Overvalued Week 3 Fantasy Football FAAB Players: Carson Steele/Samaje Perine, Andrei Iosivas and More

Adding FAAB into fantasy football leagues adds another level of strategy and makes the season that much more fun.

Earlier on Tuesday, FantasySP’s Daniel Hepner published a FAAB story with several quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers and tight ends mentioned. This afternoon, I started perusing the Predictive FAAB tab of the FantasySP Fantasy Assistant and was shocked to see some high bid budget percentages going to certain players.

This article is going to point out some of the waiver wire options who I feel are being overvalued.

Check out the top waiver wire options at each position every week.

Running Backs

The top player in terms of FAAB budget being spent on them is Kansas City Chiefs’ Carson Steele.

It makes sense because Isiah Pacheco is going to be out for several weeks, but that’s about the only logical reason for his bid number being that high.

I’m not so sure Steele is going to be the top back in KC. Samaje Perine is another option on the roster right now, and they’ve also brought Kareem Hunt in for a tryout. That tells me the Chiefs aren’t confident in just handing the reins over to Steele.

Hepner suggested a conservative $6-8 bid for Steele. A high-end bid was listed at $11-12, while a desperation bid of $16-18 was listed.

I like those figures, which means most people are desperately trying to land Steele. Again, I wouldn’t throw that much of my bid budget at a player who might not even serve as the team’s lead back going forward. I’d be much more comfortable using between $6-9 on Steele, and even those amounts seem like a lot to me.

Perine has a bid budget figure of 4%. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but for a guy who has barely played in two weeks, I’m not even willing to spend that much.

Hepner suggested trying to get Perine while using no money. A high-end bid was $1, while a desperation bid was $3. 

Again, I really like those totals, so I think even $1 more is too much. I’d be most comfortable getting him for $0 or $1 - anything more than that just seems like wasted money. Maybe in a PPR league I’d be willing to go to $2, but I wouldn’t feel great about it.

Perine is a short-term option, and probably not a player who can even start outside really deep leagues anyways. Don’t be fooled by Steele and Perine being on the Chiefs - their fantasy values are not going to be that high and I think Kansas City will come up with creative ways to “run” the ball instead of using Steele, Perine or Hunt (if they sign him).

D'Onta Foreman came out of nowhere in week 2 and now looks like the lead back in Cleveland - at least until Nick Chubb is ready to go.

With Chubb on the way back from injury, and with Jerome Ford unlikely to just fade away for the next few weeks, I doubt Foreman is used as a workhorse back. He might lead the way in touches, but his ceiling will be capped by Ford, and a weak Browns’ offense in general.

Foreman was not a part of Hepner’s story. Using his three different FAAB budget figures, here’s how I’d line Foreman up. I’d go with $1-2 as a conservative bid and $3-4 for a high-end bid. Anything over $5 seems like a desperation bid to me.

Instead, I see Foreman going for 10% of a fantasy owner’s bid budget. Things would be different if Chubb was out for the season. Maybe fantasy owners are thinking he won’t be back this season, but using 1/10 of your budget on a guy who might get a majority of the snaps/touches for the next couple weeks probably is just not a wise move.

Save some of that bid budget for when a true workhorse goes out for the season and an easily recognizable top backup is set to take over the starting role. This isn’t the case here, and you need to scale back your bid on Foreman before you do something you’ll regret.

Wide Receivers

Andrei Iosivas caught a couple touchdowns in week 2, which is great, but he also finished with just those two grabs and seven yards for the week. He had 26 yards on three catches in week 1.

Don’t be fooled by the touchdown totals and expect Iosivas to all of a sudden be this great fantasy asset. Sure, if he is a red zone threat that’s great, but if he doesn’t do much else, he’s not a good fantasy starting asset.

You also have to remember that Tee Higgins has been out the first two weeks. If Iosivas hasn’t been able to put up good yardages in those two weeks, he’s very unlikely to when Higgins is also out there.

Iosivas didn’t make Hepner’s FAAB story, so I’ll throw some numbers out for him. I’d most like adding Iosivas for free, with a high-end bid being $1. A desperation bid would be $2.

Instead, I see Iosivas going for 7% of fantasy owner’s budgets. I get being desperate for a receiver, but Iosivas is not the guy to be desperate for. Throw that kind of budget money at some of the Rams’ receivers instead.

Jalen Nailor is another receiver with a high bid budget number. He wasn’t a part of Hepner’s story either, which should be telling.

Nailor had 54 yards and a touchdown on three catches and four targets in week 1 after hauling in a 21-yard touchdown pass for his lone grab in week 1.

Again, the touchdowns are great, but it’s not sustainable. He hasn’t posted a bunch of yards or catches, and his best week came with Jordan Addison out for the entire game.

Addison and Justin Jefferson are going to get just about every wide receiver target when they are both healthy and active, leaving Nailor to just a couple targets a game. Nailor is a decent fantasy option if those two are out for an extended time, but if it’s just a game or two missed, it’s not worth spending much on Nailor.

I’d use the same three numbers I used for Iosivas for Nailor - getting him for free is the best option, $1 for a high-end bid and a $2 bid is already desperation. 

Nailor is at 6%, which is simply too much. It’d be different if Jefferson or Addison were out, but I’m not going to speculate on either being out and throw that much of my budget at Nailor.

Quentin Johnston is the last wideout and player I want to talk about this week.

He had 38 yards on three catches and five targets in week 1 before going for 51 yards and two scores on five grabs and six targets in week 2. 

Much like Iosivas and Nailor, I think fantasy owners are looking at the touchdowns too much. They are great obviously, but aren’t going to be things these guys get on a weekly basis. 

At least with Johnston, he’s got a chance to be his team’s No. 1 wideout, so I’d be more willing to go after him. Still, I’d prefer to get him for free, or spending just $1 on him. Spending $2-3 on him already seems like a high-end bid, and anything $4 or more seems like too much. 

Now, Johnston is only going for 5% of people's budgets, which isn’t a crazy overpay, but that’s an average amount, so there’s a lot of fantasy owners spending far more than that to try to get him. It’s not as concerning as the first five players in this article, but ideally, Johnston’s number should be at 3%, so he’s still overvalued in my opinion.