The fantasy football week is getting ready to start up on Thursday with the Saints and the Falcons going at it and that means owners will be looking for some of the best waiver free agent players heading into the playoffs and some names to check out this week include Chris Ogbonnaya, Bobby Rainey, Donald Brown, Jordan Reed and Delanie Walker.
Ogbonnaya has been trending upwards over the past few weeks and he has a solid matchup against the Steelers this weekend and after having a nice game last week he could be ready to breakout. Rainey was the top breakout player of the week and he should be a decent starter for the rest of the season for the Buccaneers, as they lost both Doug Martin and Mike James for the season and Rainey now is the best option for the team to use the rest of the schedule. Brown has been the hotter back over Trent Richardson in Indy and both Reed and Walker have been very productive this season for their teams and should be good tight end picks for the rest of the season.
Let's look at Ogbonnaya, who has been dealing with a rib injury, but that is not expected to keep him out on Sunday. The Browns have liked the way Ogbonnaya has worked in the offense for Norv Turner and that has gotten him an increase in carries and his play in the passing game has been a boost for PPR fantasy owners as well. Ogbonnaya is a good blocker and that has put him in position to get more reps and he has been solid rushing the ball, averaging over six yards per carry and with Willis McGahee a veteran and a bit of an old dude, Ogbonnaya should be getting more and more carries.
Ogbonnaya looks like more of the feature back against the Steelers after getting the bulk of the touches on Sunday and playing against the Steelers should be a solid matchup, as the team has been allowing the 26th worst amount of yards in the league and they are ranked 29th in rushing scores and 22nd in the league in yards per attempt in the NFL and those are factors that go in Ogbonnaya's favor on Sunday. Last week Ogbonnaya rushed for 69 yards on eight carries and he added a 43 yard run and he also had six catches for 30 yards and that makes him a solid starter. The past three weeks he has 14 catches and if he continues that he should put up good numbers and this season he has rushed for 170 yards on 27 carries and he could get some big touches come Sunday.
Rainey has been a very good option the past couple weeks since Mike James went down, as the game against the Falcons showed that he can be a feature back. Rainey rushed for 163 yards on 30 carries to lead the weekend and he had three touchdowns total on the day. While he won't be doing that every week, the fact that he scored two touchdowns on the ground on Sunday is a good sign and it comes after he averaged over five yards per carry against the Dolphins. Brown has been the hot hand and after scoring two touchdowns and rushing for 80 yards he could be a solid option this week against the Cardinals.