Fantasy Football Early Week 9 Waiver Wire: Greg Dulcich looking like a must-start tight end on the wire
The Broncos rookie TE is building a nice rapport with Russell Wilson
By
Chris Towers
•
1 min read
The tight end position has been a disaster for Fantasy Football yet again this season. Entering play Sunday in Week 8, only 10 tight ends were averaging even 10 PPR points per game, and that included the likes of T.J. Hockenson (two games out of six with more than 10 PPR points), David Njoku (out Sunday with an ankle injury that could cost him multiple weeks), and Taysom Hill (as many games with 10 or more PPR points as catches for the season, two). It has not been pretty.
But there might be some hope on the waiver wire. Pat Freiermuth has emerged as a viable weekly starter from the wire, and it looks like Greg Dulcich might be joining him. The rookie third-rounder made Albert Okwuegbunam expendable for the Broncos, and he had a big game Sunday against the Jaguars that might make him a top-10 option moving forward.
Dulcich was second on the team with five targets Sunday, and he managed to catch four of them for 87 yards, and it could have been an even better day – he was downed at the one on a 38-yard catch in the third quarter that would have pushed him to 18 PPR points. He was that close.
But you'll take double-digit points from your tight end, and that's something Dulcich has done in each of his first three NFL games. Not bad for someone still available in 49% of CBS Fantasy leagues. Dulcich is clearly worth adding over Tyler Conklin, who had a better performance Sunday but had been ice cold before that; I would rather have Dalton Schultz than Dulcich if both were available, but seeing as Schultz is rostered in 78% of CBS Fantasy leagues already, that isn't as likely.
Dulcich could, of course, just be a flash in the pan. He's probably third on the Broncos in the receiving hierarchy, after all, and this hasn't exactly been an offense worth targeting for Fantasy so far. However, his production through three games is impossible to argue with, and his role is pretty great, too. Chances are, you need a tight end, and I'm not sure there are more than eight or so I'd rather have the rest of the way right now.
Here's who else we'll be looking at on waivers this week:
Week 9 Early Waiver Targets (Add/Drop)
The Jets were finally forced to throw the ball with Zach Wilson Sunday, and it mostly went how you would expect – he threw three interceptions as they lost 22-17 to the Patriots. You can understand why they've been trying to avoid having Wilson put the ball in the air, but there's no doubt it was good for Wilson's flagging Fantasy appeal. With Corey Davis out and Elijah Moore still not a bit part of the offense, Wilson was tremendous, hitting on a 54-yarder early on en route to his first 100-yard game since Week 2. Wilson is clearly an incredibly talented player, and with Breece Hall out for the season, the Jets are going to have to get him more involved. This game doesn't mean you can trust Wilson for Week 9 against the Bills, but it was a good reminder that he's too talented to leave on the waiver wire just in case he starts to figure it out.
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The Cardinals got Moore back into the slot for 41 of his 69 snaps Sunday, and he got back to producing for them. The 5-foot-7 Moore was hopelessly overmatched playing almost exclusively on the outside in Week 7, but they did a better job moving him around in Week 8. He was especially impressive on one third-quarter drive, picking up 27 yards on a catch-and-run to get the ball into Minnesota territory and then broke multiple tackles en route to a 38-yard touchdown two plays later. That after-the-catch ability was what made Moore so special in college, and we're seeing that start to translate to the NFL. Far from being hampered by DeAndre Hopkins' return as it looked like in Week 7, Moore was freed up Sunday – and this offense just generally makes a lot more sense when Hopkins is demanding the kind of attention from defenses he is.
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The Bears passing game looked like it was going to be completely irrelevant for Fantasy early on in the season, but Justin Fields is making real strides as a passer, and Mooney is taking advantage of that growth. His five catches for 70 yards in Week 8 give him five straight games with at least 50 yards. Mooney isn't the No. 2 WR we hoped he would be back in the preseason, but he's proving to be more useful than it looked like he would be when he had 27 yards through the first three games.
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If you have to start one Falcons running back, Tyler Allgeier is still the best option, because he's got a bit more of a passing game role than Huntley. However, Huntley has arguably been the better runner of the two, and this is a team that is going to have a lot of opportunities to run the ball. Their Week 9 opponent, the Chargers, allowing 5.7 yards per carry and over 150 yards per game on the ground, so Huntley could be a viable starting option for that one, assuming Cordarrelle Patterson isn't back from his injury for that one.
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Marshall has been largely invisible since the Panthers picked him in the second round in 2021, but he showed some signs of life in an expanded role Sunday. He was second on the team in targets with nine and put up career-best numbers across the board while playing the highest snap share of his career at 91% – his previous career high came last week. Marshall's role is expanding in the wake of the Robbie Anderson trade, and for the first time, he gave us reason to be excited Sunday. In deep leagues, he's worth a stash just in case he can turn this into something.
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Fields has now had four straight games finishing as a top-12 QB, and the path has been the same in basically every one – he's good enough as a passer to let his rushing work put him over the top. He still isn't throwing very much at all – just 23 attempts Sunday – however he has at least one passing touchdown in each game over the past four while averaging 69.3 rushing yards per game. The Bears are finally taking advantage of what Fields does best as a rusher, and he might have as much upside in that facet of the game as any QB except Lamar Jackson. The Bears have found a formula that works for them, and there's no reason to think they won't keep going with it.
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