Jared Levitt 
Welcome to the Week 8 edition of The Wire Report for the 2021 NFL season. In this article I’ll be highlighting some of the top players that should still be available in your season long leagues.
We now have 7 weeks of games in the books. With injuries starting to mount we’re getting some extremely low owned players thrust into the limelight.
Below are my top waiver wire targets:
Kenneth Gainwell– Running Back – Philadelphia Eagles (26.3% Rostered in ESPN Leagues)
With Miles Sanders questionable for a week 8 matchup vs. the Detroit Lions we need take a stab at grabbing Kenneth Gainwell if he’s available. While Gainwell will probably split time with Boston Scott in the backfield, he provides us with some serious upside as he’s someone that has shown the ability to catch the ball. He has multiple games this year with 8 targets and this past weekend one of those targets resulted in a TD. With the options starting to get a little thin on the waiver wire, getting a guy like Gainwell is a must.
Brandon Bolden – Running Back – New England Patriots (5.5% Rostered in ESPN Leagues)
With James White out for the year with a hip injury, Bolden stepped up in a big way. Bolden finished Sunday with 6 receptions on 7 targets and 79 yards. He also found the end zone once. While his teammate Damien Harris will continue to be the main the guy on the ground, Bolden is the back that will get the targets and he clicked pretty quickly with Jones. Next week the Patriots get a tough match up vs. the Chargers. If they get down early we could see them abandon the run and go with a pass heavy offense. This favors Bolden big time.
Allen Lazard – Wide Receiver – Green Bay Packers (4.9% Rostered in ESPN Leagues)
This is dependent on a couple of things. There is a chance that MVS comes back this week from his hamstring injury. If he is back, I’m not as big on Lazard. The next thing is a bit bigger. Davante Adams was placed on the Covid-19 list yesterday and with it being a short week for the Packers, there’s a real strong chance he misses this week.
If one or both of these guys miss the game this week I’m a big fan of picking up Lazard. Up until the last couple of weeks Lazard has been pretty quiet. He’s had 2 straight weeks of at least 5 targets and has found the end zone in back to back weeks. We may have a perfect storm brewing for Lazard to have a monster week.
Cole Kmet – Tight End – Chicago Bears (18.4% Rostered in ESPN Leagues)
Kmet is starting to “heat” up. He now has back to back weeks of at least 40 yards and has targets of 5 and 6 in those weeks. While I doubt that Kmet is going to win you your Fantasy championship, he should fill in admirably this week if you are missing your regular tight end.
Rashod Bateman – Wide Receiver – Baltimore Ravens (19% Rostered in ESPN Leagues)
In just 2 weeks Bateman has become a favorite of Lamar Jackson. He now has back to back weeks of 6 targets. This week he was able to do a bit more with them as he finished the game with 80 receiving yards. He’s built up a nice rapport with Lamar Jackson and could be fun to watch during the playoff stretch. I don’t normally recommend players on a bye week, but if you have the room to stash a receiver Bateman should be the guy to pick up.
Teddy Bridgewater – Quarterback – Denver Broncos (21.4% Rostered in ESPN Leagues)
Need a QB this week? Go get Bridgewater. Bridgewater has shown some serious upside at times this year. He has multiple games with over 300 yard passing and has thrown multiple TD passes in 5 out of the 7 weeks this year. This week he gets as good of a match up as there is. No team has given up more passing TD’s than the WFT this season. Bridgewater should have a solid week and will make for a solid filler for your QB if they are on bye.
Nico Collins – Wide Receiver – Houston Texans (1.7% Rostered in ESPN Leagues)
This is for Stix. While I’d pick him up regardless of who is behind center, I would like Collins a lot more if Tyrod Taylor makes his comeback this week. Collins is starting to get more involved with offense. Over the last 2 weeks he has been targeted 11 times. While he hasn’t done much with the targets, he’s still getting them. Collins is available everywhere and he’s well worth taking a flyer on now that he’s become more involved with the offense.
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