In the large majority of 2021 fantasy football drafts, with the exception of a small handful, the first two picks off the board were Christian McCaffrey and Dalvin Cook. In Week 3, McCaffrey exited the game with a hamstring injury that will ultimately cost him multiple weeks. Cook didn't suit up due to a lingering ankle injury that kept him sidelined from practice all week and gave way to a strong performance from Alexander Mattison.
That wasn't the ideal scenario for those teams who drafted at No. 1 and No. 2 overall, but such is life in the cruel — yet so, so alluring — world of fantasy football.
The waiver wire is one of your only friends in this unpredictable landscape, and using it to your advantage is one of the keys to success in outwitting your league mates and building a strong enough team to compete despite the injuries, underperforming players and other obstacles in the way of glory. Let's see what Week 4 has in store.
Only players owned in fewer than 50 percent of leagues will be considered. All statistics courtesy of Fantasy Pros.
Chuba Hubbard | Carolina Panthers, RB
Chuba Hubbard has a chance to lead the Carolina backfield.
(Tim Warner/Getty Images)
Yahoo: 25% owned | ESPN: 11% owned
This is an easy one. McCaffrey may not be out for too long — hopefully that's the case — but any CMC owners that didn't handcuff the star back with Hubbard are kicking themselves. They'll likely allocate a huge portion of their annual FAAB toward the rookie out of Oklahoma State, but everyone should be doing their due diligence and attempting to get their hands on Hubbard.
Remember, when McCaffrey was on IR from Week 3 to Week 8 last year, Davis was the RB6 in all of fantasy football (half-PPR). Hubbard had the large majority of the snaps after McCaffrey went down, even getting some totes before the injury, and so he should have a lead role for the time being.
Peyton Barber | Las Vegas Raiders, RB
Peyton Barber had a huge workload in Week 3.
(Chris Unger/Getty Images)
Yahoo: 7% owned | ESPN: 7% owned
Everyone was looking at Kenyan Drake to be the bigger fantasy commodity after Josh Jacobs' injury, but Barber out-touched Drake 26 to 11 and had 87 more rushing yards than him with similar receiving outputs. That's a significant disparity, and should Jacobs miss another week, Barber is the hot hand to roll with.
Obviously, though, Jacobs' return would lower Barber's fantasy stock a whole lot, making him a non-factor. So keep your eye out, and if we still haven't heard anything promising about Jacobs' status by the time waivers are ready to process early on Wednesday morning, you can get yourself a temporary workhorse in Barber. The Chargers offer a nice matchup, too, seeing as they have given up nice fantasy showings to four RBs — Antonio Gibson, Tony Pollard, Ezekiel Elliott and Clyde Edwards-Helaire — in three games.
Tim Patrick | Denver Broncos, WR
Tim Patrick is the beneficiary of two fellow Broncos WRs dealing with injuries.
(Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)
Yahoo: 22% owned | ESPN: 14% owned
Patrick was targeted at least four times in all but one game last season, and he's been targeted at least four times in each of the three games he's played this year. His floor is there. He's not just going to vanish. And now that Jerry Jeudy remains sidelined for a little while longer and K.J. Hamler is out for the year, you can expect Patrick's ceiling to rise as well.
He's had double-digit performances all three weeks this year, too, so if you need some sort of sturdy but unexciting flex option, he was a good option. Now he's a great option — again for a not-so-great role — and both the Ravens and Steelers have given up some sizable plays to opponents.
Kadarius Toney | New York Giants, WR
Kadarius Toney saw his largest snap count yet in Week 3.
(Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Yahoo: 2% owned | ESPN: 3% owned
Though Giants fans surely would've preferred Toney to organically find himself a role in the offense as opposed to what has actually happened — injuries to both Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton — it looks like Toney's role is set to increase in a pretty big way. He already saw an uptick in snaps in Week 3, going from five in Week 1 and 19 in Week 2 to 46 in Week 3. And though he didn't do much with the time, getting a 66 percent snap share is encouraging.
If both Shepard and Slayton miss significant time — or even one of them — the rookie could do some of the things we've been waiting to see.
Mike Gesicki | Miami Dolphins, TE
Mike Gesicki should be rostered in all formats and has legitimate TE1 potential.
(Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Yahoo: 56% owned | ESPN: 65% owned
Ok, I'm cheating a little bit on this one — I said we'd only consider players owned in fewer than 50 percent of leagues — but both of those numbers have to be a lot closer to 100. Gesicki has the fourth most targets (21) of any tight end, behind only Darren Waller (33), Travis Kelce (26) and T.J. Hockenson (22). His Week 1 dud may have dissuaded fantasy owners from sticking with him, but he had six targets in Week 2 and exploded for 10 catches on 12 targets for 86 yards.
12 targets at a position as depleted (for fantasy purposes) as the tight end is a rarity, and Gesicki should be rostered in all formats.
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