Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Stashes: WR & TE (Week 7)

As of Week 6, we are now a third of the way through the fantasy football season. Every week it becomes more and more difficult to find players who can be claimed off waivers. Some players break out of the secret area with a few good performances, while others fall completely into obscurity. However, we have some interesting options this week, as well as some previously featured receivers that are still widely available and worth considering. Let’s dive right in.

Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Stashes: WR & TE (Week 7)

Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Stashes: Week 7

Kayshon Boutte (WR – NE): 0.1% in the squad

If you’ve read this article, you know that I’ve been on the Ja’Lynn Polk train. However, it wasn’t the rookie who led the Patriots in rushing this week. Instead, Kayshon Boutte, a 2023 sixth-round pick, led the team with a 76.2% participation rate.

This is particularly noteworthy as the Drake-Maye era has officially begun in New England. In his first start in the NFL, Maye managed over 200 yards and three touchdowns, both of which Jacoby Brissett failed to do once in five weeks. It may not always be pretty, but having Maye under center undeniably raises the fantasy ceiling of this offense.

This week, in Maye’s first start, Boutte caught all three of his targets for 59 yards and also scored his first NFL touchdown. It’s not great when a player catches his first touchdown in his sophomore season, but Boutte was considered a potential first-round pick early in his college career. If he’s finally ready to fulfill that potential, a role as the No. 1 WR in the Patriots’ new-look offense could give him fantasy relevance.

JuJu Smith-Schuster (WR – KC): 24.9% on the roster

JuJu Smith-Schuster probably shouldn’t even be considered a waiver prospect. In his first game without Rashee Rice, the former Pro Bowler managed 130 yards on seven catches. However, fantasy managers are skeptical about the 27-year-old’s ability to be a reliable fantasy contributor. The Chiefs were on a bye this week, so Smith-Schuster’s breakout game came a week ago (and several waiver runs), but he’s still on the roster in less than a quarter of leagues.

With that in mind, Smith-Schuster is worth adding and keeping until we see how the Chiefs’ offense pans out long-term, with Rice now officially out for the season. After all, it was only two years ago that the veteran slot receiver scored over 100 times and rushed for more than 900 yards in the same offense in Kansas City. He doesn’t play the full “Rashee Rice role,” but Smith-Schuster has a real chance of being a valid flex play or even a PPR WR2 as long as he sees a 20% target share from Patrick Mahomes.

Previously featured WRs to consider

Jalen Tolbert (WR – DAL): 37.3% on the roster

After a great fifth week, Jalen Tolbert came back down to earth on Sunday with four catches for 43 yards. But he still led the Cowboys in routes, even ahead of CeeDee Lamb. If Dallas ever makes it, he will benefit.

Xavier Legette (WR – CAR): 24.0% in the squad

Xavier Legette scored his second career touchdown on Sunday and caught three of his four targets for 23 yards. An explosive first-round rookie who handles multiple avenues of attack on offense with just one established target. He is perhaps the most prototypical Stash candidate of all.

Adonai Mitchell (WR – IND): 9.2% on the roster

Adonai Mitchell, another explosive rookie with high draft capital, doesn’t yet have the route participation portion of the breakout formula as he only ran nine routes on Sunday. While that’s discouraging for his short-term outlook, it also means his fantasy value has room for growth. For the season, Mitchell has set a top target of 32% per route pass – we don’t want to extrapolate too much from small samples, but it’s a sign that he could finish the season very strongly if he ever gets a full role.

Fantasy Football Tight End Stashes: Week 7

Taysom Hill (TE – NO): 28.0% on the roster

After a blistering start to the season, everything is going wrong for the Saints. They are expected to be without Derek Carr for several weeks. Chris Olave (concussion) and Rashid Shaheed (knee) are also struggling with injuries. Taysom Hill has also been sidelined each of the last two weeks with a rib injury.

However, with all of these offensive injuries, Hill’s unique package could be expanded. Maybe he’ll even see a few snaps at quarterback, like in the good old days. Hill’s injuries make it difficult to determine exactly how often Klint Kubiak plans to use him, but when healthy, he has seen heavy involvement in competitive game plans, particularly at the goal line. That’s enough to make it worthwhile if you end up feeling miserable.

Hunter Henry (TE – NE): 22.2% on the roster

Like Boutte before him, Hunter Henry makes this list thanks to the Maye factor. While he no longer leads the Patriots in targets like he did earlier in the season, the veteran tight end finished with 11.6 half-PPR points on Sunday, catching three of five targets for 41 yards and a score.

I’m not a big fan of the “rookie quarterbacks lean on tight ends” narrative, but perhaps it could be of use to us here. Henry is arguably the Patriots’ most consistent pass catcher, and Maye will throw the ball around more than Brissett. In a tight end situation where real breakouts happen about once a year, perhaps all we can hope for is that Maye helps the 29-year-old improve those TE1 numbers.

Ja’Tavion Sanders (TE – CAR): 0.7% in the squad

If you want to swing for the fences, Ja’Tavion Sanders is the tight end to go for. The former Texas Longhorn was selected in the fourth round of this year’s NFL Draft and has the potential to be a mismatch nightmare. With Tommy Tremble sidelined with a concussion, Sanders set a new career high in route participation rate this week, running a route on 70% of Andy Dalton’s dropbacks. He also performed well on these routes, finishing second behind Diontae Johnson with seven targets (a target share of 18.4%). Of those seven targets, Sanders caught five for 49 yards, including 26 yards after the catch.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s a long shot. Sanders only averaged a 34.7% participation rate in the first four weeks when Tremble was healthy. There’s a chance the veteran will return next week and immediately relegate him to utter irrelevance. Even if that doesn’t happen, it’s not like Sanders’ 7.4 half-PPR points this week set the world on fire. But there just aren’t that many tight ends with upside out there, and I can’t just keep featuring Erick All Jr. every week. Sanders is worth a try in deep formats.

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Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasyPros.com. Find him on Twitter @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.