In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by Underdog:
 

Most successful teams in Fantasy Football can point to a player or two they added off the waiver wire that played a critical role. The draft is the foundation, but adding a free agent to bolster a team is important.

While there are several candidates to choose from, Jonnu Smith was the difference maker for me. Tight end was a difficult position to get consistent production from unless you had Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, George Kittle, or David Njoku. Evan Engram, Jake Ferguson, Kyle Pitts were drafted as starters, and picking up Smith to replace them was a massive edge.

Smith became a pivotal focus in the Dolphins’ passing game. He was second on the team behind Tyreek Hill with 111 targets and led the team in receiving touchdowns with 8. From Weeks 11-17, Smith had no fewer than 11.6 points in PPR formats. Smith had five games of at least 19.8 points in PPR formats. In the final 8 games, Smith scored 7 touchdowns and finished with 88 catches for 884 yards and wasn’t heavily involved in the offense the first four games.

Most years, there are running backs added off the waiver wire who make a massive impact. Many of the running backs stayed healthy for a good portion of the season. The top running backs in points per game were drafted in most leagues. Bucky Irving might have been added in some leagues as a free agent. I am excluding him since he was drafted in all my leagues—though Kendall Valenzuela found plenty of leagues where he wasn’t drafted.

Jalen McMillan deserves an honorable mention. I drafted him in most of my leagues and had to cut him after a slow start and injuries. I was able to add him back in a few leagues and he finished with a bang. From Weeks 14-18, McMillan scored 7 touchdowns. In the Fantasy Playoff weeks of 15-17, the rookie receiver had 18.5, 16.7, and 22.1 points in PPR. Not bad for a waiver wire add. Down below you’ll see some more of the top waiver wire adds this past season.

  • Geoff Ulrich has the top Underdog Pick’em plays for the Conference Championships
  • Where does Freedman rank a rookie RB in his early Top 50 Rankings?
  • Watercooler: Lions-Commanders will be a roaring good time

 

AROUND THE WATERCOOLER

The latest analysis and insights from our merry band of football nerds:

🏴‍☠️ Freedman mocked a freak athlete to the Raiders. Catching a rising star.

💸 Freedman and Ulrich swooped in with Conference Championship best bets and props. Who’s going to the Super Bowl?

🪓 Plenty of time chop it up on some three-team Guilloteenie drafts. Let’s get chopping!

 👀 Someone ship extra gum to Vegas. The Raiders have a new head guy.

🏈 He ain’t Brian anymore. He’s the new HC of the Dallas Cowboys.

👻 Don’t be afraid. Cooterdoodle isn’t scared to take some big swings. She wants you to have the sweat of a lifetime.

🔮 Ready to ride Brian Robinson? Ulrich drops his props for the Conference Championships.


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NEWSLETTER EXCLUSIVE: Underdog Pick’em Plays for the Conference Championships

By Geoff Ulrich

As I wrapped up a few pieces of content for the week (check out my favorite DFS plays or player props for the weekend!), I couldn’t help but take the analysis and fire off some pick’em entries on Underdog.

Quick Note: You can find all my weekly Underdog plays in our FREE Pick’em Tracker on Fantasy Life, where we are now up well over 60 units on the season. 

Underdog Card No. 1 (3-way, 6.53x multiplier)

 

Underdog Card No. 2 (3-way, 4.91 x multiplier) 

Plus, in addition to tracking all of my pick’em plays in our free tracker, I heavily utilize our DFS Pick’em Builder to help compare our player projections to the available lines on Underdog. It’s a great way to gauge how high/low we are on players compared to the market, so check it out below!

BUILD MORE PICK’EM ENTRIES FOR SUNDAY


2024 Fantasy Football Awards: Waiver Wire Winners

By Kendall Valenzuela

Looking back at the 2024 waiver wire was one part fun and also a jumpscare at the same time. The injury gods were not kind to us when looking through the wide receivers, and the New Orleans Saints made us believe for two weeks that they could be legitimate contenders in a high-flying offense (narrator's voice: they were not good).

Overall there were some lessons learned from the 2024 fantasy football season on the waiver wire front, the first being that we really need to be cautious when targeting players with injuries (or even whispers of injuries) coming into the season. Not only do we need to be cautious when drafting them, but we also need to target their backups. Of course, the biggest player who comes to mind is Christian McCaffrey, who was an absolutely brutal first-round pick. The running backs as a whole just fell one by one, but you got solid production from Jordan Mason for a while.

Another lesson that I think happens every season is being patient with rookies after you draft them. Look, I wouldn't blame anyone who dropped Jalen McMillan after the start of the season he had, but so many times it takes rookies toward the middle or back half of the season to start seeing success. While some of us can't play the waiting game and need immediate production and fantasy points, rookies can finish the season strong, and sometimes they can be playoff heroes. 

Let's just draft perfectly and avoid all player injuries next season so we won't have to turn to the waiver wire—deal? Deal. I went back and read every waiver wire article from last season to find the best pickups from the year. All these players at some point were under 40% rostered. Enjoy!

Bucky Irving, RB, Buccaneers

Ohhhhh baby! I understand a lot of people (myself included) drafted Bucky Irving early and often during drafts because we saw the potential, but managers were able to get him even after Week 1. Here was what I wrote after the Buccaneers' Week 1 matchup: 

This could be a long-term play that works out for you in the end. In Week 1, Bucky Irving led the team with 62 rushing yards and also averaged 6.9 yards per carry compared to White's 2.1! White is still "the guy" in this backfield, but if Irving continues to make his presence known on the field then he could slowly chip his way into a bigger role as the season continues.

Patience was key with Irving, but it paid off in massive ways. The Buccaneers found a massive gem with their fourth-round pick—Irving finished with 1,514 yards from scrimmage and was an efficient runner and solid receiver. He finished as the RB15 in PPR formats and was also the RB9 from Week 6 and beyond.

The Buccaneers thought they locked down their offensive coordinator Liam Coen for another season, but on Friday he was named the Jaguars' head coach after they fired their general manager. Baker Mayfield gets a new playcaller for the second year in a row, which could lead to some uncertainty about Irving becoming their true RB1. 

MORE OF KENDALL’S WAIVER WIRE AWARDS

2025 Senior Bowl QB Scouting Preview: Jalen Milroe to Center Stage

By Thor Nystrom

As part of Fantasy Life's year-long NFL Draft coverage, I'll be heading to Mobile next week to cover the Senior Bowl — filing reports, updates, and interviewing players. This is the first of three preview pieces I'll be writing ahead of the game.

Here's my latest NFL Mock Draft and here's my colleague Matthew Matthew Freedman's latest mock. There's a lot of love for Jalen Milroe in our projections, so next week will be particularly interesting, as he has the most to gain in Mobile. 

Most to Gain: Jalen Milroe (Alabama)

Raw as a passer, Milroe could have used another year in school. But he’s got A+ physical tools, and he was successful at College Football’s highest level, topping 2,800 passing/800 rushing/12 rushing TDs each of the past two seasons.

You can think of Milroe as the Anthony Richardson of this class—a lethal running threat with a huge arm, but desperately in need of further development.

Milroe (6-foot-2/225 pounds) is a little smaller than Richardson. But he’s more experienced coming out of the SEC than Richardson was (663 collegiate attempts to 393), he’s more accurate (64.3% to 54.7%), and he’s more advanced as a passer (45/20 career TD/INT rate to 24/15). Milroe is analogous to Richardson as a runner—he averaged 55.8 rushing YPG this season against Richardson’s 54.5 his last season at Florida.

Milroe has one of the largest band-of-outcomes of any prospect in this year’s class. An enormous pre-draft process—ala Richardson—could catapult Milroe into the top-10. A mediocre pre-draft process could drop him all the way to the middle rounds. Milroe is a prospect you dream on—he needs to give evaluators something to dream on in Mobile, and I’m betting he will.

MORE OF THOR’S SENIOR BOWL QUARTERBACK PREVIEW