Mike Sims-Walker played for the Jags if I recall correctly.
How do I know? The same year you speak of, I had him on a team at some point. (to be fair, our leagues were mandatory start 3 WRs, so that was a case where I started him a few times as my WR3)
This is an interesting topic, and also one that closely goes hand-in-hand with "when to cut bait" on a player, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a "waiver wire gem" in that sense. I think this has a lot to do with roster construction, and of course a number of injuries may put you in a position that you have to trot out one of these "waiver wire gems" when you have no choice.
Last season, many of us know the Amari Cooper story. He stunk it up most of the season, and I had him in one particular league......again, a start 3 WR league.
I actually said it here on the board, that I was going to draft Julio Jones as my first WR off the board in said league, if I couldn't get David Johnson or LeVeon Bell and thats exactly what I did. My 3 WRs last year to start the season there were Julio Jones (drafted him at #3 overall),Amari Cooper, and Demaryius Thomas. (managed to get Todd Gurley in round 3
)
Anyway the point is, I exacted a trade, and I gave up Demaryius Thomas PLUS another piece to acquire Antonio Brown late season. I started Amari Cooper as my WR3 a number of times, and I was fortunate enough to have him active for his blow up game. But I also knew the way things were going, and I had the stones to bench him 2 weeks later, and by seasons end I had cut him to the wire.
I don't even know if anyone picked him up off the wire to be honest.
Regardless, its often a similar scenario, and people have a very tough time benching players, or even outright
cutting them. Its one thing when its a "waiver wire flavor of the moment " Like Mike Sims-Walker, or even a
KEVIN OGLETREE make a splash. Remember him anyone? I think he went off vs. The GMEN on a Monday night in 2012 or thereabouts, possibly the first game of the season, and every fantasy player in the country wanted to acquire him.
You know the end of the story, he was abysmal the rest of the season, and many fantasy owners got burned for weeks looking for the next blow up game.
MIKE GILLISLEE dealt a similar smokescreen last year early on for his fantasy owners too.
But its much tougher when you have a big name stud , (or one similar to Amari Cooper) who seemingly has much better upside. Often superstar name/recognition helps to kill many an owner and his teams, and they can't stomach benching a guy like that, even after weeks of non-production.
This is one of the biggest traps in fantasy, I think of it as the silent killer. Its a slow drain on your team, yet many of us just can't quite bench the guy. Before you know it the season is almost over and your "stud" has been a team cancer for 8-10 weeks or more.
Unfortunately, we sometimes can't bench the guy soon enough. We get stuck in that trap.
"HEY, I CAN'T BENCH THAT GUY!".
I can't speak for others, but for me....its mostly a bigger name wideout that is the toughest one to bench. Running backs, you often have other replacements, or you can tell or it comes out that the RB is "nicked up". We don't always hear about a gimpy WR until its too late....by then he has helped hurt your team's season for a number of weeks.
I wish I could say there was something or some test (eye test anyone???) or a way we could know when to bench or cut a guy. I think its largely feel and experience. I also think when you get that feeling to go ahead and bench a non-producing player, you are better off acting on that as soon as it becomes a problem.
Sure , everyone hates when they bench a big name player, and they go off on your bench, but thats just part of the game.
If anyone has any general "rules of thumb", or guidelines they use of when to bench a big name player, (or as the OP stated, a "waiver wire gem") I'd like to hear it.
TZM
