The first few weeks of rookie Jeremiyah Love’s NFL career have been hit-or-miss, for the most part. He’s looked electric at times, but is yet to blossom into the immediate fantasy football superstar some people expected him to be. Now, he’s dealing with his second ankle injury of the season, potentially setting the stage for his backup to see an increased workload heading into Week 5.
Tyler Allgeier has proven capable in the past. If Love misses Week 5, is Allgeier the hottest must-add waiver pickup of the week?
Should you add Tyler Allgeier from waivers?
The Cardinals used the No. 3 selection in the draft to take Jeremiyah Love, who was one of the truly transcendent talents in college football over the last couple of seasons. He was expected to serve as something of a workhorse given his versatile skill set, but the rookie suffered an ankle sprain during the preseason that he dealt with for a couple of weeks. He’s split work to an extent over the first four games, and a quote from the rookie stood out after a Week 4 loss.
Following that contest, Love said “My body sometimes is down, sometimes tired. So it’s just managing those things, and coaches know that. This is probably gonna be the longest year of my life. I just want to manage that workload. So today, just obviously making sure to keep an eye on managing me. But I didn’t go out there hurt anything or anything like that. They’re doing what they need to do to keep me up so that I can finish the season.”
On the Monday following that game, head coach Mike LaFleur told the media that Love has been dealing with an ankle injury, but on the other ankle that he did not originally sprain in preseason. The injury is being managed, but it’s still worth keeping an eye on moving forward. It’s certainly a yellow flag in Love’s profile.
Arizona is yet to release an injury report for Week 5 since it’s early in the week, but if he does pop up with the ankle, it’s absolutely worth adding Allgeier off the waiver wire. Even if Love doesn’t wind up with an injury designation, though, his backup is still worth rostering.
Love is the upside play in fantasy football since he profiles as the more complete back and is clearly the better talent. He’s posted a respectable 12.22 FPPG with 55.8 rushing yards per game, also seeing 13.8 carries with 3.0 targets. However, he’s actually being out-snapped on the season by his backup. Love’s snap rate sits at 49.8% compared to 51.3% for Allgeier. The latter is seeing just 8.0 carries per game with 2.5 targets, so he’s not commanding the same workload on average. Still, there’s one important part to know about Allgeier’s profile. Thus far, he has a 40.0% share of carries inside the five-yard line; Love has a 20.0% share on those high-value touches. Both backs have just one rushing touchdown on the year, but it’s worth noting that Allgeier is theoretically playing vulture on the goal line.
It does seem clear that this coaching staff wants Allgeier to be involved in the game plan to some extent. He’s seeing roughly 10 opportunities a game if you combine his rushing volume with the average target volume, and with the high-value touches in an offense that ranks middle-of-the-pack in scoring, he may flirt with FLEX value even during weeks that Love plays. If something were to happen to the rookie, Allgeier would immediately profile as the favorite to absorb heavy volume, meaning he’s also one of the most valuable handcuffs in fantasy football. Don’t bank on Love missing Week 5, but if he does, Allgeier should absolutely be a waiver target this week.
