Taylor Gabriel (WR, CHI) - Week 9 Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: While Taylor Gabriel is indeed a risky fantasy play, there aren’t many players doing what he’s doing in Chicago’s offense. The Bears aren’t good by any means, at least when it comes to attacking, and Mitchell Trubisky has been disappointing every time he’s been on the field. Even with that, Gabriel has been one of the best wideouts of the team other than Allen Robinson as of late.

Just this past weekend against the Chargers, Gabriel led the team in targets (six) and caught four passes for 53 yards. Only Anthony Miller and Allen Robinson bested that yardage, though none of them could score a touchdown. As I said in the introductory paragraph, Gabriel comes with some volatility adhered to him. He’s had two games of 53-plus yards, another two of 10-plus yards, and then one six-yards effort in Week 7 to go with a couple of DNPs this season. When things go well, Gabriel is a good flex play (he posted 32.2 fantasy points in Week 3, and 9.3 in Week 8) but it comes at the price of risking a dud (1.6 points in Week7).

What I like the most about Gabriel at this very moment, though, is the game he’s got ahead of him. The Bears face the Eagles in Week 9 and you know how bad Philly’s secondary has been so far. The Eagles are the third-worst team at stopping WRs from scoring fantasy points, so Gabriel might be in line to reach his ceiling as he did against Washington all the way back in Week 3. I’d recommend adding and playing him this week at the flex position if only for that this week, and if he can put up good numbers and the Bears attack shows and improvement I’d try and hold onto him for another week with Detroit (ninth-worst defense against WRs) on the schedule for Week 10.