Drake Maye's being thrown into the fire 🔥

The Chiefs are really about to mess around and win a Super Bowl with fossils of Kareem Hunt, Juju Smith-Schuster, and Travis Kelce, aren’t they?

Not actually – there’s still plenty of football left to be played. But just like the Chiefs retooled, fantasy teams need to be added onto through the waiver wire. In case you missed it (or if some of these players are still hanging around on your league’s wire 👀), listen to the latest episode of the Upper Hand Fantasy podcast!

• Vikings RB Aaron Jones considered ‘week-to-week’ with hip injury sustained in Sunday’s win over the Jets in London

  • The good news: the Vikings are on bye this week, giving Jones some additional time to recover. However, with a week-to-week designation, there’s a chance that Jones could miss some action anyway – which would open the door for RB Ty Chandler as the team’s potential starter in Week 7. Of course, we won’t have much information to work with this week without injury reports to decode or press conferences to pick apart, so we’ll have to wait until next week to have a better idea of Jones’ status once the Vikings return from their week off. In the meantime, it certainly can’t hurt to grab Chandler off the waiver wire, who could step into a productive role on a very good offense. He’ll likely be a short-term addition assuming Jones’ recovery doesn’t hit any roadblocks, but there’s upside to be tapped here for as long as Jones is absent from the lineup. Should Chandler end up being the lead back for the Vikings, he’ll be a mid-low RB2 with upside in what could be an explosive matchup with the Lions two weeks from now.

• Patriots name 3rd overall pick QB Drake Maye as the team’s starter for this weekend’s matchup vs the Texans, send veteran Jacoby Brissett to bench

  • It’s likely a lot less about what Jacoby Brissett isn’t doing for the team than it is what Drake Maye could do for the team. The Patriots have stumbled hard after miraculously picking up a win on kickoff weekend against the Bengals, and with offensive production stagnating, the Patriots have decided they’re ready for their first glimpse at their potential franchise quarterback. He’ll inherit an offense largely devoid of weapons outside of fellow rookie Ja’Lynn Polk, Demario Douglas, and Rhamondre Stevenson, as well as an absolute turnstile of an offensive line. Despite that, he should be rostered in superflex and 2-QB leagues given his rushing upside (which he may need to lean on early and often since he’ll likely be running for his life). A change under center can have a way of invigorating an offense in the short term, which makes both WRs Ja’Lynn Polk and Demario Douglas intriguing options in what could be a negative game script against Houston this weekend.

• Saints QB Derek Carr expected to miss multiple weeks with oblique injury suffered Monday Night vs Chiefs

  • That means it’ll either be QB Jake Haener or Spencer Rattler under center for the foreseeable future - especially given the indefinite nature of Derek Carr’s provided recovery timeline. The Saints are coming off a third-straight disappointing effort on offense after starting the season blazing hot, and without Carr in the fold, it’s hard to imagine things heating back up any time soon. Of course, things can’t get much colder for WR Chris Olave, who has been a disappointment yet again through five games so far. The Saints have run the offense through Alvin Kamara on the ground and Rashid Shaheed through the air, leaving Olave as the odd man out. While a change under center could help get Olave involved, it more likely limits the scoring upside of the offense as a whole. With Carr out, fantasy managers can likely avoid both of their Saints backup QBs off the waiver wire for the time being. As for the Saints pass catchers, they’ll receive downgrades as long as Carr is out.

Buy RB Breece Hall - NYJ

• Breece Hall has seen his production completely fall off the cliff in over the past two weeks, totaling just 55 scrimmage yards and zero touchdowns on 28 opportunities.

• The game scripts in those games have been outlandish, to say the least. The Broncos game was played in the heavy rain and featured just 434 total yards of offense and 19 combined points between the two teams. The game last week in London saw the Jets fall behind by three scores in the first half and resort to dropping Aaron Rodgers back 54 times to pass.

• Prior to those two games, Hall had seen either 21 or 22 total opportunities in three straight games. His 68% rush attempts share and 21% target share earned him a near perfect 9.5 out of 10 utilization grade per Fantasy Life’s utilization report. In games he isn’t effectively scripted out of, Hall has averaged 21.0 PPR points per game.

• Hall’s efficiency has come down this season compared to the rest of his career, however. His cumulative 3.0 yards per carry this season pales in comparison to his career 4.8 yards per carry. However, given a much larger sample size of efficiency, we can expect that number to normalize after two very difficult matchups against the 1st and 4th ranked teams in defensive DVOA (Minnesota and Denver, respectively). 

• Hall faces a Bills team in Week 6 that’s currently allowing the most receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns to the RB position through five weeks. Better days are ahead, and fantasy managers can take advantage of those panicking about Braelon Allen playing Bucky Irving to Breece Hall’s Rachaad White.

Sell QB Kirk Cousins - ATL

• Kirk Cousins is coming off his second-best fantasy performance of his career in Week 5 against the Buccaneers, a game in which he threw for 509 yards and 4 touchdowns. His 58 attempts set a career high, and his 42 completions were two times as many as he’s had in a single game up to this point. Needless to say, the Falcons don’t want to be throwing the ball at this high a rate the rest of the season, and it’s unlikely that they do. 

• It’ll take extreme efficiency like Cousins showed in Week 5 for him to consistently vye for top-5/10 fantasy finishes. While the Falcons offense is showing signs of improving, Cousins is more likely to have an efficient outing than put the entire offense on his back.

• There’s a good chance you either drafted Kirk Cousins as your QB2 or he’s taking up a bench spot in your 1QB league – he came off the board as the QB19 in drafts this summer. Use the matchup against the Panthers next week as a selling point (6th most fantasy points allowed to QBs this year) and potentially upgrade to another high-upside starter.