Peter Howard looks for dynasty league waiver wire stashes for Week 16.
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Welcome back the Dynasty Waiver Wire! This our last week on the DWW. To mark the occasion I’ve added a list at the end of our biggest “hits” (so far) for each week. I strongly encourage you to check out the earlier names on the list. As you know by now we have been trying not to judge our dynasty stashes by immediate production but long-term potential. If nothing else it will contextualize how rare these gems are and the importance of patience and the grind. Still, taking a moment to enjoy the successes is worth it to commemorate one of my favorite activities of the 2017 season.
Yes, friends, we have been digging deep, and, on occasion, we have come up with nothing but soil under our nails. But it has been rich soil that still has the potential to grow our fantasy teams. It’s a long-term game we play in Dynasty and 2017 should not be our only benchmark. I hope you have enjoyed the chase as much as I have.
Good luck to everyone in the playoffs this year but also to those who aren’t. Because in the end, we are all still just trying to find the next big hit on the Dynasty Waiver Wire before anyone else.
Here is our Week 16 Dynasty Waiver Wire.
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Robert Turbin (RB – IND)
I have spent too long admiring Robert Turbin’s athletic metrics (95th percentile SPARQ-x athletic) and college production (75th percentile College Dominator) to remain unbiased. However, while he has yet to “break out” in any real sense, I think in a season like 2017 – where injury has been rampant (including to Turbin) – it’s worth remembering those that have been effective with limited opportunity. At 28 years old he’s not going to light your hair on fire with Dynasty excitement, but his eight touchdowns in 2016 and his dual use in both the rushing and receiving game indicate a player who will continue be useful in a timeshare moving forward. If he should find more opportunity he could easily be a late-season start in 2018. Marlon Mack is the more exciting player in Dynasty right now, but then again Buck Allen looked good before Alex Collins tore down a lot of hopes and dreams.
Jordan Leggett (TE – NYJ)
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sold on Austin Seferian-Jenkins‘ turn-around. ASJ was a very early name on the Dynasty Waiver Wire, after all. I think he’s set to capitalize on his athletic gifts and raw talent. But that doesn’t mean I want to ignore another talent on the same depth chart. Jordan Leggett is 22 years old and about to complete his rookie season without seeing the field. That’s no surprise since he is only a 22-year-old tight end prospect behind a more athletic phenom. Leggett is 6’5″ and weighs over 250 lbs, great size for the position. He has above average Height-Adjusted-Speed-Score, 66th percentile Agility Score and a 55th percentile Catch Radius according to his Pro-Day testing and PlayerProfiler.com. He managed the 42nd percentile College Dominator at Clemson which is more than enough to suggest talent. Drafted early in the fifth round, I think Leggett has a promising profile for the future.
Tyler Ervin (RB – HOU)
Tyler Ervin suffered a torn patellar Tendon in Week 5 this year, and he had not made much of an impact before then. He rushed only four times for 12 yards and had 11 targets before his injury. However, he was a deep sleeper for many dynasty players when he came out of San Jose State and was drafted in the fourth round in 2016. PlayerProfiler.com’s best comparable player for Ervin is Danny Woodhead, the definition of productive receiving running back. It’s easy to see why with his 75th percentile College Dominator and his 4.41 40-time (96th percentile). At 5’10” and 192 lbs he is not likely to become a workhorse, and it is a long road from where he currently lives on the Houston depth chart to the heights of production Woodhead has managed. But Woodhead also spent two years without a single rushing attempt or target (only he was on the New York Jets depth chart) before he went to the New England Patriots. We don’t know the future or if Ervin has what it takes to transfer his talents to the NFL. But we do know he did everything possible in college to indicate that he can.
Daniel Lasco (RB – NOS)
I’m not going to argue very strongly for the running back behind Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram, the fantasy darlings of 2017. But I do want to put his name in your ear. Daniel Lasco didn’t develop into the third-down back I had hoped last year, but he’s also not had much playing to find out what he can do. Alvin Kamara got that chance, with higher draft capital to bolster him, and despite having similar problems on his profile (a low College Dominator rating and slightly undersized) has dominated in his rookie year. Lasco is also a better athlete – according to their combine numbers, at least – then both Ingram and Kamara (92st percentile SPARQ-x athletic, Kamara 32nd percentile, Ingram 13th). This highlights how athleticism isn’t the and end-all, be-all of potential or talent. But it also offers hope for Lasco’s potential. Kamara is clearly a better talent, but the similarity in their flaws offers a semi-archetype that keeps me wondering what Lasco could do in a similar role one day. Whether it’s in New Orleans or somewhere else doesn’t matter to me. He’s someone I’ll keep on my watch list, at least, until he gets a chance to prove one way or another whether or not he can play at the NFL level.
Jake Butt (TE – DEN)
Denver has long been a source of “sleepers” at the tight end position ever since Julius Thomas left the team. I do not believe that the position works this way. Just because a player has been successful at the tight end position on a particular team does not mean that a void opens up when he leaves. While some teams in the NFL utilize the position as an offensive weapon more than others there is a bigger trend toward talented players making the room for themselves. In other words, if Jason Witten didn’t play for the Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas Cowboys wouldn’t have had one of the most consistent tight ends in fantasy for the last decade. I can’t prove that entirely, but it’s an argument I have found and demonstrated in my articles on DynastyLeagueFootball.com. A quick example is that Jimmy Graham took his production with him to Seattle, and New Orleans no longer has a dominant tight end. This is all a way of saying that Jake Butt is not interesting because he is in Denver. It’s because he is 6’5″ tall, weighs 246 lbs and had a 68th percentile College Dominator in Michigan. He couldn’t work out before being drafted because of a torn ACL, but he was impressive enough in school to get drafted in the fifth round of the 2017 NFL Draft. So I think he should be impressive enough for us to keep an eye on his opportunity moving forward.
And now, a list of the biggest “hits” for the Dynasty Waiver Wire in 2017:
- Week 15: Keelan Cole
- Week 14: Marquise Goodwin, Stephen Anderson
- Week 13: Chester Rogers, Ricky Seals-Jones, Blaine Gabbert
- Week 12: –
- Week 11: –
- Week 10: Rex Burkhead, Trey Burton
- Week 9: Tyrell Williams
- Week 8: Robby Anderson, J.D. McKissic
- Week 7: Alex Collins
- Week 6: Kenny Stills
- Week 5: George Kittle, Trent Taylor
- Week 4: Austin Ekeler, Nelson Agholor,
- Week 3: Austin Seferian-Jenkins
- Week 2: Dede Westbrook, Orleans Darkwa
- Week 1: Paul Richardson, Chris Carson
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