Welcome back to another weekly edition of “The Wire”. In this series, I review three players each week that you should target on the waiver wire for your Dynasty teams. To keep the information in this series consistent, I will only refer to players with an ownership percentage of less than 50%, according to Sleeper Dynasty leagues. I’ll do my best to provide you with players that have a more long-term upside rather than a one-week ceiling, seeing that this is a Dynasty series and not Redraft. So, sit back, relax, and let me find you some diamonds in the rough!
Xavier Gipson | WR | New York Jets
8% Rostered
Xavier Gipson is a rookie UDFA out of Stephen F Austin, where he had an incredibly successful college career. Gipson finished his career for the Lumberjacks with 243 receptions, 4,305 yards, and 37 touchdowns over four seasons. He exceeded 1k receiving yards in his junior and senior seasons, but playing for an FCS program prevented the star wide receiver from fielding much interest from NFL scouts. However, Xavier proved the doubters wrong and made the 53-man roster for the New York Jets this year. He’s also seen his usage skyrocket in these past two weeks.
After failing to see more than 31% of the snaps through any of the Jets’ first seven games, Gipson has seen a 58% and 68% snap percentage in Weeks 9 and 10, respectively. While he hasn’t done a ton with the playing time quite yet (five targets, three receptions, and 56 yards in that stretch), the fact he’s getting on the field as an undrafted rookie is certainly worthy of our attention as Dynasty players.
Obviously, there needs to be a quarterback change in New York before we see what kind of ceiling Gipson has at the NFL level. But outside of Garrett Wilson, there’s really no competition on this Jets roster. The ghost of Randall Cobb has been a healthy scratch the past two weeks, and Allen Lazard has been a complete disappointment, only hitting double-digit fantasy points once this year. Gipson is already the WR3 in this offense, and I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t leapfrog Lazard and cement his status as the WR2 on this team by year-end. He’s a great rookie stash in any Dynasty format.
Daniel Bellinger | TE | New York Giants
48% Rostered
Continuing the theme of unwatchable passing offenses, let’s stay in The Big Apple and discuss Giants’ tight end Daniel Bellinger. With Darren Waller on IR, I’m a little surprised Bellinger’s Dynasty ownership is still under 50% on Sleeper.
Bellinger had a respectable rookie season when we consider typical rookie TE production. He finished Year 1 with 30 receptions, 268 yards, and a pair of touchdowns, leading this tight end room in all three categories. Fast forward to this past offseason, and Darren Waller was brought on to be Daniel Jones‘ go-to target for 2023, moving Bellinger down the totem pole. Well, midway through the season, Bellinger finds himself back in that TE1 role for New York, and he may be here to stay. Waller suffered a pulled hamstring, an injury he’s had numerous times over the past few years. Typically, hamstring injuries can be reoccurring, and Waller is now 31 years old and clearly on the decline. He signed a 3-year contract with the Giants, but they have an out after this season. With the state of the Giants’ organization being what it is, it may make sense to cut ties with Waller and focus on developing their former fourth-round pick from 2022.
As long as Tommy DeVito is under center, Bellinger won’t be worth consideration in your starting lineup, but we all know this is a short-term solution for the Giants. They are certainly in the Caleb Williams’ sweepstakes this upcoming draft. A lot can change in a year, and I think Bellinger could develop into a mid-TE2 in fantasy if he’s placed in the right situation.
Dontayvion Wicks | WR | Green Bay Packers
39% Rostered
We have another rookie WR on the docket for you this week, with the 5th-round pick from Virginia, Dontayvion Wicks. Wicks had an injury-riddled college career, missing his entire sophomore season and the latter part of his senior year due to injuries. Because of this, Wicks was an afterthought in this WR class, especially after teammate Jayden Reed was selected in Round 2.
Wicks has been surprisingly productive for the Packers, considering the amount of depth they carry in their WR room. Through nine games this year, Wicks has compiled 27 targets, 17 receptions, 240 yards, and a touchdown. These are certainly modest numbers, but the consistency is beginning to pick up. In the past three contests, Wicks has averaged four targets, three receptions, and 43 receiving yards. Wicks has yet to see a snap percentage over 50% since Christian Watson returned from injury, but he’s been incredibly efficient with the limited playing time he’s seen, which will be hard for HC Matt LaFleur to ignore.
Christian Watson has been unable to match his hyper-efficient rookie season, and the remaining WRs on this Packers’ offense are nothing to write home about, either. If Wicks continues to produce as he has the past month, he may just turn into an every-down player moving forward.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article, and I hope you got some valuable information you can use for your fantasy team! If you’d like additional insight into Dynasty Football news and analysis, please follow me on Twitter at @jim_DFF. Until next time, keep grinding out there, DFF family! #DFFArmy #AlwaysBeBuilding
