Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups after Week 1

We are now done with week 1 and all of the over-reaction craziness.  Most players are not as bad or as good as they looked in week 1.  Do not cut your studs quite just yet, let things play out a bit for making major changes. You drafted your team because you liked these guys.  Here are my free agent picks for the week at each position:

QB

• Arizona Cardinals QB Carson Palmer, He has played at a QB1 level for his Cardinals career and is my top QB pickup of the week.
• Tennessee Titans QB Marcus Mariota,  He looked as good as you can but will not play the Bucs every week.
• Buffalo Bills QB Tyrod Taylor, He looks like the perfect fit for what Rex wants to do, a solid guy for 2 QB leagues.

RB

• New England Patriots RB Dion Lewis, At best he picks up the Shane Vereen role and is a PPR every week start, at worst he is great running back insurance.
• Tennessee Titans RB Bishop Sankey, He is off a career high in yards, may not have a game like this again but is worth a bottom roster spot.
• Dallas Cowboys RB Lance Dunbar, He is a PPR monster with Dez Bryant out a long time
• Arizona Cardinals RB Chris Johnson, He is the starter for now, if you need a guy for next week or two you could do worse.
• Denver Broncos RB Ronnie Hillman,  This is a lottery ticket who had the same amount of carries as their starter last week.
• Buffalo Bills RB Karlos Williams,  He looked better than LeSean McCoy and I am not saying he can win the job but if you have a spot, you never know.

WR

• San Diego Chargers WR Stevie Johnson,  He looks to have a huge role with a great schedule and is my #1 pickup overall this week.
• Green Bay Packers WR James Jones,  All he does is score touchdowns and played the same amounts of snaps as the starters last week.
• Dallas Cowboys WR Terrence Williams,  He is now WR1 but I am not sure he will handle the extra attention well but in that offense, he should be an every week fantasy starter.
• Indianapolis Colts WR Donte Moncrief,  T.Y Hilton status is not clear but with 11 targets last week, he is a must grab this week.
• Dallas Cowboys WR Cole Beasley,  With his expanded role, I am expecting 6-8 targets a game.

TE

• Cinncinati Bengals TE Tyler Eifert,  He broke out big time last week and if you do not have Gronk or Graham, he is a must add to at least play defense on other league mates.
• Washington Redskins TE Jordan Reed,  He and Kirk Cousin had a nice connection, as long as he is healthy, he is an every week starter.
• St Louis Rams TE Jared Cook,  He has flashed like this before but with the quick throws needed with the Rams OL, he could have a very big season.

Defense

• Miami Dolphins,   The Jacksonville Jaguars are a go against team every week
• Minnesota Vikings,  They are back home and the Detroit Lions usually play very poorly on the road.

Thank you for reading and have a great week, feel free to ask any questions here or on Twitter.

Mike Dietrich

Mike Dietrich is the fantasy football columnist for JetNation.

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