Early Fantasy Football Waiver Wire For Week 8: Seth McGowan, JJ McCarthy & More

The Week 7 waiver wire is quite an interesting one. For plug-and-play immediate production, it might be the weakest of the season. For long-term, potential league-winning upside, it might be the most important one we’ll see all year. You’ll see what I mean soon enough.

FYI—the following players are ordered by position, NOT the order in which I would attack them on the wire. For detailed breakdowns on priority and pricing for each of these players, make sure to check out the premium version of this article, which drops weekly following Monday Night Football. I dive deep into FAAB recommendations in multiple league sizes and formats, including Guillotine Leagues™️.

Without further ado, let’s get right into it:

Early Week 8 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire

Quarterbacks

J.J. McCarthy | NYG
Roster: 35%

For the second week in a row, McCarthy looked awesome under center for the New York Giants—this time, leading the team to a road win against one of the toughest defenses across the league in the Houston Texans.

Since he didn’t throw any touchdowns, McCarthy didn’t light the world on fire from a fantasy perspective. That being said, he played the type of football that gives me quite a bit of encouragement going forward:

252 passing yards (QB X)
0.18 EPA/dropback (QB X)

If McCarthy continues playing like this, there’s a legitimate chance he emerges as a reliable starter. If I were stuck playing the QB roulette game on a weekly basis, I’d be looking at McCarthy as a priority add going into Week 8.

Malik Willis | MIA

Roster: 31%

Coming out of Miami’s Week 6 bye, Malik Willis looked like an entirely different quarterback. Not only was his 0.72 EPA/dropback QB a big improvement, it was only the second time in the entire season that he’s had a positive EPA all season (last time was Week 2 with 0.14 EPA/dropback, QB15 on the week). Every other week, Willis has been an active detriment to the Miami Dolphins offense.

In Week 7, it looked like the Dolphins may have actually figured something out offensively. We know Willis has extremely high upside from a fantasy perspective simply due to his rushing ability, so he’s another guy I’d look to snag if I were in QB purgatory.

Running Backs

Seth McGowan | IND

Roster: 33%

When I mentioned in the intro the wide range of outcomes this waiver wire run could have in hindsight, Seth McGowan was the guy I had in mind.

McGowan has been a mainstay on this waiver wire column for the last four weeks, and I’m right back to it going into Week 8. Nothing about his role has necessarily changed—he remains the sole handcuff behind Jonathan Taylor, and is consistently the only other RB to handle any touches on a weekly basis.

That being said … in past weeks, I’ve merely been suggesting you pick up McGowan in case Taylor got hurt. This week, I am begging you. You NEED to pick him up. Trade rumors are swirling around JT, and with the trade deadline looming after Week 9, there is a very real chance McGowan is just the RB1 in Indianapolis the second half of the season.

If McGowan remains on your waivers and a Taylor trade does happen, he’ll immediately be a 100% FAAB type of player. Don’t wait until that happens to roster him. He’s a priority add before Week 8.

Dameon Pierce | PHI

Roster: 72%

I’ll keep it short and sweet on Dameon Pierce—similar to McGowan with Taylor, this is a bet on Saquon Barkley getting traded to a contender before the looming deadline.

With Tank Bigsby on IR and Will Shipley injured, Pierce has proven to be a perfectly effective handcuff RB for Philadelphia, and if anyone dropped him in your league, he simply needs to be stashed right now.

Dylan Sampson | CLE

Roster: 36%

Sampson made his first appearance in 2026 in Week 7 after spending the first 6 weeks on injured reserve, and he showed us a real role in this Cleveland backfield. Not only is he the primary handcuff behind Quinshon Judkins—he was the only other RB to record a carry—but he clearly showed the most valuable receiving role in the backfield as well:

18 routes (RB X on the week and 7 more than Judkins)
6 carries / 45 yards
3 receptions / 32 yards

Sampson’s receiving ability and involvement should have him in the mid-RB3 conversation on a weekly basis, with serious upside if Judkins misses time. He needs to be rostered going forward.

Samaje Perine | CIN

Roster: 38%

I can’t believe I’m saying it in the big 2026, but I think it’s officially time to give Samaje Perine some respect (and a roster spot) as one of the more valuable handcuffs in the league. And he’s practically free.

Over the past several weeks, Perine has gotten more and more involved in the Bengals offense—particularly when it comes to high-value touches. He’s tied or out-carried Chase Brown in the red zone over the past two games, and he’s also received 100% of the two-minute drill work.

I’d never recommend starting Perine as long as Brown is healthy and active, but he’s become a legitimate thorn in his side and would slot right in as a weekly option if Brown were to miss time.

Jonah Coleman | DEN

Roster: 72%

Odds are that Coleman isn’t available in your league, but on the off chance that he is … he needs to be a priority pickup. Upon returning from injured reserve in Week 7, Coleman served as the lead back for Denver. He had 9 carries for 54 yards, while J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey produced 9 carries for 29 yards combined.

It was Harvey who broke a long play in the receiving game for a touchdown, but Coleman was also the most involved in the receiving game from a Utilization perspective. He ran 34.4% of the routes, with Harvey down at 25% and Dobbins at 6%.

This backfield is still quite messy with three guys getting involved, but I think we’ve witnessed the changing of the guard in real time with Coleman this week. He’ll project as a back-end RB2 going forward, with tons of upside if he can continue to consolidate work in Denver.

Wide Receivers

KC Concepcion | CLE

Roster: 77%

Like I just mentioned on Coleman above, KC Concepcion is probably already rostered in your league. But if not, he is VERY clearly the No. 1 priority waiver wire option ahead of Week 8.

In Week 7 against the Titans, we finally got the KCC breakout game:

10 targets, 29.4% target rate (1st on CLE)
8 receptions, 129 receiving yards (1st on CLE)
0.36 TPRR | 1st among all WRs in Week 7 (min. 20 routes)
4.61 YPRR | 4th among all WRs in Week 7 (min. 20 routes)

He also added 3 carries for 23 yards out of the backfield to finish with 23.2 total fantasy points.

I was a massive fan of Concepcion’s talent coming out of the 2026 NFL Draft. In fact, he was my favorite pick at cost in the entire 2026 rookie draft. His CUPPS Score of 75.2 was 91st percentile among all WRs going back to 2014:

I believe he’s in the same tier of prospect as guys drafted earlier in the first round like Carnell Tate and Jordyn Tyson, and it’s awesome to see what his upside can look like in the context of the Browns offense. I’ll be upgrading Concepcion to low-end WR2 status going forward.

Caleb Douglas | MIA

Roster: 36%

Another 2026 rookie wide receiver with a breakout performance in Week 7? Caleb Douglas of the Miami Dolphins. In Miami’s first win of the season against the Jets, Douglas finished with 2 receptions for 70 yards and 2 scores—good for 21 PPR points.

To be completely honest, I think this one might get a bit overblown. Douglas had only 3 targets in this game. When we look at expected fantasy points (xFP), or the total fantasy points a player would be expected to score based on their utilization and role, Douglas had only 5.6 points. This overperformance of 15.4 points (21.0 - 5.6) makes Douglas the largest outlier of all WRs from Sunday’s games.

I like Douglas. He’s been a guy I’ve thought could emerge as a top target in this Miami passing attack since the offseason. I just don’t think this was really the ‘breakout’ game many are saying it is.

The upside is definitely there, but I’d probably let someone else spend up here if he’s going to be a priority add.

Tight Ends

Greg Dulcich | MIA

Roster: 14%

I just talked about how I don’t want to spend up on Douglas after Week 7 … when considering how much I’d expect you to have to pay for any of the Miami pass catchers on the waiver wire this week, I definitely prefer Greg Dulcich at cost.

Dulcich led the Dolphins’ receiving room in pretty much every metric other than fantasy points this week:

5 targets / 23.8% target share (1st)
86 receiving yards (1st)
0.26 TPRR (1st)
4.53 YPRR (1st)

I’d still be hard-pressed to jam Dulcich into my starting lineup on a weekly basis in a standard 1TE league, at least for now. But I’m keeping a close eye on him over the coming weeks to see if this utilization holds.