Week 18 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Waiver Adds: Jalen McMillan, Olamide Zaccheaus, Brandin Cooks, Wan'Dale Robinson

Welcome to FantasySP’s Week 18 fantasy football wide receiver waiver wire breakdown! Week 18 is the weirdest week of the season, with lots of teams having nothing or almost nothing to play for. This had a huge impact on my RB Waiver Wire breakdown, but it won’t actually have much of an impact on this article. Unlike at running back, wide receiver production is much more a function of talent than opportunity. Give Kenneth Gainwell Saquon Barkley’s role, and you can probably bet he’ll be fairly productive. Give Jahan Dotson A.J. Brown’s role … not so much. With that in mind, most of these suggestions will be more of your traditional WR waiver options, keeping in mind that this is the final week of the season so nothing long-term matters. Let’s get started!

Check out the top waiver wire options at each position every week. Explore the best in-season fantasy football tool to manage your team and get league rankings with the Fantasy Assistant. Use our trade analyzer and trade value charts to break down trade scenarios with Fair Trade ratings.

Week 18 Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Waiver Adds

Jalen McMillan, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (50.9% Rostered)

McMillan is just barely above the 50% rostered threshold, but he’s close enough (and options are thin enough) that I’m willing to bend the rules. With five catches for 51 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday, McMillan has now finished as a top-20 receiver in each of the last four weeks.

As I said last week, a lot of McMillan’s production has come thanks to touchdowns; he has six in the last four weeks. But his overall usage has also been solid over those four weeks, with an 18% target share, a 25% air yards share, and a 77% route participation rate that actually leads the Buccaneers. Plus, of all the offenses where a rookie receiver is likely to just keep racking up touchdowns, this Tampa Bay offense with Baker Mayfield playing his mind out is probably top of the list. I still wouldn’t elevate McMillan to the must-start status the last month's stats might imply, but he is a very valid flex option for Week 18 against the Saints. 

Olamide Zaccheaus, Washington Commanders (3.0% Rostered)

In three games without Noah Brown, Zaccheaus is averaging 15.3 Half-PPR points per game. Like McMillan, Zaccheaus is running hot on touchdowns, with one per game over those three weeks. But he also joins McMillan in seeing genuinely solid usage, with a 20% target share and a 15% air yards share since Brown was sidelined. 

The most concerning part of Zaccheaus’ profile is that he has just a 63% route participation rate over the last three weeks, still clearly not playing a full-time role in terms of snaps. However, that changed on Sunday, as he posted a season-high 79% participation rate. The Commanders face the Cowboys in Week 18, a matchup that will determine whether they land as the seventh seed or the sixth seed. Assuming they decide that is something worth playing for, Zaccheaus is a decent flex option, even against a tough Dallas defense.

Brandin Cooks, Dallas Cowboys (25.2% Rostered)

With CeeDee Lamb officially done for the season, the Cowboys filled their wide receiver slots with a committee in Week 17. Cooks, KaVontae Turpin, and Jalen Tolbert all tied for the team lead with just a 61% route participation rate, with Jonathan Mingo not too far behind at 48%. 

However, Cooks was the clear leader in terms of targets (28%) and air yards share (53%). A team-high 35% first-read target share also indicates that the Cowboys’ coaches were at the very least scheming Cooks as their WR1 when he was on the field. The 11-year vet can be considered as a deep-league option for that aforementioned matchup with the Commanders. 

Wan'Dale Robinson, New York Giants (37.1% Rostered)

Robinson is coming off his best game of the season, in which he caught five of six targets for 71 yards and a touchdown against the Colts’ disintegrating defense. However, it’s important to note that his role on Sunday wasn’t that different than his usual usage. Since Week 4, he has averaged a 22% target share on an 85% route participation rate. On Sunday, those numbers were 26% and 87% — better, but not massively so.

However, Robinson’s usage did change in a couple of key ways: Normally a very low-ADOT player, he posted an excellent 31% air yards share on Sunday. He also saw an end zone target, just his fourth of the season and the fourth he caught all year. Of course, I expect both of these numbers to trend back toward normal in Week 18 (the Giants face the Eagles, a tough matchup on paper but also a team with nothing to play for). However, Robinson’s normal isn’t so bad: He ranks 12th among WRs in total targets for the season (25th in targets per game). In any sort of PPR format, he’s someone to consider for Week 18.

Romeo Doubs, Green Bay Packers (48.9% Rostered)

Doubs is like Wan’Dale in the sense that nothing is necessarily changing in his outlook at this point of the season, but what he has done all season is good enough that he is worth considering if you are looking for wide receiver help. The Packers’ wide receiver room is obviously crowded, and Doubs has missed games with injuries and off-the-field issues. But when he plays, he consistently leads Green Bay in routes. 

This was true last week, as (with Christian Watson sidelined) Doubs posted a 79% route participation rate — no other Packers receiver was above 68%. He also easily led the team with 10 targets, a 33% target share. He caught seven of those targets for 58 scoreless yards, so it wasn’t a massive fantasy day, but it’s still more proof that Doubs is a large part of this offense, especially in weeks where Green Bay is forced to pass. That might not happen in Week 18 against the Bears, but Doubs should still see at least a look or four. He’s worth considering as a dart-throw TD option in deeper formats.

Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasySP. Find him on Twitter @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.