Fantasy Football Week 6 Waiver Wire: Best Pickups At Each Position
It might be wise to let Geno Smith cook
The 2022 season already has been a grind for many fantasy football players due to unexpected performances and injuries.
Now, the task of putting together a lineup is about to become even more difficult.
Week 6 marks the beginning of the NFL’s bye week slate, which runs all the way through Week 14. Four teams will be inactive this week, as players on the Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans will be unavailable.
As such, plucking a player or two from the waiver wire will be a necessary tactic for countless fantasy managers this week. Here are four players — rostered in 65% or less of ESPN leagues — who should be considered for addition.
Quarterback: Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks (32.6%)
Good luck finding anyone who thought Smith would be a top-10 fantasy quarterback past the quarter mark of the season. In fact, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes and Kyler Murray are the only signal-callers who’ve scored more fantasy points than Smith on the campaign heading into Week 6. Further boosting Smith’s stock moving forward is the season-ending injury to running back Rashaad Penny, which could keep the football in Smith’s hands more on a week-to-week basis. Not only is Smith worth adding, but he should be in starter consideration as long he’s playing like a true QB1.
Running Back: Mike Booner, Denver Broncos (26.8%)
Denver’s rough start to the season recently became even worse when feature back Javonte Williams suffered a season-ending knee injury. Williams’ torn ACL opened the door for Boone, a 2018 undrafted free agent who spent the first three seasons of his NFL career in Minnesota. Boone received his first real taste of playing time this season last Thursday, and he somehow put up 11.5 fantasy points in the horrific offense showing put forth by the Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts. Boone is a capable pass-catcher and he could garner more touches and targets if Melvin Gordon’s fumbling woes aren’t halted. As far as the immediate future, Denver’s Week 6 opponent — the Los Angeles Chargers — is allowing more fantasy points per game this season than any team in the league.
Wide Receiver: Jakobi Meyers, New England Patriots (64.5%)
Meyers is as steady as they come when he’s healthy. The fourth-year wideout put up double-digit fantasy points in all three games he’s played this season and he’s averaging 17.6 points per contest in PPR leagues going into Week 6. A bizarre inability to find the end zone has been a concern for Meyers for a few years, but he did put up six in the Patriots’ demolition of the Lions. The appeal for Meyers obviously would be stronger if Mac Jones currently was under center for New England, but Week 5 suggested the college quarterback-turned-wideout won’t become a fantasy afterthought with Bailey Zappe running the show in Foxboro.
Tight End: Taysom Hill, New Orleans Saints (12.1%)
This suggestion obviously is doused in recency bias, but that’s something we have to work with when you consider the fickle business that is trying to find fantasy points from middle-tier tight ends. Only three players in PPR leagues scored more Week 5 points than Hill, who ran for three touchdowns and threw another in the Saints’ win over the Seahawks. New Orleans head coach Dennis Allen knows how to best utilize Hill and he might need to lean on that familiarity as his team navigates through a suboptimal quarterback situation. You probably can’t bank on consistent production from Hill, but his rare versatility certainly is enticing.
