Week 9 Guillotine Leagues Rest-of-Season Rankings: Rashee Rice, Jaylen Waddle, and More
Sam Wallace highlights several notable players in rest-of-season rankings for Guillotine Leagues going into Week 9, including Rashee Rice and Jaylen Waddle.
Fantasy football can be cruel. We spend so much of our time researching and analyzing just for our entire season to be unraveled by season-ending injuries. Thankfully, Guillotine Leagues are here to help you reset and get back in the game each and every week. Looking to draft a new team ahead of Week 9? Check out Guillotine Leagues.
Rashee Rice - How High is Too High?
Fantasy managers who (not so) patiently waited for Rashee Rice to make his season debut last week were significantly rewarded with 23 points in full-PPR. Perhaps the most encouraging part, aside from his team-leading 10 targets, was that he did all that on 40% of the offensive snaps.
He then turned around this week and went 9/9/93 yards and another score (24 points in full-PPR) on Monday Night Football. The Chiefs are inevitable and Rice is leading the charge.
Talk about a true league-winner that fantasy managers can insert into their lineups for the rest of the season.
Our own Matthew Freedman has Rice ranked as his WR7 in half-PPR rankings (No. 13 overall), but I would have a hard time keeping him out of the first round, even in a half-PPR format.
As I mentioned almost a month ago, Rice is truly the engine of this offense and has the ability to demand targets at a high rate. We've seen it before, and there's no reason to expect that it can't happen again. Can Travis Kelce or Xavier Worthy deliver a week-winning performance on any given Sunday? Sure, but I'm taking Rice over each of them, even at cost, every day of the week.
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Jaylen Waddle - An Undervalued Asset?
For as bad as the Dolphins have looked for the better part of this season, both on and off the field, Jaylen Waddle is quietly having a stellar campaign.
He's either topped 90 receiving yards or scored a TD in five of his last seven games. That's good, consistent production for the No. 1 option in Miami right now. With Tyreek Hill out for the rest of the season, there's little reason to think that Waddle can't continue to produce at a high rate, even considering some of Tua's struggles.
This is where I'm going to buck the trend a little bit, and it never makes me feel good to bet against someone vastly more intelligent than me.
Freedman has him ranked as his WR22. I think that is too low.
As of this writing, Waddle is the WR13. The Dolphins don't have their bye until Week 12, so managers will still need to account for that. However, given how he's produced up to this point, and with no other pass-catcher available that can truly threaten his target share, Waddle has everything he needs to be a top-15 wideout the rest of the way.
I'm afraid to bookmark this and come back to it later, but everything I'm seeing suggests that Waddle should be a high-end WR2 at worst for the remainder of the season. Fins up!
Michael Pittman - The Colts are Legit
Right below where Freedman has Waddle ranked is Michael Pittman coming in at WR23 in the rest-of-season Guillotine League rankings.
If you are not yet a believer in the Colts, I'm not sure what to tell you. Aside from Jonathan Taylor being on a generational run, Daniel Jones has been about as great as (if not better than) the best-case scenario in Indy.
Jones has thrown 2+ TDs in each of his last four games (nine total) and just one INT. He has just three giveaways on the season, which is outstanding. Jones's top target has been none other than Pittman, who has delivered for both the Colts and fantasy managers in a big way.
Through eight games, Pittman is averaging:
- 7.0 targets
- 55 receiving yards
- 13 PPG
At first glance, those numbers don't seem all that encouraging. However, he's scored a TD in six of eight games so far and scored 14+ PPR in those six games. The bear case for Pittman is that in the two games he didn't find the end zone, he scored 8.0 and 4.0 PPR, respectively.
Even so, I'm buying the top target in Indy for the rest of the season. While I'm not as high on Pittman as I am Waddle, oddly enough, I would feel comfortable taking Pittman earlier than his WR23 ranking at this stage.
Oronde Gadsden - The Next Generation
A fifth-round rookie this past spring, Oronde Gadsden is moving up the rankings in a hurry. He didn't make his debut for the Chargers until Week 3 and had a very quiet first three games.
However, his last three performances have quickly made him a household name.
- Week 6 - 8 targets, 7 receptions, 68 receiving yards
- Week 7 - 9 targets, 7 receptions, 164 receiving yards, 1 TD
- Week 8 - 5 targets, 5 receptions, 77 receiving yards, 1 TD
It's worth noting that both Keenan Allen and Quentin Johnston have cooled since their hot starts to the season, while younger options Ladd McConkey and Tre Harris have begun picking up steam.
We know it takes TEs a bit to acclimate to the NFL, but we've seen plenty of examples of guys who have come in and made an impact in Year 1. Gadsden is already a favorite target of Justin Herbert, and it's being reflected in our rest-of-season rankings.
Freedman has him as the TE9, and I have no arguments there. It might be tempting to put him up a bit higher, but it would be folly to chase a three-week sample size from a Day 3 rookie, at least for now. Enjoy him if you have him, but don't be afraid to reach just a bit to get him if you are drafting your Guillotine League this week.
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