Week 8 Waiver Wire Pickups: Antonio Brown and the Top Receivers Worth Keeping

Wide receivers are a dime a dozen in fantasy football. Every week a new group emerges that compel you to decide if they are a flash-in-the-pan or a long-term answer.  

Based off age, situation, talent and recent performance, here are three receivers that are worth picking up now and will be prized players for the rest of the season.  

1. Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers  

He finally broke the 100-yard barrier last week against the Cardinals and now faces the worst pass defense in the New England Patriots.  

QB Ben Roethlisberger is beginning to trust Brown more, as evident by his career-high seven targets last week. With Hines Ward clearly declining at a enormously fast rate, it’s Brown that is beginning to take his place in the pass-happy offense. While he has yet to score a touchdown this season, expect that to change extremely soon.  

2. Braylon Edwards, San Francisco 49ers 

After failing to reach the 50-yard plateau in the first two weeks, Edwards needed a knee surgery to repair a ligament and has sat out the last five weeks. Now that he’s healthy, Edwards is instantly vaulted to second on the depth chart behind Michael Crabtree. He becomes the giant sideline target that Alex Smith hasn’t had this season. Edwards also has the height to out leap the opponent around the end zone.  

Remember…he did have over 900 yards and seven TDs last season for the Jets. 

3. Jabar Gaffney, Washington Redskins  

Losing Santana Moss to a broken hand for the next five to seven weeks is really helpful for Gaffney, who now emerges as the Redskins No. 1 receiver. Sure it’s not ideal that the soft tossing John Beck is currently his QB, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be getting tons of targets.  

Gaffney had a season-high 68 yards in Beck’s first start and you can expect the tall target to get his second touchdown quickly, especially in Week 8 against the horrific Bills defense that is one of the three worst in football.