Week 6 Waiver Wire: Top Pickups and Drops

Like clockwork, injuries and breakout performances make the Week 6 waiver wire a critical piece to the puzzle that is a fantasy football championship.

Those who remain idle on the wire commit to another week of the status quo as the league wildly changes around them. There will always be a player out there ripe for the picking who can improve an owner's roster, but it is up to the owner to pull the trigger on gut feelings after a bevy of research.

Take last week, for example. Those brave enough to roll the dice on St. Louis quarterback Austin Davis against a miserable Philadelphia defense watched as he racked up 26 points, second only to a guy named Peyton.

So let's not drag our feet on the matter. Based on a number of factors in tandem, some of the most sensible pickups and drops are listed below.

Top Pickups

Andre Williams, RB, New York Giants (36.4 percent owned)

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Say hello to the pickup of the week.

Owners with a roster spot to spare knew it was but a matter of time before Rashad Jennings missed a few games. As great as Jennings has been for owners, he has never played in a full 16-game season despite his status as a backup before this year.

Sunday, Jennings went down with a notable injury, as captured by Jordan Raanan of NJ.com:

All rookie Andre Williams did after the fact was gain 65 yards and a score on 20 totes, good for 13 fantasy points—and his second consecutive double-digit output.

Williams is a bruiser who will get his when given the chance. For those still on the fence, he next gets to beat up on a Philadelphia defense that allows the 10th-most points to the position. After that is Dallas, and while the team ranks well against backs, a look at the team's list of recent opponents (Tennessee, St. Louis, New Orleans) says it all.

If Williams is out there, get him as soon as possible. 

Ronnie Hillman, RB, Denver Broncos (0.9 percent owned)

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In an unfortunate turn of events, Denver starting back Montee Ball appears headed to the shelf for a long period of time, as explained by NFL.com's Ian Rapoport:

Hillman is in no way a traditional feature back who will carry the work on his own, but he is the next man up behind Ball and explosive enough to have fantasy value in an offense seemingly designed to get fantasy production out of whoever lines up behind or next to Manning.

Many will point out that Hillman next encounters a New York Jets defense that entering last weekend ranked No. 1 overall in terms of points allowed to backs. But few will realize that he came off the bench Sunday against Arizona—a defense that ranks No. 4 overall in that same category—and tallied 64 yards for a cool six points.

Hillman is very much a long play. He will fare better against weaker defenses, but again, in this offense matchups tend to go out the window. Touches equal production at running back, especially in Denver.

Branden Oliver, RB, San Diego Chargers (0.4 percent owned)

By the way, that Jets defense that may deter some away from Hillman made Branden Oliver a fantasy star last week and a must-have pickup on the wire now.

Oliver wound up as the top-scoring running back with only Monday's game to go this past weekend after Donald Brown went down with a concussion. Of course, Brown was only the full-blown starter because Ryan Mathews and Danny Woodhead went down with injuries in prior weeks.

As Rotoworld.com's Adam Levitan points out, Oliver beat out a talented rookie for a roster spot for good reason:

Owners obviously cannot expect Oliver to go for 29 points each week until Mathews returns, but he has assured himself some playing time regardless of Brown's status and will thrive as Philip Rivers keeps defenses honest. He obviously has the sheer talent to take advantage of the situation.

To top it all off, Oliver will be quite productive as early as next week thanks to a matchup with an Oakland defense that allows the sixth-most points to backs.

Louis Murphy, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0.3 percent owned)

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Sorry, but Louis Murphy is going to appear on lists such as this week after week until that ownership percentage takes a serious jump. 

For whatever reason, Murphy is back and has a seemingly unbreakable rapport with quarterback Mike Glennon. Remember, Murphy was the guy who got cut earlier this season due to injury and recently got a job again once healthy.

Just last week Murphy led the Buccaneers in targets and receiving en route to nine fantasy points. It was fair to chalk that up as an anomaly, but Murphy tallied the same output against New Orleans thanks to three catches for 35 yards and a score.

It helps that rookie wideout Mike Evans is out with an injury, but even upon his return, suddenly breaking the Glennon-Murphy connection does not seem likely.

Here is one for the road, too—Murphy is a starter for at least one more week before a bye, which means he gets to feast on a Baltimore defense that surrenders the seventh-most points to wideouts this year.

Tim Wright, TE, New England Patriots (2.4 percent owned)

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When the New England Patriots start rolling with a two-tight end look to sound success, it is time for fantasy owners to pay attention.

Tim Wright is the name to know. After an epic loss at the hands of Kansas City, Tom Brady and the Patriots came out firing on all cylinders Sunday night against Cincinnati, with perhaps the biggest new wrinkle being the inclusion of Wright, who caught five passes for 85 yards and a touchdown for 16 points, making him the fifth-highest scorer at the position on the week.

Before that, Wright had scored a total of three points in four games.

The question now becomes whether or not Wright will continue to see as many opportunities. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), he only played on 19 of a possible 87 snaps. In other words, he is alarmingly efficient and may be due for even more looks in the passing game now that he has proven himself.

For the time being, Wright is a boom-or-bust player who is worthy of TE2 consideration. Should he start to see more snaps, he needs to be owned in all leagues.

Drops

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Toby Gerhart, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars (92.0 percent owned)

LeGarrette Blount, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers (83.9 percent owned)

Marques Colston, WR, New Orleans Saints (100.0 percent owned)

The Toby Gerhart experiment is over.

About a week and change ago, Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley had to defend his limited usage of the supposed every-down starter, as captured by Ryan O'Halloran of The Florida Times-Union:

Gerhart has yet to score more than seven fantasy points in a given week, and he has cracked double-digit attempts just twice this year. Considering he averages all of 2.6 yards per carry, it is no wonder the coaching staff has been steadily phasing him out in favor of Denard Robinson and Jordan Todman.

The same essentially applies to Pittsburgh's LeGarrette Blount, who many thought would form a nice tandem with starter Le'Veon Bell. Instead, the Steelers have seemingly been a pass-first team and content to give the entire workload to Bell.

Outside of a 17-point outburst against Carolina thanks to a 50-yard scamper in garbage time, Blount has scored 6, 0, 2, and 3 points in other weeks.

There is some merit to keeping Blount around in case Bell gets hit with an injury, but for the time being he is hogging a roster spot of a player who could contribute right away if need be. 

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That goes for New Orleans Saints wideout Marques Colston, too. The man holds a special spot in the hearts of many owners after years of top production, but it just is not there anymore. While Colston has five or more points in four games this season with a high of nine, things need to be put into perspective.

Look at it this way: Last week, quarterback Drew Brees threw 57 passes against a defense that coincidentally entered giving up the most points to wideouts in the league.

How did Colston do? Six points. The supposed No. 1 receiver saw all of six targets on a day star tight end Jimmy Graham left the game with an injury. The list of names who received more targets was notable:

• Pierre Thomas
• Brandin Cooks
• Ben Watson

Colston surely has a few massive games in front of him at some point. But if he cannot produce against the team most likely to surrender massive wideout production on a day when Brees is without Graham and almost throws 60 passes, when can he?

More predictable outputs on a week-to-week basis are surely available.

All scoring info courtesy of ESPN standard leagues, as is points-against info and ownership stats as of Oct. 6 at 8 p.m. ET. Statistics courtesy of ESPN.