Waiver Wire Express - Week 5 Lightning Round Including Dontayvion Wicks, Bucky Irving, Rico Dowdle, Xavier Legette, Tucker Kraft, Justin Fields

We hope your fantasy football teams are healthy and thriving through four weeks but reality says most of you need help somewhere. With most of four weeks in the books, we've seen many upsets and injuries that have shaken most preseason plans. Let's finish September strong and hit the fantasy midseason with a plan that starts with our fantasy football waiver wire pickups lightning round heading into Week 5 of the 2024 NFL season.

This piece brings you rapid reactions to highlight names who will be on your radar for this next week after key performances and injuries to Rashee Rice (knee), Jonathan Taylor (ankle), Anthony Richardson (hip), George Kittle (rib), Taysom Hill (abdomen), Christian Watson (ankle), Tyler Badie (back), Trey Palmer (concussion), and more. This column is published early every week and then updated daily. Each day will also yield more in-depth waiver wire analysis for all positions. 

Waiver pickups are listed in priority order (in a vacuum) and broken down by position. Players must be rostered in roughly less than 60% of Yahoo leagues and will range from shallow options in standard leagues to deep options in PPR formats.

• Quarterback fantasy football rankings
• Running back fantasy football rankings
• Wide receiver fantasy football rankings
• Tight end fantasy football rankings
• Kicker fantasy football rankings
• FLEX fantasy football rankings
• Defense (D/ST) fantasy football rankings
• Superflex fantasy football rankings
• IDP fantasy football rankings
• Dynasty fantasy football rankings

Week 5 Running Backs To Add

Pickups are in priority order:

Bucky Irving
Rico Dowdle
Chase Brown
Kareem Hunt
Tank Bigsby
Roschon Johnson
Braelon Allen
Trey Sermon
Alexander Mattison
Jaleel McLaughlin
Tyler Allgeier
Justice Hill
Ray Davis
Miles Sanders
Emanuel Wilson
Clyde Edwards-Helaire
Jeremy McNichols
Aaron Shampklin
Tyreik McAllister

Week 5 Wide Receivers To Add

Pickups are in priority order:

Dontayvion Wicks
Xavier Legette
Jakobi Meyers
Tyler Lockett
Josh Downs
Jerry Jeudy
Wan'Dale Robinson
Darnell Mooney
Romeo Doubs
Tre Tucker
Jordan Whittington
Tutu Atwell
JuJu Smith-Schuster
Demarcus Robinson
Michael Wilson
Justin Watson
Greg Dortch
Ray-Ray McCloud III
Sterling Shepard
Skyy Moore

Week 5 Tight Ends To Add

Pickups are in priority order:

Tucker Kraft
Taysom Hill* (monitor abdominal injury, Juwan Johnson on radar)
Zach Ertz
Colby Parkinson
Noah Fant
Hunter Henry
Tyler Conklin
Elijah Higgins
Ja'Tavion Sanders
Erick All Jr.
Eric Saubert
Ben Sinnott

Week 5 Quarterbacks To Add

Pickups are in priority order, with emphasis on Week 5:

Justin Fields
Trevor Lawrence
Kirk Cousins
Geno Smith
Sam Darnold
Andy Dalton
Deshaun Watson
Daniel Jones
Derek Carr
Bo Nix
Tyler Huntley
Joe Flacco

Week 5 Defenses To Add

Pickups are in priority order, with emphasis on Week 5:

Seattle Seahawks DST
Denver Broncos DST
Las Vegas Raiders DST
Indianapolis Colts DST
New England Patriots DST

More Waiver Wire Analysis