We’ve finally reached the climax of the fantasy football season. The playoffs started last week for many leagues, and continue into Week 15 with the semifinals (or early rounds, in case you’re one of those cretins who plays into Week 17). Every top-end starter should be locked into lineups this week, but the waiver wire is still important.
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The tight end position remains as thin as ever, but owners get some good news this week. Rob Gronkowski is back from suspension, while Zach Ertz should be cleared from concussion protocol in time to return (though his fantasy value takes a major hit with Carson Wentz done for the year). There were also no major injuries of note, unless you’re still holding out hope for Jordan Reed to come back.
Otherwise, here are the top waiver wire options, owned in less than 50 percent of Yahoo! leagues.
Vernon Davis, Washington (49 percent)
Despite Reed’s continued absence, Davis has inexplicably disappeared from the game plan. He laid a goose egg on Thanksgiving, had only two catches for 15 yards in Week 13, then ran it back last Sunday with two catches for 26 yards. The only good news is that he scored a touchdown against the Los Angeles Chargers, his second of the season. Still, Reed doesn’t sound like he’ll be coming back anytime soon, so owners can only hope that Davis comes alive with the Arizona Cardinals up next.
Ricky Seals-Jones, Arizona Cardinals (43 percent)
Maybe the pixie dust is wearing off. Seals-Jones has just three catches for 64 yards in the past two games, as Blaine Gabbert predictably fell back to Earth. Seals-Jones still has a knack for the big play, but with few targets coming his way, it doesn’t look like he’ll be a league-winner for your playoffs. That said, we wanna give him one more shot against Washington’s defense, which is prone to giving up big plays.
O.J. Howard, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (23 percent)
Cameron Brate refuses to go away, but it looks like Howard is finally overtaking him as the starter. He had another good performance last week, grabbing four catches for 54 yards and a touchdown against the Detroit Lions. Now up to five scores on the year, Howard is still an inconsistent player, but showing off more of his talent as the year goes on. With the Bucs well out of playoff contention, it only makes sense to feature their first-round rookie more down the stretch. Howard is a boom-or-bust TE2 the rest of the way.
