Week 1 overreactions lead to fantasy football madness on the waiver wire, so we’re sorting through the information that does and doesn’t matter to put you in position to succeed. In the season opener, David Njoku emerged as a reliable weapon in his first game with the Los Angeles Chargers to finish as a borderline TE1, but is the usage he saw sticky enough to make him worth adding on the wire this week?
David Njoku fantasy outlook
Njoku was a mainstay on the fantasy circuit for a several years when he was with the Cleveland Browns. but he wasn’t exactly a consistent performer on a year-to-year basis. He was drafted in 2017 but delivered his first relevant campaign as a sophomore finishing as the overall TE9. The tight end position was much more barren at the time than it is today, which is part of why he earned that ranking with just 9.0 FPPG. However, Njoku delivered a couple of much better campaigns with 10.1, 12.6 and 13.5 FPPG between 2022-24, emerging as a weekly starter with a couple of top-10 finishes at the position.
Injuries were a common theme in his 2024 and 2025 seasons as multiple ailments – including severe burns suffered in a fire – limited him to only 11 and 12 games. Plus, the Browns drafted Harold Fannin Jr., a rookie tight end who set records for positional production during his time in college. It’s not shocking that Njoku was supplanted on the depth chart by the younger talent, but he’s found a new home where his skills may be appreciated if he can stay healthy.
The Chargers gave Njoku a one-year, $3 million deal this past offseason that can scale up to $8 million if he hits various incentives. He was initially listed as the second tight end on the depth chart in a crowded room that saw Charlie Kolar signed to a much larger three-year deal and incumbent Oronde Gadsden also competing for snaps. In Week 1, though, we got our first look at how this position group shakes out.
The season opener was a game Los Angeles will surely want to forget after losing to the Arizona Cardinals. The offense looked quite poor overall – a huge letdown after an offseason of hype that was fueled by the hiring of Mike McDaniel as offensive coordinator – but Justin Herbert did distribute the ball and get his new tight end involved. Njoku pulled in all five of his targets for 58 yards, good for 10.8 PPR points and a weekly finish as the TE12. Not a bad first outing, really.
That performance has landed the 30-year-old on waivers as one of the week’s top candidates, but is he really a sleeper who fantasy managers should be adding? Typically, a backup tight end may not hold all that much appeal, but the numbers do tell us a little bit more here. Njoku played 30 snaps on the day, tying with Kolar for a 55% snap share that led the position group for the Chargers. Gadsden, whose blocking has been critiqued plenty, saw just 10 snaps for an 18% share.
Now, did the Chargers have to pass the football a little bit more at the end of the day than usual since they were trailing in the fourth quarter? They did, but Herbert threw only 27 passes on the day and five of those went in Njoku’s direction for a strong target share. What’s most important is that he was on the field just as much as Kolar, and more importantly for fantasy, that he ran 17 routes to Kolar’s 12. The route share could have been better, but the target share is just what we want to see for fantasy production. And while L.A. ran 11 personnel at the highest rate with a usage of 65.28%, 13 personnel was the next-most used at 15.28%.
So, can Njoku continue to produce in an offense that’s poised to show more moving forward? He probably can, assuming he continues to lead this tight end room in routes run. There are far worse options for a waiver add entering Week 2, so if you’re needy at the position, consider putting in a claim to get a piece of this Chargers attack.
