Week 1 Top Waiver Adds: Quarterback and Tight End Featuring Derek Carr, Jordan Love, Sam LaPorta, and more
Welcome to Week 1. It's been a long offseason waiting for the 2023 NFL regular season to come, but we finally made it! Hopefully you emerged from your drafts feeling good about your roster. However, as good as you might feel in early-September, there's always work to be done.
Half (very unscientific measure) of the battle for being successful in fantasy football is making sure you work the waiver wire. And you can never start working the waiver wire too early!
With running backs and wide receivers coming in a separate article, let's take a look at the quarterbacks and tight ends you should be scooping off the waiver wire.
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Quarterback
(ownership percentages are based on ESPN leagues)
Derek Carr, New Orleans Saints (29.1 percent)
Carr is easy to ignore, but the man still has a ton of talent and is playing with a chip on his shoulder after the way things ended in Las Vegas. While there's no "chip on your shoulder" metric (or guarantee), Carr is stepping into a good offense with Chris Olave leading the way at receiver. Carr finished as a QB1 (top-12 quarterback) seven times last season, so there's enough history here to suggest that Carr can be a viable fantasy starter depending on his matchup. I wouldn't feel great about going into the season with him as my top quarterback, but he's a great second quarterback to have on your fantasy roster.
Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers (14.5 percent)
Will Jordan Love be the next understudy to become an MVP in Green Bay? Probably not (in my humble opinion), but I think he's better than people are giving him credit for. There's a reason the Packers made him a first round pick and a reason they were ok moving on from Aaron Rodgers (other than his contract and general moodiness). Love has looked solid during his preason action and will look to elevate the Packers' young receiving room. With an outlet like Aaron Jones at his disposal, Love should have a high enough floor to be a weekly QB2 with some upside.
Sam Howell, Washington Commanders (9.8 percent)
Howell is a massive unknown, but I think he could be atop many waiver wire lists with a Week 1 matchup against the lowly Cardinals on deck. The second-year player will look to benefit from new offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and has enough weapons at his disposal with Terry McLaurin and the ascending Jahan Dotson. While the Commanders will look to run the ball, Howell should have enough opportunities to air it out to his receivers (and dump it off to Antonio Gibson). He's looked surprisingly good during the preseason and is a solid pickup in deeper fantasy leagues.
Tight End
(ownership percentages are based on ESPN leagues)
Sam LaPorta, Detroit Lions (22.3 percent)
The Lions used a second round draft pick on LaPorta, and the rookie looks ready to contribute based on all preaseason accounts. While the Lions will look to Amon-Ra St. Brown and fellow rookie Jahmyr Gibbs, they're also dealing with the absence of Jameson Williams while he serves his six-game suspension. And that means more targets have been opened up for LaPorta. It's unclear exactly how much the Lions will rely on LaPorta, but there's a good chance he'll see at least four or five targets out of the gate and there's a universe where he sees even more than that. This is a bit of a speculative pickup that is more of a long-term play, but there's a ton of upside here if you're looking to swing for the fences at tight end.
Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints (15.3 percent)
While Carr has options in Chris Olave and Michael Thomas, he's also without one of the Saints' best receiving options in Alvin Kamara. Johnson will have to fight off fellow tight end Foster Morneau and offensive Swiss Army knife Taysom Hill for some of Kamara's vacated targets, but he's the most talented of the three and should get enough looks to be a viable fantasy tight end. While Johnson could get mired in the Saints' mix of receiving options, he has enough upside to play his way into becoming a low-end TE1. Grab him now just in case he goes off against the Titans.
Jake Ferguson, Dallas Cowboys (4.1 percent)
Ferguson is much of a lottery ticket, but he also has a very realistic pathway to fantasy relevance. After CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks, the Cowboys receiving tree gets a little barren with Michael Gallup and Ferguson the next in line. With Dalton Schultz now in Houston, Ferguson will look to step in and be a reliable safey valve for Dak Prescott. I don't think he'll end up the third-best fantasy tight end like Schultz was in 2021, but there's enough upside in the Cowboys offense that Ferguson could play his way into becoming a weekly start at the position.
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