Mason

The Wire: Week 7

Dynasty / By

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!

Brenton Strange | TE | Jacksonville Jaguars

35% Rostered

Rookie and Penn State alum Brenton Strange had his first noteworthy NFL game this past Sunday against Indianapolis, securing two passes on three targets and getting his first career touchdown. While the usage was minimal (10% target share), this production is a step in the right direction for Strange. If he has another double-digit fantasy performance in Week 7, this could be the last time you’ll see Strange on the waivers.

With Evan Engram clearly ahead of Strange on the depth chart, you can only play Strange in managed leagues if you get an injury from Engram. And Engram just signed a 3-year extension this past summer, which includes $24 million guaranteed, so Strange may not get his shot as TE1 anytime soon. 

That said, even though Engram is on contract through 2025, the Jaguars could save about $6 million by cutting Engram after the 2024 season. He’ll be 30 years old by the start of next season, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see a significant drop-off in value at that age. Strange is just 22 and is an excellent blocker and above-average route runner as a tight end, so he should continue to see the field consistently going forward. This waiver add is more for deeper dynasty rosters, but he’s an excellent stash that could pay dividends in a year or so. 

Malik Willis | QB | Tennessee Titans

45% Rostered

Malik Willis took over for Ryan Tannehill in the second half this past Sunday when Tannehill went down with an apparent ankle injury. The severity of the injury is unknown right now, but Tannehill was seen on crutches after the game, so one has to assume it’s not great. Luckily, the Titans have a bye week this weekend, giving Tannehill more time to recover. 

Malik Willis looked serviceable under center, completing four of five passes and rushing for 17 yards. He completed a screen play to Tyjae Spears (above) that turned into a 48-yard game to help fluff his numbers up a bit. He certainly didn’t look any worse than Ryan Tannehill has all year. 

I’m sure we all remember how Malik looked in his limited action as a rookie, though. To put it bluntly, 2022 was a trainwreck for the former Liberty playcaller. Do I think Willis has turned a corner and will show the world he’s a capable NFL starter now? Of course not. He probably still sucks. But he is ahead of rookie Will Levis on the depth chart. He also has the rushing upside to justify plugging him in your Superflex spot if you’re dealing with QB injuries or bye weeks in Week 8 and beyond, assuming Tannehill is still sidelined. 

Malik Willis is only a month older than Levis and is in just Year 2 of his NFL career. He likely won’t amount to much, but if the price tag is free, I’m willing to pick him up and wait to find out. 

Jordan Mason | RB | San Francisco 49ers

44% Rostered

Mason is a player I had on my Week 6 waiver adds, so hopefully, you read that article and added the Year 2 RB to all your Dynasty rosters already. I mentioned the lengthy injury history of both Christian McCaffrey and Elijah Mitchell, and because of this, there’s a foreseeable path to workhorse usage for the UDFA from Georgia Tech.

Unfortunately, CMC left during the third quarter of Sunday’s game due to an oblique and a rib injury. We don’t know if this is just a day-to-day thing or if CMC could be sidelined for weeks. The 49ers don’t play again until next Monday night against the Vikings, so the extra day of rest will certainly help for the superstar RB. We’ll have to continue monitoring the situation, but in the meantime, pick up Jordan Mason if he’s still sitting on waivers. 

In CMC’s absence, Mason was the lead back over Elijah Mitchell, possibly due to Mitchell not being 100% healthy quite yet. Still, this is a common theme for Elijah through 2.5 seasons. If CMC misses Week 7 and Mason gets the majority of the work in this backfield, the Dynasty community will likely get very excited, and you’ll be able to flip him for a healthy profit to an RB-needy team. Mason has back-to-back games with touchdowns now on less than a 25% snap count; if we see a full workload, he could be a fascinating player to roster. 

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

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