At various points during the fantasy football season, injuries, bye weeks, and breaking news can cause you to need reinforcements for your fantasy lineup. Every Friday throughout the 2026 NFL season, Matt Bowen will offer some late-week pickup options at each of the primary fantasy positions to help fill those holes, with an emphasis on deeper leagues. This week, we start with a veteran passer in a positive matchup and a dual-threat option who is coming off a season-best performance in Week 7.
At wide receiver, I see two options with higher floors given their route tree and anticipated usage, plus I have an upside play, too. As usual, the running back spot is pretty lean, but there are some deeper-league targets. And we'll finish with a tight end seeing consistent volume and take a shot at a D/ST in a tough week to find quality matchups.
Quarterbacks Geno Smith, New York Smith had 23.48 fantasy points last week against Miami and he was really efficient with the ball, completing 76.7% of his throws. On Sunday, it's a matchup with a Raiders defense ranking in the bottom five against quarterbacks, so let's get Smith in the lineup as a fringe QB1. At wide receiver, Ryan Flournoy has had double-digit fantasy points in three straight games and provides a stable floor as a deeper-league target versus the Cardinals.
Source: ESPN NFL · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing