AI WAIVER WIRE: WEEK 4

Ollie Gordon II took over Miami’s backfield the moment De’Von Achane went down, and Achane is out for the season. Seventeen carries, 41 yards and a touchdown, three catches, and 84% of the snaps on Sunday. The job he walked into is enormous: Achane had 82% of Miami’s running back opportunities through two weeks. Gordon will not get all of it. Jaylen Wright sat out Sunday with a foot injury and a stinger, and when he is back the expectation is a split. That split is the discount. What survives it is the lead role in a thin backfield for the rest of the season. He is rostered in 55% of leagues; if he is on your wire, he is the one to spend on.

Alvin Kamara is the Saints’ lead back again, because Travis Etienne’s hamstring will cost him time and nobody will say how much. The job is real: Etienne had just under half of New Orleans’ running back opportunities before he got hurt, and in Week 2 Kamara had 15 carries and targets to Etienne’s 10. Kendre Miller will take some of it, and a rookie named CJ Donaldson may take a little. Kamara is 31, so this is a committee lead, not a workhorse, priced for about three weeks. He is rostered in 57% of leagues. If he is on your wire, flip the filter and bid.

Kalif Raymond has caught at least five passes in every game and draws a fifth of Chicago’s targets, and he is still free in about two leagues out of three. Eight for 84 in the opener, five for 40, then six for 90 and a 41-yard touchdown on Monday night. He is not a full-time player; he is on the field for about two snaps in three. But when he is out there the ball finds him, and he is the first read on nearly a quarter of the throws. The quarterback is the question: Caleb Williams is out a few more weeks and the coach has not named this week’s starter. Raymond has already produced with two quarterbacks. That is the case.

Malik Washington has the eighth-highest target share in football, and he is rostered in fewer than one league in five. Ten targets on Sunday, five catches, 56 yards; 23 targets in three games. He plays 86% of the snaps, which is a starter’s job, and he was Malik Willis’ first read on four throws in ten against Kansas City. The ceiling is the offense. Miami has not been good, and it just lost its best running back for the year. The floor is volume, and volume at 19% rostered is the thing this page exists to find.

Kenyon Sadiq caught seven passes for 105 yards and a touchdown with Mason Taylor out, and Taylor’s thumb has him week to week. That was a fifth of the Jets’ targets in one game, from a first-round rookie who ran a route on barely more than half the dropbacks. He gets the ball when he is out there. Two cautions. He was limited in practice on Wednesday and nobody has said why, and when Taylor returns the snaps get shared again. A tight end with targets is rare enough to pay for; this one is priced for the weeks Taylor misses. Rostered in 54% of leagues.

Jaylen Wright is the other half of Miami’s backfield without De’Von Achane, if his foot lets him be. He sat out Sunday with a foot injury and a stinger and is listed questionable, which is why Ollie Gordon II got the whole job and the headlines. When both are healthy, the expectation is a split. Wright has three carries this season, so everything here is a bet on the role, not the track record. Rostered in 15% of leagues. If Gordon is gone in yours, this is the consolation, and it is not a bad one.

Mack Hollins was the first read on more than half of New England’s throws on Sunday, and A.J. Brown is on injured reserve through Week 5. Nine targets, six catches, 87 yards. That first-read number was the third-highest in the league for the week, which is a sentence I did not expect to write about Mack Hollins. Nobody is confusing him with Brown. But a receiver who plays about three snaps in four and gets the ball first is a deep-league starter for two weeks, and he is rostered in 8% of leagues.

Sam Darnold threw for 379 yards and four touchdowns in his first full game back, and he is rostered in fewer than half of leagues. He missed Week 2 with a glute injury, then threw 45 times against Washington in a 33–31 loss. Two interceptions came with it. Seattle threw 45 times in a two-point game, which tells you what it thinks of the arm. Superflex leagues should already have him. One-quarterback leagues with a bye or a hurt starter: this is the upgrade.

Kendre Miller is the second back in New Orleans with Travis Etienne out, and he is rostered in 7% of leagues. He had about a fifth of the Saints’ backfield work in Week 3 and scored in the opener. With Etienne gone, the carries split between Miller and Alvin Kamara, and Kamara is 31. That is the whole case: a committee back for about three weeks, with a path to more if the man in front of him wears down.

Keaton Mitchell is turning the Chargers’ backfield into a timeshare, and he is rostered in 18% of leagues. Eight carries for 52 yards and a receiving touchdown on Sunday, to Omarion Hampton’s 15 carries. Hampton still gets most of the work, so this is not a changing of the guard. It is a speed back getting real touches in a real offense. A flex in deep leagues and a handcuff everywhere else, and the kind of handcuff that scores even when nobody gets hurt.

Tyler Higbee caught eight of 11 targets for 62 yards and a touchdown on Sunday, and the Rams’ other two tight ends are hurt. Terrance Ferguson’s ankle has him probably out this week, and Colby Parkinson has a sprained shoulder. That leaves Higbee as the tight end in an offense that threw to him on a fifth of its targets and looked to him first on a quarter of them. A one-week rental, at a position where one week is often all you need. Rostered in 1% of leagues.

Marcus Mariota threw three touchdowns in a win over Seattle and is expected to start again in London, because Jayden Daniels is not expected to play. Nineteen of 31 for 183 yards, no interceptions, a 33–31 win. The report is that Daniels will try to play through the elbow and have surgery after the season, so this is week to week, not a new starter. Superflex: he starts while it lasts. One-quarterback leagues: a matchup stream against Indianapolis, nothing more.

Konata Mumpfield caught four passes for 93 yards and a touchdown with Puka Nacua out, and nobody knows yet whether Nacua plays this week. Eight targets, about three snaps in four. The Rams say they are hopeful about Nacua’s groin, and hope is not a status. If Nacua sits, Mumpfield is a one-week flex in a good offense. If he plays, you drop Mumpfield on Monday and it cost you nothing. Rostered in 1% of leagues.

Jalon Daniels starts for Tampa Bay while Baker Mayfield’s thumb heals, and that is at least three weeks. He is an undrafted rookie who spent six seasons at Kansas, and his relief appearance on Sunday went badly: no completions in three throws, an interception, one nine-yard run. So why is he here? Because he runs, and because superflex leagues need bodies with a starting job attached. One-quarterback leagues can ignore this entirely. Rostered in 1% of leagues.

Isaiah Davis is next in line behind Braelon Allen now that Breece Hall is out, which puts him one injury from a very large job. Hall had 73% of the Jets’ backfield opportunities through two weeks, and Allen inherits most of it. Davis has no carries or catches this season, so this is a pure handcuff. He is rostered in 4% of leagues. If you roster Allen, you want him. If you don’t, you might want him anyway.