Dynasty Waivers of the Future: Week 9

My colleague Josh Fahlsing and I gaze into our crystal footballs each week to find players who may become popular waiver targets in the future so that you can pick them up now for next to nothing. We'll start with our priorities, then gaze deeper for lightly rostered gems who have been largely ignored by dynasty managers so far.

We're entering Week 9, which means the NFL season is almost half over and most fantasy leagues are making their turn toward the home stretch. While the worst of the bye weeks for fantasy purposes is now behind us, we still have four teams on bye in four of the next five weeks, which means they'll be with us to the bitter end of our fantasy regular seasons. Injuries, too, are pushing us farther down our benches as we set starting lineups each week, so it's increasingly important to have depth pieces that can come through for you when you need them.

Josh: In Superflex leagues, that means backup quarterbacks. You can't have too many of them at this stage of the season.

Jeff: I agree wholeheartedly, and that has nothing to do with my having to start Tyler Shough in a league this weekend.

Josh: At least he didn't give you a zero.

Dynasty Waiver Priority Pickups

Jeff: A lucky break, but I still got clobbered. Anyway, who's your top backup QB this week?

QB Brady Cook, New York Jets (3% Rostered)

Cook is my priority pickup this week, but with the caveat that this is coming from a Superflex league perspective. In a single-quarterback league, he'd still fall into the Deep Darts category.

I love that Justin Fields went out and played his rear end off to lead the Jets to their first win of the season just a few days after the team's owner threw him under the bus, rolled it over him a few times, then put Fields back inside of it and pushed it off a cliff. Alas, one win does not a secure job make (especially when the owner has already publicly verbally grilled you), and it's still only one win in a season the Jets are certainly using to decide which young pieces will be part of the future. 

So if the team owner is ready to send Fields on a rocket to the moon, and Tyrod Taylor gets injured by simply reading a depth chart with him at the top of it, that leaves us with Brady Cook. I had Cook tied with Jalen Milroe as my third-highest graded rookie quarterback entering the draft, but the NFL didn't see it quite the same way. Cook signed with the Jets after going undrafted in April.

He didn't set the world on fire in college, but he entered the NFL with good size and a decent history of production in the tough SEC. As the full-time starter from 2022 to 2024, Cook completed 64 percent of his passes with 46 touchdowns against 15 interceptions. He threw 1,173 passes in college, so he came to the NFL with some legitimate experience under his belt. He can run a little, too, posting 585 rushing yards in his best college season.

Jeff: Remember, the official stats for college football don't net out yards lost to sacks, so his actual rushing success was even greater.

Josh: Good point. Still, he was undrafted and has a long road to becoming a viable dynasty starter. That road has to begin somewhere. Cook could get an opportunity this season to show the Jets why they should keep him in town as part of the rebuild. There can't be many third-string rookie quarterbacks out there with a better chance to show what they can do. 

Are you going with a quarterback as well?

Jeff: Yes, and he's a blast from our past.

QB Max Brosmer, Minnesota (4% Rostered)

Carson Wentz is slated to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, putting Brosmer in line to back up J.J. McCarthy, who is expected to return this week. History suggests Brosmer should be prepared to play. McCarthy has played just two of a possible 24 games over his two NFL seasons. That's not to say that Brosmer will suddenly find himself starting, but we had eight backups in starting roles last week. 

As I said when I previously mentioned Brosmer, our Matt Waldman's pre-draft evaluation identified him as "a quality backup [who] plays low-mistake football while having enough traits to help a team during a short-term crisis." To that, I added that he is football-smart, poised, and gets rid of the ball in a hurry. He has completed 5 of 8 passes for 42 yards in limited action this season. As a Minnesota Golden Gopher, he completed 66 percent of his passes for 2,828 yards and 18 touchdowns in his senior season. He also ran for five touchdowns there. 

Brosmer is not a slam dunk to see the field even if McCarthy were to miss more time. It's possible that the Vikings trade for a backup quarterback, including Kirk Cousins, although he did not have a particularly compelling audition as the Falcons' fill-in starter last week. But I expect this team will stick with Brosmer. The Vikings signed Desmond Ridder in Week 3 only to cut him a week or so later, demonstrating faith in their undrafted free agent signee. He's a priority add for Superflex managers who need QB depth, but others may rise to a higher priority.

In this article, we focus on players who are rostered in less than half of Sleeper dynasty leagues, but there are some others that managers should be on the lookout for. Be sure to check your waiver wire for these players who are rostered in between 50 and 75 percent of leagues: Tank Bigsby (61% rostered), Pat Bryant (75%), Isaiah Davis (75%), Gunnar Helm (55%), Bam Knight (67%), Tyquan Thornton (56%), Sean Tucker (59%), and Emanuel Wilson (55%). I'd also be on the lookout for players Josh or I have previously highlighted who are still below 50% rostership, such as Jahan Dotson (31%), Xavier Hutchinson (41%), Riley Leonard (23%), Luke Schoonmaker (19%), Devin Singletary (38%), Arian Smith (37%), Devaughn Vele (27%), and Parker Washington (45%).

Dynasty Waiver Deep Darts