Welcome to Week 3! We here at GitM had a hugely successful Week 2 in the betting streets riding the tails of Luke Schoonmaker and Josh Reynolds. Now, it's time to turn our attention back to our season long fantasy leagues for waiver claims today. Let’s take a look at GitM’s top 5 waiver additions of Week 3 for 2024. 

This has been a start to the season riddled with injuries to important fantasy players, but one of the most notable injuries to cover this week is Isiah Pacheco missing 6-8 weeks with a fractured fibula. It is not often that the running back for the Chiefs will just be out there for you to grab on waivers. Even though that is the situation, there remains an enormous amount of uncertainty around who will get the role in Pacheco’s absence. Carson Steele looks next in line for the touchdowns, so as of this moment, that is who we have at the top of our list, but Kareem Hunt is meeting with the Chiefs on Tuesday, and if he were to sign a contract he would immediately replace Steele on this list. Steele, even in that scenario, may be their goal line back, but as an untrusted rookie we look for him to continue to play more of a full back role. 

The next injury that will directly impact our waiver activity this week is Deebo Samuel going down multiple weeks with a calf strain. This makes the vacuum of empty opportunities even larger in San Francisco, where they are already missing Christian McCaffrey. Kyle Shanahan has proven that he will only give the ball to people that he trusts, and Jauan Jennings is maybe at the top of that list excluding the 49ers stars. Jennings hauled in 2/4 targets for 37 yards last week, but look for him to come out with more schemed touches and in a better offensive environment against the Rams this week.

Our first non injury contingent pickup this week is going to be Braelon Allen, coming in at 3rd on the list. Breece Hall is the man in New York, but there are 2 lessons from other situations that probably need to be applied here when thinking about Allen. The first is what JUST happened in San Francisco with Jordan Mason becoming a top 8 fantasy back the moment that CMC got injured. The second is the magic of Devon Achane last season. We learned that it will only sometimes take a guy 10-12 touches to be relatively reliable, if they are explosive enough, and Allen seems to be just that. Allen turned 11 total RB opportunities in Week 2 into 19.6 PPR points, and would be the running back to own in fantasy if anything were to happen to Breece. If you own Hall or not, Allen could win you your season down the stretch. 

Next on our list is Colby Parkinson. We wrote up Parkinson here last week after Puka Nacua hit the IR given the targets opening up on the Rams, and now with Cooper Kupp down, the offense now has lost both of its top tier receivers. Parkinson is not a sexy play at tight end, and didn’t product a ton in Week 2, but with Stafford historically liking his tight ends and there very literally not being another talented soul for him to throw the ball to, look for Parkinson’s role in the offense to expand even more, and he is worth a pickup if you have any issues at tight end. 

Finally, we get to Bucky Irving of the Buccaneers. Irving appeared here last week, and we said that Irving’s role would expand substantially if Rachaad White were to get injured. White then proceeded to injure his groin during his game against Detroit in Week 2. Even though it seems as though White is unlikely to miss time, and the Buccaneers’ running game has been less than stellar thus far, Irving is absolutely worth an add and is, like Allen, a player who could help enormously down a stretch run. 

Check back next week to make sure you are staying up to date with all of the players that maybe worth adding to your team throughout the season. Subscribe to our Discord, follow our social media, and Go GitM!