It is pure crunch time for fantasy football managers. If you are weighing waiver wire options at this point, it means you are two wins away from a championship, and if you can grab someone to put you over the top heading into Week 16, it will feel so sweet. Injuries don’t get bye weeks, and matchups continue to be vital, so you want to have as many starting options available on your team as possible and not on someone else’s.
In an exciting game on Sunday, Houston Texans WR Noah Brown stepped up with Nico Collins out due to injury and finished with 82 yards and one touchdown. Should you target Brown to put your fantasy team over the top?
Should Noah Brown Be a Fantasy Waiver Wire Add in Week 16?
Brown has had an interesting season. Primarily the WR3 throughout most of the year, with the emergence of rookie Tank Dell and the leadership of Collins, not to mention his off-and-on battle with injury.
All of these things have combined into Brown being the WR72 on the season, despite having two weeks in the middle of the year when he finished as the WR2 and WR7.
Heading into Week 15, the status of Collins was in question, as he was dealing with a calf injury.
On Sunday, it was announced that Collins would not be able to play, even after an extensive pregame warmup, and Brown was bumped into the WR1 conversation. Heading into this week, Brown was 40% rostered on Yahoo.
Brown took the opportunity and delivered, which was a relief to see after two games where he goosed previous to this week. Unfortunately, many managers who had Brown may not have started him, nervous that he might have a repeat of the last two weeks.
This week, Brown had the most targets on the team with 11 and scored the only TD, even with the return of TE Dalton Schultz.
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And this was all with Houston’s superstar rookie QB C.J. Stroud on the bench dealing with a concussion. Case Keenum was under center on Sunday, and the old adage is, if you can do it with Keenum, you can do it with Stroud, and he hopefully will be back under center next week.
Brown needs to be a target heading into Week 16, especially with the uncertainty of Collins and his return. A calf injury is a big deal for a WR, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Collins were questionable again heading into next week or ended up being on a pitch count.
The only thing that should make fantasy managers nervous is the matchup — the Texans play the Cleveland Browns next week, and the Browns give up the second-fewest fantasy points to opposing WRs.
Both teams will be fighting for the playoffs, so you never know what will happen, but whatever does, you want Brown on your side of the matchup instead of your opponent’s.
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