Fantasy Football Waiver Wire, Week 11: Audric Estime takes over

Quarterback

Drake Maye, Patriots (Rostered in 13% of Yahoo leagues)

Maye’s passing production has been hit or miss. He has one game over 250 yards in five starts and two multi-score games. The rookie has raised his fantasy floor with an elite rushing profile. He is averaging 4.6 carries for 44 yards despite missing the majority of one game with a concussion. Maye gets a Week 11 matchup with a Rams defense that has allowed the 12-most fantasy points to opposing passers this year.

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Russell Wilson, Steelers (22%)

To the dismay of haters across the country, Wilson is playing high-level football as a Steeler. He is 11th in EPA per play and 13th in CPOE since taking over as the starter. Wilson has six passing touchdowns and 737 yards through three appearances. Add in a rushing score and he is posting 18.9 fantasy points per game. His Week 11 opponent, the Ravens, has given up the second-most fantasy points to quarterbacks. They rank 30th in EPA per dropback allowed.

Bo Nix, Broncos (33%)

Nix is currently the QB9 overall and the QB13 in points per game. He survived a nightmare matchup versus the Chiefs last week with two passing touchdowns and 215 yards. It wasn’t a particularly exciting fantasy performance, but he escaped with two sacks and no turnovers. He gets the Falcons this week. Atlanta ranks 21st in EPA per dropback allowed. They have given up the seventh-most fantasy points to quarterbacks.

Others receiving votes: Derek Carr and Will Levis

Running Back

Audric Estime, Broncos (3%)

Sean Payton pulled the plug on the Javonte Williams experiment in Week 10. Williams played on 29 percent of the snaps and saw one carry. Estime earned a 45 percent snap share and carried the rock 14 times. Jaleel McLaughlin was hardly involved, playing six snaps while seeing two carries. Reporters and Payton himself have talked about Estime getting more involved in recent weeks and we saw that on full display versus the Chiefs. Both Williams and McLaughlin have been dreadful in most efficiency metrics this season, making a backfield change necessary. For fantasy rosters desperate at running back, this is a 50%+ FAAB situation. It may be the last chance we get to pick up a breakout running back before the playoffs.

Trey Benson, Cardinals (18%)

Benson made this article last week as a speculative stash. He followed up his 55-yard, one-touchdown Week 9 with 83 yards from scrimmage on a dozen touches versus the Jets. That ties his season-high in touches and is a new high-water mark in total yards. He also did well in the spreadsheets, posting a +18 rush yards over expected.

Benson juiced the numbers with five carries for 27 yards on the Cardinals’ penultimate drive. But he wasn’t playing with the backups. That was Emari Demercado once again. Benson and the Cardinals get their bye this week and then return to face Seattle in Week 12.

Cam Akers, Vikings (14%)

Akers has fully supplanted Ty Chandler as Aaron Jones’ backup. He out-snapped Chandler 26-12 and out-carried him 13-4. Jones left Week 10 with a chest injury but returned. Given his recent injury history, it makes sense for the Vikings to ease his workload in the coming weeks. If the injury worsens or something else crops up, Akers appears to be in line for the starting job.

Gus Edwards, Chargers (17%)

Edwards played for the first time since Week 4 because of an ankle injury. He saw 30 percent of the carries which was good for 10 attempts. He turned this into 50 yards. The Chargers made rookie Kimani Vidal a healthy scratch. Week 10 was Edwards’ first game averaging more than 3.3 yards per carry. The Chargers were in the process of scaling his role back before he suffered the ankle injury, in part because he was the league’s least efficient back over the first month of the season. If a month on the bench is what he needed to get back to form, Edwards could regain his early season role. He earned 43 percent of the Chargers’ carries in his first two games.

Others receiving votes: Tyler Allgeier, Tyjae Spears, and Braelon Allen

Wide Receiver

Ricky Pearsall, 49ers (37%)

Even with Jauan Jennings healthy for Week 10, Pearsall ran a route on 71 percent of Brock Purdy’s dropbacks. He saw 18 percent of the team’s targets with an air yards share of 23 percent. All of these are FLEX-worthy but far from elite. The good news is that, as a first-round rookie with only three games under his belt, Pearsall is the type of player we expect to improve as the season goes on. He is also coming off the best game of his career by yards and he caught his first touchdown.

Pearsall reeled in four passes for 73 yards and a touchdown with the bulk of his production coming on this long gain. It was also a career day in the advanced metrics with .2 targets per route and 2.4 yards per route run. Pearsall may not be an every-week WR3 yet, but he is trending in the right direction with a ceiling well beyond that range.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Saints (1%)

This is what the abyss looks like. After a season of unending wide receiver injuries, Marquez Valdes-Scantling is our savior. MVS led the Saints’ wide receivers in routes. He only earned three targets but caught all three for 109 yards and two touchdowns. Finally paired with a good wide receiver for the first time in his career, MVS is ready to break out (don’t count on this performance happening ever again).

Alec Pierce, Colts (15%)

Pierce ran a route on 95 percent of Joe Flacco’s dropbacks and earned a 20 percent target share. Because all of his targets are downfield shots, he was responsible for 44 percent of the team’s air yards. Pierce caught four balls for 81 yards and a touchdown. The third-year wideout went from a complete wind sprinter in 2023—he averaged .85 yards per route run—to a true deep threat this year. He is up to 1.79 yards per route run in 2024. Pierce gets a tough matchup with the Jets this week but is worth a flyer for fantasy managers in need of an upside shot on Sunday.

John Metchie, Texans (1%)

Metchie has seen an uptick in his playing time over the past two weeks with Nico Collins and Stefon Diggs sidelined. He made good on the extra opportunities to the tune of five catches for 74 yards and a touchdown versus Detroit. Collins should return in Week 11, immediately sending Metchie back to the bench. Metchie would rank as a WR4 if Collins remains sidelined.

Rashod Bateman, Ravens (29%)

There are several moving parts in the Baltimore offense with Isaiah Likely banged up, Diontae Johnson still trying to find his footing, and Tylan Wallace inexplicably breaking out in Week 10. Wallace caught three passes for 115 yards and a touchdown in Part Two of the Ravens/Bengals biannual shootout. He barely ran any routes and his already meager role should disappear once Johnons is up to speed.

The same isn’t necessarily true of Rashod Bateman. Signed to a minor contract extension in the offseason, Bateman has five games over 50 receiving yards this season and four total touchdowns. He has done shockingly well in ESPN’s Open Score, ranking behind only Malik Nabers. With Baltimore’s defense forcing the team into weekly shootouts, Bateman is one of the best big-play gambles fantasy managers can make on the waiver wire.

Quentin Johnston, Chargers (41%)

Johnston got away with it again in Week 10, scoring his fifth touchdown of the season despite catching just two passes. He was targeted on a dreadful nine percent of his routes and only earned a 12 percent target share. However, better days should be ahead for the young receiver as LA stares down a date with a subpar Cincinnati defense.

Others receiving votes: Curtis Samuel, Noah Brown, and Devaughn Vele

Tight End

Mike Gesicki, Bengals (45%)

As long as Tee Higgins is out, Gesicki is a TE1. Over the past three weeks, all of which Higgins has missed, Gesicki has earned a 19 percent target share. He is averaging 15.8 PPR points per game over that stretch. Gesicki has finished as a TE1 in 3-of-5 games without Higgins active this year and has bottomed out as the TE20.

Will Dissly, Chargers (2%)

Hayden Hurst previously missed two games, allowing Dissly to flourish as the team’s only option at tight end. In Weeks 7 and 8, Dissly accounted for 28 percent of LA’s targets while running a route on three-quarters of the team’s dropbacks. Hurst has been back in the lineup for the past two games, but it hasn’t decimated Dissly’s fantasy value. His route rate is down to 67 percent, but he still has a 21 percent target share in those contests. Dissly’s six targets in Week 10 were twice as many as the No. 2 pass-catcher on the roster. He caught five of them for 30 yards.

Zach Ertz and Hunter Henry

This is your weekly reminder that Ertz and Henry are the two highest-scoring tight ends available in over half of all Yahoo leagues. Both players are top-10 in targets and air yards among tight ends. They have settled in at the TE1/2 border. Gesicki has more weekly upside but will fall back into obscurity once Higgins returns. Henry and Ertz are the best floor options available.

Others receiving votes: Theo Johnson and J’Tavion Sanders