Rick Osentoski USA TODAY Sports
A lot of times, playing the fantasy football waiver wire in Week 1 ends up being a race to see who’s got the best number in the waiver order to grab this year’s equivalent of Frisman Jackson.
There are a lot of people who simply look at the highest stat lines from Week 1 and go to grab that guy as the next hot commodity. If you are not one of these guys, you will probably spend this week taking chances on the second-tier crop of players who weren’t good enough for you to draft, but are still on your radar because your no. 3 tight end puked down the front of his jersey last week.
If you want to take a stab at a guy who’s actually worth owning, I suggest taking a look at Isaiah Pead.
I know right about now people aren’t exactly clamoring over each other for the chance to dig into the St. Louis Rams‘ running back corps for the chance to own a piece of what looks like one of the more anemic running games in the league.
Zac Stacy is the only prototypical running back on the roster in terms of size and speed. However, his skill set is so middle-of-the-road that he’s not really built to excel at anything. Daryl Richardson has the most experience, but is too slight to move the pile and not fast enough to break away with one. His soft hands give him a role catching dump-off passes on third downs, but he’ll never win you games.
You can see evidence of his skill set in his Week 1 stat line where he rushed 20 times for 63 yards and caught five passes for 33 yards. That’s 25 touches with only 96 yards to show for it!
Admittedly, Pead has had some issues with character and maturity in the early part of his career, and Jeff Fisher hasn’t held his hand one bit. I suspect it’s by design after he witnessed firsthand what coddling did to Chris Johnson’s character issues.
The reality is that Fisher drafted Pead to be his poor man’s Chris Johnson. He ran a 4.39 time in the 40-yard dash and has more moves than a slippery weasel. If you’re digging for a brave new hope off the waiver wire and you were beat out on the easy, obvious pickups, I’d grab Pead on the value of his high ceiling alone.
Eric Beuning is a Fantasy Football writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericbeuning or add him to your network on Google.
