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!
Jordan Mason | RB | San Francisco 49ers
32% Rostered
The Year 2 back from Georgia Tech is technically the RB3 on this San Francisco depth chart, but it may just be a matter of time before he jumps Elijah Mitchell and takes over the role of CMC’s handcuff. Mitchell missed a second consecutive week this past Sunday due to a lingering knee injury and three of five games on the season. This appears to be a common theme with Mitchell, who played in 11 games as a rookie and just five games in 2022. Since entering the NFL in 2021, he’s suffered injuries to his shoulder, ribs, finger, head, knees, groin and hamstrings. I was big on Elijah heading into this 2023 season, as his efficiency numbers when he was healthy were excellent. Still, the Elijah Mitchell experiment may be coming to an end if the injury troubles continue.
Enter Jordan Mason, the UDFA who outperformed former 3rd round pick Tyrion Davis-Price last season, earning some playing time towards the latter part of his rookie season when Mitchell was out. Mason made the most of his opportunities last night against Dallas, rushing the ball ten times for 69 yards and even finding the endzone.
Mason is not an RB you can consider starting while Christian McCaffrey is healthy, who has assumed more of that three-down role than he did in 2022 and has been nothing short of phenomenal all year. However, Mason does have some contingent upside. We know CMC also has a history of injuries, so it’s within the range of outcomes that Mason falls into a starting role at some point this year, if even only for a week or two. And with this offensive line and the number of weapons in the passing game, any RB in this backfield should have a reasonably easy path to some incredible per-touch numbers each week.
Emari Demercado | RB | Arizona Cardinals
28% Rostered
Demercado may not be a household name quite yet, but he could find himself leading this Arizona backfield heading into Week 6 versus the Rams. Seven-year-veteran and workhorse RB James Conner was off to a respectable start in terms of fantasy production this season but left during the Cincinnati game this past Sunday due to a knee injury.
Conner says he was feeling okay and did leave for the locker room under his own power yesterday, which is a good sign for his potential availability in Week 6. It’s possible both James Conner and Keaontay Ingram (neck) are healthy and ready to go for this coming Sunday, pushing Demercado back down the depth chart and into a minimal role. However, James Conner has been quite injury-prone his entire career, never finishing a full season in six years, so if this injury doesn’t keep him out, something else will likely happen down the road. And Keontay Ingram has been flat-out inefficient in his first two NFL seasons, granted that’s been on minimal touches. Heading into the season, I felt Ingram was an excellent Dynasty stash, projected to be the primary backup to a fragile James Conner. However, Demercado may have earned himself that RB2 role after Conner returns.
Demercado almost certainly went undrafted in your 2023 rookie drafts this offseason, as he wasn’t even taken in the NFL draft. Emari played second fiddle to Kendre Miller at TCU but was efficient with the work he did get in 2022. Against Cincinnati yesterday, Demercado had a solid showing after taking over for Conner, rushing for 45 yards and a touchdown on ten attempts and hauling one of three targets for 12 yards. Grab Demercado off the waiver wire this week; he could be a nice plug-and-play option if both Conner and Ingram are out in Week 6. As with all these rookie RBs, anything is possible. One breakout performance could propel him into an everyday player and provide you with a nice trade piece in fantasy.
Gardner Minshew | QB | Indianapolis Colts
39% Rostered
Unless you’re playing in a 1QB league, this one is a no-brainer. You’ll likely have to put down a good chunk of FAAB to secure Minshew from waivers this week, assuming he’s still available. As a football fan, I’m sick to see Anthony Richardson suffer another injury, this time likely resulting in him missing a significant amount of time. It appears he suffered an AC joint sprain and is expected to miss four or more weeks of football.
If you have Anthony Richardson in Dynasty, please don’t let this unfortunate news cause you to lose faith in this young man. He’s as gifted and electric an athlete as we’ve seen at the quarterback position and should still be valued as a top-8 fantasy QB in Dynasty, if not higher. This is just a small hurdle in what should be a long, successful career for the former Gator.
Minshew has a low fantasy ceiling due to his lack of mobility, but a starting QB is a starting QB at the end of the day. You’d still much rather plug in Gardner Minshew at your Superflex spot during QB bye weeks rather than a fringe flex play like Jerry Jeudy or Jahan Dotson. Grab Minshew, and don’t be afraid to spend a little extra FAAB to do so. At worst, you could add him as a trade piece in a package to tier up another position, or maybe the Richardson owner is hurting, and you can overcharge for Minshew.
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
