Key takeaways
- Priority target: MarShawn Lloyd (GB) — the market’s already moving, and the Jacobs situation isn’t settled.
- Deep stash: Mike Washington Jr. (LV) — the Jeanty ankle report changes the math on every Raiders backfield add.
- Tight end lottery ticket: Brenton Strange — low roster percentage, real Week 1 opportunity in Jacksonville.
- FAAB frame: Spend 15-25% on your top target, save your last third for a genuine Week 3 emergency.
- Drop candidates: Ricky Pearsall (season IR reported), Jalen McMillan (knee — only if you have zero flex flexibility).
The Seahawks host the Patriots Wednesday night. Your league’s waivers probably run Tuesday. That means today is your last real chance to spend FAAB before someone in your chat panic-bids on a name they should have already had.
Every year the same thing happens. You draft, you feel good, you close the app, and you don’t look again until Monday of Week 2. By then the market has already priced in the news you could’ve gotten in front of. Not this year. Here’s who’s worth real money before kickoff.
Priority adds — spend real FAAB
MarShawn Lloyd (RB – GB)
Lloyd is the name that’s already moved in draft markets over the last week — roughly 16 spots by one tracker — and the reason is simple. He looks healthy in preseason, and Josh Jacobs’ situation isn’t as locked-in as the ADP suggested a month ago. If you missed him in the draft entirely, he’s the top FAAB target of the week. In 12-team leagues where he escaped somehow, 18-25% is defensible. In deeper leagues where he was already gone, this doesn’t apply.
The projection isn’t “he unseats Jacobs.” It’s “he gets meaningful touches in a real offense and rides a spike week when Jacobs sits or falters.” That’s bench value with league-winning upside if the depth chart moves.
Mike Washington Jr. (RB – LV)
Ashton Jeanty is dealing with an ankle. The Raiders are publicly optimistic, but publicly optimistic and privately settled are two different things. Washington Jr. led the Raiders on the ground in the preseason, and the second Jeanty misses a series — not a game, a series — his workload is meaningful. This is a bench stash with genuine upside, not a starter add.
Brenton Strange (TE – JAX)
The tight end position is a wasteland outside the top four. Strange has been on the “he’s about to be a real starter” list for a year, and the Jacksonville depth chart in front of him has cleared. If you punted TE on draft day — and honestly, you should have — Strange is the lottery ticket with the highest floor. Spend a small chunk of FAAB and see what Week 1 looks like.
Secondary adds — small FAAB, real upside
Roschon Johnson (RB – CHI)
The Bears backfield is the closest thing the league has to an unresolved snap-count committee, and Johnson has been the consistent name coming out of camp. He’s a handcuff-plus — not a Week 1 lock, but the kind of stash whose value doubles the moment the depth chart clarifies. Small bid, worth the roster spot.
Tre Harris (WR)
Harris is a name that’s been surfacing on late-round-target lists all summer. If he’s a starter in your league’s Week 1 depth chart interpretation, he’s worth a swing. We flagged this class of pickup in the 2026 late-round targets piece — same logic still applies.
Kayshon Boutte (WR)
Boutte’s value is entirely tied to which team’s WR2 role he’s actually holding by kickoff, and that’s a story that’s still moving. If you can read your league’s depth chart update on Tuesday and see him locked in, he’s worth a small percentage of your budget. If not, skip it and check back in Week 3.
Deep stashes — only in 14+ team formats
Jalen McMillan (WR – TB)
McMillan is reportedly dealing with a knee issue that has been limiting him through most of camp. In shallow leagues, he’s a hold. In deep leagues where he’s available, he’s a stash with a fantasy-relevant ceiling once healthy. He’s not helping you Week 1, so don’t bid for immediate production.
Backfield handcuffs to your own starters
Boring but important. If you drafted a starting RB and didn’t handcuff, do it now. The market for handcuffs is at its lowest before Week 1 and its highest 15 minutes after your starter tweaks a hamstring. Spend a dollar of FAAB and sleep better.
Drop candidates — the flip side of every add
Ricky Pearsall (WR – SF)
Reportedly headed to season-ending IR. Droppable across the board if your league doesn’t have IR slots. Free up the bench spot for one of the priority adds above.
Your third kicker and second defense
Yes, some of you drafted them. No, you don’t need them. That’s two bench spots you can convert into Week 2 lottery tickets before your league’s casuals figure out that’s an option.
A FAAB framework you’ll actually use
| Situation | 12-team FAAB % | 14-team FAAB % |
|---|---|---|
| Priority RB add (Lloyd) | 18-25% | 10-15% |
| Secondary RB stash (Washington Jr.) | 5-10% | 3-6% |
| Streaming TE (Strange) | 4-8% | 2-5% |
| WR sleeper (Harris/Boutte) | 3-8% | 2-5% |
| Deep stash (McMillan) | 0-2% | 2-4% |
Rule of thumb: save at least a third of your season budget for the emergency you can’t predict. Every year someone in your league blows 90% of FAAB on a Week 1 stash and gets outbid on the actual league-winner in Week 4. Don’t be that person.
Waivers aren’t won by spending the most. They’re won by knowing which name is worth spending on.
Why the pre-kickoff run matters more than the post-Week-1 scramble
Every year the biggest FAAB battles are Tuesday morning after Week 1, when someone had a huge game and half the league bids. That’s the noisiest, most competitive market of the season. The names above are the ones you can pick up right now, before the crowd. You’re not gambling on a one-week sample — you’re acting on preseason usage, camp reports, and depth-chart movement that’s already happened.
We flagged some of these situations in the post-preseason sleepers and the camps-open sleepers pieces. The names have narrowed. The window is narrower.
The pick’em angle
Waiver news is fantasy noise, but the underlying injury reports drive real pick’em decisions. The Raiders’ ceiling swings on Jeanty’s ankle. The Packers game script tightens if Jacobs is limited. If you’re building a Week 1 confidence board, weight games where the star RB is fully healthy higher and shave a slot off any game where the starter is listed questionable. That’s the exact edge the leaderboard grinders exploit.
Get your bids in before Tuesday night. Handcuff your own guys. Cut the second kicker. And if you like being the manager whose bench pays off in Week 4 while everyone else is still scrambling — well, that’s the whole game, and the picks page is right where it always is.