Top 4 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups: Running Backs (Week 9)

We will have you covered throughout the fantasy football season with our bevy of tools, including our Waiver Wire Assistant. Find the top available players and get detailed analysis on how potential fantasy football waiver wire adds will impact your team. Of course, our team of analysts will also have written advice each week. Check out some of our top Running Back fantasy football waiver wire targets for the week below. And check out all of our fantasy football waiver wire advice for Week 9.

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Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Targets: Running Back

RUNNING BACKS

Written by Pat Fitzmaurice

Jaylen Warren (PIT): 46% rostered

• Next Opponents: BYE, @WSH, BAL
• True value: $6
• Desperate Need: $11
• Budget-minded: $3

Analysis: This isn’t a good week to go RB-shopping on waivers. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a good week of RB-shopping all season. But do you remember what we said at the top of this article about getting ahead of the bye weeks? Warren is the type of player who could help you do that. Warren himself is on bye this week, so you might be able to get a FAAB discount on him. He has value as a committee back in Pittsburgh’s RB-centric offense. Entering Week 8. The Steelers were the second run-heaviest team in the league behind only the Eagles. Warren returned from a knee injury in Week 7 and played only five fewer snaps than Najee Harris in a 37-15 win over the Jets. Warren had 12-44-0 rushing and 2-15-0 receiving in that game. Harris is the starter and the “1A” in this backfield, but Warren looked like the better and more explosive player last season, and it’s entirely possible the Steelers’ backfield becomes something close to a 50/50 split between Harris and Warren (with a dash of Cordarrelle Patterson).

Isaac Guerendo (SF): 8% rostered

• Next Opponents: BYE, @TB, SEA
• True value: $5
• Desperate Need: $10
• Budget-minded: $2

Analysis: The suggested bids you see here are just a starting point, because there are a lot of moving parts in the San Francisco backfield. Guerendo played a major role for the 49ers Sunday night in their 30-24 win over the Cowboys, carrying 14 times for 85 yards and a touchdown after Jordan Mason left early with a shoulder injury. (Guerendo also had three receptions for 17 yards.) The 49ers have a Week 9 bye. Will Mason be able to play when San Francisco faces Tampa Bay in Week 10? And when will Christian McCaffrey return to the 49ers? CMC has been out all season with Achilles tendinitis, but reports suggest that he could return to practice during the team’s bye week and play in Week 10. But if McCaffrey doesn’t return in Week 10, and if Mason isn’t able to go after the bye, Guerendo would be the 49ers lead back against the Buccaneers in two weeks. That possibility makes Guerendo an interesting speculative add. Clearly, he’s more valuable to McCaffrey/Mason investors than to fantasy managers who don’t currently have a stake in that backfield.

Tyler Allgeier (ATL): 37% rostered

• Next Opponents: DAL, @NO, DEN
• True value: $4
• Desperate Need: $7
• Budget-minded: $1

Analysis: Allgeier is mostly a Bijan Robinson handcuff with some minimal stand-alone value. But that stand-alone value could kick in over the next two weeks thanks to a pair of favorable matchups. Atlanta’s next two games are against teams with wretched run defenses: Dallas and New Orleans. Going into Week 8, the Cowboys’ run defense ranked 29th in DVOA. The Saints’ run defense ranked 31st. Allgeier’s two best games of the season — and his only two usable games for fantasy purposes — were against teams with lousy run defenses. Allgeier gashed Carolina’s league-worst run defense for 105 yards and a touchdown in Week 6. And in a Week 4 game against the Saints, Allgeier had 8-60-0 rushing and 2-20-0 receiving. Allgeier could be a decent RB3/flex option for the next two weeks.

Dalvin Cook (DAL): 24% rostered

• Next Opponents: @ATL, PHI, HOU
• True value: $1
• Desperate Need: $2
• Budget-minded: $0

Analysis: So much for Cook becoming the savior of the dismal Dallas backfield. With Rico Dowdle scratched from the Cowboys’ Sunday-night game against the 49ers due to a reported illness, Cook shared work with Ezekiel Elliott and finished with 6-12-0 rushing and 1-10-0 receiving. Cook was out-snapped by Elliott 28-17, per PFF’s Nate Jahnke. Cook was ineffective in 15 games with the Jets last season, averaging 3.2 yards per carry, and it’s possible that the 29-year-old Cook is (ahem) cooked. But Cook may have some low-level appeal to RB-needy fantasy managers. Cook might continue to have a role in Dallas, though neither Cook nor the Cowboys’ running game has given us much reason for optimism of late.