The Pig Market - Week Five Waiver Adds
Week Five is officially in the books! Here are some names that caught my eye this weekend...
The art of trading lies in timing and opportunity…
- Leonardo Fibonacci, mathematician
Welcome, my friends, to the Pig Market. Here, CFF manager frantically scour the streets—inspecting each and every merchant carefully in hopes of unearthing a hidden volume pig, or engaging in hellacious bidding for the fattest pigs at auction. A place where savvy buyers prove their mettle with extreme cunning, and first-timers unload their entire wallets on the latest cochon-du-jour.
I promised in my offseason content that I’d have you covered for waiver wire information each week and I plan to make good on that promise with yet another series (how many is it now? I’ve lost count…). Here, I will highlight players that I think are notable and that are also not highly rostered in standard leagues; or are not known commodities already. I’ll try to provide at least a few names at each position group per week.
QB
(Maryland) Taulia Tagovailoa — This one feels a bit cheap, since I assume many are already familiar with Tua’s younger brother, who’s been in CFB for what feels like forever now. ‘TT’, I’m going to call him, has now strung together back-to-back B1G performances (pun intended) of 31.62 and 46.58 points vs. MSU and Indiana, respectively. He’s actually gone over 30 points in three of his five games so far. The catch? He’s scored less than 20 in two of the five, too. Both of those games were pretty comfortable wins, however, so perhaps one can make the assumption that he just wasn’t needed in the second half of those contests. I won’t lie, it brings me joy to see the Terps doing well so far, I have a preseason futures bet on them winning seven games or more (O 6.5); that feels like it is very much in play with the Terps sitting at 5-0 currently, and matchups vs. Illinois, NW, Nebraska and Rutgers still to come. That’s also good news if you’re interesting in acquiring ‘TT’ in CFF, and I’ll even go as far as suggesting that the matchup vs. OSU this weekend isn’t as bad as it might seem on the surface. For what it’s worth, Tagovailoa scored 28.92 points last season vs. the Buckeyes. OSU’s defence is probably better this season, but their offence definitely isn’t. This could be a sneaky good game this weekend, as the Terps were very close to pulling off the upset in 2022. On the other hand, the knock on ‘TT’ is that his upside has always been good, but his consistency has not been. OSU might also have this one circled given how things went last year.
(Jacksonville State) Logan Smothers — Since winning the starting job from Zion Webb, Smothers has now completed two games with the following outputs: 26.52 and 32.58 points vs. EMU and Sam Houston. What’s noticeable in particular is his rushing upside, he has scored at least one rushing TD in his last four games, despite splitting reps with Webb in the first two. He has five rushing TDs in that span, as well as five passing TDs. They’re not attempting a lot of passes currently at J’Ville, but when the QB is rushing like Smothers is, that’s not really a problem. I like Smothers this week with a matchup vs. MTSU incoming.
(Tulsa) Cardell Williams — Well, we’re finally through that horrendous month of September for Tulsa, and the long-awaited fruit for those who made the early investment in Williams may be finally coming into season. After a tumultuous stretch filled with the occasional injury against Washington, NIU, and Oklahoma, Williams torched his in-conference debut vs. Temple, with three passing TDs and another along the ground (39.76 points). While the return of QB Braylon Braxton still looms large, we have yet to receive any concrete update on him or his timeline, and Tulsa have another good matchup coming this weekend vs. FAU. I wouldn’t be upset if I had to start Williams this week (assuming we don’t hear anything about Braxton until then).
(UNT) Chandler Rogers — I actually wrote about how there might be some new hidden gems at North Texas this offseason with former WSU OC Eric Morris’ arrival. Certainly, he seems to have brought the air-raid offence with him. In his last two games, Rogers has attempted 41 and 36 passes vs. Louisiana Tech and Abilene Christian (FCS school). In the three full games he’s played, Rogers has 28.94 (vs. Florida International), 26.02, and 36.74 points. He’s beginning to look pretty solid if you need a plug and play option at QB this week, with a matchup vs. Navy incoming. Generally, I dislike playing players that are involved in games vs. service academies, as these programs tend to shorten the games considerably, but Navy’s been getting shredded through the air this season (against USF and ND specifically), so I don’t hate the play this week. UNT’s remaining schedule also looks amazing, so he’s a potential long-term option as well.
(NC State) MJ Morris — It was announced early Monday morning that NC State was going to be making a change at QB with MJ Morris taking over for Brennan Armstrong. That’s funny timing, because I did just write about what’s going wrong with their offence on last week’s weekly recap. Maybe Robert Anae is a reader of VP also? Anyways, on to the important stuff: MJ Morris was very good in his first two starts last season, scoring 26.8 and 27.7 points vs. VT and Wake Forest. His skillset is very similar to Armstrong, in that he will most likely be rushing a lot also, so I wouldn’t expect Anae to change the formula for his offence too much. We know what Anae’s system can do, we just need a dual threat QB in there who can actually make good decisions and complete an accurate pass from time to time. Armstrong struggled to consistently do that this season—let’s see if the sophomore gunslinger can save this offence. He’s worth a stash before this weekend’s games if you can afford to do so, he might be a hot buy on the wire next week if he pops off vs. Marshall—which admittedly, might be a difficult task.
RB
(Post publication addition — JAX State) Malik Jackson — My apologies to the audience, I often make the mistake of forgetting about players like Jackson who are rostered in the leagues that I’m in, but are most likely available in most other leagues. Since his teammate Ron Wiggins went down, Jackson has become a volume pig in J’Ville’s backfield, and while he will still have to contend with QB Logan Smothers for rushing TDs, the volume in touches should have Jackson absolutely on your roster if you need a RB. Just think about this: he is such a no-brainer that I didn’t even consider him for my list this week—I just assumed you all had him rostered already. Jackson needs to be rostered this week vs. MTSU.
(LSU) Logan Diggs — I actually featured Diggs earlier this season in the ‘Fool’s Gold’ section. My thinking at the time is outlined here: 15 carries and over 100 yards—what’s not to like, right? Well, the fact that this came in a game where LSU scored over 70, and worked in backups everywhere they could, as soon as they could. Three different RBs scored in this one. Kaleb Jackson was one of them, who carried the rock 11 times for 62 yards and two scores. This was Diggs’ first game back, so maybe he is the lead carrier, but given our sample size of one vs. (FCS/Div. II?) opponent Grambling State, I wouldn’t bite too hard on Diggs this week. It appeared that I was right in my assessment after the following week—Diggs split carries with four other runners. However, in the last two weeks, I have to say Diggs has become the clear lead carrier for the Tigers, with 14 last week vs. Arkansas (next leading rusher had two) and 19 vs. Ole Miss this past Saturday (only one other RB saw carries—three). Diggs corralled those 19 carries for 100 yards and a couple of scores, he also notched two receptions for 22 yards (26.3 points). They’ve got a decent matchup this weekend vs. Mizzou.
(Texas A&M) Le’Veon Moss — A&M’s Moss now has back-to-back weeks of 16 and 20 touches vs. Auburn and Arkansas, respectively. I was actually watching a bit of the broadcast this week to see how my boy Andrew Armstrong was doing, and the commentators mentioned that the coaches wanted to get Moss around 20 touches per game. I sort of brushed that off at the time because Moss wasn’t really a guy that had made my radar thus far, but when I looked at his total touch volume on the day (20) and looked back to last week, I started to see the vision Jimbo’s staff had laid before me. In the last two weeks, Moss has scored 16.7 and 16.4 points, which is pretty good. The next leading carrier vs. Arkansas was Amari Daniels with 10. In the previous week it was five star freshman Reuben Owens with seven. So this is not an uncontested volume pig (UVP) situation, but the staff are apparently telling us they want Moss to continue to see a high workload, and with their starting QB out for the season, they could be relying on the run game enough such that even a contested volume pig like Moss could be valuable going forward.
(UGA) Daijun Edwards — It’s an SEC heavy segment today, with UGA’s Daijun Edwards making it into my list of prescriptions this week. Generally, I try to avoid UGA players like the plague in CFF, because I know Kirby Smart. His plan is to not rely on any individual player more than absolutely necessary (something Alabama and Ohio State could probably learn a lesson or two about). Fortunately for us, we’ve reached the point where it seems that UGA has no-one else left in the backfield (save for a couple of walk-ons) to rely on, resulting in Edwards averaging a very un-UGA-like 17.3 touches per game through three games. The next leading rusher vs. Auburn last Saturday was literally WR Dillon Bell, who has been stepping in to fill RB duties in Andrew Paul, Kendell Milton, Branson Robinson, and Roderick Robinson’s absences. Branson is out for the season, but the other three figure to return at some point, and when that happens I’d expect Edwards’ touch volume to revert more towards 10 per game. In the meantime, however, he’s actually not a bad option—he has now scored 17.8, 20.2, and 19.6 points in his first three games returning from injury this season. They play Kentucky this week, which figures to be a very physical game. Not sure how I feel about that matchup, to be honest.
(Tulsa) Anthony Watkins — In Week One of the season it looked like Jordan Ford was going to be the bellcow of this team, in fact, I even included him in that week’s Pig Market article. It appears Ford has faded in the rotation, and another—fifth year player Anthony Watkins, who originally began his career at Mizzou before transferring in 2020, has stepped up. Watkins now has over 20 carries in back-to-back weeks, and while the point output certainly won’t blow you away (15.1 and 13.7), if he sees 20+ touches again this week vs. a middling FAU team, it just feels likely that he’ll get around 100 yards and a score, doesn’t it?
Other notable names: Victor Rosa (UConn) and Henry Parish Jr. (Miami).
WR
(Boston College) Lewis Bond — It is now time to discuss BC’s Lewis Bond as a legitimate CFF stud. My guy has been a paragon of consistency this year, having not scored less than 10 points in a game yet through five weeks. He is averaging 17.6 FPG currently, and outside of Week Two, has scored every. single. game. He keeps scoring. Did I say that enough? He keeps scoring. I feel like Tormund Giantsbane when he’s drunkenly ranting about Jon Snow at the end of Game of Thrones “He is little (5’11, 188), but he is strong… He comes back and keeps scoring. Here, Louisville, KY, and then back here again. He keeps scoring. He keeps scoring! He climbed on a f*cking dragon and fought. What kind of person climbs on a f*cking dragon? A madman… or a king!”. Okay, so the last part of that analogy breaks down, kind of—BC hasn’t played the UAB Blazers, right? Anyways, I think the point has been made, this kid keeps lighting the scoreboard up. Even more importantly, however, is that his teammate—Ryan O’Keefe, who also soaked up a lot of targets, is out with an undisclosed injury. They’ve got a game vs. Army this weekend, which is usually not a great matchup, but this season they look pretty pedestrian on defence.
(Memphis) Roc Taylor — Taylor’s on BYE this week, but he’s another like Bond who has been quietly and consistently productive thus far. He is averaging a solid 16 FPG currently, but he’s only scored less than 14.9 points in one game so far. Sometimes player FPG averages are highly misleading as to how valuable a player really is week-to-week, Taylor fits that I think. He has come on fairly strong recently, with performances of 21.3 and 21.2 points in the last two weeks. They get a tough matchup vs. Tulane after their BYE, but after that the schedule opens up nicely.
(Fresno State) Jalen Gill — I featured Gill on the Week One edition of the Pig Market. I’m disappointed to see he remains under-owned. He is very similar to Bond in that… he just. keeps. scoring.
(USF) Sean Atkins — I think the theme of today’s WR section is ‘quietly productive yet solidly consistent’ WRs. Atkins fits the bill, averaging 16.1 points but having not scored less than 9.3 points in a game yet. Like Taylor, I’d say that 16.1 FPG is a bit misleading, I value Atkins lower than Taylor. Atkins has only scored more than 16 points in a game twice out of his five outings. But, this is a really potent offence with superstar sophomore Byrum Brown running the show. I like Atkins this week vs. UAB to continue to output solid production.
(Texas State) Joey Hobert — I think the readers are going to kill me if I start another WR section off with “this is another quietly productive yet consistent player…” so here’s more of an upside pick. Hobert — though he has been quietly productive — has not exactly been consistent, with fluctuations ranging from 28.6 points to 1.6 in the last four weeks. He’s come on strong lately, though, with nine and 12 targets in back-to-back weeks. They are passing the ball a lot over there with new HC GJ Kinne, unfortunately, they’ve also been spreading the targets around quite a bit. It does seem that Hobert is starting to break away, and I think he’s worth a play vs. ULLAF this weekend.
Other notable names: Jalen Royals (Utah State), Tyre Shelton (LT—if he has WR eligibility in your league), Tyrone Howell (ULM), and Jacolby George (Miami).
TE
(Notre Dame) Mitchell Evans — Evans has come on very strong recently with performances of 14.5 and 19.4 points in his last two outings. It appears he has taken over as TE1, after the Fighting Irish started the season with another—Holden Staes, taking up some of the targets. Evans has established himself recently as a pretty heavy feature in the offence, with an eyebrow-raising seven and eight targets in back-to-back weeks. While BK is no longer with the program, the Fighting Irish have been a program known for featuring its TEs heavily in the past. Will history repeat itself here with Evans?
Other notable names: Tanner McLachlan (Arizona) and Rivaldo Fairweather (Auburn)
Fool’s Gold
(Sam Houston) RB John Gentry — I appeared on CFFList’s show on Sunday, and on it I was asked if I had encountered anyone this season who rostered any SMHU players. My reply was ‘no’, which is pretty remarkable considering one of the leagues I’m in is a 24-teamer, with 45 roster spots each. That’s probably going to change this week, with two players in particular shining last Thursday for the Bearkats. One of those players—RB John Gentry, toted the rock 30 times for 97 yards, he was also targeted four times, catching three of those for 85 yards and a score (27.2 points). The problem is that this is the first we’ve seen of this type of usage for Gentry, and 1) the Bearkats have not been in a lot of shootouts like they were on Thursday (they were dead last in PPG coming into this game) and 2) fellow RB Zach Hrbacek was absent from this game. The second concern is more pressing in my opinion. Hrbacek’s absence is most likely the reason for the uptick in usage for Gentry. For these reasons, Gentry feels more like Fool’s Gold, than a sustainable stud for the remainder of the season, in my opinion.
(Sam Houston) WR Noah Smith — Smith had a massive performance on Thursday garnering 15 targets, of which he corralled for 10 receptions, 97 yards and a score. He also took six carries for 9 yards (27.3 points). That usage is incredible, even it if only produced a total of 105 yards. However, I’m not sure that I’d expect that type of usage again, given we haven’t seen anything like that for Smith thus far, and this game vs. Jax State was a very uncharacteristic game for SHSU. One thing to note is that the offence has been much improved in the last two weeks compared to the beginning of the season, so let’s wait and see what happens before committing any resources to picking up Smith.
(ODU) RB Kadarius Calloway — Calloway is a former Alabama football player, who left the program after (I believe) his first season, and spent last year’s football season in the JuCo ranks at East Mississippi (shoutout to Last Chance U). He broke out on Saturday with 11 rush attempts for 236 yards and three scores. This feels similar to a Week One Dylan Edwards situation to me. The caveat being that this type of performance could be what leads to Calloway seeing an increased role going forward. Starting RB Keyshawn Wicks is still in the fold however, and it’s hard to see him just disappearing. ODU’s o-line has struggled most of the season, so I’m not sure I buy Calloway continuing anything close to this success on a consistent basis. Is he worth a long shot plug and play vs. Southern Miss this week? Maybe, depends on how risk-loving you are. Upside is here, but a lot of the standard CFF markers for sustained success are not.
Other names: QB Jiya Wright (ULM) and RB Terion Stewart (BGSU).
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