This is a weekly post every Tuesday where we talk about the unquantifiable stories behind a player’s actual performance that aren’t always shown in the postgame write-ups or the highlight reels.

Did a player put up a great score as a fluke but not look great on the field? Did they put up a terrible stat line but look good when given the chance? Who was purely the beneficiary of an unusual game script? Who was uncharacteristically written out of this week’s score book by factors beyond their control? Who is fading, who is rising? Discuss the players you watched, and ask about those you didn’t.

The stat line winners and losers are in, but now it‘s film room time. For those who watched the games: Who passed and failed your eye test week 7?

Hey everyone,

I put together this week’s top waiver wire pickups using rankings from top fantasy sites like Yahoo, NFL, FantasyPros, Rotoballer, and others. It’s ranked by position, with links to the sources if you want to read up on the ranking & research.

You can also sync your fantasy leagues to see who’s available and direct links back to your fantasy platform to make your waiver claim.

It’s all free & no sign-up required. https://www.draftwiz.net/nfl/waivers/2026/8

Relatively good waiver week. Here's your weekly crowd-sourced tool to help us figure out how much FAAB we should bid on waivers.

https://www.faablab.app/

How it works:

• Each week we add the top waiver picks from fantasy pros
• Use the tool to submit a mock bid on players you're interested in (bids are % of total budget)
• Once you bid, that player's consensus data will be revealed to you, use the slider to adjust your bid
• Use the crowd-sourced data to get an edge in your league

Post in the comments for discussion, suggestions, features to add, etc.

Last years top pick up for week 8 was Kyle Monangai for 19%

McGowan is the only Colts RB besides Jonathan Taylor who has played a snap this year, and his role keeps growing: 6% of the snaps in Week 2, 33% last week, with a career-high 11 carries in a one-score game.

Three ways he pays off:

- His role keeps growing even with Taylor healthy

- Taylor gets hurt (he's at 20 carries a game)

- The Colts trade Taylor (they just moved Quenton Nelson, though ownership reportedly wants to keep JT *which I don't really believe*)

He's on 25.6% of Sleeper rosters but only 4% on ESPN.

Is he worth a spot on your bench, or are you waiting to see if Taylor actually gets moved?

I would still rank it: Coleman then Black then McGowan for now, right?

**EDIT: The Colts firesale continues! Buckner traded to the 49ers!**

Your leagues probably clear waivers on Wednesday, but some weird leagues clear early on Tuesdays. Thanks to them, we can see what size bids are actually winning players in waivers. I grab a sizeable sample of these Tuesday leagues from the Sleeper API, and see who's trending.

Week 8 is a quieter, cheaper week than Week 7. Last week's top add, Omar Cooper Jr., drew bids in 52% of the sampled leagues and usually won at 12% of budget. This week, Caleb Douglas is the most contested add bid on in 29% of leagues. Jonah Coleman is the priciest, at a 9.0% median. Kaelon Black is only 30% owned, but it still took 14.5% of budget to win him in 3 of 4 leagues.

Methodology

This analysis pulls the results of FAAB transactions from over a thousand leagues. It normalizes each bid based on the total league budget (not the individual team's remaining budget). "Bids that won" is a measure of competitiveness. A lower "Bids that won" percentage indicates that, on average, more teams in a league are bidding for that player.

Someone in the Week 6 thread made a good point about ownership. "Leagues bidding" only counts leagues where the player was actually available. A guy like KC Concepcion (62% owned) only shows up in the leagues where he's free, so his sample is smaller than Caleb Douglas's (19% owned). Check the Owned column before you lean too hard on a number.

The result is a distribution of what FAAB budget % it actually took to win in any given league. You can see an example player curve pictured in the post, where 12.5% of budget was enough to win Caleb Douglas in about 7 of 10 of the sampled leagues that claimed him, and 20% won about 9 of 10.

The table below shows how many leagues are bidding for a player (relative only to each other), how competitive those auctions are, and what % of FAAB is winning at the 50th and 75th percentiles.

A 0.0% median here means most leagues that claimed Brissett did placed a $0 bid.

Details and data: Full FAAB Price List, with links to player-specific pages/curves.

This data might not tell you exactly what to bid, but hopefully it helps you think about your bidding strategy a little more concretely.

I'm thinking about other ways to leverage this data throughout the week, so let me know if you find it useful, or if there's anything else you'd like to see.

Some really solid trench performances this past week.

O-Line: CIN, TB and LAR put in good work.

D-Line: SEA was on another level, MIN keeps it going and NYG keeps them in a close game.

Link to full Week 7 Write-up:

https://trenchpowerrating.substack.com/p/tpr-recap-nfl-week-7-in-the-trenches

Week 8 Matchups: TH

Trench Injury Overview: FR.

Unrealized yards are air yards where the player either had no chance to turn them into yards (uncatchable targets and interceptions), or failed to get the yards due to their own fault (drops and fumbles).

The goal is to identify WRs who could be candidates for positive regression because they were unlucky with their air yards. Unrealized yards aren't always just bad luck. Players with a higher aDOT convert fewer air yards and some QBs throw more uncatchable targets than others.

But it's a good indicator of which players are unluckier than others and where we might see regression.

Routes without a pass = sacks, batted passes, throwaways, spikes, scrambles.

Stats via fantasypointsdata

Unrealized Yards Week 7:

• Denzel Boston had more uncatchable air yards in one game than 30 Top 50 Receivers over the last 4 weeks
• Addison and Collins both had 2 targets on flagged plays
• Coker ran 9 routes on plays without a pass. That was a third of his routes

Unrealized Yards Week 4-7:

• Nacua, Tucker, Tate and Collins each had over 90 air yards on flagged plays
• The Packers and Rams have an absurd amount of unrealized yards
• Golden has the most dropped air yards over the last 4 weeks
• Boston had the 3rd most uncatchable targets and ran the most routes on plays without a pass

2026 Week 8 Final Edition

Every expert article that is coming this week is in, all 13 of them.

Jonah Coleman (DEN RB) is the most popular player to spend our FAAB dollars on this week. 12 of the 13 experts suggested bidding on him, with the average bid amount of $29.

Other Popular Players Average Bids

1. Caleb Douglas (MIA WR): $11
2. Omar Cooper Jr. (NYJ WR): $32
3. Seth McGowan (IND RB): $9
4. Antonio Williams (WAS WR): $8

Go to www.faabtastic.com/reddit to vote on how much you'll be bidding.

^{Bids are based on a season starting budget of $100.}

Ok, let’s be real about Charbs… can he really be fantasy relevant? He can, but can he be a fringe RB2? The arguments for this: there is no Kenneth Walker anymore, which leaves Charbonnet as the primary running back (most likely) on an elite offense. He will get most of the work as Price will mainly be a change of pace back and Charbonnet can not only run the ball, but catch the ball as well. The Seattle defense is very good, which may lead to a positive gamescript and a lot of running. Plus, Charbonnet was getting most of the goal-line work, even when K9 was there. Plus, he’s had 2 full weeks of practices before, potentially, playing this week. A full week of practice is good enough for a player to be physically ready to play, let alone two.

The arguments against: Charbonnet is coming off a major injury, he may have a slow start and he may be hampered. Price is coming off IR and Wilson has definitely been serviceable. Wilson has had 80+ yards and 3 TDs as the starter in various different games this year, plus he’s getting the volume… the Seahawks also have Holani who, can more or less, catch the ball. So there’s Wilson, Price, and Holani in Charbs’ way. What do you guys think?

Is Charbonnet fool’s gold? Or can he be relied upon?

TLDR: Charbs may be the workhorse but his injury is holding him back

It's week 8 - the fantasy regular season is halfway over in most leagues, and trade deadlines are approaching. Now is the time to take action.

How this works: Post a player you're interested in seeing value for as a thread. Comments respond with trade offers.

Assume 1PPR 1QB unless noted otherwise.

Ie. Bijan Robinson -> Puka Nacua