Ben Zweiman Senior Editor Sun, October 25, 2026 at 8:29 PM UTC About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It's about the midway point of the fantasy football season. How are your lineups looking so far? If they still need some work or you need an injury fill-in, you'll need to look to the waiver wire. We also have four teams on bye in Week 8 with the 49ers, Giants, Saints and Texans out of action, so keep that in mind. Below, we're going over some early waiver wire options for the upcoming slate coming out of Sunday's games.
Miami came out of the bye looking for its first win of the season on Sunday in Week 7. The Dolphins went on the road and were able to take out the Jets thanks to a big performance from the rookie wide receiver out of Texas Tech. After bursting onto the scene with a 5-94-0 line, an ankle injury would keep Douglas out for most of the next four games prior to the Week 6 bye. He shook off the injury to return on Sunday, scoring on each of his two catches (one a 63-yarder, the other a seven-yard score) for 20 fantasy points.
The big play made up most of Douglas' fantasy production but we saw proof of concept in Week 1 as well. The Dolphins figure to be trailing plenty in games the rest of the season. That bodes well for Douglas being needed in the passing game for chunk plays. Like we saw last week with Omar Cooper Jr. (more on him below), Douglas is a great upside pickup in PPR formats or a solid plug-and-play in Week 8 if you need a WR.
Speaking of Cooper and proof of concept, here's another rookie wideout who is clearly legit. All Cooper did in that Jets-Dolphins game was follow up his breakout performance with a slightly better stat line of 5-115-1 to get to 20 fantasy points after posting 19.3 last week. What's surprising about this performance from Cooper is the fact WR Adonai Mitchell, the presumed WR2 for the Jets, was back in the fold. Mitchell was held without a catch on three targets against Miami.
Now, we shouldn't expect this every week from Cooper but this is what his ceiling could be in fantasy. He should settle into a solid role the rest of the season and the Jets should be in positive scripts for passing most games. More defenses could key in on Garrett Wilson and the run game, which would be even better for Coop. He's looking like a solid WR2/3 option in PPR formats moving forward.
This is likely the last call on Cooper; don't expect him to be available in many leagues by Wednesday.
The 49ers are dealing with injuries in the receiver ranks to Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel Sr. Fans collectively held their breath when Christian McCaffrey left on Sunday against the Falcons, though he was able to get back on the field. But with a lack of receiving options, the run game became a priority this week. And to preserve CMC, Kyle Shanahan turned to the rookie back.
Black led the ground game with 12 carries for 63 yards and a touchdown for 10.4 fantasy points. The Niners will always favor McCaffrey in the passing game but Black could take over the bulk of the rushing. In shallow formats, Black could be hanging around your waiver wire. If that's the case, grab him, because he's becoming a decent flex play on top of being the best "next man up" in fantasy football.
Source: Sports
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