Week 6 Fantasy Football Running Back Waiver Adds: Ty Chandler, Tank Bigsby, Tyrone Tracy

Welcome to Week 6’s fantasy football running back waiver wire breakdown! After a few relatively meh weeks, this week brings some exciting new options to the top of the list. Let’s break them down!

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Week 6 Fantasy Football Running Back Waiver Adds

Ty Chandler, Minnesota Vikings (31.5% Rostered)

Unfortunately, as is often the case, the top pickup this week is a result of injury. Aaron Jones exited the Vikings’ London matchup with a hip injury, and Chandler took over as the Vikings’ lead back in his place.

It is worth noting that Vikings' Head Coach Kevin O’Connell said after the game that he expected the injury to be short-term, and Jones did spend time on the sideline attempting to loosen up and get back into the game before being officially ruled out. The 29-year-old is scheduled to get an MRI on Monday — check the results before submitting your waiver claims. With the Vikings on bye in Week 6, Jones may not miss any time at all. However, if he is set to miss extended time, Chandler is a high-priority pickup, as he should provide RB2 numbers in this humming Vikings offense. 

Jaylen Warren, Pittsburgh Steelers (49.6% Rostered)

Warren appears here not because he did anything in Week 5 (in fact, he was out with an injury). Instead, it’s because his roster percentage has fallen just barely under 50%, making him eligible for this column. We haven’t seen much of Warren so far this season, but his usage in Week 2 (before he exited with another injury) was encouraging. Combine that with Najee Harris’ inefficient results, and Warren is a must-roster.   

Tyrone Tracy Jr., New York Giants (20.7% Rostered)

A fifth-round pick in this year’s NFL Draft, Tracy had a breakout game on Sunday with Devin Singletary sidelined. He carried the ball 18 times for 129 yards, picking up positive yardage on every single carry. Unsurprisingly, his 61.1% success rate was elite, ranking second in the league for Week 5. He also posted a very impressive 2.60 yards over expected per attempt.

Not everything was great for Tracy, however. Despite having played wide receiver in college, he ran the same amount of routes and saw half as many targets as Eric Gray. Gray also saw all three of the Giants’ goal-line rushes (although he fumbled the final one, so perhaps Tracy’s role will expand). 

It’s also worth noting that, coming into this week, Tracy had not been particularly efficient. Meanwhile, Singletary was putting together a decent season prior to injuring his groin. Tracy certainly isn’t going to take over this backfield without resistance, but any rookie putting up a game like this is worth rostering.  

Tank Bigsby, Jacksonville Jaguars (16.3% Rostered)

I mentioned Bigbsy in the post-Week 1 version of this article, but at that point, I was skeptical of the sophomore’s chances. After all, Travis Etienne is (was?) one of the most entrenched starters in the league, while Bigsby was horrendously inefficient as a rookie. However, what we’ve seen since has absolutely changed my mind.

Through five weeks, Bigsby ranks first in Next Gen Stats’ rush yards over expected by an absolute mile with 4.19 (Derrick Henry is second at 2.49). His PFF Elusive Grade is over double the next qualified RB (333 to Kenneth Walker’s 144). He has been arguably the league’s best rusher, while Etienne has been average or even below average.

Even more exciting, Bigsby out-carried Etienne for the first time this week, 13 to six. Doug Pederson did mention that this was because of a shoulder injury and emphasized that Etienne is still the team’s lead back … but that can only last so long with how well Bigsby is playing. Get him on your roster now; figure out if you want to start him once we see how his usage shakes out as the season goes on.

Antonio Gibson, New England Patriots (37.2% Rostered)

In some ways, Week 5 was actually disappointing for Gibson. It was announced before the game that the former Commander would get the start over Rhamondre Stevenson after the latter lost a fumble in each of the Patriots’ first four games. However, that “start” ended up being mostly symbolic, as Stevenson still finished with 12 carries to Gibson’s six.

On the other hand, Gibson did out-snap Stevenson for the first time all season. He also easily out-performed his season averages in RB rush share (33.3%) and route participation rate (32.4%). Given that Gibson has consistently outperformed Stevenson in just about any measure of RB efficiency you can think of, he’s worth holding in deep leagues in case his role continues to grow. 

Blake Corum, Los Angeles Rams (18.4% Rostered)

Obviously, the “Blake Corum will take Kyren Williams’ job” truthers have been completely wrong so far this season. Kyren has over three times as many touchdowns (seven) as Corum has games with offensive snaps (two). 

With that said, this was a big week for Corum’s value. He served as the Rams’ clear RB2, a role that belonged to Ronnie Rivers over the first four weeks of the season. This means that if Williams were to go down, his massive role would likely go to the third-round rookie. Even with the Rams struggling offensively, this is enough to make Corum a high-tier handcuff. As a firm believer in filling as many bench slots as physically possible with handcuffs, that’s enough for me to recommend adding him.  

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