Fantasy
12/9/24
7 min read
Fantasy Football 2024: Week 15 Waiver Wire Targets
And exhale…
The fantasy playoffs are here. Congratulations to those who’ve made it thus far. Your efforts didn’t go unnoticed by your league mates, and now you’re a mere matter of three (or perhaps even two if you got the first-round bye) victories away from the ultimate prize.
But before you set your sights on the championship game, it’s important to remember that getting there comes first.
That means continuing to nurture your roster, ensuring quality backups are on your bench, or even sharply blocking your opponent from making quality adds by adding players you don’t necessarily need!
Defense can be the best offense sometimes, you know. Together, let’s look at five players that winning fantasy managers should add ahead of Week 15:
NFL Week 15 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Targets
Sincere McCormick, RB, Las Vegas Raiders
- ESPN Rostership: 11.2 percent
- Yahoo Rostership: 15 percent
The bar for this achievement is quite low, but Sincere McCormick seems to be the best running back on the Las Vegas Raiders.
During the last three weeks, the former UDFA has averaged 10.7 carries and 58.3 rushing yards per game, according to FantasyData. Believe it or not, this is the highlight clip of yardage efficiency of any Raiders running back in 2024 — better than Alexander Mattison (32.0 yards per game) or Zamir White (22.9 yards per game).
Another notable fact is that McCormick’s teammate, Ameer Abdullah, faded into irrelevance in Week 14 vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, only registering one carry and two targets as a pass-catcher. Sunday’s contest was very much just The Sincere McCormick Show.
While McCormick’s contributions offensively have only netted 7.6 points per game in point-per-reception (PPR) scoring to date, a team’s majority backfield shareholder shouldn’t be broadly available on the waiver wire this deep into the season.
We’re not talking about a significant upside play here. The only time McCormick should land in your lineup is as an injury fill-in. Still, having those players nestled on your bench in the fantasy playoffs is essential.
Act now if McCormick is still available in your league.
Isaiah Davis, RB,New York Jets
- ESPN Rostership: 3.4 percent
- Yahoo Rostership: 11 percent
Sundays without New York Jets RB Breece Hall (knee) aren’t particularly fun, but they’re palatable if you roster the proper lineup replacement.
Many, including myself, anticipated that rookie Braelon Allen would step up and lead the way in Week 14’s contest against the Miami Dolphins. While that prediction was accurate in terms of the box score (11 attempts, 41 rushing yards), he didn’t hold down the backfield alone.
Isaiah Davis, a fifth-rounder from South Dakota State, tallied 10 carries for 40 rushing yards and a touchdown in tandem duty against the Dolphins. He did trail Allen in the receiving department as well (3 catches, 27 yards), but it’s notable that New York didn’t go with a singular workhorse back in the absence of their superstar.
Should Hall’s knee injury cause him to miss additional time, Davis would be in line to potentially see some additional value moving forward. Between himself and Allen, Davis is the only Jets runner broadly available in leagues, too.
There’s not a ton of security to the future value of Davis, unlike McCormick above, but he’s worth taking a chance on if you need a decent flex option.
Adam Thielen, WR, Carolina Panthers
- ESPN Rostership: 38.7 percent
- Yahoo Rostership: 53 percent
If running backs aren’t of interest to you, might I suggest a resurgent former fantasy superstar wideout?
Carolina Panthers WR Adam Thielen continued to dominate on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, ending the contest with nine catches on 11 targets for 102 receiving yards. This effort marks his second-straight game with at least 10 targets and should put fantasy managers on notice.
Since returning from a hamstring injury in Week 12, the veteran leads the team in targets (25) and receiving yards per game (86.0), all while scoring at a rate of 17.3 PPR points per game, a clip that ranks 15th among all wideouts in those three weeks.
The odds of identifying a borderline WR1 on the wire are pretty rare at this point of the year. Managers in Yahoo leagues have seemingly figured it out with Thielen already, given he’s over the 50 percent rostership threshold typically required to qualify for this article.
Still, folks playing on ESPN haven’t gotten the memo evidently, so let this be your final notice: if you want a consistent wideout contributor, Adam Thielen is your man.
Sterling Shepard, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- ESPN Rostership: 8.7 percent
- Yahoo Rostership: 7 percent
Have you noticed who holds the second-highest target share (21.9 percent) on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the past three weeks?
If you guessed anyone besides 31-year-old Sterling Shepard, you’re wrong.
Those in leagues where Thielen is already rostered can worry not. Sterling Shepard, the former New York Giant, has been a consistent earner of late and is available in over 90 percent of both ESPN and Yahoo leagues (19 percent rostered on Sleeper for all you diehards out there).
The veteran has seen at least six targets per game since Week 12, earning 4.3 receptions and 40.3 receiving yards per game in that span. Just in raw fantasy terms (not accounting for any touchdowns), that’s good for around 8 PPR points; not a bad desperation flex play or injury fill-in!
Go ahead and scoop Shepard if you’re in a deeper format or just want someone with a safe floor should one of your starters have health issues before the end of the year.
Juwan Johnson, TE, New Orleans Saints
- ESPN Rostership: 13.9 percent
- Yahoo Rostership: 10 percent
We close by discussing a player who’s stepped up without a dominant teammate in the lineup.
The New Orleans Saints’ offense isn’t quite the same when Taysom Hill (torn ACL) isn’t on the field, but his absence did open up an opportunity for his teammate Juwan Johnson to shine. Through the past two games, the latter has received 12 total targets and finished this Sunday’s contest against the New York Giants with 4 receptions, 50 receiving yards, and a touchdown.
Any tight end that can see a decent amount of targets and have a chance as a 4-40-1 receiving line weekly will always be in the fantasy discussion. So, fantasy managers should be interested as long as Johnson can sustain this usage during the season's final weeks.
There aren’t any guarantees here, but remember that this team is already without top wideouts Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed, not to mention Hill again.
The ball kind of has to go somewhere, right?
Call it a lazy analysis, but the target totals in the last two weeks speak for themselves. You don’t throw to Johnson 12 times in two games by accident.
May everyone have good luck out on the wire. We’ll be back with Week 15 rankings on Wednesday.
