Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Stashes: WR & TE (Week 4)

If you’re reading this article, chances are you have a fantasy football roster that could use help at the wide receiver and/or tight end positions. Wide receivers are dropping like flies, while it appears there are fewer than five reliable fantasy football tight ends in the league.

Never fear, however. This article will feature some widely available players who could eventually solve your pass-catcher problems for good. Let’s get started.

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Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Stashes: Week 4

Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Stashes

Xavier Legette (WR – CAR): 15.0% Rostered

This is not Xavier Legette’s first appearance in this article, but the first-round rookie is on fewer rosters than he was when I initially recommended him. That is likely to change this week, and for good reason.

For one, Andy Dalton has resurrected this Panthers offense. It remains to be seen how much of Carolina’s explosion was a result of the matchup with the Raiders, but things are better with Dalton under center instead of Bryce Young. The other key to Legette’s value is that Adam Thielen is set to miss time with a hamstring injury. Legette has struggled to get on the field at times this season, but he operated as the team’s No. 2 WR following Thielen’s injury. A rookie with first-round draft capital and a growing role on a suddenly ascending offense is the exact kind of player we want to be stashing from the waiver wire at this stage of the season.

Mike Williams (WR – NYJ): 36.0% Rostered

Mike Williams is no rookie, but he does have an expanding role in the Jets’ offense. The 29-year-old played very limited snaps in Week 1, his first game back from a 2023 ACL injury. But he has posted at least a 50% route participation rate in each of the last two games, a number that should continue to grow as he gets healthy.

Most encouragingly, Williams saw a couple of jump-ball targets from Aaron Rodgers on Thursday night, including one in the end zone. Williams has excelled in jump ball situations throughout his career, and we know Rodgers can throw them. If his role continues to expand as he gets back to full health, Williams could eventually provide Flex value in this New York offense.

Romeo Doubs (WR – GB): 34.7% Rostered

Three weeks into the season, Romeo Doubs leads the Packers in route participation by a large margin. The 2022 fourth-rounder is at 75.9%, exactly 5% ahead of Jayden Reed and over 20% clear of the next player in this offense (Christian Watson).

So far, this role hasn’t translated into much production for Doubs, who has just eight receptions for 130 yards through three weeks. However, two of those weeks were with Malik Willis under center, which drastically altered the Packers’ game plan. Once Jordan Love is back, which should be soon, Doubs should see more targets. He is worth holding until that happens.

Jalen Tolbert (WR – DAL): 5.2% Rostered

A third-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, Jalen Tolbert did essentially nothing across his first two years in the league. Despite playing in some very weak Dallas receiving rooms, he totaled just 24 receptions for under 300 yards.

Two weeks into his third season, Tolbert seems to have taken a step forward. He already has 10 receptions for 136 yards and his third NFL touchdown. Just as importantly, he has surpassed Brandin Cooks as the Cowboys’ No. 2 WR, running more routes than the veteran in each of the last two weeks. Meanwhile, the Cowboys’ defense is suddenly one of the worst in the league, allowing the sixth-most expected points added (EPA) per opposing play. Dak Prescott will likely be dropping back early and often, giving Tolbert a chance to be an old-fashioned “third-year breakout” at the wide receiver position.

Fantasy Football Tight End Stashes

Cole Kmet (TE – CHI): 33.1% Rostered

Cole Kmet’s usage hasn’t been ideal through three weeks. He is down at 30th among tight ends with a 47.1% route participation rate, as Shane Waldron has often opted to use Gerald Everett over him in passing situations. However, Kmet’s role has been trending up each week. He has gone from a 48% snap share in Week 1 to 77% in Week 2 to 81% in Week 3.

It is worth noting Kmet still posted just a 57.9% route participation rate in Week 3 despite that high snap share, as he was asked to pass-block occasionally and often sat in obvious passing situations. But he made the most of his routes, catching 10 of his 11 targets for 97 yards and a touchdown.

With the state of the tight end position, many managers will likely rush to put Kmet directly into their lineups after that performance. However, I think his limited usage so far makes him fit better as a stash, especially once we consider that his Week 3 explosion was buoyed by the Bears’ insane 52 pass attempts. Still, Kmet has a history of providing solid production, so he’s worth holding in hopes that his role expands.

Tyler Conklin (TE – NYJ): 20.9% Rostered

Someone who doesn’t need their role to expand is Tyler Conklin. Conklin currently ranks sixth among all tight ends with a 76% route participation rate. That usage didn’t turn into fantasy points over the first two weeks of the season, but he caught five of his six targets for 93 yards on Thursday night against the Patriots. He now ranks 11th among tight ends in yards for the season.

To be clear, Conklin isn’t a player to stash if you are looking for upside. A good rule of thumb for finding true TE1 production is that a player must be among the top two target-earners on their team; that’s unlikely for Conklin on this Jets roster. But he is one of a small group of tight ends playing the majority of snaps on an above-average offense. He is a viable fill-in option, with upside for more if the Jets suffer injuries.

Tucker Kraft (TE – GB): 3.2% Rostered

Sticking with the theme we established with Doubs of targeting heavily involved Green Bay players before Jordan Love comes back, we have Tucker Kraft. Kraft missed a decent amount of Week 3’s matchup with a shoulder injury but still leads Packers tight ends with a 50.6% route participation rate. If we look just at his healthy games over the first two weeks, that number was 55.6%.

That number still isn’t ideal. Neither is Kraft’s six receptions for 77 yards after three weeks. But with the current tight end landscape, you may be grasping at straws (I know I am in certain leagues). At the very least, Kraft should be more heavily rostered than teammate Luke Musgrave, who has played a smaller role in all three games but is rostered in over five times as many leagues (18.5%).