2024 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Week 11: Bo Nix, Audric Estime, Rickey Pearsall & More

Week 11 is already here. And, besides cherishing every bit of NFL football we have left, this is one of our last few chances to gear up for playoffs. There are only so many unsettled backfields or target pecking orders out there. 

Injuries will always be there to shuffle the cards but there are still a couple spots left for guys to win jobs outright. And that’s what we are going to do in this article. We’ll highlight some guys that could actually carve out meaningful roles without needing injuries to do it.

If you are looking for handcuffs, those will be in our Stashes article. One-week fill-ins will be in the Streamers. Here, in the 2024 fantasy football waiver wire for Week 11, we are looking for the best sustainable options.

2024 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Week 11 Top Targets

If this 2024 fantasy football waiver wire for Week 11 is your first time seeing this series, here’s a little idea of how we break it down. 

There are too many articles out there that don’t take into account YOUR team's needs. Whether you just want the best player, you want someone to start now, or you are loaded and you want the best upside stashed, we have you covered. And we break it down like this:

• 2024 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Week 11: This is the current article where we focus on the best waiver wire picks for any format or team needs. Guys that can potentially be started now but also have season-long upside
   
• 2024 Fantasy Football Streamers Week 11: These are players that are decent starts for Week 11 but might not have great long-term upside (perhaps it’s just a good matchup or the starter has a short-term injury, for instance)
   
• 2024 Fantasy Football Stashes Week 11: These are players that are very difficult to trust in a lineup right now. But we believe in the talent and the possibility of upside down the stretch. Every year there are certain rookies or backups that get a big opportunity and run with it at some point - like Trey McBride last year.

The 2024 fantasy football waiver wire for Week 11 you are currently looking at is free for everyone. The Week 11 waiver wire stashes and Week 11 waiver wire streamers articles are for Fantasy Alarm members only.  

If you aren’t a Fantasy Alarm member yet, you can not only get 40% off your annual membership if you sign up right now or 50% off your first month with promo code LETSGO, but we are offering a 7-day free trial RIGHT NOW! You can check out everything we have to offer this week and decide if it's right for you!

P.S. At the very bottom of this article, I will update my Yin & Yang Tight End chart each week!

NFL Week 11 Waiver Wire Quarterbacks

Bo Nix - Denver Broncos, Yahoo: 33% | ESPN: 16% | Sleeper: 44%   

This and the next write ups will both be short as we have written about these guys multiple weeks in a row, so you know the deal. We are still prioritizing the mobile QBs. There is a reason they call it the Konami Code. 

Rushing upside is king at this position but it also offers a good floor. Just look at Daniel Jones this week - he had a terrible game that should get him benched and he still scored 13.15 fantasy points. 

• Waiver Priority: Low or Free Add
• FAAB: 0-5%

Drake Maye - New England Patriots, Yahoo: 13% | ESPN: 11% | Sleeper: 25%

Maye and Nix are both options, especially if you have a QB1 on your team that has a bye or a bad matchup coming up. For a one-week spot start, that rushing ability makes your feel like anything is possible. 

• Waiver Priority: Low or Free Add
• FAAB: 0-5%

Will Levis - Tennessee Titans, Yahoo: 7% | ESPN: 3% | Sleeper: 11%  

The best schedule for quarterbacks rest of season goes to the Giants. But we don’t know if Daniel Jones will be benched or not (he probably should). We’ve got Drew Lock in the Stashes article for that reason. The next best schedule goes to the Titans. 

They get Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Jacksonville again down the stretch. Will Levis honestly hasn’t been THAT bad - he just got hurt. And you’d be surprised how much schedule does matter for passing.

• Waiver Priority: Low or Free Add
• FAAB: 0-5%

NFL Week 11 Waiver Wire Running Backs

Audric Estime - Denver Broncos, Yahoo: 3% | ESPN: 1% | Sleeper: 7%

This could amount to nothing. Or it could be the changing of the tide in Denver. And, when we see something like this, we have to take a shot on it. We did it with Tyrone Tracy and it has worked beautifully. We’ve tried it with Bucky Irving and Tank Bigsby to mixed results at best. But, this deep into the season, backfields just aren’t shifting without an injury/

In this case, the Broncos started the game with Jaleel McLaughlin. They used Javonte Williams on pass downs. In the second drive, they gave Estime a shot. And he ran with it, literally. He was the “hot hand” yesterday and that earned him a season high 14 carries for 53 yards. He’s still yet to get a target this year but we have to consider the possibility this “hot hand” situation carries over into next week for Sean Payton. Estime is the back that was selected by the “new regime”. 

• Waiver Priority: Top or high priority
• FAAB: 20-25%

Gus Edwards - Los Angeles Chargers, Yahoo: 17% | ESPN: 21% | Sleeper: 19%

In this article, we prioritize players that we can both use now and that have some longer appeal upside. One week spot starts go in the Streamers article while handcuff-type backups go in the Stashes article. Gus Edwards might not be a sexy pick, but you can actually use him in a lineup if push comes to shove. And his role should be fairly steady moving forward. 

In his very first game back, he did manage to get 10 carries (despite playing only 14 snaps). He’s a big body and it would not be surprising to see them lean on him at the goal line as well. If Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman had it their way they would just play hard-nosed smash mouth football all game long. So there might be enough carries to go around for everyone, even if JK Dobbins is still the better start. 

• Waiver Priority: Free Add or Late Priority
• FAAB: 0%

Khalil Herbert - Cincinnati Bengals, Yahoo: 22% | ESPN: 14% | Sleeper: 41%

No real change in thought process here for this player. He was likely added in most deep leagues already as one of the best waiver wire picks, so there’s no reason to make a big splash on him on the wire this week if he lasted this far. He only played 2 snaps this past week so clearly he’s not ready to play a big workload yet so he’ll continue to be eased in.

But we can’t help but wonder what the ceiling will be. Zack Moss and Chaase brown were splitting snaps right up until when Moss got hurt. In fact, when Moss got hurt, he had a lead of 297 snaps on the season to 188 for Chase Brown. 

Herbert has been pretty efficient in terms of breaking tackles so there’s a chance that Herbert earns a short yardage role to the more explosive one for Brown. That’s worth stashing just to see. 

• Waiver Priority: Free Add or Late Priority
• FAAB: 0%

NFL Week 11 Waiver Wire Wide Receivers

Ricky Pearsall - San Francisco 49ers, Yahoo: 38%| ESPN: 25% | Sleeper:55%

We prefer Pearsall to be on our bench rather than in the lineup if push comes to shove. But you might need to start Pearsall if it’s a deep enough league. And that’s fine, he does have some standalone value. 

It’s actually the combination of his standalone value AND his handcuff upside that makes him the best bench play right now. You can use him if you need to in your lineup. And he has big upside if one of Deebo Samuel or Jauan Jennings go down. 

• Waiver Priority: Medium Priority
• FAAB: 10-15%

Noah Brown - Washington Commanders, Yahoo: 13% | ESPN: 6% | Sleeper: 21%

We like the Washington Commanders offense. And we want pieces of good offenses. We’ve had Noah Brown in this article for a couple weeks now as he’s clearly worked his way up to the second WR chair on this time. This is the third week in a row he and Terry McLaurin have led the team in snaps. And it’s the third week in a row he’s gotten 6 or more targets. That also makes it 4 of the last 5 games. 

We have bye week hell coming up with 10 teams on bye over the next two weeks. Brown has his bye Week 14 but, if you need someone to fill in and start that has had decent usage, this is your guy. He had back-to-back 150+ yards last year with C.J. Stroud so we know he’s capable of big things. 

• Waiver Priority: Late or free add
• FAAB: 5-10%

Xavier Legette - Carolina Panthers, Yahoo: 36% | ESPN: 21% | Sleeper: 5%

Xavier Legette was one of our top odds in this article last week and he will remain so this week. To me, Legette represents the combination of both startability and upside we are looking for at the WR position. And the answer to a lot of the questions are positive. 

Is he a star right now? No. Is he startable in a pinch? Yes. Has he flashed upside? Yes. Is his quarterback improving? Possibly. Will he keep his role when Adam Thielen returns? We believe so. At least the odds are better than some of the other guys on this team. He’s a first round NFL draft pick that managed to carve himself out a role (with the help of an injury and a trade, mind you). He’s had some dud weeks but he’s also found the endzone a few times. 

You don’t need to go crazy adding him since the Panthers have a bye this week and he was probably already rostered in the deeper leagues. He might even be dropped if someone has him.

• Waiver Priority: Late or free add
• FAAB: 0-5%

Kayshon Boutte - New England Patriots,Yahoo: 1% | ESPN: 25% | Sleeper: 5%

There are a lot of streaming options out there (like Noah Brown above). And we’ll metnion a bunch of them in the Streamers article. And guy like Xavier Legette on bye and the ones mentioned in the Stashes article are fairly plentiful as well. So, we want to highlight a guy here that might offer a little from each column.

The Patriots have done a lot of mixing and matching wide recerivers lately - Kendrick Bourne was just a healthy scratch. And this week only one WR played more than 50% of the snaps for the Patriots. It was the same player who has led the Patriots in snaps since Drake Maye became the starter. Kayshon Boutte. 

And this week he finally got the kind of targets that represent that, especially on third down where he was targetted multiple times. We spent a lot of time stashing Ja’Lynn Polk (who did score a TD this week). But Boutte might be the WR to emerge here after all. 

• Waiver Priority: Late or free add
• FAAB: 0-5%

NFL Week 11 Waiver Tight End + Yin & Yang TE

Hunter Henry - New England Patriots, Yahoo: 46% | ESPN: 54% | Sleeper: 52%

I’m sticking with Hunter Henry where I’ve got him. Guys have down games and this unfortunately was a tough one. He only caught one of his four targets. On the bright side, he played 57 of 64 snaps and ran 25 of 29 routes. That was the second most for any Patriot’s pass-catcher behind only Kayshon Boutte. 

If he wasn’t part of the game plan or he was splitting snaps, we’d give up. But there are so few tight ends out there playing consistent snaps that that could be a top two target on their team that we are not giving up just yet. 

• Waiver Priority: Late or free add
• FAAB: 0-5% (more if he starts for you right away)

Jonnu Smith - Miami Dolphins, Yahoo: 14% | ESPN: 8% | Sleeper: 16%

Jonnu Smith is what we like to call a “double handcuff plus”. He’s the third target on his team which is not ideal. But’s athletic enough that he has some standalone value with him limited targets. So, you can start him in a pinch. And he has the double handcuff upside if either WR gets hurt.

Look at Cade Otton. Or Dallas Goedert vs. the Saints. I mean, Tyreek Hill is already playing with a torn ligament in his wrist. If either wide receiver goes down, Jonnu backs his way into a pretty big target share here potentially. As far as guys on the fringe o, you could do worse. 

• Waiver Priority: Late or free add
• FAAB: 0-5% (more if he starts for you right away)

Week 11 Rest Of Season Tight End Rankings

At this stage in the season, we are gearing up for playoffs. You may still be hanging onto two tight ends using our Yin & Yang tight end strategy, but we will increasingly be focusing on having one guy we can trust for the three weeks of fantasy playoffs. 

With that in mind, we’ll be going with a linear set of “rest of season” rankings for the next few weeks before we start focusing on actual playoff matchups.