Fantasy Football Waiver Wire, Week 16: Playoff pickups for your championship run

Let’s hope you have absolutely no use for a waiver wire column heading into the fantasy semifinals. Ideally, you will have constructed a healthy roster that essentially sets itself — no glaring weaknesses, no complicated sit/start decisions. But we also recognize that creating and maintaining such a squad requires no small amount of luck.  

If you have roster holes to fill entering a must-win week, we’re here to help. Each of the recommended pickups below is currently available in a majority of leagues and approved for immediate use.  

QUARTERBACKS

C.J. Stroud, Houston Texans

42% rostered at Sleeper

Stroud needed less than a minute to get his team on the board against Arizona, threading a perfect ball through traffic to Nico Collins: 

Houston won its sixth straight game on Sunday and Stroud was excellent, completing 22 of 29 attempts for 260 yards and three scores. He’s facing the Raiders this week, so there’s no reason to think he can’t deliver another multi-touchdown performance. 

FAAB: 16%

Jacoby Brissett, Arizona Cardinals

50% rostered

Brissett can just skip the five-year waiting period and head straight to the Garbage Time Hall of Fame. What an absolute legend. He passed for 249 yards, three scores and one interception on 40 attempts on Sunday. Naturally, two of the TDs arrived after the Cardinals trailed 30-7. But for our purposes, it doesn’t really matter when the points are scored. 

Over the next two weeks, Brissett will face Atlanta and Cincinnati, so the degree of difficulty gets dialed back. He’s put the ball in the air at least 40 times in each of his last six games, which is exactly what we like to see. 

FAAB: 11%

J.J. McCarthy, Minnesota Vikings

25% rostered

It's been a carnival ride first season for McCarthy, but he's playing his best ball in the final weeks. (When we say "carnival ride," by the way, we mean the sort that travels between small town fairs and would never pass a safety inspection in its current state.) On Sunday night, McCarthy helped extinguish any hopes Dallas may have had involving the playoffs. He passed for 250 yards and two scores while rushing for a third against the Cowboys. McCarthy also made a few throws that reminded longtime appreciators of his best work at the collegiate level:

Minnesota continues its tour of the NFC East this week, traveling to New York to face a Giants defense that's allowed the sixth-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks. Actually starting McCarthy in the fantasy semis is, um ... well, it's bold. But he's demonstrated that he can exploit a decent matchup, which is an important bar to clear. 

FAAB: 6%

Kirk Cousins, Atlanta Falcons

15% rostered

Look, this is probably a terrible idea. Bordering on reckless self-sabotage. It is certainly not for everyone. But circumstances have forced some of us to stream quarterbacks during the most important weeks on the fantasy calendar, so here we are. 

Cousins doesn’t possess a weapons-grade arm at this late stage of his career, but he was accurate and effective on short-range floaters in Thursday’s win at Tampa Bay. He completed 30 of 44 attempts for 373 yards and three scores, continuing his outrageous recent dominance of the Bucs. Kyle Pitts and Bijan Robinson accounted for 19 of the completions, 248 of the yards and all the touchdowns — proof enough that Cousins is still capable of creating after-the-catch opportunities for his playmakers. He gets a date with another vulnerable pass defense on Sunday at Arizona.   

FAAB: 2%

Additional approved QBs: Aaron Rodgers (at Det), Gardner Minshew (at Ten)