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After a record-breaking rookie season in 2024, the follow-up was not as good for Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers as a Week 1 knee injury hampered him all season. Fully healthy and in line to be part of a functional passing offense for the first time, he was the first tight end off the board in a lot of fantasy football drafts this year. Now, at least for a short time, the rug has been pulled out from under those Bowers managers. “We’re expecting to have all our guys ready for Sunday” against the Miami Dolphins, Kubiak told reporters on Wednesday. Hours later, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Bowers underwent a meniscus trim on Tuesday in Dallas and is expected to miss “a game or two.” Coaches are less than forthright about injuries all the time. But Kubiak flat-out lied right not long before Schefter’s report came out. The subsequent team-issued injury report for Wednesday then, of course, listed Bowers as a non-participant. So what was the point of lying? In any case, Bowers’ fantasy managers now have to find a pivot option for a week or two and we’re here with some options off the waiver wire. Brock Bowers Out 1-2 Weeks: Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pivots Michael Mayer, Las Vegas Raiders Mayer was the Raiders’ No. 1 tight end in four of the five games Brock Bowers missed last season, with fantasy-relevant production in two of them (five catches for 50 yards and a touchdown in Week 7; nine catches for 89 yards in Week 17). With how quarterback Kirk Cousins loves throwing to tight ends, and a favorable Week 1 matchup against the Dolphins, Mayer is now on the radar as a streamer. Week 2 against the Los Angeles Chargers could also be a pass-heavy game script for the Raiders. making the former second-round pick an option again if Bowers is out. ESPN Ownership: 4.5% Yahoo! Ownership: 6% Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints Johnson stretches beyond the general waiver wire add tenet of being available in at least half of leagues, especially in Yahoo! leagues. But with Saints rookie wide receiver Jordyn Tyson out, he’s in line to be the No. 2 target for Tyler Shough in Week 1 against the Detroit Lions. Lions general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell have both expressed confidence in the secondary heading into the season, but the prevailing opinion is it’s an issue until proven otherwise. Saints-Lions also has one of the highest over-unders on the Week 1 slate, so Shough is lined up to have to throw the ball plenty. At minimum, it’s worth making sure Johnson isn’t available in your league before considering any other option on this list. ESPN Ownership: 51% Yahoo! Ownership: 69% Dalton Schultz, Houston Texans While you surely weren’t looking, Schultz had 82 receptions for 777 yards and three touchdowns on his way to finishing as the TE10 in full-point PPR last season. He has also topped 50 catches with at least 85 targets in six straight seasons, with at least 600 yards in four of those campaigns. The loss of wide receiver Jayden Higgins to a torn ACL has opened up targets in the Houston passing game. Freshly acquired wide recever Kayshon Boutte is in line for an opportunity, but Schultz has well-established rapport with C.J. Stroud over three seasons together. That won’t be set aside easily (if at all). If nothing else, the Texans may be in high-scoring game scripts in both Week 1 (Buffalo Bills) and Week 2 (Cincinnati Bengals). So Schultz would then be in line to deliver TE1-range fantasy numbers based sheerly on target volume, with upside if he happened to find the end zone. As Bowers fill-ins go, Schultz is a sneaky great one. ESPN Ownership: 19.5% Yahoo! Ownership: 48% T.J. Hockenson, Minnesota Vikings The circumstances of the Vikings’ offense yielded an awful season for Hockenson in 2025. The arrival of Kyler Murray under center should be great news, since he has able to fuel high-level production (shy of touchdowns) from Trey McBride when he was the Arizona Cardinals’ quarterback. As Murray gets fully comfortable in the Vikings’ offense over the first couple games, albeit behind Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison in the overall pecking order for targets, Hockenson could be a nice safety valve. Hockenson was drafted in a surprising percentage of ESPN leagues, and not nearly as many Yahoo! leagues. Different league hosts may be somewhere in-between, so he makes the list of Bowers pivots. ESPN Ownership: 61% Yahoo! Ownership: 20% Terrance Ferguson, Los Angeles Rams Ferguson is more of a leap of faith than the others on this list. He’s also a short-notice Week 1 Bowers pivot, due to the Rams playing the San Francisco 49ers in Australia Thursday night United States-time. But the analytics (18.6 aDOT last season) drive some real upside potential, and Sean McVay’s history of hyping people in the preseason (Cooper Kupp, Kyren Williams) has born fruit for fantasy managers. This year, it was Ferguson McVay drove the hype train on. “I think the consistency of how he’s shown up in the production and really all phases,” McVay told reporters on August 13. “Whether that’s asking to be used in protection, in the run game or as a pass receiver. He can play all over the formation. I think he’s a lot more comfortable even though I thought he got really comfortable with the amount of snaps that he played as the season went on.” In Week 1, Ferguson is as likely to have a zero or one-catch dud as he is to have five catches for 90 yards and a touchdown. But fantasy managers who will be without Bowers and want to shoot for upside should consider taking the high-risk, high-reward shot here. ESPN Ownership: 28.5% Yahoo! Ownership: 25% The Last Word Ranking these Brock Bowers waiver wire pivots looks like this: Johnson Schultz Mayer Ferguson Hockenson Bowers’ fantasy owners are now going to be scrambling to find someone to replace him. It will be hard to replace him entirely with any of these guys mentioned above, but each of them bring something to the table in the short term. The best-case scenario is Bowers only misses one week and returns for Week 2. More Fantasy Football News - Week 1 Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em - Fantasy Value of Top-1o Jaguars Offense - Rico Dowdle Can Land in New Fantasy Tier in 2026 if One Thing Happens Main Photo Courtesy of Kirby Lee – Imagn Images