Week 15 Waiver Wire: Reviewing Top Pickups and Drops Likely Available

The NFL season is drawing to a close, which means the fantasy football playoffs are already upon us. The stakes are as high as ever in Week 15. 

The vast majority of fantasy owners should have their rosters in good order right now, but alas, injuries to key players continued unabated in Week 14, creating a need in the waiver-wire market. Owners who need a fill-in player or are nervously searching for that extra edge are scrambling for what slim pickings remain.

Let's take a look at the top waiver-wire pickups and drops heading into Week 15 for both Yahoo Sports and ESPN fantasy football leagues.

In order to account for the larger 12- and 14-player leagues, NFLers owned in more than 50 percent of leagues are not included on this list. The list also excludes team defenses, kickers and players placed on injured reserve.

Yahoo Sports
ESPN
Player	% Owned	No. of Monday Pickups
Denard Robinson, RB, Jacksonville	7	31,967
DuJuan Harris, RB, Seattle	6	19,302
Tim Hightower, RB, New Orleans	42	14,542
Tyler Lockett, WR, Seattle	38	11,781
Zach Miller, TE, Chicago	20	9,783
Brandon Bolden, RB, New England	10	9,044
Bryce Brown, RB, Seattle	1	9,028
Ted Ginn Jr., WR, Carolina	40	6,361
A.J. McCarron, QB, Cincinnati	1	5,482
Isaiah Crowell, RB, Cleveland	27	4,630
Player	% Owned	% Change Last 7 Days
Tim Hightower, RB, New Orleans	40.6	40.5
Austin Sefarian-Jenkins, TE, Tampa Bay	42.8	+27.7
DeVante Parker, WR, Miami	47.8	+26.8
James White, RB, New England	50	+23.5
Bilal Powell, RB, New York Jets	24.7	+14.4
Jameis Winston, QB, Tampa Bay	47.3	+11.5
Dorial Green-Beckham, WR, Tennessee	20.4	+10.5
Will Tye, TE, New York Giants	13.6	+8.2
Tyler Lockett, WR, Seattle	21.5	+7.2
Markus Wheaton, WR, Pittsburgh	23.4	+6.2

Yahoo
ESPN
Player	% Owned	No. of Monday Drops
Brian Hoyer, QB, Houston	24	7,159
Fred Jackson, RB, Seattle	5	4,532
Alfred Blue, RB, Houston	45	3,882
Jameis Winston, QB, Tampa Bay	47	2,651
Stefon Diggs, WR, Minnesota	57	2,525
DeVante Parker, WR, Miami	44	2,427
Juwan Thompson, RB, Denver	8	2,056
DuJuan Harris, RB, Seattle	6	1,915
Brian Hartline, WR, Cleveland	4	1,645
James White, RB, New England	49	1,593
Player	% Owned	% Change Last 7 Days
Tevin Coleman, RB, Atlanta	44.6	-13.2
Rishard Matthews, WR, Miami	39.5	-9.5
Vance McDonald, TE, San Francisco	6.2	-9.2
Crockett Gillmore, TE, Baltimore	15.6	-7.4
Alfred Morris, RB, Washington	49.4	-7.3
Peyton Manning, QB, Denver	42.8	-7
Karlos Williams, RB, Buffalo	42.4	-6.9
Andre Ellington, RB, Arizona	43.9	-6.2
Jay Cutler, QB, Chicago	27.5	-6.2

Reviewing Top Pickups' Prospects for Week 15

Denard Robinson, RB, Jacksonville

Stephen B. Morton/Associated Press

Jaguars running back T.J. Yeldon left Sunday's blowout of the Indianapolis Colts, paving the way for a big fantasy performance from scatback Denard Robinson. Shoelace performed well with the opportunity, rushing for 75 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. 

Per the Associated Press, via FoxSports.com, Yeldon is uncertain for Jacksonville's Week 15 contest with Atlanta, as he's dealing with knee, groin and ankle injuries. 

If he's out, Robinson will presumably get the call again. Atlanta has given up the third-most fantasy points per game to running backs, per Yahoo Sports. Robinson could be in line for a similar output to Week 14, but if he does put up points, expect nearly all of them to come on the ground.

Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press

Despite being a shifty, speedy back, Robinson has never figured much into the Jaguars passing game. Even when he was a fantasy stud for a four-week stretch in 2014—Weeks 7 through 10, in case you need reminding—he caught just four passes for 30 yards in that time.

Besides, Blake Bortles isn't spending much time checking the ball down these days, not with Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns and Julius Thomas running rampant. 

Robinson makes a great replacement for Yeldon in your fantasy lineup and has some decent RB2 value in larger leagues. Atlanta is in free fall right now, maybe just inches from rock bottom. Jacksonville could very well have another big scoring day in Week 15 as they try to steal the AFC South title from Indy and Houston. 

DuJuan Harris, RB, Seattle

Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Someone has to get the carries for red-hot Seattle moving forward, after rookie sensation Thomas Rawls saw his season come to an abrupt end on Sunday due to a broken ankle. 

Fantasy owners assume that player to be DuJuan Harris, who carried the ball 18 times for 42 yards against Baltimore but did lose a fumble. The 27-year-old got 11 more carries than Fred Jackson, who didn't do much with his extra bit of action.

Harris' dismal 2.3 yards per carry from that game, journeyman status—the Seahawks are his third team in four years—and the turnover don't exactly inspire confidence from a fantasy standpoint. What is likely getting people excited is that Seattle hosts Cleveland in Week 15, a game ripe for a blowout and plenty of fantasy points to go around.

The question here is: Will those points go to Harris? According to the News Tribune's Gregg Bell, there are three players jockeying for the lead role: 

Russell Wilson is playing perhaps the best football in the league right now, with 16 touchdown passes in his last four games. It's fairly safe to say Johnny Manziel is going to struggle to keep up, especially against the Seahawks' strong secondary.

Whichever running back gets the nod in Week 15 is likely to get carries to set up the play action and just keep the team's offense in balance in general, considering how well the hard-running Rawls and, when healthy, Marshawn Lynch complement Wilson. Garbage-time carries are worth considering here, too. At the same time, it sounds like Jackson is going to take snaps away from the lead back.

At the very least, you have to put in a claim for Harris. Go for him over Coleman, Brown or Jackson. Harris acquitted himself fairly well in Week 14. Unless he absolutely blows it in practice this week, one would think he's going to get 15 to 20 touches in Week 15. However, with Seattle's passing game in blistering form, Harris probably isn't the fantasy savior you need in Week 15, but a decent flex option or Rawls' replacement.

Tim Hightower, RB, New Orleans

Brian Blanco/Associated Press

Many fantasy owners took a chance on Tim Hightower heading into Week 14, and it paid off immediately.

Hightower carried the ball 28 times for 85 yards and one touchdown, a pretty hefty workload for a guy who had 12 carries coming into the game this season, was cut by the Saints in Week 1 and had missed the three previous seasons due to complications stemming from an ACL injury suffered in 2011. Per the team's official Twitter account, he was grateful for the opportunity: 

Yahoo Sports' Andy Behrens breaks down why Hightower is a no-brainer add in Week 15, if he's still even available:

"

... Adds don't get much more obvious than this. Hightower isn't exactly the flashiest back in the game, but he handled a massive workload for the Saints in the win at Tampa, gaining 95 scrimmage yards on 29 touches. The last time he'd seen such a significant workload in an NFL game was ... well, never. And his last 20-touch game was way back in September of 2011, before the ACL injury. C.J. Spiller had little more than a cameo role in Week 14, playing only 15 snaps. Without question, the New Orleans back you want to own is Hightower. He gets a pair of home matchups in Weeks 15-16, facing the Lions and Jags. This will serve your last call on the vet. Again, we're not talking about a guy who makes wow-plays, but he's a high-volume back tied to a productive offense.

"

Maybe the Saints, with little to play for down the stretch, will simply give a guy who's getting a rare second chance at the league all the carries he can handle down the stretch. He does have three years times to make up.

Tyler Lockett, WR, Seattle

Gail Burton/Associated Press

Tyler Lockett has been something of a boom-or-bust wide receiver this year for fantasy purposes, but these are boom times in Seattle, making Lockett a strong fantasy football addition for Week 15.

The rookie receiver/returner hauled in six catches for 104 yards and two of Wilson's five touchdown passes Sunday against Baltimore. It was a fine follow-up to a seven-catch, 90-yard outing in Week 13. It appears Lockett is reaping the rewards of not only an elite quarterback, but tons of hard work. Head coach Pete Carroll praised the young buck's work ethic on Saturday, via ESPN.com's Sheil Kapadia:

"

Well, if you’re out here early or you stay late, he’s out here. He’s the first guy on the field and the last guy off. He’s caught thousands of balls, really works on his special-teams stuff, his catches for the most part before and after practice. He takes great care in his skill and what’s asked of him. Always working on catching balls. He catches off the tennis ball machine, everything, the jugs machine, he’s pretty dialed in. About as much as you could ever expect anybody.

"

The back-to-back strong weeks make him an intriguing pickup heading into a home scrap with Cleveland.

Fantasy owners should still be wary, as Lockett's had only one other game this year with at least five receptions, and four of his five touchdown grabs have come in the past month, with Wilson in the zone like nobody else in the league.

Doug Baldwin is far and away the top target in Seattle, with eight touchdown receptions in the last four games. Lockett is more of a big-play threat, using his speed and agility to stretch the secondary and pick up chunks of yards. Check out his 49-yard touchdown haul against Baltimore, courtesy of the NFL: 

Big plays like that can, of course, swing a fantasy matchup and are worth the pickup, no doubt about it. Unfortunately, they are tough to bank on and can be unbelievably frustrating when you make the wrong move in either direction (just ask all the people who sat Ted Ginn Jr. in Week 14).

Still, Seattle isn't going to put the brakes on in Week 15 and might even pass more with Rawls out of commission. Lockett has caught 13 of his 14 targets the past two weeks. He's a strong WR2/WR3 play in larger leagues against a bad Browns team.