KEONI'S WAIVER WIRE PICKUP - WEEK 10
Wayne Gallman- New York Giants RB
When you approach the waiver wire, it’s most likely because your team has been decimated by injury like the much maligned San Francisco 49ers, or you might be looking for a streaming option to fill in for your top player who has the audacity to have a bye this week. I mean, how rude! As the weeks go on, however, teams start to solidify and congeal like fat in arteries. In this case, that is actually a good thing because it's indicative of a relatively strong fantasy team. On the other hand, if your team is constantly rotating out players like the cast of a long running horror franchise, the waiver wire is there in order to find a player who will act as a “final girl” in the hopes they’ll be back for a sequel or as someone who comes in for one week in the hopes of being the one good part in an oft forgotten installment of said horror franchise. Much like the eighth installment of the “Friday the 13th” franchise, my waiver wire comes from New York.
My pickup for this week is Wayne Gallman. Within the past day, he has gone from being 20% owned to 32.3% owned in ESPN leagues and he is facing the Philadelphia Eagles. He’s coming off his best game of the season against a Washington defense where he had 68 rushing yards and a touchdown, as well as a catch for nine yards. It’s his third game in a row with a touchdown and his third game in a row with more than ten carries. Gallman does share the backfield getting around 50% of the snap count, and whether it’s with Alfred Morris or Devonta Freeman, he is the guy who gets in the endzone. I personally think the Giants organization should feed him more to where it’s around a 2:1 share of the snaps vs any other runner on the team but since I’m not, expect a relatively similar performance this week.
The other component to this is the Eagles defense, which has been valued at around the 8th best defense against the rush this season according to ESPN’s fantasy algorithm. I think that is a bit generous given the Eagles have given up over 1,000 yards in their first 8 games allowing opponents roughly 4.4 yards per carry. They are also tied for third for the most rushing touchdowns allowed with 11 so far on the season. The Eagles also fare much worse in away games in nearly every category of the defense and the game is at Metlife Stadium, so I expect Gallman to be a decent streaming flex option for this week.
