Week 5 waiver wire pickups

Every number is a share of opportunity, never a result: how much of the field time, the targets, the carries or the passing his team gave him. Touchdowns and efficiency swing week to week; opportunity is what tends to stick.

Which metrics count. Running backs: snap share, carries and target share. Wide receivers and tight ends: snap share, target share and WOPR (weighted opportunity rating — 1.5 × target share + 0.7 × air-yards share). Quarterbacks: snap share and passing share — his share of every passing yard his team threw that week, which is how a backup who took over shows up the day it happens.

The formula. For each metric, the jump is the latest week minus his average in his team's earlier games. From the third game on it is blended with the two-game trend — his last two games against the ones before them — with the latest week counting double:

rise = (2 × latest jump + two-game trend) ÷ 3

Each rise is divided by one “step” for its metric — 20 points of snap share, 10 points of target share, 0.20 of WOPR, 6 carries or 25 points of passing share — and the steps are averaged. A rise score of 1.0 is one meaningful step up; the board lists scores of 0.5 and above, up to 8 per position.

Worked example, straight off the board above. Emanuel Wilson's target share averaged 1% in his team's games before Week 4 and was 20% in Week 4: +18.7. His last two games against the ones before them trend +8, so the blend is (2 × 18.7 + 8) ÷ 3 = +15.1 — at 10 points of target share per step, that is 1.51 steps. Averaged with his other measurable metrics (snap share 1.49, carries 1.34), his rise score is 1.4.

A usage floor keeps noise off the list. In the latest week a running back needs 10+ carries and targets combined, a wide receiver 5+ targets, a tight end 4+ targets, and a quarterback 60%+ of his team's passing yards. Going from one snap to ten is a big percentage and a useless pickup.

Missing games are zeros; missing snap counts are not. A week his team played without him in the box score counts as zero targets and zero carries — the league's stat feed writes a line for anyone who records a stat, so no line means no touch. That is exactly the baseline a waiver pickup rises from. Snap share is different: if a snap count is missing we leave it out rather than guess, and a bye week is never counted at all.

A faller's score is a rise score with the sign flipped — the same metrics, weights and steps, and the same rule that the latest week counts double. Snap share going from 78% to 41% is a fall in exactly the units a jump from 41% to 78% is a rise. The list is players drafted inside the availability line, the ones probably rostered, and it is labelled “opportunity is down” on purpose: a row is a change in role, not a verdict on the player and not a call about your roster.

Three gates. He needs a stat line in the measured week — a player with none was inactive, hurt or unused, and the stat feed cannot tell those apart, so a blank week is not scored as a demotion (the injury report is where that story lives). His usual volume in earlier games has to clear the same floor a riser's latest week does: 10+ carries and targets a game for a running back, 5+ targets for a wide receiver, 4+ for a tight end, 60%+ of his team's passing yards for a quarterback, so nobody “falls” from nothing. And the fall has to reach 0.5 steps (0.35 in deep-league mode). The board lists up to 8 (12 in deep-league mode).

Two tags come from the official injury report and print under a row's reason when they apply. Both look for a teammate on the same team and at the same position who is listed Out or Doubtful and whose recent opportunity was bigger than the player's own.

Opportunity load. One number per position, in the units opportunity comes in: target share for wide receivers and tight ends, carries plus targets a game for running backs, and share of the team's passing yards for quarterbacks. A teammate's load is his average over the last 3 games he actually played — his missed games are not zeros, or the injury that makes him a source would erase him. The player's own is his last 3 team games, with a game he has no stat line in counting as zero. A teammate has to carry at least 10% target share (wide receiver), 8% (tight end), 8 carries and targets a game (running back) or 50% of his team's passing yards (quarterback) to count. Up to 2 are named.

Next man up: X (Out, hamstring) says a teammate ahead of him is listed for the coming game. Why he's rising: X out since Week 3 appears when the jump coincides with the absence: the teammate has no stat line in the measured week and was ahead of him in the games before it.

Which report counts. The injury snapshot is one week's report, and the rest of the site runs on one week clock. “Next man up” is about the coming game, so it only appears when the report is for that week; until Wednesday's report is filed it does not appear at all, rather than repeating last week's. “Why he's rising” is about the week already played: with last week's final report it is worded in the past tense (“was out in Week 3”), and with the current report in the present (“out since Week 3”). A report older than the week measured is never used.

Each riser carries a tier from the FAAB bid calculator, set from his projected rest-of-season points per game — his average over the games he has left, through Week 17 — against three lines drawn from one default league: Half-PPR · 12 teams · 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 flex. The board cannot see yours. Read the table from the top: the first rung he clears is his tier.

The lines. The starter line is the projected rest-of-season rate of the last dedicated starter at his position in a 12-team league (QB12, RB24, WR24, TE12). The flex line is the replacement level: the best player at the position who the lineups leave out once the flex seats fill — the same number the rest-of-season page prints as its replacement level. This week's flex line is that replacement level on this week's projections. Every line is per position: a quarterback is held to a quarterback line, because a one-QB league never plays one in the flex. A player with no game to project this week (a bye, or ruled out) cannot be a streamer.

Why lines, not value above replacement. Players on the waiver wire are the replacement pool, so their value above replacement is about zero by construction, and ranking by it would give every claim the same score. The lines ask where he sits against a real lineup. The projection has a blind spot on the same players: one whose role just changed has little share history, so it still weights his earlier games, and a row whose rise score is 0.75 or more but whose tier is lower says so in a note that never changes the tier.

Handcuffs. The starter ahead of a running back is the teammate with the most projected carries. The projection model has his teammates absorb 25% of his share of carries and targets when he sits, with no teammate's share growing past ×2, and a handcuff is a back whose rest-of-season rate climbs 2.5+ points a game on that rule. The bar sits at 2.5 because a jump of 5 is not reachable in practice under that cap. A riser who already leads his team's backs gains little from it.

Deeper leagues. Tiers are judged against a 12-team Half-PPR default. Deeper leagues roster more of the pool, and in them the same player is worth about one tier more.

When there is no rest-of-season projection. A player with too few 2026 games for one shows “ROS n/a” and keeps the earlier rule, read from his rise score and his volume in the measured week (12 of the 81 risers scored this week). A rung with a volume bar needs both the score and the bar.

Two caps on the fallback. Quarterbacks stop at streamer: one passer starts per team, and a passing-share jump is usually a change of job rather than a role growing. A first-ever 2026 stat line cannot clear a rung with a volume bar — one game is a sample, not a role.

“Price this claim →” opens the FAAB calculator for week 5 with that tier filled in. Your budget and how badly you need him stay yours to set. The tier is a rest-of-season read of the player in the default league, not a bid.

The position filter narrows every list. The availability filter moves the line for “likely available” to an ADP after 80, 120 or 160 (120 is the default), and it cuts both ways: players inside the line are the “probably rostered” note and the fallers, players outside it are the board.

Deep-league mode is for leagues with 14+ teams and long benches. It lowers the bars — a running back needs 6+ carries and targets, a wide receiver or tight end 3+ targets, and the minimum rise drops to 0.35 — and each position lists up to 15 rows instead of 8. Quarterbacks keep their bar. The rows it adds are smaller roles and shakier samples.

Top 5 overall ranks the best claims across positions by how far his projected rest-of-season points per game sit above (or below) the flex line at his position, then by rise score. No more than 2 come from one position: a one-QB league rosters one passer, so five quarterbacks would crowd out everything else. A player with no rest-of-season projection ranks after everyone who has one. It always uses the standard bars and steps aside when a single position is selected. The choices live in the page's address, so a filtered view can be shared or bookmarked.

We don't have roster percentages. The platforms publish them through their own APIs, and the only free one that does is licensed for non-commercial use, so we don't call it. Instead a player counts as likely available when his PPR average draft position was later than pick 120 — round 11 on in a 12-team league — or he was not drafted at all.

We check two draft markets and take the earlier pick: FantasyFootballCalculator's board from Jul 15, 2026 and its last pre-season window, Sep 4–11. A player drafted inside pick 120 in either is left off the board and named in the “probably rostered” line instead. The filter above the board can move that line to pick 80 or 160. Your league is the real test: check your own waiver list before you bid.

Why the opportunity moved. An injury ahead of him, a benching, a blowout or a new game plan all look the same in a box score. The row tells you the jump; the news tells you whether it lasts.

Early-season baselines are thin. In the first few weeks “his earlier games” can be one or two games, so a single quiet week moves the baseline a lot. The two-game trend is there to reward the players who have now done it twice.

A big rise can still be a small tier. The rise score says his role just changed; the tier reads his rest-of-season projection, which weighs his whole 2026 line and his preseason market price and moves more slowly. A player whose role jumped last week can therefore sit at Lottery ticket until more games are in.

Injury tags lag the claim window. The tag is the most recent official report, which is the report for the game just played until the next week's practice reports come out midweek.