When it comes to the waiver wire, there are certainly the more obvious pickups. We cover those in our weekly waiver wire article. However, if you’re playing in deeper leagues or ones with much deeper rosters, this is the place for you. In this series of articles, we’ll be touching on players who are rostered in 25% or fewer fantasy football leagues.

Oftentimes, we call these players “stashes”. Many of these players are for 14+ team leagues. Either that, or in extremely deep rosters where you have a bench you could add a player and sit on them for a few weeks and hope they earn a starting role. Finally, they could be even on the waiver wire in your dynasty leagues. Hence, the stashes. Without further ado, let’s dig into the top waiver wire pickups as we head into Week 3 of the fantasy football season.

Rostered percentages below are from Sleeper as of 9/19/2023.

Fantasy Football Deep Dive Waiver Wire Pickups

Running Backs

Pierre Strong, RB, Cleveland Browns (Sleeper Rostered 4%)

With the awful news of Nick Chubb’s knee injury, the big question mark becomes who takes over the backfield. Jerome Ford is the obvious answer and should be the top waiver claim this week. The Cleveland Browns have been known to get the backup running backs involved heavily in the offense, so if they don’t sign a veteran, Pierre Strong is set to be the backup in Cleveland.

Strong was traded from New England so they do view him highly. Strong only had a rush for two yards, but it was a touchdown against the Steelers. Keep in mind, that Kareem Hunt is visiting the Browns as of Tuesday afternoon, but Strong is someone to keep in mind in deeper formats.

Latavius Murray, RB, Buffalo Bills (Sleeper Rostered 3%)

Buffalo ran the score up Sunday against the Raiders allowing Buffalo to rotate their backfield much more. James Cook, Damien Harris, and Latavius Murray all saw playing time. Murray rushed six times for 22 yards and a touchdown. He also caught both of his targets for nine yards. While he is not the starter, he does provide deep league interest as there is a good chance Buffalo is running the clock out a lot this season, putting Murray in for late-game rushes.

Craig Reynolds, RB, Detroit Lions (Sleeper Rostered 0%)

David Montgomery is injured, and the timeline goes from day to day to weeks. Jahmyr Gibbs will now act as the lead back in Detroit. Detroit recently elevated ex-Jets running back, Zonovan Knight to the active roster who did play well for the Jets, but Craig Reynolds also had late-season success in 2021. While he may not have much value at all long term due to Montgomery coming back soon, he provides a fill-in in deeper formats for this coming week.

Wide Receivers

DeVante Parker, WR, New England Patriots (Sleeper Rostered 7%)

With new offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien, Mac Jones has had a good start to the season. While the Patriots are 0-2 to start the season, their offense has looked night and day different from last season. There are question marks about Juju Smith-Schuster and his knee. DeVante Parker made his debut this season against the Dolphins and caught six of eight targets for 57 yards. In a revenge game for Parker, he was involved often in the game. He has a tough matchup against the Jets this coming week, but Parker has long-term value in this offense with Bill O’Brien.

Josh Downs, WR, Indianapolis Colts (Sleeper Rostered 12%)

Anthony Richardson has had back-to-back solid fantasy performances and would have had a much bigger game Sunday if he had not suffered a concussion. As a result, his pass catchers are getting a big boost. The rookie Josh Downs is one of the beneficiaries of this. Downs caught four of five passes for 37 yards. He has seen 12 total targets in two games so far this season, but with Richardson improving each week, Downs should see more targets each game as he becomes the WR2 in Indianapolis.

Marvin Mims, WR, Denver Broncos (Sleeper Rostered 22%)

With Denver’s wide receiver corps at full strength, it was presumed Marvin Mims’s role would not increase. While Mims only saw two targets, he did catch both for 113 yards and a long 60-yard touchdown. The volume is not where fantasy managers want it to be, but the playmaking ability is present, and only two games into his career, Mims has a lot of promising upside.

Dontayvion Wicks, WR, Green Bay Packers (Sleeper Rostered 0%)

Green Bay has been operating without their WR1 Christian Watson for the last two weeks. While the hope is he comes back this week, Dontayvion Wicks got involved in the offense on Sunday. He caught two of four targets for 40 yards and a touchdown (a 32-yarder). While his role will be unknown when Watson returns, he has shown flashes and could have fantasy value as the season progresses.

Tight Ends

Zach Ertz, TE, Arizona Cardinals (Sleeper Rostered 17%)

A few years ago, Zach Ertz was one of the top fantasy tight-end options. Ertz was busy Sunday against the Giants seeing eight targets and catching six for 56 yards. Over the past two weeks, he has seen a combined 18 targets. Trey McBride was the popular option for tight end for the Cardinals, but he has only seen five combined targets versus 18 for Ertz over the first two games.

Kylen Granson, TE, Indianapolis Colts (Sleeper Rostered 2%)

The tight end room in Indianapolis seems like a mess coming into the season. Mo Alie-Cox and Will Mallory are in the tight end room, but Kylen Granson may be the one to come out of it with the most fantasy value. Granson has played in both games so far and has seen ten combined targets and seven catches. He has 55 yards receiving in two games combined and one touchdown. While it’s not eye-popping stats, he is a deep league option or a two-tight-end format option.

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