Welcome back to Lucid Streams. Our goal here is to help you find emergency help that’s potentially available on the waiver wire or on the back of your bench when you’re scrambling for options due to injuries or plain old poor drafting at wide receiver and tight end. We also want to equip you with the tools to go out on your own and find the best fantasy football sleepers yourself in case the options listed here each week aren’t available to you. Our goal is to find WRs who have at least a reasonable chance to contribute 10+ PPR points to your lineup this week and TEs who can chip in at least seven points in PPR.
Last week was a tough week again, with WRs who gave us the ol’ bait-and-switch of barely playing at all despite getting talked up by coaches during the week. At least Rashod Bateman saved us from a shutout. At TE, the news was mixed, as we went two for four on our main recommendations. But when we hit, we hit it big, with mega-jackpot winners Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry finishing second and sixth among TEs in Week 8 PPR scoring.
The Process
What we are looking for each week is to find the players most likely to pop for one of several reasons. They may have an increased role in their offense due to the misfortune of a player ahead of them on the depth chart, or they may be facing a defense that will have trouble defending them due to a positional mismatch. Maybe that’s a chronic problem of the defense, or maybe it’s due to injuries in the coverage units, which will allow a unique opportunity for success by our streamer. At the intersection of high opportunity and low ownership is where we want to pan for gold in the stream. Remember, these are recommendations for those who are really in a bind for a starter and should not be played over anyone you’d normally start.
We’ll use a variety of tools to help us, including schedule-adjusted fantasy points allowed to the WR and TE positions. If you’re not familiar with this metric, it removes the variance that can skew fantasy points allowed by a defense due to the quality of the passing attacks they’ve faced. For example, if Defense A has faced four top-tier passing offenses in the first four weeks while Defense B has faced only weak passing offenses over that same period, it could appear that Defense B is better at defending WRs than Defense A, when in reality, Defense A might be the tougher matchup. The further we get into the season, the more relevance this analysis has.
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Streaming Wide Receivers Week 8
Sterling Shepard, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Garbage time was a grim reaper on Monday night for the Buccaneers, and it claimed Chris Godwin for the remainder of the season. Mike Evans had already exited early with a hamstring that seems certain to keep him out past their Week 11 bye. Enter Sterling Shepard, an experienced slot maven who should slide right into Godwin’s role. It feels gross to click on him, but the stars are aligned for him to score the points we need.
Cedric Tillman, Cleveland Browns
After Amari Cooper left town, Tillman was a target monster, earning 12 looks last week. Now the Jameis Winston Fantasy Carnival is in town, and Tillman is at the head of the line for earning targets. He and Jameis have been working together as non-starters, so they are bound to continue to show chemistry.
Elijah Moore, Cleveland Browns
Moore has been less for most of his career, but he also stands to benefit for the reasons mentioned above for Tillman. Jerry Jeudy seems to find a way to lose targets to every receiver on the field, which is an additional bonus for Moore. The Browns figure to be playing from behind for much of this game, so footballs should fill the air for their receivers.
Rashod Bateman, Baltimore Ravens
Zay Flowers is likely to miss this week’s game and Bateman should be there to pick up the slack again. Odds are, you needed to pick him up from waivers already this week if you’re in a larger league. However, those in smaller leagues will still find him on the waiver wire. He can get you 10 points from a single target, and I expect him to get at least five targets on Sunday.
Honorable Mentions
- Josh Palmer: Quentin Johnston is trending towards missing this week’s game, and Palmer should pick up the slack for him again.
- Mason Tipton: With Rashid Shaheed on IR, Tipton is likely to see increased targets again. He and Spencer Rattler have spent plenty of time playing pitch and catch on the scout team already.
Streaming Tight Ends Week 8
Taysom Hill, New Orleans Saints
Depending on your league settings, Hill might qualify as a TE. If he plays, he’s a great bet to score points in his jack-of-all-trades role as a TE, RB, FB, WR, and QB. The Saints need to feed their most talented players to have any hope of winning, and Hill definitely qualifies as such. As long as he’s healthy, he’s a good streaming option.
Will Dissly, Seattle Seahawks
As previously mentioned with Josh Palmer, the Chargers are short on receivers this week. Not only is Johnston likely to sit this one out, but Dissly’s fellow TE, Hayden Hurst, is likely to be inactive as well. Last week, Dissly rode this situation to an 11-target, eight-catch, 81-yard line. While that’s too much to expect this week, he should easily get the targets to be a startable option if you’re in a pinch.
Jonnu Smith, Miami Dolphins
One of my favorite sayings regarding talented players breaking out is, “You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube,” and this applies to Jonnu Smith. He fits what this offense needs from the TE position and has the speed that Mike McDaniel craves. It’s great that Tua Tagovailoa is back, and that’s likely to be great news for the WRs, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that it’s bad news for Jonnu. When the pie gets bigger, everyone can eat.
Chigoziem Okonkwo, Tennesse Titans
The Titans just traded away DeAndre Hopkins, and Calvin Ridley looks genuinely questionable for this week. If Ridley doesn’t play, you can fire up Chig with some small measure of confidence. Detroit usually covers TEs well, but it’s a good bet that Tennessee will be playing from behind almost from the opening kickoff, which means more targets for Okonkwo.
Honorable Mention
- Grant Calcaterra: Dallas Goedert is on track to miss this week, and Calcaterra has proven to be a capable fill-in. The only question is how many targets he will see.
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