As the bye weeks and injuries consuming top fantasy football options at running back, and roster spots being eaten up by backups to backups, streaming may be the best option at the wide receiver position for a weekly plug-and-play option for bye week replacements or injury spot starts. Here are three such options at wide receiver this week. As always, the sleeper wide receivers start at under 50% ownership on Yahoo!, with one player under 10% ownership for deeper leagues. Ownership figures are as of Saturday afternoon.[embedit snippet=”jeff-ads”]
Jamison Crowder at Detroit (34% owned)
With Josh Doctson being placed on the IR, likely for the year, and Jordan Reed continuing to deal with concussion symptoms, it means that Washington should turn their focus to Crowder for week seven, and perhaps the balance of the season. When Crowder was an offensive focal point (over 8 targets per game in weeks one through three), he had two scores and just under 60 fantasy points per game. This week Washington heads to Detroit to go against the fifth-worst passing defense in the league that gave Kenny Britt, Eddie Royal and Jordy Nelson 100 and a score. DeSean Jackson is the deep threat, but look for Crowder to get plenty of underneath looks, as well.
Torrey Smith versus Tampa Bay (26% owned)
Much like I can’t quit Joe Flacco, I can’t quit Smith. He had a fantasy value hiatus with Captain Checkdown Blaine Gabbert at the helm, but with deep shot artist Colin Kaepernick at the helm, Smith should see increased touches and targets. He is the 49ers’ most talented wide receiver, and he saw snaps in the slot last week in an effort to get him rolling (that’s the money spot in Chip Kelly’s offense). He had seven targets last week after getting seven in weeks three through five combined. Kaepernick isn’t great, but if Smith gets behind a defense, he should be able to hit him. The Bucs gave up touchdowns to nine different wide receivers through four games before facing the godawful Derek Anderson Panthers.
Deep Dive Trifecta
Adam Humphries at San Francisco (9% owned)
Marquise Goodwin at Miami (3% owned)
Breshad Perriman at New York Jets (3% owned)
These three guys are all decent deep dive options, and I had to atone for cheating with 11% Colin Kaepernick from the quarterbacks article. Humphries and Goodwin are fill-ins for injured starters (Vincent Jackson and Robert Woods, respectively) in plus defensive matchups. Perriman is a deep play threat against a team that can’t stop giving up big plays to wide receivers. They’re all pretty much equally decent options this week, but I would go for them in the order listed above. Perriman’s bad hands make me itchy; even if he gets behind the defense, he is no guarantee to catch it.