Fantasy Football Waiver Wire and Rest of Season Rankings- Week 2, 2026
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.
THESE WILL BE UPDATED EVERY WEDNESDAY EVENING!!!
Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Adds
Browns signed RB Jaleel McLaughlin to their active roster. He gets the elevation after the Browns place Dylan Sampson on injured reserve. McLaughlin and Raheim Sanders will be behind Quinshon Judkins in Week 2. McLaughlin’s career shows him as a more reliable pure runner than Sanders.
KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson reports the Cowboys are signing RB Tyler Goodson off the Falcons’ practice-squad. Goodson will backfill the roster spot lost to placing Malik Davis on IR at the end of last week. It’s unclear whether Emari Demercado or Goodson would be the head of a committee if Javonte Williams were injured, as both of them showed up with the Cowboys after last cuts.
Players We Can Drop
When we make waiver claims most of the time we can easily determine who to add, but we struggle with which players to drop. It is very difficult to give-up on a player we thought was worth drafting in the first place. If you are struggling, you should be dropping your questions or concerns in our FREE Discord channel. Don't be afraid of it, I'm over 50 and navigate it fairly well.
Injuries
The Browns placed RB Dylan Sampson on injured reserve. Sampson went down on Sunday with a knee injury. He will miss at least the next four weeks.
Ian Rapoport reports Omar Cooper Jr. (ankle) is “week to week, with the hope that he returns within the next four weeks.” The phrasing at the end of that sentence makes it clear the Jets are pondering not sending him to injured reserve. Fantasy managers who took the plunge in non-dynasty leagues do not necessarily have to hold on to Cooper through the early weeks if something else is available on the waiver wire.
