{"id":2475,"date":"2015-12-24T22:51:58","date_gmt":"2015-12-25T03:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=2475"},"modified":"2015-12-24T22:51:58","modified_gmt":"2015-12-25T03:51:58","slug":"week-16-waiver-wire-pickups-championship-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=2475","title":{"rendered":"Week 16 – Waiver Wire Pickups (Championship Edition)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"GET<\/a>

GET THE BELT!!!<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMerry Christmas, happy holidays\u201d you politely mutter to people on your way in to work.\u00a0 \u201cIs Santa ready to come to your house?\u201d asks Cheryl, in her annoyingly high pitched voice.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sure the little guy will just play with the boxes.\u00a0 Ha ha ha.\u201d says another co-worker.<\/p>\n

Yes, you nod and move on.\u00a0 You can\u2019t be bothered by the incessant Christmas chatter.\u00a0 You have more important things to focus on.\u00a0 Because you have made the Fantasy Football finals.<\/p>\n

Forget what you have done this entire year.\u00a0 You may have cured cancer in April, but if you lose in the finals, this year was a failure.\u00a0 Everyone\u2019s path to the finals is different\u2026but one thing remains clear:\u00a0 no one gets to the finals without successfully navigating the waiver wire.<\/p>\n

Guys like Charcandrick West, David Johnson and Gary Barnidge, true nobodies at the beginning of this season.\u00a0 But if you frequented the Big Red Sports Machine, they weren\u2019t no names to you.\u00a0 You knew when to pick them up.\u00a0 And now that you\u2019re so close to tasting victory, now is not the time to stop.\u00a0 There are still guys on the waiver wire that can help you win\u2026especially if you\u2019re an Odell Beckham, Jr. or TJ Yeldon owner (like me).<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re still reading, that means you\u2019re in the finals.\u00a0 Congratufuckinglations.\u00a0 Now let\u2019s go win that belt.<\/p>\n

Markus Wheaton, WR Pittsburgh (37% owned in Yahoo! leagues)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a>

Great chance to find the endzone on Sunday.<\/p><\/div>\n

An astounding 31% of teams in the finals<\/a> have Odell Beckham, Jr.\u00a0 That means a lot of people are searching to replace him and try to salvage a victory.\u00a0 Look no further than Wheaton.\u00a0 The knock on Wheaton is that he\u2019s the #3 option in Pittsburgh\u2019s offense, behind Antonio Brown and Martavius Bryant.\u00a0 However, Markus has been carving out more of a role.\u00a0 Over the past 4 games, Wheaton has averaged over 9 targets, and has more yards (378 to 319) and tds (3 to 1) than Bryant.\u00a0 The Steelers have a great matchup against Baltimore this week.\u00a0 Bryant should get plenty of opportunities to continue his solid play.<\/p>\n

Rueben Randle, WR NYG (42%)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"No<\/a>

No Odell, no problem!<\/p><\/div>\n

This one\u2019s a no brainer.\u00a0 With OBJ out, Reuben becomes the de facto #1 WR for the Giants.\u00a0 Rueben has been a td dependent receiver for fantasy relevance.\u00a0 He\u2019s caught 3 tds over the past 4 weeks but has only averaged 3 catches a game over that span.\u00a0 That should increase this weekend.\u00a0 The Giants (somehow) still have a shot to make the playoffs, and to do so they will have to rely on Eli Manning to throw the ball.\u00a0 That puts Reuben in a prime spot.<\/p>\n

Cameron Artis-Payne, RB Carolina (30%)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>

This week’s workhorse<\/p><\/div>\n

If I told you a rookie running back would bring you a fantasy championship, who would you guess: \u00a0Melvin Gordon, Todd Gurley, Duke Johnson? \u00a0How about the 14th running back picked in the Draft? \u00a0If you\u2019re iffy at RB or Flex, pick up Cameron Artis-Payne right now.\u00a0 He is poised to bring you a fantasy championship.\u00a0 First, the Panthers have a great match up against the creampuff Falcons.\u00a0 Second, and perhaps most importantly, the Panthers are 14-0.\u00a0 Ron Rivera indicated he will not sit his starters, but that doesn\u2019t mean the offense will be the same.\u00a0 Translation:\u00a0 Cam will play but they\u2019re going to run the shit out of the ball.\u00a0 The Machine predicts that Cam will have the fewest passing attempts all season.\u00a0 There\u2019s no way he\u2019s going to be unnecessarily put in harm\u2019s way.\u00a0 One person Rivera will rest:\u00a0 Johnathan Stewart.\u00a0 That means great things for Artis-Payne, a rookie 5th<\/sup> round running back from Auburn.\u00a0 Last week, Artis-Payne carried the ball 14 times for 59 yards, plus caught 2 passes for 34 yards.\u00a0 This week will be even more.\u00a0 Artis-Payne should run the ball 20+ times, and should get multiple catches as the Panthers passing offense should change to a check down mode.<\/p>\n

Christine Michael, RB Seattle (38%)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"I'm<\/a>

I’m back!<\/p><\/div>\n

Remember, back in August, when Michael was THE sleeper pick of the draft?\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019ll be the number 1 running back in Dallas by Week 3.\u201d said the d-bag in your league who religiously reads Pro Football Weekly (barf).\u00a0 It\u2019s safe to say his time in Dallas was a bust.\u00a0 Total stats in Dallas over 10 weeks:\u00a0 15 carries, 51 yards, 0 tds.\u00a0 However, Michaels is back with Seattle, and ready to make amends.\u00a0 In just his first game back with the Seahawks, Michael eclipsed all his numbers in Dallas, rushing 16 times for 84 yards.\u00a0 With no Beastmode, and Fred Jackson just celebrating his 81st<\/sup> birthday, Michael is ready to reclaim the feature back position in Seattle.\u00a0 Bryce Brown may get some touches too, but Michael will be a goal line vulture.\u00a0 Look for Michael to flirt with 100 yards.<\/p>\n

There you have it.\u00a0 Another season of fantasy advice in the books.\u00a0 Good luck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMerry Christmas, happy holidays\u201d you politely mutter to people on your way in to work.\u00a0 \u201cIs Santa ready to come to your house?\u201d asks Cheryl, in her annoyingly high pitched voice.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sure the little guy will just play with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy-football"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Bp3y-DV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2481,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475\/revisions\/2481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}