Last season, Adonai Mitchell was a mere throw-in as part of the trade that sent All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Colts. Almost a year removed from that deal, the young wide receiver is showing signs that he can be a key piece of the Jets’ offense moving forward. After another big game in Week 8, is Mitchell a must-add waiver target for Week 9?
Is Adonai Mitchell a Week 9 waiver must-add?
A former second-round pick out of Texas, AD Mitchell had hardly lived up to expectations through the first season and a half of his NFL career. He caught just 23 passes for 312 yards as a rookie for the Colts, and he recorded only nine receptions for 152 yards through eight games of his second year. Despite appearing in 25 games for Indianapolis, he also never recorded a touchdown. Through that time, he primarily operated as a deep threat, competing with Alec Pierce for snaps and targets in a similar role. With that kind of competition – his teammate was near the top of the league in yards per reception in both 2024 and 2025 – it became clear that Mitchell probably wouldn’t pan out with the team.
As such, he was part of the trade that sent Sauce Gardner to Indy along with a pair of first-round picks and more. As it turns out, a change of scenery was just what Mitchell needed to begin to blossom. He played eight games for the Jets last season after that trade and set new career-best marks on a per-game basis over the tail end of the campaign. He caught 24 passes for 301 yards and scored the first two touchdowns of his NFL career, averaging 3.0 receptions and 37.6 receiving yards per game. He flashed potential on multiple occasions for fantasy football, too. He recorded the two best games of his career with 17.4 and 24.2 PPR points over that span, the latter of which marked his first game of 100+ yards.
After his first full offseason with New York, Mitchell got off to a very solid start in 2026. He pulled in three catches for 60 yards in Week 1, then followed it up with six catches on a career-high 12 targets in Week 2. However, a finger injury knocked him out for the next four games, sidelining him until a quiet Week 7 in which he blanked on three targets. With his finger still taped up, Mitchell finally erupted in Week 8 – he caught seven passes for 142 yards and a score on nine looks, good for a new career-best game. The final result of that outing was a tally of 27.2 PPR points, finishing as the weekly WR3.
Mitchell is coming off a very impressive performance, but the question is whether he can continue to play such a key role in a crowded Jets offense moving forward. With hype picking up for him on the fantasy waiver wire, is he worth an add in Week 9?
The baseline of involvement is pretty clear at this point. Mitchell has played at least 61% of snaps in three of his four games, with the one exception a 44% finish in Week 7 when he returned from injury. His 68.5% route share looks a little better than the snap share, and he’s seen at least three targets in every game with a 21.3% target share that ranks in the 81st percentile among 115 qualified wideouts. His 24.4% first-read share is solid, though uninspiring, but a 44.5% share of air yards is stellar and falls in the 96th percentile.
He’s clearly a field-stretching talent with his long speed and is averaging an impressive 16.6 yards per reception. That tracks for the archetype of receiver he is, but we do see this kind of guy bring boom-or-bust production at times for fantasy. Per Fantasypointsdata, Mitchell has run a go route on 23.4% of his total routes, and his 17.93 aDOT is a new career-high mark. Downfield receivers can pop in a hurry if they bring in a deep pass or two, but they sometimes see lesser volume on a game-to-game basis. The good news is that he’s averaging 0.28 TPRR and already has a game of double-digit targets to his name this season, though, which means that perhaps he can draw more looks than the traditional players of his ilk often do. Still, he’s competing with Garrett Wilson and rookie first-rounder Omar Cooper Jr. at WR.
Of course, there’s also the matchup in Week 9. The Jets are on the road against the Chiefs, who are a 9.5-point home favorite as of Tuesday. Kansas City’s defense is rather strong, which does hurt the outlook for New York to an extent. The unit ranks fourth in PPG allowed to opponents this season, and while it sits 14th in EPA/dropback allowed, it’s also fourth in pass success rate allowed and is tied for 10th in explosive pass rate allowed. Throwing the football isn’t necessarily easy against the Chiefs, so Geno Smith may struggle this week.
Still, Mitchell has flashed upside in his relatively brief time with the Jets and has two games of 12.3 PPR points or better in four appearances this season. One can project him to see at least a handful of targets come Sunday, and if he hauls in one or two big ones, he could easily put up another big day in fantasy football. The flip side of the tough matchup is that his team may need to throw more than usual in a negative game script against a true contender, too. With that in mind, Mitchell is worth a speculative add and could flirt with FLEX value in deeper fantasy leagues – he’s not a bad target on waivers.
