The storyline of Week 8 involves injuries—we saw many star players go down due to injury all day today. Le’Veon Bell and Steve Smith, Sr. seem to have gotten the most serious of the injuries, while we are also unsure of the status of Matt Forte, Larry Donnell, Kendall Wright, and Ryan Fitzpatrick, just to name a few. Injuries always hurt our fantasy teams at this point of the season. We are just starting to think about the playoffs, including those last minute reinforcements in the form of trades.

We must still value and keep the waiver wire in mind. Below, I will outline five players that could provide value on the waiver wire this week.

QB Brian Hoyer, Houston Texans

Hoyer, the starter in Cleveland a season ago, had been splitting time at quarterback this season with Ryan Mallett. This past week, Mallett was released from the Texans, clearing the way for Hoyer to be the starter in Houston for the rest of the season. Hoyer’s always had the potential to be a quality starter in the NFL. He has dealt with his fair share of injuries throughout his career, which has limited his effectiveness. Now, it appears as if Hoyer is healthy, and without the constant fear of losing his starting job to Mallett, he should produce the rest of the season. Additionally, he gets to throw the ball to one of the most talented wide receivers in the league, Deandre Hopkins. This week, Hoyer led the Texans to a 20-6 win over the Tennessee Titans. He completed 23 of his 35 passes, totaling 235 yards and two touchdowns.

RB Antonio Andrews, Tennessee Titans

With Bishop Sankey seemingly out of the picture in the Tennessee running game, it appears as if Andrews will be receiving the bulk of the carries for the Titans moving forward this season. A second year back out of Western Kentucky, Andrews is a bulky back, but he has the power and the speed to excel if he receives a steady amount of carries moving forward. This past week, an encouraging sign for potential fantasy owners was the fact that he caught three passes for 18 yards. If Andrews can continue to catch passes out of the backfield, he could be a valuable piece for fantasy owners moving forward. Additionally, the Titans have been without rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota, which could force them to be run-heavy moving forward. They also lost receiver Kendall Wright this week due to injury, so their receiving weapons are becoming more and more limited each week, as well. In the Titans Week 8 loss to the Texans, Andrews rushed for 64 yards on 16 carries, and caught three passes for 18 yards.

RB DeAngelo Williams, Pittsburgh Steelers

Williams, the former starting running back for the Panthers, figures to take the starting role for the Steelers from here on out after the knee injury suffered to star running back Le’Veon Bell this week. Williams has actually excelled at times this season, particularly over the first two weeks of the season while Bell was serving a two-game suspension. In those two games, Williams rushed for a combined 204 yards and three touchdowns. Once Bell returned from the suspension, Williams was safely dropped from all teams. Now, Williams figures to be a must-add. After Bell left the game against Cincinnati this week due to injury, Williams rushed for 71 yards on only nine carries, in addition to catching four passes for 39 yards.

WR Tavon Austin, St. Louis Rams

Now in his third season in the league, the former 8th overall pick is finally starting to make a name for himself in St. Louis this season. Austin, who is quite possibly the fastest player in the NFL, has now recorded at least one touchdown in four of his last six weeks. He is a weapon to not only catch touchdowns as a receiver, but also to rush for touchdowns out of the backfield. This past week, Austin was able to catch a touchdown and run for a touchdown, finishing with four catches on 98 yards, in addition to three carries for 21 yards. Austin and rookie running back Todd Gurley are starting to form quite the dynamic duo for the St. Louis’s offense, which helped blow out the 49ers in Week 8, 27-6. As long as St. Louis continues to win games, Austin will be seeing a lot of the ball.

WR Malcom Floyd, San Diego Chargers

The high-scoring Chargers are now a disappointing 2-6 to start the season. While this record is not necessarily indicative of the quality of football they may be playing, quarterback Philip Rivers is playing at the top of his game, having recorded his fifth consecutive game, in Week 8, in which he threw for over 300 yards. Floyd, the veteran receiver now in his 10th season in the NFL, is one of the benefactors of the play of Rivers. In Sunday’s Week 8 loss to Baltimore, Floyd received the most targets of any Charger wide receiver (6), catching four passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns. His production this year has been very on-and-off, but as Rivers continues to throw the ball as well as he has been throwing it as of late, I expect Floyd’s production to continue to increase.

Image: Austin