College Fantasy Football Week 4 Transfer & Waiver Wire Targets
It's that time of week for College Fantasy Football Week 4 Transfer & Waiver Wire Targets.
Three weeks into the college football season, we're getting to the point where early-season breakouts are starting to look a lot less like flukes.
And that makes the transfer market a whole lot more interesting.
As always, a quick reminder that CollegeFFB works a little differently than your traditional draft league. We use a salary-cap format, which means everyone has access to the same player pool and you get three free transfers every week to adjust your squad.
So some of the players below are probably already rostered in your draft league. That's okay. We're looking at this primarily through the lens of CollegeFFB transfers, although plenty of the cheaper names double as excellent waiver-wire targets in traditional college fantasy leagues.
We're also getting far enough into the season that price matters more than ever. Sometimes the best transfer isn't simply the player who scores the most points. It's the player who can give you similar production for $3M or $4M less and free up money to upgrade somewhere else.
With that in mind, here are some of our favorite transfer and waiver-wire targets heading into Week 4.
Quarterbacks
Keelon Russell, Alabama
The short version: Keelon Russell is fast.
Like, really fast.
And fast quarterbacks score fantasy points.
Russell gave us the complete package against Florida State, completing 23 of 30 passes for 320 yards and three touchdowns while adding 56 yards and another touchdown on the ground.
That's 376 total yards and four touchdowns against Florida State.
We've known about the arm talent. We've known about the weapons around him. But it's the rushing upside that makes Russell particularly interesting for CollegeFFB.
You don't need him to run for 100 yards every week. If Russell can consistently give you 40-60 yards on the ground with legitimate rushing touchdown upside, that creates an extremely high fantasy ceiling on top of whatever he's doing through the air.
South Carolina is a tougher Week 4 test, but after what we just saw, I'm not particularly worried about the matchup.
CollegeFFB Price: $8.3M
Week 4: vs. South Carolina
Avery Johnson, Kansas State
Oh, there you are.
After a relatively quiet start to the season, Avery Johnson reminded everyone why he's been such an intriguing college fantasy quarterback.
Johnson threw for 227 yards against Tulane.
He also ran for 152 yards and two touchdowns.
That's 379 total yards, with the type of rushing production that can completely change a fantasy matchup.
Kansas State's running backs combined for only 49 rushing yards outside of Johnson. His legs aren't just an occasional bonus when a play breaks down. They're a legitimate part of what Kansas State wants to do offensively.
At $10.6M, Johnson isn't cheap. But we've now been reminded what you're paying for.
A quarterback capable of giving you 200+ yards through the air and another 100+ on the ground can put up a monster fantasy score without even needing a huge passing touchdown day.
Kansas State opens Big 12 play on the road at Cincinnati in Week 4. Cincinnati will be a step up from what Johnson saw against Tulane, but with this rushing ceiling, Johnson doesn't necessarily need an ideal matchup to deliver.
CollegeFFB Price: $10.6M
Week 4: at Cincinnati
Jared Curtis, Vanderbilt
Let's acknowledge the obvious first.
This was an extremely up-and-down performance.
Jared Curtis threw for 277 yards and three touchdowns and added another 64 yards on the ground in his first career start against NC State.
He also threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.
And if it weren't for one of the strangest endings you'll ever see in a college football game, we'd probably be talking about this performance a little differently. Curtis' late interception looked like it had sealed the Vanderbilt loss before CJ Bailey and NC State somehow managed to give the game right back.
So yes, Curtis got bailed out a little bit.
But I'm still buying.
Because underneath all of the freshman chaos, you could see why Curtis was such a highly regarded quarterback prospect. He was leading an impressive Vanderbilt comeback, pushed the ball downfield, and showed legitimate rushing ability.
Curtis produced 341 total yards in his first start and Vanderbilt let him throw 34 times.
There are going to be freshman mistakes. Saturday made that pretty clear.
But at only $5.9M, we're betting on the talent.
A road trip to Auburn isn't exactly the easiest second career start, so there is certainly some Week 4 risk here. But I'm more interested in Curtis as a potential season-long value than I am chasing one specific matchup.
CollegeFFB Price: $5.9M
Week 4: at Auburn
Michael Hawkins Jr., West Virginia
At some point, we have to stop treating Michael Hawkins' rushing production as a nice bonus.
Hawkins completed only 10 passes against Virginia.
Didn't matter.
He threw for 190 yards and two touchdowns, then ran 18 times for 123 yards and three more touchdowns.
Five total touchdowns.
More importantly, this wasn't a one-week rushing explosion. Hawkins has now rushed for 103, 96 and 123 yards through his first three games.
He's basically giving you RB1 rushing production from your quarterback spot before we even count anything he does through the air.
That's an absurd fantasy profile.
Now he gets Oklahoma State at home. As long as Hawkins continues getting this type of designed rushing work, he's going to be extremely difficult to keep out of fantasy lineups.
CollegeFFB Price: $8.3M
Week 4: vs. Oklahoma State
Running Backs
Nolan James Jr., Notre Dame
This might be my favorite transfer target of the entire week.
Nolan James carried the ball 26 times for 121 yards and a touchdown against Michigan State.
Twenty-six carries.
That's the number that really matters here.
Notre Dame has plenty of talent in its running back room, which made it difficult to know exactly how this backfield would shake out coming into the season. But Saturday looked an awful lot like James beginning to separate himself as the lead back.
And if that's actually happening, $5.3M is way too cheap.
James already showed his receiving upside in Week 1 when he caught four passes for 67 yards and a touchdown. Now we've seen Notre Dame hand him a legitimate workhorse rushing workload against a Big Ten opponent.
A $5.3M running back getting 20+ touches in the Notre Dame offense?
Yeah. We're interested.
James should be one of the top CollegeFFB transfer targets of Week 4 and one of the first waiver claims I'd make in a draft league if he's somehow still available.
He'll get another Big Ten opponent this weekend when Notre Dame travels to Purdue. The matchup doesn't change much for me here. We're buying the potential role change more than anything else.
CollegeFFB Price: $5.3M
Week 4: at Purdue
Aiden Flora, Iowa State
Well, that escalated quickly.
Aiden Flora carried the ball just 12 times against Bowling Green.
He ran for 194 yards and two touchdowns.
That's 16.2 yards per carry.
And because apparently that wasn't enough, Flora also returned a punt 66 yards for another touchdown and finished the afternoon with 296 all-purpose yards.
Obviously, we're not expecting 16 yards per carry every Saturday.
But this isn't entirely coming out of nowhere. Flora had 19 carries for 89 yards against Iowa the previous week, and he's now up to 328 rushing yards through three games.
The workload was already moving in the right direction. Saturday showed us what the ceiling can look like when Flora starts breaking big plays.
At $5.7M, he's still priced like a speculative back rather than someone who might be taking control of Iowa State's backfield.
Utah is a much tougher Week 4 test than Bowling Green, so don't transfer Flora in expecting another 194-yard afternoon. We're buying the emerging role at $5.7M, not chasing last week's box score.
CollegeFFB Price: $5.7M
Week 4: vs. Utah
Kendrick Raphael, SMU
If you're playing in a traditional draft league, Kendrick Raphael is probably already taken.
But remember, this is primarily a CollegeFFB transfer article.
And Raphael might be one of the most useful transfers you can make this week.
He absolutely went off against Louisville, carrying the ball 24 times for 197 yards and three touchdowns.
Twenty-four carries against a ranked opponent is exactly what we wanted to see.
But the reason I particularly like Raphael as a CollegeFFB target is roster construction.
Some of the premium running backs we paid up for entering the season haven't quite delivered the way we expected. If you're sitting there with $11M, $12M or $13M tied up at running back and looking for a way out, Raphael gives you an interesting option.
You're not necessarily punting the position.
You're moving into a back who just handled 24 carries and ran for nearly 200 yards, while potentially pocketing several million dollars to use on your other transfers.
Sometimes that's exactly the move you need.
And Missouri State coming to town in Week 4 certainly doesn't hurt.
CollegeFFB Price: $9.4M
Week 4: vs. Missouri State
Duke Watson, UCF
Fourteen carries.
177 yards.
Two touchdowns.
Yeah, that'll work.
Duke Watson averaged an absurd 12.6 yards per carry against Georgia State, helping UCF erase a halftime deficit and pull away for a 44-30 win.
The explosiveness isn't new, either. Watson averaged 8.9 yards per carry as a freshman at Louisville, so we've seen this type of big-play ability before.
The question has always been workload.
Saturday was another strong argument for UCF giving him more of it.
Week 4 is a substantially tougher test with TCU coming to Orlando for the beginning of Big 12 play, so don't blindly chase the Georgia State box score. But at $6.7M, Watson's explosiveness makes him a really intriguing mid-priced option.
CollegeFFB Price: $6.7M
Week 4: vs. TCU
CJ Baxter, Kentucky
CJ Baxter didn't need 150 yards to get our attention Saturday.
He scored twice on the ground as Kentucky went into College Station and knocked off Texas A&M.
That's encouraging for a couple reasons.
First, Kentucky just showed it can move the football against legitimate SEC competition.
Second, Baxter is getting the touches we care about most.
Goal-line work matters. A lot.
If Baxter continues getting opportunities around the end zone, he doesn't necessarily need massive rushing yardage every week to provide useful fantasy production.
And the Week 4 matchup gets considerably easier.
South Alabama comes to Lexington next Saturday, giving Baxter a pretty attractive opportunity to keep the touchdown production going.
CollegeFFB Price: $7.1M
Week 4: vs. South Alabama
Benjamin Hall, North Carolina
Benjamin Hall is a waiver-wire target this week.
He's just not a CollegeFFB transfer target.
Yet.
Hall was one of the biggest bright spots in North Carolina's loss to Clemson, rushing for 135 yards and adding a 15-yard touchdown reception.
Doing that against Clemson immediately gets my attention.
The receiving involvement is particularly useful in CollegeFFB's full-PPR scoring, and at only $5.3M, Hall could eventually become a really useful budget running back.
There's just one problem.
North Carolina is off in Week 4.
So if you're playing in a traditional league and have the bench space, I'd absolutely consider getting ahead of everyone and putting in the waiver claim now.
For CollegeFFB?
Save the transfer.
We'll come back to him next week.
CollegeFFB Price: $5.3M
Week 4: BYE
Wide Receivers
Chris Durr Jr., Maryland
We're officially past sleeper territory.
Chris Durr caught 12 passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns against Virginia Tech.
That's after catching double-digit passes the previous week, making him the first Maryland receiver this century to record consecutive 10-catch games.
Read that again.
Back-to-back games with at least 10 receptions.
In full PPR, that's ridiculous.
This is exactly the type of usage we're looking for because it gives Durr multiple ways to score fantasy points. He doesn't need to catch a 70-yard touchdown to save his week. The reception volume is creating an extremely attractive floor before we even account for yardage and touchdowns.
And somehow he's still only $6.2M.
UCLA is next. With this type of target volume, Durr remains one of my favorite WR values regardless of matchup.
CollegeFFB Price: $6.2M
Week 4: vs. UCLA
Junior Sherrill, Vanderbilt
This one goes hand-in-hand with the Jared Curtis pick.
If we're buying Curtis' arm talent, somebody has to catch the football.
Our bet is Junior Sherrill.
Sherrill led Vanderbilt with 108 receiving yards against NC State in Curtis' first career start.
He's also not some random receiver who happened to pop for one game. Sherrill caught 54 passes for 784 yards and seven touchdowns last season, so we've already seen him produce at this level.
Now Vanderbilt might have substantially upgraded the talent throwing him the football.
There will be some freshman volatility with Curtis, but the upside here is obvious. If Curtis develops the way we think he can, Sherrill could explode down the stretch.
At $6.3M, I'd rather buy that possibility now than after the next 100-yard game.
Auburn makes Week 4 a legitimate test for both Curtis and Sherrill, but I'm viewing this as a longer-term buy rather than purely a one-week play.
CollegeFFB Price: $6.3M
Week 4: at Auburn
Ed Small, TCU
Another week, another TCU receiver making us pay attention.
Ed Small went for a career-high 164 receiving yards and a touchdown against Arkansas State after posting 101 yards the previous week.
That's back-to-back 100-yard games.
The important context here is Jordan Dwyer.
Dwyer's absence has created additional opportunity in the TCU passing game, and Small is taking full advantage of it. Dwyer should be back soon, so I'm not necessarily expecting Small to maintain this exact level of volume all season.
But at $5.1M?
I don't really need him to.
He's worth grabbing in draft leagues right now, and in CollegeFFB he makes for a really nice Flex or bench option while Dwyer works his way back and gets up to full speed.
CollegeFFB Price: $5.1M
Week 4: at UCF
Chris Dawn Jr., Texas State
Four catches.
107 yards.
Two touchdowns.
Chris Dawn Jr. didn't need much volume to do some serious damage against North Texas.
He averaged nearly 27 yards per reception and caught the first two touchdown passes of the game as Texas State finally got its offense rolling in a 49-35 win.
And unlike some early-season breakout receivers, Dawn already has a track record. He topped 1,000 receiving yards last season.
So we're not asking whether he can produce over a full college football season.
We've already seen it.
The price is the bigger question here. At $10.6M, Dawn is firmly in premium territory, so you're buying him because you believe this Texas State offense is about to take off, not because he's some cheap waiver-wire flier.
The good news? Incarnate Word is next, which gives Dawn a pretty enticing Week 4 matchup.
CollegeFFB Price: $10.6M
Week 4: vs. Incarnate Word
Winston Watkins Jr., LSU
This one could become much more interesting depending on the injury report.
Watkins caught three passes for 54 yards and a touchdown against Ole Miss.
Not a monster box score.
But we saw Tre'Dez Green limp off the field later in the game.
That's important.
If Green has to miss any time, my bet is that Watkins becomes an even bigger part of this LSU passing attack and one of Sam Leavitt's top options.
We've already seen Watkins' ceiling this year. He went for seven catches, 110 yards and a touchdown against Clemson.
At $5.7M, you're not paying for established WR1 production yet.
You're betting that the opportunity might be about to grow substantially.
Keep a close eye on Green's status this week, because Watkins could quickly become one of the better value transfers on the board.
Texas A&M isn't the easiest matchup, but at this price the potential role change is more important to me than the opponent.
CollegeFFB Price: $5.7M
Week 4: vs. Texas A&M
Lotzier Brooks, Alabama
Keelon Russell wasn't the only Alabama player who made us take notice Saturday.
Lotzier Brooks caught eight passes for 101 yards against Florida State, giving him the first 100-yard receiving game of his career.
The eight receptions are what really stand out.
Alabama is always going to have a lot of talented players competing for touches, so seeing Brooks command that type of volume while Russell throws for 320 yards is pretty encouraging.
And that's really the bet here.
If Russell's performance against Florida State was the beginning of this Alabama passing game taking another step forward, Brooks could be one of the biggest beneficiaries.
At $6.9M, that's a bet I'm willing to make.
CollegeFFB Price: $6.9M
Week 4: vs. South Carolina
Sean Wilson, Delaware
I'll be completely honest.
I wasn't paying much attention to the Cock Bowl between the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers and Delaware Blue Hens.
Then my Twitter feed started blowing up with a clip of Sean Wilson coming down with a ridiculous jump ball on a flea flicker for a touchdown.
Okay, you have my attention.
Then he basically did it again later.
Wilson finished with nine catches for 185 yards and two touchdowns, with Nick Minicucci throwing for 302 yards.
And this isn't just chasing two cool highlights.
Wilson caught 68 passes for 877 yards as a freshman last season. Minicucci is one of the better quarterbacks in Conference USA, and Wilson looks pretty clearly like the No. 1 receiver in the conference.
Week 4 is going to be difficult. Delaware travels to Virginia, so I wouldn't necessarily expect another 185-yard explosion.
But over the rest of the season?
I think Wilson could quietly become a really good college fantasy asset.
CollegeFFB Price: $9.9M
Week 4: at Virginia
Tight Ends
Patrick Overmyer, Houston
Ten targets.
For a tight end.
That's basically enough for me.
Patrick Overmyer caught eight passes for 72 yards and a touchdown against Texas Tech and now has 16 catches for 172 yards and two touchdowns through three games.
That's legitimate receiving involvement.
The touchdown wasn't meaningless garbage-time production, either. Overmyer scored with 49 seconds remaining to bring Houston within two points of Texas Tech.
At a position where we're often begging for four targets and praying for a touchdown, I'll happily take this type of volume.
Houston steps out of Big 12 play and travels to Georgia Southern in Week 4. After Overmyer just commanded 10 targets against Texas Tech, I certainly don't see a reason to shy away from this matchup.
CollegeFFB Price: $6.6M
Week 4: at Georgia Southern
Kari Ashley, TCU
If you listened last week, hopefully Kari Ashley is already on your team.
If not?
Well, we're going to talk about him again.
After going for 119 yards and two touchdowns against Grambling State, Ashley followed it up with five catches for 87 yards against Arkansas State.
No touchdown required.
That's actually what makes the follow-up performance so encouraging.
Ashley now has 206 receiving yards over the last two weeks. We're not just hoping he catches a random red-zone touchdown every Saturday. He's providing legitimate receiving production from the tight end position.
And he's still only $5.1M.
CollegeFFB Price: $5.1M
Week 4: at UCF
Jeremiah Hasley, Duke
Look.
I have to dig deep every Sunday to bring you multiple college fantasy football tight ends.
It's not always pretty out here.
But Jeremiah Hasley is legitimately one of the more talented options at the position.
Hasley caught five passes for 88 yards against Stanford, continuing a pretty encouraging trend. His receiving yardage has increased every week: 36 yards, then 53, now 88.
The problem isn't Hasley.
The problem is Duke remembering that it's allowed to give the football to somebody not named Nate Sheppard.
Sheppard just ran for 154 yards and scored three total touchdowns against Stanford, so I can't exactly blame them.
Still, Hasley has the talent and he's starting to see enough involvement that he's worth monitoring, especially at a position this thin.
And Week 4 brings William & Mary.
If there were ever a week to let somebody else touch the football, this would be a nice one.
CollegeFFB Price: $5.5M
Week 4: vs. William & Mary
So... How Did Last Week's Picks Do?
We're going to hold ourselves accountable around here.
Some good.
Some bad.
And a few that look even better now than they did a week ago.
Nate Sheppard: Yeah, we'll take that one. Sheppard followed up his monster Week 2 with 154 rushing yards and three total touchdowns against Stanford. He looks every bit like the elite fantasy running back we thought he could be.
Kamario Taylor: Still a fantasy machine. Taylor threw for 251 yards and four touchdowns as Mississippi State erased a 16-point deficit and beat South Carolina. Through three games, he now has 11 passing touchdowns plus another score on the ground.
Luke Reynolds: Another hit. After we highlighted his 8/108/2 breakout last week, Reynolds somehow followed it up with 12 catches for 107 yards and a touchdown against Maryland. Safe to say the volume is real.
Kari Ashley: Didn't find the end zone this time, but five catches for 87 yards is exactly the type of follow-up performance we wanted to see. He's staying on the list.
Not every Week 2 breakout was going to turn into a season-long fantasy star, and that's the game we're playing here. The goal isn't to bat 1.000.
It's to identify the usage changes, emerging roles and breakout performances early enough that you can get these players before everyone else does.
Final Thoughts
Week 4 is where roster construction really starts to matter.
We're not working with the original $100M budget anymore. Your team value has moved. Player prices have moved. And three weeks of actual football have given us a much better idea of which preseason assumptions we got right and which ones we need to throw away.
That's why I particularly like players like Nolan James this week.
At $5.3M, you're potentially getting the emerging lead running back at Notre Dame while freeing up millions of dollars to use somewhere else.
Maybe that's how you get Keelon Russell into your quarterback spot.
Maybe moving down to Kendrick Raphael from one of the premium running backs gives you enough money to upgrade at receiver.
Or maybe you grab someone like Ed Small for $5.1M and suddenly have a lot more flexibility with your other two transfers.
That's the fun part of CollegeFFB.
You get three free transfers every week. You don't need to chase every player who went off Saturday.
Figure out where your team needs help, find the value, and use the extra money where it'll actually make a difference.
And if Nolan James really is Notre Dame's new lead back at $5.3M?
You might want to move quickly on that one.