10 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Targets Heading Into Week 2
Terence West, RB, Baltimore Ravens
ESPN Ownership: 43.4%
Yahoo Ownership: 29%
Terrance West doesn't make this list because he's especially exciting. His 12 rushes for 32 yards against the Buffalo Bills were particularly meh. But even tough Buffalo was a bottom-feeding run defense in 2015, Rex Ryan has a history of putting together strong run-stopping defensive lines, and the Bills, with much of the same personnel, ranked as a top-10 run-stuffing unit per our metrics in 2014. So don't hold West's underwhelming performance on Sunday against him too much yet.
Because any running back receiving at least 10 carries a game should at least be rostered in fantasy football leagues. And as TJ Hernandez wrote about Baltimore Ravens’ offensive coordinator Marc Trestman prior to the 2015 season, historically, Trestman's been a bit of a running back whisperer.
West leading the Ravens in total carries on top of seeing two targets in the passing game indicates that he should have standalone value moving forward. And the next three matchups the Ravens have come against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Oakland Raiders, and Cleveland Browns, each of whom were bottom-half defensive units against the run per our metrics last season.
West put together a really nice preseason, averaging 4.0 yards per carry and finding the end zone twice. He figures to continue having a goal-line presence and sapping up close to half of the carries in the Ravens' backfield for the foreseeable future, and his upcoming schedule is nice enough that he could carry some flex value and may offer an opportunity to sell high if he goes off one of the next few games.
Roster him if you can afford to cut bait with a player on your bench you don't ever see yourself starting.