10 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Targets Heading Into Week 5

Michael Crabtree, WR, Oakland Raiders

ESPN Ownership: 63.6%
Yahoo! Ownership: 56%

The workload and role on the Raiders for Michael Crabtree this season has never been in doubt; the Raiders wideout had racked up 33 targets over the first three games of the season. However, with Crabtree racking up fewer than 40 yards in both Weeks 1 and 3 despite Derek Carr tossing 8 and 9 targets his way in both those games, and with his mediocre 0.49 Reception NEP per target through the season's first three games, what has been in doubt is whether or not he could do anything with that workload.

Going up against the Bears this week, Crabtree at least showed us that if given the right opponent he could put up a productive day, catching 5 of 6 targets for 80 yards in a loss in Chicago.

The most encouraging sign, aside from Crabtree's once again relatively high workload, is that Carr looked Crabtree's way on a number of critical downs and Crabtree came through for him, leading to Crabtree's 1.10 Reception NEP per target this Sunday.

So with Crabtree gaining the trust of his second-year quarterback and his high volume role on a Raiders offense on the rise -- they were ranked eighth in offensive efficiency according to our schedule-adjusted advanced metrics prior to this Sunday -- a strong argument can be made that Crabtree deserves to be rostered in every league this season.