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 7+ points in PPR.
Last week, we went a perfect four for four on our WR recommendations, including Jauan Jennings, who posted the top fantasy score of 2024 so far. We also went two for four on TEs, which isn’t bad when we’re digging this deep. Let’s go find some more gems this week!
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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 will have. To start the season, we’ll be using data from 2023, which may or may not continue to be accurate for 2024, but it’s better to at least know where a defense left off at the end of last season than to know nothing at all.
Streaming Wide Receivers Week 4
Jauan Jennings
Am I cheating by including Jauan Jennings yet again after his 46.5-point PPR explosion? Victory lapping? I’ll say “no,” and “maybe,” respectively! Jennings didn’t get picked up last week in most leagues without deep rosters, so there’s a good chance he’s still on the waiver wire for you. If he is, go get him and just keep him in your lineup as long as Deebo Samuel is still out. Once George Kittle comes back, his production likely comes back to earth, but he should still be streamable.
Andrei Iosivas
Yes, we’re going back to the well here because Iosivas was actually dropped in many leagues once it was known that Tee Higgins was going to play. Surprise, surprise, Iosivas still has a role in this passing game. Right now, the Bengals’ defense isn’t very good, so Joe Burrow is likely to have to air it out most weeks. Iosivas seems firmly entrenched as the WR3 here and has shown a knack for scoring TDs.
Michael Wilson
A couple of weeks ago, a home game vs. Washington looked like an easy win, but the Commanders have been scoring well with rookie sensation Jayden Daniels at the helm, so the Cardinals may need to pass often to keep up. The Commanders have struggled to cover WRs too, ranking a bottom-of-the-barrel 32nd on schedule-adjusted points allowed to WRs. Finally, the Cardinals may be without the services of Trey McBride, who is in the concussion protocol, so Wilson is worth speculating on in a week where there aren’t many great options on the waiver wire.
Xavier Legette
We’re betting on talent here in an environment that’s undergone a radical change since Andy Dalton was installed as the Panthers’ starting QB. This sudden burst of competency at the QB position led to an offensive explosion against the Raiders. Next up are the Bengals, who can’t seem to find a way to win. Legette directly benefits from Adam Thielen‘s unfortunate trip to IR, and he’s a talented, if unpolished, player. He could be a complete bust this week, but he has more juice than almost anyone else on the waiver wire.
Honorable mentions
- Calvin Austin: He’s a speed-merchant WR2 for the Steelers who can come up big on any given week.
- Jalen Tolbert: Slowly but surely, Tolbert seems to be surpassing Brandin Cooks as the Cowboys’ WR2.
Streaming Tight Ends Week 4
Zach Ertz
In a year of terrible TE production, this might be the last time we can squeeze Ertz onto this list. He is one of the few TEs who is actually producing. Since joining Kliff Kingsbury in Arizona, Ertz has been a TE1 in 63% of his games played, yet he continues to fly under the radar. Jayden Daniels trusts him, and he’s once again an integral part of the Kingsbury offense. There’s not a lot of ceiling here, but Ertz’s floor is high and it’s rock-solid. He’s this generation’s Jason Witten.
Tyler Conklin
After two weeks on a milk carton, Conklin was dumped by fantasy managers everywhere just in time for his coming out party last week against the Patriots. Their loss is your gain, as Conklin is once again set up for success. The Broncos’ defense is the best in the league in schedule-adjusted points allowed to wide receivers. Patrick Surtain will lock up Garrett Wilson, forcing Aaron Rodgers to look elsewhere. If Cade Otton can earn eight targets against the Broncos, so can Conklin.
Colby Parkinson
In a world without Puka Nacua or Cooper Kupp, Colby Parkinson has stepped into a more prominent role for the Rams’ passing attack. His five targets last week tied for the team lead. That’s the sort of involvement we’re looking for when we’re sifting through the leftovers at TE. The Bears are a middle-of-the-pack defense vs. TEs, so dial up Parkinson if neither Conklin nor Ertz is available.
Tucker Kraft
Kraft seems to be usurping the role of TE1 on the Packers from Luke Musgrave. Assuming Jordan Love plays, we can add him into the streamer mix. If the Vikings’ defense has a weakness in the passing game, it’s opposing TEs. They rank only 28th in schedule-adjusted points against the position. This is not a confident play, but you can definitely do worse at tight end for Week 4.
Honorable mentions
- Mike Gesicki: Gesicki is still quite involved in the Bengals’ passing attack, racking up five targets on Monday night.
- Erick All: The other Bengals TE reeled in all four of his targets for 47 yards on Monday. The Bengals really like this kid.
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