Week 7 is upon us, and that means it’s now time to start thinking about Week 8. While your leaguemates concentrate on the immediate fixtures, you can gain an edge by looking to next week’s fixtures and seeing which fantasy football players might be worth picking up off the waiver wire ahead of time to gain an advantage. Instead of fighting things out on the waiver wire, these players could join your roster for free, now.
Instead of fighting things out on the waiver wire next week, these players could join your roster for free, now. We use rostership data from Yahoo, which provides a large sample size and tends to be fairly reliable. We understand you’ll be dying to say ‘he’s not available in my league’ to every suggestion, even regarding players available in fewer than 10% of leagues. However, by selecting players typically rostered in 50% or fewer of leagues, we should have a good range of players available in many leagues.
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Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Stashes Ahead of Week 8
Week 8 Bye Weeks
- Arizona Cardinals
- Detroit Lions
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Las Vegas Raiders
- Los Angeles Rams
- Seattle Seahawks
Jaxson Dart (QB – NYG) | 41% Rostered
It’s slightly surprising that more people haven’t got carried away with Jaxson Dart after several incredibly impressive performances from the rookie. The first game against the Chargers, you could wave away as, perhaps, the Chargers not knowing how to defend him. His second start against the Saints was a bit bumpy, but for fantasy, he still got it done against a poor defense. But after dispatching the Eagles in such convincing fashion, surely he deserves a little more faith?
This week, Dart heads to Denver for a very tough matchup before a rematch against the Eagles on the road. While those are far from ideal matchups, Dart has shown he will deliver in these games, scoring over 18.6 points in every game and rushing for 50+ every time. That kind of floor is very hard to pass up, and has led to Dart being the fantasy QB10 over the last three weeks.
Michael Penix Jr. (QB – ATL) | 23% Rostered
If you play Miami and you’re rostered in fewer than 50% of leagues, you’re likely going to end up in this column. The Dolphins’ pass defense ranks 31st in expected points added (EPA) allowed per dropback, and they’ve given up the third-most adjusted fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks.
Michael Penix Jr. isn’t an ideal fantasy quarterback just yet; after all, he has two games below six points this season, but he does have three games over 14.6 points, and the Dolphins are that bad. Penix has had all three of those better games for fantasy at home, which is where he’ll be for the matchup with the Dolphins in Week 8.
Tyler Allgeier (RB – ATL) | 38% Rostered
Just because Michael Penix Jr. is in this column, it doesn’t mean we’ll forgo our weekly ‘why isn’t Tyler Allgeier rostered in more leagues?’ rant. Allgeier has scored double-digit PPR points in three out of five games, scoring touchdowns in three of them, and he has double-digit touches in all but one game.
"He would instantly be a fringe RB1 if Robinson missed any time" –@Fitz_FF
Tyler Allgeier is more valuable than some of the WR3s or WR4s parked at the end of your bench… pic.twitter.com/m1jZluUssx
— FantasyPros (@FantasyPros) September 16, 2025
The Dolphins rank 30th against the run in EPA allowed and have given up the fifth-most running back schedule-adjusted fantasy points. The Dolphins have allowed over 100 yards from scrimmage to a running back in each of their last five games (Kimani Vidal, Rico Dowdle, Breece Hall, James Cook, Rhamondre Stevenson). While much of the attention will be on the matchup for Bijan Robinson, we’ve seen enough to know Allgeier could also get home and provide perfect bye-week cover.
Tyjae Spears (RB – TEN) | 29% Rostered
The Titans travel to the Colts in Week 8, and how they look under their interim coaching staff is anyone’s guess, but what we’ve seen so far this year seems to indicate Tyjae Spears will see the field on plenty of passing downs and when they’re trailing. Last week, Spears was the PPR RB21, mainly getting home from his receiving work. This week against the Patriots could be more of the same.
The Patriots are a heavy Cover 1 defense, and Cam Ward has the third-highest checkdown rate against these looks. That’s partly because when he doesn’t check the ball down, it goes horribly wrong, with a 37% completion rate and four yards per attempt. If Spears has another solid week, you can expect him to be a popular waiver wire pickup for cover while six teams are out of action next week.
Justice Hill (RB – BAL) | 10% Rostered
Things haven’t been pretty for the Baltimore Ravens so far this season, but their schedule coming out of the bye week is a cupcake to the point that they’re barely behind the Steelers in the odds to win the AFC North, despite only having one win so far.
The return of Lamar Jackson will help this offense, which was scoring well enough when Jackson was out there. Even if the offense is substantially better than the defense, things will set up for Justice Hill, who sees more work in uptempo situations and when the Ravens are playing from behind.
Derrick Henry has played just 9.6% of the Ravens third-down snaps this season (5 of 52), way down from 24.7% last year.
Justice Hill is now the main option, taking 88.5% of third-down snaps (up from 66.8% in 2024). pic.twitter.com/9qNrCD0LML
— Ravens Nation ???????????????? (@LIVERavenNation) October 11, 2025
So far, the Bears, who the Ravens play in Week 8, have given up the seventh-most adjusted fantasy points to running backs. If you’re desperate, Hill could be OK here in a must-win game for the Ravens.
Troy Franklin (WR – DEN) | 22% Rostered
The Broncos play the Cowboys in Week 8, which is great news for Broncos skill players. No team allows more fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks and wide receivers than the Cowboys, who’ve been routinely embarrassed this year. They are particularly susceptible to the deep ball. Dallas has allowed a league-high seven touchdowns on throws 20+ yards downfield, with no other team over four.
This is an arrow up for both Marvin Mims Jr. and Troy Franklin, with both seeing plenty of targets downfield. Franklin, however, is the least volatile of the two, averaging a 17% target share, the second-highest on the team.
Jalen Coker (WR – CAR) | 16% Rostered
All signs point to Jalen Coker making his season debut this weekend against a Jets defense that looks lost, hopeless and ready for the offseason. The Panthers were willing to trade Adam Thielen because of how confident they felt in Coker, only to be struck by an unfortunate injury that stung them badly.
Coker had four games in 2024 with a target share over 17%, the 12th-highest catch rate on passes 15+ yards downfield among receivers with 10+ targets and a better yards per route run rate than Xavier Legette. Coker can be the No. 2 WR in this offense as soon as he steps onto the field.
Mason Taylor (TE – NYJ) | 36% Rostered
The theme of this week’s article has definitely focused on soft matchups for Week 8, and that continues here with Mason Taylor. The Jets play the Bengals in Week 8, which sets two very poor defenses against one another. Even before the Bengals gave up four touchdowns to tight ends on Thursday, they were allowing the most points to tight ends.
Over the last two weeks…
(per @FantasyPtsData)Mason Taylor
26% target share
1.89 YPRR
66 rec yds/game
27.8% 1st read % pic.twitter.com/qibp9FMcsh— Derek Brown (@DBro_FFB) October 6, 2025
Taylor is likely to get a huge workload in Week 7 against the Panthers, who have allowed the second-most points to tight ends this year. Taylor will be out there without Garrett Wilson for at least one game. Stashing him now makes far too much sense. Taylor has had a target share of over 17% in three of his last four games.
Oronde Gadsden (TE – LAC) | 2% Rostered
In Week 8, the Chargers take on the Vikings, who might not fit into the category of being an easy matchup. Instead, the Vikings and Chargers could provide shootout potential.
In Week 6, Oronde Gadsden ran 30 routes, while Will Dissly only ran eight and Tyler Conklin ran zero. Gadsden boasted a 69.2% route share. It’s become clear he’s the top tight end for the Chargers, and his 21% target share last week should not be sniffed at.
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