Fantasy Football Waiver Wire and Rest of Season Rankings- Week 2, 2026
Updated: Sep 16
The key to Week 2 of the fantasy football season is to ignore much of what happened in Week 1. There is a unique element to Week 1 where we should hesitate before making rash decisions, but we also nee to incorporate what we saw. As humans we have an incredible urge to overreact to what we most recently saw. I’ve noticed many people looking to dump players they drafted in the single-digit rounds, there is no reason to do that if you drafted from our cheat sheet.
Waiver advice for those who play in more typical home redraft leagues will be published each week. We will look at players owned less than 60% in the most popular formats and rank out in order our favorite waiver pickups broken down by position. Most weeks will also feature our Rest of Season rankings which are THE MOST ACCURATE over the past 5 years.
The Week 2 Waiver Wire is full of players that were drafted in Best Ball drafts this summer, not many surprises here. Deebo Samuel should have been drafted in all leagues if people followed our draft rankings. Michael Mayer was our top sleeper at TE and Dontayvion Wicks, Denzel Boston, Adonai Mitchell, and even Devaughn Vele, were all players that were highly touted during our live draft streams.
Michael Penix (knee) was out for Sunday's season opener in Pittsburgh but is targeting Week 2 or 3 for his 2026 debut, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports. Atlanta was down to its No. 3 quarterback for Week 1, as Cooper Rush -- despite dealing with back spasms -- will picked the start against the Steelers while Penix and Tua Tagovailoa (oblique) sit out. Penix didn't play in the preseason while completing his recovery from the torn ACL he sustained last November, but he took part in six 11-on-11 practices during training camp and was then a full participant in practices throughout Week 1 prep. If he remains free of setbacks while logging a full slate of practices during Week 2 prep, Penix could be the Falcons' choice to start in their next game Sept. 20, regardless of whether Tagovailoa is available.
