Fantasy Football Week 2 Waiver Wire Pickups

If you play fantasy football, you know that winning doesn’t happen at the draft. Here are our suggested waiver wire Week 2 pickups. Or, skip straight to the inital release of our model’s complete Week 2 projections.

If you’ve played fantasy football for more than just this past week, you know that winning your league doesn’t happen at the draft.

While that plays a crucial part, staying active on the waiver wire and making smart trades is the key to pulling off the victory at the end of the year.

With that in mind, here are the top waiver wire pickups to consider as you’re putting in your claims going into Week 2.

Week 2 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Advice

Running Backs

J.K. Dobbins, Los Angeles Chargers

There’s a very good chance that J.K. Dobbins is already rostered in your league, but he’s worth mentioning due to the fact that he’s available in approximately 37% of Yahoo & ESPN leagues. That number should obviously be much lower after his performance in Week 1.

While Dobbins didn’t handle a significant workload for the Chargers, he made the opportunities count by taking 10 carries and turning that into 135 yards on the ground. He led all running backs with at least 10 carries in yards after contact.

Add in the touchdown and the veteran RB turned in a top-five fantasy performance right out of the gate.

There were questions about what the backfield split would look like between him and Gus Edwards, but Dobbins should assert himself as the top option moving forward after this dominant performance.

He’s worth spending around 20-25% of your FAAB budget on, if he’s available.

Jordan Mason, San Francisco 49ers

Fantasy managers weren’t exactly expecting to see Christian McCaffrey ruled inactive an hour and a half before kickoff on Monday night, but that decision instantly vaulted Jordan Mason up the waiver wire rankings.

He delivered in a big way with a monstrous performance in McCaffrey’s absence. The young RB totaled 150+ total yards of offense and was able to find the end zone twice, but one touchdown was called back due to an offensive hold. He’s certainly going to be a hot waiver wire target going into Week 2 on the back of that performance.

With the possibility that McCaffrey misses Week 2 now, too, Mason needs to be prioritized in your league if you need a replacement option. However, once McCaffrey returns, Mason will go back to being just a bench stash.

Justice Hill, Baltimore Ravens

After the departure of Dobbins and Edwards this offseason, Justice Hill looked to be in a prime spot to lead this backfield moving into 2024 and beyond. However, a marquee signing of Derrick Henry slammed the door shut on that thought process pretty quickly.

What we saw in Week 1 was certainly a surprise, as Henry handled the majority of the work on the ground and Hill stepped in as the primary pass catching option. In fact, Hill out-snapped Henry in this backfield 43 to 37 by the time everything was said and done, which puts the electric playmaker on the map in fantasy football leagues.

Hill’s unlikely to fall into the league-winner category, but he’ll serve a very valuable purpose in full-PPR formats and can be looked at as a flex option as early as Week 2. He’s a target in the 10% FAAB range for the 96% of Yahoo & ESPN leagues where he can be found on the waiver wire.

Tank Bigsby, Jacksonville Jaguars

All offseason there was a steady drumbeat from the Jaguars that they wanted to lighten the workload of Travis Etienne Jr. and that Tank Bigsby was ready to step up to the plate. We certainly saw that be the case in Week 1 as both RBs ended the game with the exact same number of carries (12).

While Etienne cashed in at the goal line, Bigsby outperformed him on the ground with 73 yards to 44 when the game clock landed on zero. The second-year player out of Auburn looked explosive and decisive as he averaged 6.1 yards per attempt and had two runs of 10+ yards to pair with four missed tackles. His 0.33 forced missed or broken tackles per touch was sixth among all running backs with at least 10 carries.

He’s certainly not into league-winner territory, but Bigsby deserves to be rostered everywhere and he’s currently available in 95% of Yahoo and ESPN leagues.

Wide Receivers

Greg Dortch, Arizona Cardinals

While Dortch was a favorite sleeper of mine going into the season, it was never in consideration that he would see a 30% team target share right out of the gate in Week 1.

There was plenty of noise for Dortch throughout training camp that he could carve out a favorable role for himself in this offense out of the slot, but Marvin Harrison Jr. was expected to be the main beneficiary of Kyler Murray’s pass attempts and Dortch was projected to get whatever was left over.

That wasn’t the case against the Buffalo Bills though as Dortch saw eight targets that he converted into six receptions for 47 yards.

Moving forward, Dortch is highly unlikely to see as high of a target share as he did in Week 1, but this previous matchup showed us that Kyler trusts him and will look for him if he’s open.

Dortch is worth a 10% FAAB bid in your league.

Demarcus Robinson, Los Angeles Rams

With the news that Puka Nacua is landing on injured reserve after aggravating the knee injury that he sustained over the summer, there are a few Rams WRs that instantly shoot up the rankings into fantasy relevance.

While Tyler Johnson had a solid game on Sunday night against the Detroit Lions, a large percentage of his 79 receiving yards came on one chunk play. While it was certainly an impressive play to make several defenders miss, it’s not the kind of play we can rely on happening every week.

Robinson has been a key part of this offense previously, which makes him the priority add for me going into Week 2. From Weeks 13-17 last year, Robinson did not have a single game in which he didn’t find the end zone or total less than 90 receiving yards. He understands this offense and has already built up chemistry with Matthew Stafford, which gives him the edge over someone like Johnson in this WR room.

Robinson’s a solid addition now that we know that Nacua is going to be sidelined for the next several weeks. You can target him with around 10% of your FAAB.

Brandin Cooks, Dallas Cowboys

Brandin Cooks has seemingly been in the NFL for ages now, but he’s still got plenty left in the tank, as we saw on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. The Cowboys and Dak Prescott desperately need a solid No. 2 receiving weapon alongside CeeDee Lamb and Cooks could wind up being a touchdown machine this year in Dallas.

He ran 26 routes, second on the Cowboys behind CeeDee Lamb (30), and was targeted seven times. Again, only Lamb had more (10). Jake Ferguson had five targets but has an MCL sprain and while he might still play with the injury, it’s not ideal for the second-year tight end. It might be a boon for Cooks volume though.

Cooks is not the flashiest player at this point of his career, but he can provide some solid depth for your fantasy roster that can be plugged in at any point into your Flex spot for plenty of touchdown upside.

He’s currently only rostered in 31% of Yahoo & ESPN leagues.

Tight Ends

Isaiah Likely, Baltimore Ravens

Likely is no stranger to waiver wire columns across the fantasy football landscape, but this one may be one of his final appearances as it looks like he’s here to stay on fantasy rosters everywhere after his Week 1 performance against the Kansas City Chiefs.

He finished with 26.1 PPR fantasy points, almost 12 more than TE2 this week – Foster Moreau of the New Orleans Saints.

Likely wound up with nine receptions for 111 yards and a touchdown – he was a big toe away from having a second – and he instantly put himself on the radar as a premier waiver-wire target going into Week 2.

Yes, Likely deserves to be added and he should be started this next week in your fantasy lineup if you do scoop him up. However, we need to remain measured in our projections and not get too carried away as we submit our claims this week.

Mark Andrews is not going to be a non-factor every week. He’s still one of the most talented TEs in the league and the Chiefs were intent on guarding him as much as they could to eliminate him from the game plan. Baltimore should continue to utilize 12-personnel packages (one running back, two tight ends on the field) heavily to create mismatches, but Andrews will still be a key presence in this offense.

Likely is worth spending 10% of your FAAB on, depending on how much you need a starting TE moving forward.

Be sure to check out our full Week 2 fantasy football projections, as well as our NFL, MLB, NBA, and college football coverage. And follow us on X, Instagram and Threads for more!