Fantasy Football Waiver Wire, Week 11: It's Now the Danny Amendola Show

In two consecutive weeks, the New England Patriots have lost a key member of the offense when it comes to the short-area ball-control passing game. Last week, it was Dion Lewis. This week, it was Julian Edelman. While there was no obvious replacement for Lewis’ skill set on the roster, there is someone who should benefit in increased targets in Edelman’s role.

Danny Amendola (owned in 48% of leagues) will be the beneficiary of the targets with both Lewis and Edelman out. If you are in a league where you have Edelman, or just need another WR starter, Amendola is worth close to a max remaining bid for you. He should be a top 20 WR going forward.

As always, I recommend possible targets in all varieties of leagues, from Shallow (players owned in 50-69% of all CBS Sports online leagues) to Average (30-49%) to Deep Leagues (players owned in less than 30% of leagues).

QUARTERBACKS

Average and Shallow Leagues: The first matchup choice this week would be Alex Smith at SD (43%), where he should project as a top 10 starting option with Brees, Eli Manning, and Roethlisberger out.

After that, I would look at either Marcus Mariota at JAC (49%) or Ryan Fitzpatrick (46%) in his return to Houston.

Deep Leagues: Lots of injuries and turnovers here have resulted in a buyer’s market for deep leagues and 2-start leagues. Matt Hasselbeck at ATL (6%) provides a pretty good matchup option and the Colts will need to score. Johnny Manziel (9%) will be on the bye week, but with news that he will start the rest of the year is a QB2 with possibility of starting based on matchup.

Mark Sanchez vs TB (12%) has a good matchup this week, though I’m not crazy about that one. Brock Osweiler (1%) will get his opportunity in Denver, and it could last awhile.

RUNNING BACKS

Shallow Leagues: Matt Jones (59%) got some big plays against the Saints’ porous defense. He’s more of a flex play but is still the best option in Washington going forward.

The Detroit Lions have a good matchup against Oakland (who just gave up a huge day to Adrian Peterson), but good luck figuring out the backfield, where Joique Bell (64%) has been the preferred runner, but only had 17 yards on 14 carries Sunday. Theo Riddick (51%) would seem the better matchup play, and who knows what they think of Ameer Abdullah (who still has the highest ypc on this team for a unit clearly struggling to block). Roll of the dice plays if you are desperate here.

Average and Deep Leagues: Shaun Draughn (15%) had the most carries before the bye week, so this is a play if Carlos Hyde is still out. Very low-end RB2 in that case vs SEA.

Dexter McCluster (13%) continues to be my PPR cheap flex play recommendation. He had 52 yards, 4 catches and a TD on Sunday, and this week gets Jacksonville.

Jay Ajayi (25%) hasn’t put up big numbers but continues to look good, and I expect his role to increase. Stash play here.

Keep an eye on T.J. Yeldon’s status if you are in desperate straits. Denard Robinson (14%) could be an add later in the week.

WIDE RECEIVERS

Shallow: Steve Johnson (67%) should be a pretty good play if you lose out on Amendola. Keenan Allen is out, and Malcom Floyd is probably out for the rest of the year. Pretty safe as one of the top three options in SD in the passing game (along with Gates and Woodhead).

Kamar Aiken (55%) was targeted 14 times last week, catching 7 of them, in the first game without Steve Smith.

Nate Washington (51%) continues to fly under the radar.

Average and Deep Leagues: Dontrelle Inman (7%) vs KC should be another beneficiary of the injuries in San Diego. Chris Givens (6%) was targeted by Joe Flacco 7 times, 2nd most on team, and had a TD last week. He goes against his old team, the Rams, this week.

Leonard Hankerson (25%) vs IND is back after about a month out with a hamstring injury, and was averaging 6 targets a game before that. Roddy White didn’t exactly re-take the position in his absence.

Griff Whalen (1%) has been the 3rd most targeted receiver, and most productive, over the last two games for Colts. In PPR leagues he’s worth a stash to see if that continues.

TIGHT END

Shallow Leagues: Eric Ebron (50%) is your matchup play this week at TE against Oakland and should be considered a decent TE1 start.

Average: Crockett Gilmore (32%) had a touchdown last week and should also be a bigger part of the passing offense without Steve Smith.

Deep: Jacob Tamme (26%) continues to be available. He had 16 catches in the two games before the bye.

OVERALL

Danny Amendola, WR NE
Steve Johnson, WR SD
Kamar Aiken, WR BAL
Matt Jones, RB WAS
Alex Smith, QB KC
Eric Ebron, TE DET
Johnny Manziel, QB CLE
Dontrelle Inman, WR SD
Jay Ajayi, RB MIA
Leonard Hankerson, WR ATL
Nate Washington, WR HOU
Joique Bell, RB DET
Shaun Draughn, RB SF
Chris Givens, WR BAL
Dexter McCluster, RB TEN

[photo via USA Today Sports Images]