10 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Targets Heading Into Week 5

By now, most of the early breakout players have been added to fantasy rosters, so identifying pickups can require more nuance by now. Unless, of course, injuries are opening a path to production for certain options.

Here are some of the best additions you can make to your squads based on everything we know so far. (I'll stick to players rostered on 50% of Yahoo teams or fewer and also list some other viable pickups who may be available in shallower leagues or relevant only in deeper leagues).

Quarterbacks
Trey Lance, San Francisco 49ers

Roster Percentage: 30%

With Jimmy Garoppolo's calf injury, the Trey Lance era for the San Francisco 49ers got underway on Sunday -- just in time for a matchup with the Arizona Cardinals.

Lance finished the game 9 of 18 for 157 yards and 2 passing touchdowns while adding 7 carries for 41 yards on the ground. In one half.

The ceiling is immense, and Lance needs to be a priority waiver-wire claim for any quarterback-needy teams.

Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville Jaguars

Roster Percentage: 53%

The streaming options at quarterback aren't looking particularly appealing overall, so I'm going to feature Trevor Lawrence here. His roster percentage is 53% on Yahoo! and 46.9% on ESPN, so he's out there in roughly half of leagues.

The Jacksonville Jaguars did lose receiver D.J. Chark to a fractured ankle, but Lawrence put forth a strong fantasy performance in Week 4 on Thursday night. Now, the Jags have a long week of prep before hosting the Tennessee Titans.

Lawrence has started to run more, and that's very appealing for fantasy football purposes. He ran 3 times for 19 yards through Week 2 but has racked up 14 carries for 63 yards and a touchdown in the past two games.

Others to Consider:
Sam Darnold (37%, versus Philadelphia Eagles), Justin Fields (42%, at Las Vegas Raiders), Daniel Jones (31%, at Dallas Cowboys)

Running Backs
Damien Williams, Chicago Bears

Roster Percentage: 7%

David Montgomery was dominating in Week 4 but left early with a knee injury that will require an MRI. Via NextGenStats, Damien Williams wound up playing 19 snaps (33.3%) en route to 8 carries and 2 targets.

The Chicago Bears' offense showed life in a beatable matchup behind rookie quarterback Justin Fields in Week 4. They'll be facing the Las Vegas Raiders off of a short week in Week 5.

Kenneth Gainwell, Philadelphia Eagles

Roster Percentage: 29%

You've probably seen Kenneth Gainwell's name often in waiver-wire columns this season, but he is still available in roughly 7 out of 10 fantasy leagues.

Gainwell played on 40.0% of the Philadelphia Eagles' offensive snaps in Week 4, and that means he has now played 35.8%, 32.7%, 28.3%, and 40.0% of the team's snaps. He's simply not going away, and he generated 8 targets on 17 routes (compared to 3 targets on 25 routes for Miles Sanders).

J.D. McKissic, Washington Football Team

Roster Percentage: 39%

When you weigh in the fact that a target for a running back is worth about twice as many expected fantasy points as a carry (in half-PPR formats), you'll see that J.D. McKissic's workload is actually really strong. His 7 carries and 5 targets works out to 17 adjusted opportunities, which we can contrast to the 14-carry, 2-target output from Antonio Gibson (18 adjusted opportunities).

McKissic also handled 3 of 4 red zone carries between the two in Week 4 and now has a 33.3% red zone rushing market share -- the same as Gibson. He's available in too many leagues right now.

Others to Consider:
Michael Carter (51%), Peyton Barber (36%), Darrel Williams (9%), Rodney Smith (0%), Jeremy McNichols (1%)

Wide Receivers
Darnell Mooney, Chicago Bears

Roster Percentage: 38%

Darnell Mooney has shown a pretty clear connection with Justin Fields thus far. That included a 7-target, 125-yard outing in Week 4. In total, Money has been on the receiving end of a team-high 15 of Fields' pass attempts. (Allen Robinson has 13 targets from Fields, for context.)

Mooney also now has been targeted on 4 of Fields' 8 downfield targets, which he has caught 3 of for 106 yards.

With either WR1 or at least 1B treatment in this offense, Mooney needs to be added.

Curtis Samuel, Washington Football Team

Roster Percentage: 40%

The first game for Curtis Samuel this season was a little glimpse of what we could see from him moving forward within the Washington Football Team's offense. Samuel ran just 12 routes but drew 4 targets, a 25.0% target-per-route rate. Only 28 receivers through Week 3 had at least 12.0 routes per game with that high of a target rate.

There's a lot of room for growth behind Terry McLaurin within this passing offense, now that tight end Logan Thomas is hurt.

Jamison Crowder, New York Jets

Roster Percentage: 20%

Jamison Crowder returned to a big role in the New York Jets' offense in Week 4. He had a team-high 9 targets and 7 catches, though the low average depth of target (5.9 yards) led to minimal yardage upside (61). However, he's shaping up to be a PPR-relevant receiver if he's going to lead in target market share as he did in Week 4 (26.5%).

Crowder did get a downfield target despite the low air yards total. More promising is that he had five red zone targets.

Randall Cobb, Green Bay Packers

Roster Percentage: 6%

With Marquez Valdes-Scantling on injured reserve, the offense, as usual, flowed through Davante Adams (a team-high 11 targets and 38 routes). But the Lizard King was the only other Green Bay Packer to surpass 26 routes: Allen Lazard ran 35 routes. That led to only 3 targets, and it was actually Randall Cobb who benefitted most among the receivers otherwise.

Cobb drew 6 targets on 24 routes and had 2 downfield and 2 red zone targets. Those are high-leverage looks in an offense that still has the juice to drop 27 points.

Others to Consider:
Emmanuel Sanders (58%), Mecole Hardman (50%), Bryan Edwards (18%), Rondale Moore (54%), A.J. Green (24%), DeVante Parker (38%), T.Y. Hilton (21%), Kadarius Toney (3%), Josh Gordon (32%), Rashod Bateman (25%)

Tight Ends
Dalton Schultz, Dallas Cowboys

Roster Percentage: 32%

Dalton Schultz has become a key part of the Dallas Cowboys' offense. Week 4 saw him generate 8 targets on 18 routes, and he now has a team-high (not a typo) 23.0% target share in three games since Week 2 -- coinciding with Michael Gallup's injury.

It's time to treat Schultz like more than a waiver-wire afterthought.

Others to Consider:
Dawson Knox (46%), Jared Cook (46%), Tyler Conklin (13%), Cole Kmet (26%), Zach Ertz (26%), Pat Freiermuth (9%), C.J. Uzomah (2%)