I've been doing fantasy draft prep basically since early March, so it's a bit of a fever dream that we're now only days away from the start of the 2025-26 NFL campaign.
This column will run every Monday with the best waiver-wire pickups for the week, and then I will add players on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday based on the latest news and the NFL injury report.
The goal will be to reflect the current waiver-wire market each day to make sure you're as up to date as possible in every sort of league format you can imagine. For this week only, the powers that be have allowed this article to emerge from behind the paywall, but you'll need to subscribe to RotoWire for future weeks.
A few players below appeared in my pre-Week 1 waiver-wire article from last week. I decided to include them this week for those who missed last week's article.
Finally, I'll be talking about all of these waiver-wire pickups Monday afternoons with my co-host Jake Letarski on the RotoWire Fantasy Football podcast each week. We'll have the video overlaid in the article, but if you want to join us live during the show to ask questions or FAAB recommendations, check out the RotoWire Fantasy Football YouTube channel. Let's get this rolling!
Quarterback
Tua Tagovailoa - Look, I've went on record saying that the bad vibes we've seen throughout Miami's training camp will carry over into the regular season. I'm a firm believer that De'Von Achane and Tyreek Hill are both going too high in terms of ADP. But so long as Tagovailoa is healthy, he's a functioning top-16 fantasy QB, and I have zero faith in Miami's Week 1 opponent, the Colts, will do anything remarkable this season. FAAB: 0 percent of budget
Running Back
Jerome Ford, Ollie Gordon, Chris Rodriguez - Just repeating a few names from last week. Ford is less than 50 percent rostered on Yahoo, but that might change with the news that Quinshon Judkins could potentially be available for Week 1. I think even in the event the rookie does play despite missing all of training camp, it's not enough of a hindrance to Ford's workload, to the point that I'll probably still play him as a flex in deeper leagues.
Gordon climbed to nearly 30 percent since last week's article, but I think that number should go even higher. Rodriguez still is less than 10 percent rostered and should be the easiest to acquire at the moment. FAAB: Gordon - 2 percent of budget; Ford - 0 percent of budget; Rodriguez - 0 percent of budget
Woody Marks - Most of the players I mentioned last week were scooped up in drafts over the weekend. That leaves the rookie USC product as effectively the only one of the bunch who is worth spending significant FAAB on at this point. I maintain the belief Joe Mixon (foot/ankle) won't play this season, and that sentiment was notably not denied by general manager Nick Caserio on Wednesday. I think Marks is purely the team's pass-catching specialist rather than potential volume accumulator, but even in that roll I expect the rookie to be involved. It's all about guarding against the unknown. I'd rather spend a few bucks now than to chase potentially the hottest waiver-wire pickup in Week 2 for triple the price. FAAB: 4 percent of budget
Roschon Johnson, Kyle Monangai - Perhaps I'm copping out by including both, but the supposed power backs in the Ben Johnson offense each are about six percent rostered. That we don't know which of the two will emerge until after Week 1 just tells me it's a situation to capitalize on if you have the roster space. FAAB: 0 percent of budget
Will Shipley - The assumption is that if Saquon Barkley goes down with an injury, Shipley would be the handcuff to roster. I don't buy that premise mainly because general manager Howie Roseman would never sit pat in that situation. But it is something to be mindful of in terms of roster management because your league mates might not think the same way about the situation. At this point of the fantasy season, it's all about asset management and if you can strike waiver wire gold early, it's easy to snowball it from there. FAAB: 0 percent of budget
Wide Receiver
Isaac TeSlaa, Dont'e Thornton, Jalen Coker - In leagues that don't have injured reserve spots it's probably fine to drop Coker (quadriceps), but once the second-year wide receiver returns from short-term IR I'd be happy to scoop him up. TeSlaa and Thornton are far more of the boom/bust genre of wide receiver, but I'd rather speculate on them as opposed to Amari Cooper, Xavier Legette and Joshua Palmer, all of whom are comfortably rostered more than the big-play rookies. FAAB: TeSlaa - 2 percent of budget; Thornton - 2 percent of budget; Coker - 0 percent of budget in non-IR leagues
Elic Ayomanor - It's a bit of a deep cut, but the 2025 fourth-round pick was playing ahead of Chimere Dike in the preseason and only needs an injury to Tyler Lockett to emerge as a target leader for the offense. You can scoff at the idea Tennessee can support multiple fantasy-relevant wide receivers, but I'm of the belief Cameron Ward is considerably better than whatever the Titans have trotted out at QB in recent years. He might be the most under-discussed No. 1 overall pick in recent memory, but that doesn't mean Ward is a fantasy sinkhole either. FAAB: 0 percent of budget
Tight End
Mason Taylor - Another repeat from last week, but he needs to be rostered in far more than 12 percent of leagues before I feel like I've done my due diligence in this column. There's simply no other affordable tight end who will have the type of guaranteed workload Taylor should have right away.
