What a time to be alive. Week 1 of NFL football is officially in the books. Sure, we got the answers to some questions but now we have more questions than we had before. And there are even more players out there to add as the best fantasy football stashes for Week 2!

 

 

 

If you haven’t read it yet, we have our Week 2 Waiver Wire article for our top picks in general this week. We also have our Week 2 Streamers article for the guys we trust most to actually jump into your lineup right away. In this article, the best fantasy football stashes for Week 2, we are looking at long-term holds that could hit down the stretch during fantasy playoffs when we need it most.

Most of these Week 2 fantasy football stashes are not going to be super trustworthy in the early going. Though Jordan Mason, from our Week 1 fantasy football stashes article, already managed to start a game with Christian McCaffrey out. So, you never really know when these guys could take that leap to be the next league winner. 

Best Fantasy Football Stashes For Week 2

We are ideally going to look at players that are rostered in less than 50% of leagues on Yahoo, ESPN or Sleeper Fantasy as those are the guys that are generally actually available. 

We know there are leagues of varying sizes and depths, so we’ll try to cover our bases. And we’ll obviously let you know what it is that makes these players the best fantasy football stashes in Week 2. So, let’s dive in!

 

 

 

NFL Week 2 Quarterback Stashes

Drake Maye, QB, New England Patriots, Yahoo: 6%| ESPN: 4% | Sleeper: 0%

This one hasn’t changed for us much as the idea is still very much the same. If/when he gets a chance to play, he could run a bunch. Jayden Daniels got the start this week and, in his first ever game, he tied the league lead with 16 QB rushes. That creates a nice floor and offers an intriguing ceiling as well. That’s the hope for Maye. 

Derek Carr, QB, New Orleans Saints Yahoo: 14%| ESPN: 4% | Sleeper: 14%

We never really disliked Derek Carr. With the Raiders he absolutely had stretches as a serviceable fantasy football quarterback. With the Saints, he hasn’t really looked bad either. This week he had the highest PFF passing grade of any quarterback. There’s just been one glaring problem - they would sometimes use a different quarterback for the red zone.

And that might still be the case at which point we would need to drop Carr back to waivers. But this past weekend Taysom Hill only played ONE snap at quarterback. And Carr was allowed to flourish. Maybe, just maybe, Klint Kubiak wants his actual quarterback to play quarterback this year. And, if that’s the case, Carr could be a pretty solid option. We’ll stash him to see at least another game. 

 

 

 

NFL Week 2 Running Back Stashes

Jordan Mason, RB, San Francisco 49ers, Yahoo: 26%| ESPN: 17% | Sleeper: 38%

Jordan Mason remains our top stash, as we wrote about last week. And now that he popped off in Week 1 with Christian McCaffrey out, he will likely be on everyone’s radar. If McCaffrey misses this week’s game against the Raiders, Jordan Mason will once again be a top streamer.

Jaylen Wright, RB, Miami Dolphins, Yahoo: 21%| ESPN: 23% | Sleeper: 47%

Another player that we wrote about last week. And not much has changed since then. By the nature of “stashing” players, we have to be patient. Jaylen Wright was a healthy inactive but we saw how involved De’Von Achane and Raheem Mostert were. If either of them goes down, Wright could inherit a solid role in and explosive offense. And he has explosive speed himself

Tank Bigsby, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars, Yahoo: 5%| ESPN: 5% | Sleeper: 11%

Honestly, in a deep enough league, Tank Bigsby could be a streamer. But, in most leagues, he’s more of a stash. We’re stashing him to maybe see if his role can grow from what we just saw in Week 1. A role that quietly saw him match Travis Ettienne at 12 carries a piece.

Historically, splitting the run work with little pass work has not been a great role for fantasy football. Ask AJ Dillon. But, if he can claw away the BULK of the early down work with Travis Etienne relegated to pass downs, we might have a little stew going here. We’ve seen Jamaal Williams do some damage with the Lions in that type of role even with Jahmyr Gibbs there. The Jaguars would need to be a pretty good offense for that to work out though.

 

 

 

NFL Week 2 Wide Receiver Stashes

Ja'Lynn Polk - New England Patriots Yahoo: 23%| ESPN: 32% | Sleeper: 42%

The Patriots are still running “open tryouts” to some degree with all of KJ Osborn, Demario Douglas, Tyquan Thornton and Ja'Lynn Polk rotating. That could make it tough for us to start any of them in a fantasy football lineup right now but that’s still promising for Polk. Even CeeDee Lamb was a part-time player as a rookie so getting your foot in that door is half the battle.

Taking a guy in a position like Polk’s gives us two outs here. First, he’s a rookie so the idea is that his usage, targets, familiarity etc. will grow as the season progresses. The next is that we have a potential quarterback change coming at some point. If it’s not working with Jacoby Brissett, we get another look at things with a new QB later. And who knows - maybe Drake Maye and Ja’Lynn Polk will be best buds. 

Josh Downs - Indianapolis Colts, Yahoo: 26%| ESPN: 11% | Sleeper: 10%

There will definitely be folks adding Alec Pierce off the wire after his monster touchdown this week. And some might gravitate towards rookie Adonai Mitchell as the second target on this team. But we still like the idea of Josh Downs playing a key role in this offense. And the usage of Mitchell out of the slot has us excited for this return. 

Before he was sidelined with the injury, there was some hype that Downs could be the second target on this team after Michael Pittman. In that world, Downs would play slot for three WR sets while staying on the field for two WR sets instead of the inefficient Alec Pierce (who led all WRs in snaps last year but finished as the WR71 in PPR). 

We’re still holding onto Downs where we can, especially in leagues where there is an IR spot. Anthony Richardson looked pretty solid this week so this could be a fun offense. 

Jalen McMillan - Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Yahoo: 5%| ESPN: 3% | Sleeper: 0%

Jalen McMillan dropped what would have been an easy walk-in touchdown this week. That hurts. But he made up for it a little later on by catching a touchdown pass. Clearly, they want the rookie involved and he quietly led this wide receiver group in snaps and routes run. 

Liam Coen’s offense is taking a page out of Sean McVay’s book with HEAVY three WR sets. Right now, it’s tough to trust McMillan with Chris Godwin and Mike Evans in town. But an injury to either could open the door for big upsides for McMIllan - a player many believe was the second best WR from Washington even though he was drafted after Rome Odunze and Ja'Lynn Polk. 

Mike Evans is one the wrong side of 30 and Chris Godwin has not been super healthy in recent years so he could get his shot at some point. And Baker Mayfield picked up this year right where he left off. 

 

 

 

NFL Week 2 Tight End Stashes

Hunter Henry - New England Patriots, Yahoo: 25%| ESPN: 12% | Sleeper: 24%

Check the main waiver article on Hunter Henry for why he’s still one of our top stashes. His usage wasn’t as bad this week as you might think.

Greg Dulcich - Denver Broncos, Yahoo: 2%| ESPN: 1% | Sleeper: 7%

Dulcich was also included in the main write-up so check on that. He has that top pass-catching tight end job so just needs more targets.

Hayden Hurst - Los Angeles Chargers, Yahoo: 1%| ESPN: 3% | Sleeper: 12%

This was a low volume game in general for the Chargers. And there might be a lot of those given who is running the show and what they like to do. But, when we boil down the underlying numbers, they aren’t too bad for Hurst.

Hurst was a top 10 tight end in route participation this week at 79%. He also ran 83% of his routes from a WR spot which is a good indication fo his role. And his aDot of 13.3 was among the highest for tight ends. Will Dissly is clearly the blocking tight end with Hurst essentially playing “big slot”. We just have to hope this team actually has some higher volume games. 

Theo Johnson - New York Giants, Yahoo: 1%| ESPN: 1% | Sleeper: 7%

Daniel Jones was complete dogwater this week. So we need him to either play better or for Drew Lock to get a chance. But Theo Johnson was CLEARLY the top tight end on this team. He’s an athletic specimen so we are rooting for him but there are some good parts and some bad parts to his deployment.

The good included a 76% route participation and over 50% of his snaps run from a WR spot. The bad included a low target shares (9.5%). And, even worse, he blocked on 16.7% of his pass plays. We absolutely cannot have that. But it’s a promising start for the rookie tight end. 

 

 

 

Why Do We Stash?

Obviously, it would be nice if our entire roster was just chock full of stars. Maybe your lineup is (some of my dynasty leagues certainly are). But, for most of us, there will be holes. That’s why we highlight the Top Waiver Wire Adds each week as well as the Best Streamers to get you by. 

The best fantasy football stashes though? These are the guys that win you the title. That came out of the woodworks down the stretch like rookie Odell Beckham. or Amon-Ra St. Brown. And it’s our job to find them BEFORE they break out!