Waiver Favors™: 2025 Week 3 Fantasy Football Pickups
By Ha Kung Wong Week 3 Fantasy Football Pickups
Twitter: @FBGarbageTime
As I do every year over the last 13 years, I’m here to help with waiver wire adds via my weekly Waiver Favors™ article! And I’m assuming if you’re reader right now, you’re in your fantasy football playoffs, so congratulations!I’ll make a couple suggestions for after Week 3 of the 2025 fantasy football season that hopefully will keep your team running. You’re welcome. Again.
As usual, all pickups are available in at least 50% of Yahoo standard fantasy football leagues (with some minor exceptions) as of Sunday evening.
Trey Benson
RB – Arizona Cardinals – 52% Owned
Run, don’t walk, to make your waiver claim on Trey Benson. With James Conner out for the remainder of the season, Benson is the man in the Arizona backfield. Benson rushed 10 times for 42 yards and caught 3 of 4 targets for 9 yards in relief in Week 3, but his upside is immense. Emari Demercado probably will get some touches as well, so feel free to grab him if you miss on Benson, but otherwise, pick up Benson in all leagues of every configuration.
| Rush | Rush | Rush | Rush | Rece | Rece | Rece | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | G | Att | Yds | TD | Y/G | Tgt | Rec | Yds |
| 2024 | ARI | 13 | 63 | 291 | 1 | 22.4 | 6 | 6 | 59 |
| 2025 | ARI | 3 | 21 | 125 | 0 | 41.7 | 11 | 8 | 45 |
| 2 Yr | 2 Yr | 16 | 84 | 416 | 1 | 26.0 | 17 | 14 | 104 |
| 17 G | 17 G | 17 | 89 | 442 | 1 | 26.0 | 18 | 15 | 111 |
Luther Burden III
WR – Chicago Bears – 11% Owned
The Bears drafted Luther Burden in the second round for a reason, and we all thought it would be complementary to DJ Moore and Rome Odunze. Well, that’s exactly what we saw in Weeks 1 and 2, but his snap share was pretty limited, being relegated to mostly special teams. Week 3 was not that different, as he only played 17 snaps (only half of the snaps played by Olamide Zaccheaus), but he made the most of it catching all 3 targets for 101 yards and a TD. Sure, there’s definitely a huge “boom-or-bust” warning that goes with this pickup, but Colston Loveland had a hip injury that kept him out of most of the game, which may lead to increased on field presence. He’s a worthy bench stash in most 12-team leagues or deeper to see how this develops in Week 4.
Tre Tucker
WR – Las Vegas Raiders – 4% Owned
Take this with a huge grain of salt, but there’s certainly targets to be had in Las Vegas, and it looks like Tre Tucker may finally be getting his due in his 3rd season. In Week 3, he managed to catch 8 of 9 targets for 145 yards and a whopping 3 TDs, which clearly was a career-best for him. He’s only had 11 total targets in Weeks 1 and 2, but the trend is good and Geno Smith seems to like targeting him near the redzone, so he’s worth your consideration as a WR4/5/Flex in 12-team leagues or deeper.
Tory Horton
WR – Seattle Seahawks – 2% Owned
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is the clear alpha in Seattle, but with the rest wide open, Tory Horton may be worth a look. He caught 3 of 4 targets for 32 yards and a TD in Week 3 after catching 2 of 4 targets in Week 2 for exactly the same stat line. The upside comes from his 3 punt returns in Week 3 that amounted to 114 yards and a TD on a 95-yard punt return, the longest in Seattle history. Feel free to stash him in all 12-team leagues or deeper, particularly if your league scores return yards.
Sterling Shepard
WR – Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 0% Owned
With Chris Godwin still out, and Mike Evans leaving in the 4th quarter in Week 3 with a hamstring injury, it was Sterling Shepard who stepped up to complement Emeka Egbuka. Shepard caught 4 of 5 targets for 80 yards, now averaging 5 targets a week. It appears that his relevance may be dependent on injuries to Godwin and Evans, but you could do worse in 14-team leagues or deeper.
Hunter Henry
TE – New England Patriots – 60% Owned
Hunter Henry broke out in a big way in Week 3 catching 8 of of a whopping 11 targets for 90 yards and 2 TDs. Apparently, Drake Maye locked in to Henry alone all afternoon as no other player caught more than 4 passes. Sure, he’s only caught 5 of 11 targets total in his first two games of the season, but there’s certainly very little competition for targets so far in New England, so go ahead and roster him in all 12-team leagues or deeper.
UPDATE for Monday Night Football
Check back for more pickups!
Here’s we liked as pickups in previous weeks:
12-Team Leagues
QB – Daniel Jones, Michael Penix Jr., Aaron Rodgers
RB – Dylan Sampson, Bayshul Tuten
WR – Elic Ayomanor, Hollywood Brown, Kayshon Boutte, Cedric Tillman
TE – Harold Fannin, Juwan Johnson
14-Team Leagues
QB – Mac Jones
WR – Troy Franklin
WR – Calvin Austin III, Wan’Dale Robinson
16-Team Leagues
QB – Jake Browning, Spencer Rattler
Check back every week for more Waiver Favors!