NFL Draft Diamonds Week 15 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Additions

By Craig Forrestal 

If you’re reading this it means you’ve advanced to the semifinals and hopefully these waiver wire articles have played a role in getting you to this point. So let’s keep the good times rolling and see what the waiver bag is giving us this week.

Make Sure They’re Not Available:

• Cole Beasley
• Zach Pascal
• Anthony Miller 
• Tyler Higbee
• Raheem Mostert
• AJ Brown

1-Patrick Laird-RB-Miami Dolphins: Work, work, work, work, work, work. Did you read that in the Rihanna song tune? I tried. Ignore that terrible joke and go get a serious player. Clear cut lead-back with good pass game upside. He’s going to get roughly 15 carries a week and a handful of grabs that’s 20ish touches and over the next 2 weeks 20 touches a game could be lethal; as Laird and the Phins get the Giants and Bengals. He’s had back-to-back games with at least 4 grabs. He totaled 85 yards in Week 14 against the NY Jets. I smell a TD coming.

2-Adrian Peterson-RB-Washington Redskins: Man, my heart hurts for Derrius Guice. I was high on his return. The kid can ball, but another knee injury took Guice out of the Week 14 game and it’s not looking awesome moving forward. Enter AP. He’s still putting together respectable stat lines and now will get more work without Guice being on the field. AP will give up the passing game work to Chris Thompson, but Bill Callahan will run AP hard the next couple of weeks. 20 carries is the expectation moving forward and with Philadelphia and the Giants on deck go get AP.

3-Noah Fant-TE-Denver Broncos: Thanks to Drew Lock, Noah Fant has been able to show why there was so much hype surrounding his high selection in the 2020 NFL Draft. Fant popped against Houston going for over 100 yards for the second time in 5 games and they get Kansas City this week. I’m not saying Denver is going into KC and winning with a rookie QB and TE. I’m saying Denver will need to put up points and there’s a good chance that will come via the pass game. Since Courtland Sutton is owned in essentially every league let’s get the next best thing in Denver. He is a TE but to me he looks like a Mike Evans clone physically. KC can’t matchup with Fant and they’ve struggled against TE this year as well.

4-Ryan Tannehill-QB-Tennessee Titans: I wrote a huge article on Bleacher Report in 2012 prior to the draft about how Miami potentially drafting Tannehill was a huge mistake and Riley Reiff was the guy they needed instead at that spot. Tannehill drove me nuts in Miami, and I was even saying he should be a WR in the NFL like he was early in his college career. Yeah, about that. Tannehill is crushing the league and cruising to wins as the lead dog in Nashville. Tannehill seems to have found a fun toy in AJ Brown and they get Houston; which got lit up like a Christmas tree by Drew Lock last week. Tannehill has 7 straight games with at least 2 TDs. GO GET TANNEHILL IF YOU CAN!!

5-Mitch Trubisky-QB-Chicago Bears: “Make the switch from Mitch.” “Twitchy Mitchy”. The list goes on, I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and the Mitch Trubisky bashing that is in my text message history is real. However, coming off back-to-back solid Thursday night performances and getting a “mini bye” thanks to that Thursday game; Mitch is on the Week 15 streaming radar. The Bears travel to the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field this week but don’t fret; my friends at numberfire have this stat to ease your mind. The Packers have allowed 0.07 Adjusted Defensive Passing Net Expected Points Per Play and 0.11 Adjusted Defensive Rushing Net Expected Points Per Play. Translation, with a pretty decent matchup Trubisky’s hybrid skills, could be on display once again.

6-Russell Gage-WR-Atlanta Falcons: Ahhh the joys of must-win weeks will have you do crazy things like drop Russell Gage. Calvin Ridley is out for the season to a post on his social media accounts and with the Falcons going nowhere fast, one could expect Julio Jones to get shut down soon. So that would leave Gage as the de facto WR1 in Atlanta. If we’ve learned anything so far from my waiver wire columns it is the volume is king. Hard to fight the work he will get in a pass-happy Falcons offense. Gage has been coming on hot as of late and was stellar performance filling in for Julio Jones on Thanksgiving.

7-Breshad Perriman/Justin Watson-WRs-Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Jameis Winston, sigh. Having any of his passing game weapons means you must deal with the turnover roller coaster that is Jameis Winston. With that being said, Winston very well could lead the NFL in passing TDs and interceptions. That should let you 2 things: 1) Tampa throws…like a lot. 2) Jameis isn’t afraid to take a chance and get the rock to his guys. Mike Evans went down with a hamstring injury and the rumor is he hurt it pretty good. Enter Breshad Perriman and Justin Watson. Perriman is a journeyman burner that never lived up to the first round draft pick that was used on him. Perriman has been involved in 3-wide sets before the Mike Evans injury and has been decent this season. Justin Watson is a rookie from the Ivy League based Penn Quakers. Watson has nice size and solid route-running ability. Watson went for 59 yards in 5 catches and 1 score. 

8-Ryan Fitzpatrick-QB-Miami Dolphins: This gets riskier by the day. DeVante Parker and Albert Wilson went down with injuries against the NY Jets last week, creating extensive work for Isaiah Ford (yes, he’s worth a look. Young WR with sneaky athleticism.) and Allen Hurns (I know, I know he’s always hurt. But when healthy he’s solid. Hurns knows how to get open and has some of the most reliable hands you’ll come across in the league). Fitzmagic gets the Giants and Bengals the next 2 weeks. I brought him up last week as a playoff play for QB desperate teams. I’m rolling with a little bit of Fitzmagic this week. Don’t forget the run game isn’t amazing or generating a lot of yards, so sit back and enjoy that glorious beard rifling it around about 50 times on Sunday.

9-DeAndre Washington-RB-Oakland Raiders: The Raiders should just shut Josh Jacobs down. He’s right there with the league leaders in rushing and that’s considering they need to abandon the run game at times because they’ve been losing so badly. Jacobs has been playing with a fracture in shoulder since Week 7 and now he and the Raiders should focus on the future. So give me DeAndre Washington especially with him now starring in that Josh Jacobs lead role. Last week, Washington was balling with 96 total yards and 1 TD on 20 touches. Expect the same moving forward from him.