It’s safe to say that this season has been terrible from an injury standpoint. However, the best way to recover from a key injury is to be active on the waiver wire. The following three players, while unlikely to be league winners, are solid flex options to help any team.
RB Tank Bigsby, Jacksonville Jaguars
Bigsby was downright bad in 2023, rushing for 2.64 yards per carry, and many wrote him off as the clear backup to Travis Etienne Jr., who was expected to be one of the top running backs this year. Instead, Etienne has been an RB3, due in large part to Bigsby’s emergence. He has shown explosiveness that didn’t exist last season and averaged over eight yards a carry.
Etienne, meanwhile, has seen his snap share steadily decrease as the season has progressed, even factoring out his low snap share from last week when he got injured. Given his draft capital and the acceptance of his fifth-year option, the Jaguars aren’t going to bench him outright for Bigsby. However, this is quickly turning into a committee where Bigsby’s big-play ability will make him a boom-or-bust flex play each week, with tremendous upside if Etienne were to be seriously injured.
TE Cade Otton, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Given how bleak the tight end position has been this year, the fact that Otton has played over 90% of the snaps in all but one game is huge. Equally important are the seven targets per game he is averaging over the last three weeks. The Tampa Bay wideouts are too talented for Otton to gain enough target volume to be a top-five tight end, but his 9.4 PPR points per game over that stretch places him at TE10. His connection with Baker Mayfield is continuing to grow, making Otton a solid option if you drafted a tight end early who has disappointed, such as Mark Andrews.
WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kansas City Chiefs
Rashee Rice was injured early in week 4 against the Chargers, and many held out hope that his injury would not shut him down for the season. Unfortunately, it was announced Monday that he had torn his LCL, and would indeed be shut down. Enter JuJu Smith-Schuster. He was not targeted during the Chargers game, but was a focal point of the offense last week, catching seven passes for 130 yards.
Smith-Schuster has shown a solid connection with Patrick Mahomes in the past, finishing as the WR27 in PPR formats in 2022. Travis Kelce is not the player he once was, and Xavier Worthy has seen more than four targets in just one game. Smith-Schuster has a golden opportunity to step back into the role that he occupied when the Chiefs won a Super Bowl.
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