Correction (Sept. 30, 2026): An earlier version of this post was built on outdated information, including recommending Trey Benson, who has been on injured reserve since August. It has been rewritten.
Key takeaways
- Ollie Gordon II is the priority add. De’Von Achane is on IR after ACL surgery, Jaylen Wright is listed out, and Gordon played 61 of Miami’s 73 snaps in Week 3.
- Braelon Allen is right behind him. Breece Hall left Week 3 with a thigh injury and is listed out; Allen is the Jets’ lead back for now.
- Michael Wilson earned 17 targets. He played 81 of 87 snaps in Week 3 and turned it into 11 catches, 89 yards and a touchdown.
- Streamers of the week. Marcus Mariota starts for Washington with Jayden Daniels out, and the Vikings defense gets a Miami offense that has scored 13, 13 and 10.
- Clear out the dead roster spots. Trey Benson, James Conner and Jaxson Dart are all on IR. If you have no IR slot, those are your drops.
You are either 2-1 and feeling like a genius or 0-3 and considering therapy, and there is one universal truth about Week 4: this is the waiver week that decides seasons. Three weeks of usage data is enough to separate real roles from noise, injuries have started stacking, and two backfields changed hands on Sunday. That is the window.
Below is the full board — who to bid on, how hard to push, and the players you should not be embarrassed to cut to make room. If you missed last week’s board, start there for the earlier context.
The league-winners
Ollie Gordon II (RB – MIA)
De’Von Achane played four snaps in Week 3 before leaving with a knee injury, and he is now on injured reserve after ACL surgery. Jaylen Wright, who played seven snaps total in the first two weeks, is listed out. That left Gordon with the job, and he looked like a lead back: 61 of 73 offensive snaps, 17 carries for 41 yards and a touchdown, plus three catches for 14 yards — 14.5 PPR points after he had played 15 total snaps across the first two weeks.
Two cautions. Sleeper lists him questionable with an undisclosed issue (he briefly left Sunday’s game with cramps and returned), so check the injury report before Sunday. And the Week 4 trip to Minnesota is a tough one; Sleeper projects him for about 12 carries and 8 PPR points. Neither changes the waiver math. A lead back on a team with no healthy alternative is the most valuable thing on the wire. This is your biggest bid of the week.
Braelon Allen (RB – NYJ)
Breece Hall left Week 3 at Detroit with a thigh injury, and Sleeper lists him out for Week 4. Hall had been the clear lead (22, 16 and 13 carries), so this is a bigger usage jump for Allen than his own stat line suggests: 19 carries for 61 yards and a touchdown, plus four catches across three weeks as the backup. Sleeper projects him for nearly 15 carries and 13.3 PPR points at Chicago, with Isaiah Davis behind him.
The matchup is not soft — the Bears allowed 9 and 7 points the last two weeks — and Hall’s absence may be short. But you are buying the workload, not the matchup. Bid strongly, a notch below Gordon, and higher if you are short at running back this week.
The real adds
Michael Wilson (WR – ARI)
Seventeen targets. Wilson was on the field for 81 of Arizona’s 87 snaps at San Francisco and caught 11 passes for 89 yards and a score (25.9 PPR) as Jacoby Brissett threw 52 times. He had seven targets in each of the first two games, too, while Marvin Harrison Jr. has drawn 3, 1 and 5. Sleeper projects eight targets for Wilson against the Giants. That is a weekly WR3 role. Bid strongly.
Kenyon Sadiq (TE – NYJ)
The rookie broke out in Week 3 with 7 catches for 105 yards and a touchdown on 8 targets, and the path is clearing: Mason Taylor is listed out with a thumb injury. Sadiq also scored a rushing touchdown in Week 1. Tight end is shallow enough that a rookie with a growing role and a Week 4 projection of 10.8 PPR points is a solid bid for anyone streaming the position.
Luther Burden III (WR – CHI)
The second-year receiver’s targets have climbed every week — 5, then 7, then 11 — and Week 3 produced 7 catches for 61 yards and a touchdown. Sleeper projects 12.6 PPR points against the Jets. He is the kind of add that quietly becomes a WR3 by Halloween. Moderate bid.
Denzel Boston (WR – CLE)
If the rookie slipped through in your league, fix that. Boston has played nearly every snap (47 of 51, 54 of 58, 62 of 70), scored in each of his first two games, and has put up 13.9, 20.5 and 8.1 PPR points. He plays Thursday against Pittsburgh, so get the claim in before the waiver run locks him. Moderate bid.
Kaleb Johnson (RB – GB)
Deep-league stash only. Josh Jacobs has not played this season (personal reasons), and Green Bay has run a committee: Johnson is listed No. 2 behind MarShawn Lloyd, and no Packers back has topped 13 carries in a game. Johnson’s line so far is 12 carries for 38 yards. If one back separates, it matters; until then, minimum bid in deep leagues.
Streaming plays
| Position | Player / Unit | Bid level | Why now |
|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Marcus Mariota (WAS) | Modest | Starting with Jayden Daniels out; 3 TD in Week 3; Colts have allowed 41, 33 and 17 |
| QB | Tyler Shough (NO) | Strong, if available | 22-plus fantasy points in all three games; hosts Atlanta on Monday night |
| TE | Juwan Johnson (NO) | Modest | 8 catches, 53 yards, 2 TD in Week 3; projected for about 6 targets |
| DEF | Vikings | Modest | 10, 18 and 17 points with 14 sacks; Miami has scored 13, 13 and 10 |
| DEF | Ravens | Minimum | Sleeper’s top Week 4 DEF projection; Tennessee has scored 10, 20 and 7 |
The team that wins the waiver in Week 4 is almost never the team that blew its budget in Week 2. Patience pays.
Drop candidates
If you are holding one of these without an IR slot to park him in, no one is going to send condolences.
Start with the injured reserve list. Trey Benson has been on IR since August, James Conner went on IR before Week 1, and Jaxson Dart is on IR after meniscus surgery. None of them can help you this week, and only an open IR slot justifies keeping them. Nick Chubb is not on an NFL roster at all. After that: anybody you drafted as an “upside stash” who has two straight weeks of single-digit snaps, any handcuff whose starter has not missed time, and any “last year’s guy” you are holding because you cannot admit he lost the job.
The correct amount of guilt for dropping a Round 8 pick after three quiet weeks is zero. Sunk-cost thinking has cost more championships than injuries have.
FAAB strategy for Week 4
Most leagues still have the bulk of their budget left in Week 4. Here is how to spend it:
- The one big shot: Gordon, or Allen if Gordon is gone. Lead backs are the scarcest thing on any wire.
- The role-based adds: Michael Wilson, Kenyon Sadiq and Luther Burden III. Real bids, but not budget-breaking ones.
- Everything else: minimum or conditional bids on streamers and stashes.
Do not spread bids evenly across four names. Pick the priority, spend to win it, and take conditional minimum bids on the rest. And if you lose Gordon by a dollar, do not reflex-overpay on the wrong player next week.
The pick’em angle
Arizona at the Giants is the game this week’s news touches most. New York scored 28 in Week 1 with Jaxson Dart playing the whole game; since Dart went down early in Week 2, the Giants have scored 6 and 12, mostly with Jameis Winston under center. But Arizona’s defense has allowed 31 and 36 the last two weeks, so “fade the Giants” is not automatic — weight that one with care in confidence pools. The Jets at Chicago is the other one: New York goes without Breece Hall against a Bears defense that allowed 9 and 7 points the last two weeks. If you are fresh to the pool, our Week 3 preview covers the same framing on games that carry forward.
One quick mailbag question
Q: I drafted Trey Benson as my Conner handcuff. Do I keep holding?
Only if you have an open IR slot. Benson has been on injured reserve since August and has not played a snap this season, and rookie Jeremiyah Love has taken over Arizona’s backfield — 21 carries for 90 yards plus five catches and a touchdown in Week 3. If Benson is sitting on your bench, that is the roster spot for Gordon or Allen. See our Week 3 start/sit for last week’s calls.
The bottom line
Week 4 is a running-back week. Two lead jobs opened on Sunday, and the managers who move first on Gordon and Allen are the ones who will be glad they did in November. Bid to win the one you need, clear out the IR names you cannot use, and treat this like the last easy waiver of the young season, because it is. From here on out, the roster spots get more expensive and the reads get more contested.
Then bring your new-look roster into the pick’em pool and lock those Week 4 picks before Thursday night. Bad beats are unavoidable; forgetting to submit is not, and it is a lot funnier when it happens to somebody else.