donovan Peoples-Jones, Cleveland Browns

0% rostered

DPJ was a sixth-round pick in this year’s real NFL draft. His college production at Michigan given his national rank coming out of high school was considered a disappointment. Proponents of DPJ point to the poor QB play and limitations of the offense at Michigan to explain away his modest college production. 

None of that matters now and DPJ impressed when forced into action this past Sunday after Odell Beckham’s season-ending injury. The Brown’s leading WR was the rock-solid pro Rashard Higgins, who went 6/6/110/0. You should certainly try to roster Higgins as a priority add this week. Higgins is an immediate every week starter for fantasy. However, this column is about rostering players who will cost your zero dollars in FAB or can get picked up after your first run of waivers executes.

DPJ was tied for second in team receiving yards in Week 7. He caught all three of his targets including an acrobatic 25-yard, toe-tapping TD to put the Browns ahead late in the fourth quarter. DPJ looks like he belongs in the NFL right from the start and makes for a strong zero dollar bid add. 

Albert Okwuegbunam, Denver Broncos

1% rostered

Albert “O,” was featured in our “Zero Bidding” column last week. His ownership percentage is still only 1%. Okwuegbunam is not ranked among the top TE consensus waiver wire pickups across the fantasy industry this week. Your league mates are likely using their FAB to bid on Dallas Goedert, Irv Smith, Trey Burton, Logan Thomas, and Richard Rodgers. All of those TEs produced in their last game. If you need a TE you should absolutely put in a token bid for those players but you are likely to get Albert Okwuegbunam for a zero dollar bid after your waiver wire runs.

Okwuegbunam was Denver QB Drew Lock‘s college teammate at Missouri and one of his favorite red zone targets. That was on display in Week 6. Albert O tied for the team lead in targets with six and saw a handful of those in the red zone. Even with starting TE Noah Fant back in the lineup in week 7, Okwuegbunam led the team in receiving yards and tied Fant with seven targets. Okwuegbunam caught 100% of those targets whereas Fant only hauled in three. This is another data point that speaks to the chemistry between Lock and Okwuegbunam. He makes for an interesting zero-dollar bid in a depleted TE market.

Denzel Mims, New York Jets

4% rostered

Denzel Mims was featured in the Week 5 “Zero Dollar Bidding” column. Surprisingly he is still only 4% rostered. There is likely a “Jets Suck” bias depressing his appeal. The waiver wire is flush with low-end options this week, that profile more as WR3 types. Mims is one of the players available that has a plausible path to top-15 weekly WR value. 

During the pre-draft process rookie WR, Denzel Mims, skyrocketed up draft boards with an eye-popping 4.38 40 time and stand out Senior Bowl performance. RosterWatch was early to identify Mims as a player that was off the mainstream radar. Mims was subsequently drafted in the second round by the Jets, then injured before the season started.

Mims made his season debut on Sunday against the Bills and led the team in targets, receptions, and yards. Albeit they were modest numbers for fantasy 7/4/42,  it was an encouraging first game for the rookie given the non-optimal circumstances on the Jets. The Jets are going to be motivated to feed Mims in a nightmare season, to give the fan base something to be optimistic about moving forward. Mims has the upside to be an every-week fantasy starter and is a strong zero-dollar bid addition to your roster.

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This column was provided to RotoBaller by RosterWatch, www.rosterwatch.com. The author of this column is Alan Seslowsky (@alanseslowsky). 

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