Welcome to Week 10’s breakdown of wide receivers and tight ends to stash from the waiver wire onto your fantasy football rosters. We’ve got some exciting options this week, with true high-upside wide receivers and tight ends that don’t make me want to throw up. Let’s get right into it.
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Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Stashes: WR & TE (Week 10)
Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Stashes: Week 10
Xavier Legette (WR – CAR): 35.9% Rostered
This isn’t Xavier Legette’s first appearance in this article (or second or third), but there’s a reason I keep coming back to the rookie out of South Carolina. Rooke receivers with high draft capital (Legette was the final pick of the first round of this year’s draft) are easily one of the best bets to make if you’re looking for second-half fantasy football breakouts. Legette’s case also took a massive step forward this week as Carolina traded away Diontae Johnson.
In his first game following Johnson’s trade, Legette led the Panthers with six targets, catching four for 33 yards and a touchdown. Now, there are reasons to be wary of Legette. He was behind journeyman David Moore in routes on Sunday, with just a 79% participation rate. He also ranks 76th out of 103 qualified receivers this season with a 62.7 Pro Football Focus (PFF) receiving grade. Those are two decent-sized red flags before we even get into the impending return of Adam Thielen or the Panthers’ overall ineptitude.
But this is an article on stashes. The name of the game when stashing players is upside, and there aren’t many (if any) widely available players with more upside than Legette. After all, this is a first-round rookie with a shot to be the No. 1 WR on his team. In this case, I’m happy to not overthink things and hold Legette in case he breaks out down the stretch.
Quentin Johnston (WR – LAC): 33.3% Rostered
Speaking of former first-rounders, we have Quentin Johnston, who has bounced back from a dreadful rookie season to rank as the WR31 in half-PPR points per game this season. Now, it’s worth noting that a fair share of Johnston’s points have come on busted coverages, including a 66-yard touchdown on a defensive meltdown by the Browns on Sunday. Especially because he missed a few weeks with an ankle injury, those big plays are inflating his averages.
But there are some reasons to be optimistic. Johnston boasts a solid 24.3% first-read target share for the season, as well as a 2.31 yards per route run that leads the team’s qualified receivers. PFF has him graded 33rd out of 103 qualified receivers.
Another important factor that makes Johnston more interesting is that Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers have recently pulled their offense out of the Stone Age. Over the first six weeks of the season, L.A. was only ahead of the Dolphins (who were without Tua Tagovailoa) with a pass rate 7.2% below expected. Over the last three weeks, they haven’t dipped below 5% above expected. As long as that keeps up (and with Justin Herbert absolutely cooking), this offense could go from struggling to support one fantasy-relevant wide receiver to being capable of supporting two. In the age of rookie receivers being expected to produce immediately, there’s a chance Johnston can be an old-fashioned second-year breakout.
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine (WR – TEN): 0.9% Rostered
If all these first-rounders rostered in over 30% of leagues are too mainstream for you, consider Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. A five-year vet who has never reached 500 yards in a single season during his NFL career, Westbrook-Ikhine is not exactly the kind of player normally thought of as an upside waiver wire stash. However, coming off four straight weeks with touchdowns, there are a few things to like about his profile.
By far the most notable stat that has me featuring Westbrook-Ikhine in this article is his route participation over the last two weeks. Along with Calvin Ridley, Westbrook-Ikhine ran a route on at least 91.7% of the Titans’ dropbacks in both Week 8 and Week 9. It’s not surprising that those were his two best weeks of the season, including a five-catch, 50-yard, one-touchdown performance on Sunday.
Yes, route participation isn’t everything. But the power of simply being out there on a team that will be playing from behind often should not be underestimated. As long as the Titans keep concentrating their wide receiver routes on their top two players, Westbrook-Ikhine is interesting as a deep-league option.
Fantasy Football Tight End Stashes: Week 10
Hunter Henry (TE – NE): 40.7% Rostered
There aren’t many fantasy-relevant tight ends out there, so I’m just going to keep featuring Hunter Henry until he breaks the 50% rostered mark. After all, the veteran has been a TE1 in three of Drake Maye‘s four career starts. He has also averaged 7.0 targets per game in those contests. If he’s available in your league, change that.
Taysom Hill (TE – NO): 31.1% Rostered
It’s hard to find many true stashes for the tight end position at this stage of the year. It’s exceedingly rare to see a player truly emerge from nowhere and break into the must-start tier at the position. However, if there’s one tight end capable of doing that, it’s the one who isn’t even really a tight end. With Kendre Miller back on injured reserve (IR) and Jamaal Williams dealing with a groin injury, Taysom Hill is arguably the Saints’ No. 2 RB (he tied Jordan Mims for second on the team with five carries in Week 9).
If, fantasy gods forbid, Alvin Kamara was to miss time, there’s a real chance Hill would see double-digit carries per game, which would immediately elevate him into the elite tier of tight ends (that’s how low the bar is at this position). Even now, with Kamara healthy, Hill is seeing enough usage to be a streaming option. Thanks to a seven-yard touchdown rush and five targets (the most of any non-Kamara player for the Saints this week), Hill ranked as the TE5 for Week 9. If his role expands any further, due to injury or otherwise, he could be a legit set-and-forget TE1 the rest of the way.
Jonnu Smith (TE – MIA): 11.1% Rostered
Many expected Jonnu Smith to fade back into fantasy irrelevance with Tua Tagovailoa healthy, as the Dolphins’ offense was supposed to return to “normal,” with their top two wide receivers dominating targets. Instead, we may have a new normal. Smith has seen at least a 16% target share in each of the last two weeks, easily out-targeting Jaylen Waddle and just two targets behind Tyreek Hill.
Now, Smith hasn’t exactly turned his usage into fantasy gold just yet. He has just one double-digit finish all season and only two finishes inside the top 12. But he’s an elite athlete seeing consistent targets on what still has the potential to be one of the league’s best offenses. If you want to stash a backup tight end, you could certainly do worse.
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Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasyPros.com. Find him on Twitter @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.