Each week during the season, I’ll give some insights on players that should/could be available on your league’s waiver wire.

Working the wire week in, week out is what the best owners do to improve their rosters.

To simplify things a bit, I’ll give each player my personal star rating from 1 to 5 as follows:

5 stars – fantasy starter
4 stars – fantasy flex option
3 stars – borderline flex option, questions about consistency
2 stars – bench player with upside
1 star – deep reach/handcuff

Quarterback

2.5 Stars
- Ryan Tannehill (MIA) threw for 431 yards and a touchdown against a pretty stout Cardinals defense. He’s still a rookie though, so temper your expectations moving forward.
- Kevin Kolb (ARZ) gets another bump this week after going over the 300-yard mark and throwing three touchdowns, the last one coming as time expired in regulation that forced overtime and an eventual Cardinals win. He is still no lock to keep this job all season, but he’s on the right track and on much steadier ground with the coaching staff.

2 Stars
- Matt Hasselbeck (TEN) stepped in for an injured Jack Locker on Sunday and produced 193 yards and a pair of scores. He’s a proven veteran with some solid talent around him… you could do worse.

1.5 star
- Tim Tebow (NYJ) is back on the radar after a complete implosion by the Jets offense in week 4. Problem is, the Jets have no real weapons on offense, so regardless of who starts at QB there won’t be a whole lot of points to be had. Looks like the Jets are sticking with Mark Sanchez for now, but if you have a soft spot for Tebow, now would be the time to add him.

Running Back

3 stars
- Brandon Bolden (NE) throws his hat into the ring this week with a monster performance against the Bills to the tune of 148 total yards and a score. As is always the case with the Pats, it’s tough to count on anyone in the backfield, but Bolden is as good a pickup as you’ll find at this point in the season.

2.5 stars
- Rashard Mendenhall (PIT) is expected to be active this week for the Steelers and I’d be very surprised if he isn’t starting. Don’t expect a huge workload out of the gate, but he should get stronger as the year progresses. I’d be surprised if Mendy is still on your wire, but take a peek anyway.

2 stars
- Joique Bell (DET) has emerged as decent PPR option over the last few weeks and has slowly seen his receiving targets increase to a high of eight in week 4. Also looks like he has a stronghold on the backup role to Mikel LeShoure. Detroit is on a bye in week 5, so Bell is likely to hang around on the wire in most leagues this week.
- Jackie Battle (SD) totaled 81 yards and a couple of scores in week 4, so he’ll be rising up the charts in most leagues this week. Hard to see him keeping this up, so I see him more a guy for Mathews owners to make a move on.

1.5 stars
- LeGarrette Blount (TB) hasn’t turned any heads, this mention is more about what Doug Martin is not doing. If Martin continues to be just average, the Bucs may start giving more carries to Blout and we’ve already seen he has the ability to carry the load.

Wide Receiver

4 stars
- Brian Hartline (MIA) caught 12 passes for 253 yards and a score against the Cardinals on Sunday, but you probably already knew that. You may not know he was targeted 19 times in that game, the second game this season he hit double digits in targets. On the downside he’s had two huge games and two where he’s disappeared, but his target totals are hard to ignore.

3.5 stars
- Jerome Simpson (MIN) saw his first action of the season and went a meager 4-for-50. Not great, but he will only get better as he and Christian Ponder get more comfortable with each other.

3 stars
- Andre Roberts (ARI) has taken full advantage of being the “other guy” playing with Larry Fitzgerald and scored four times this season. In week 4 he was targeted 9 times and racked up 6/118/2. He should prove to be a solid flex play for the foreseeable future.
- Domenik Hixon (NYG) had 6/114 on 11 targets in week 4, something that could easily be repeated in week 5 with Hakeem Nicks status very uncertain.

2.5 stars
- TY Hilton (IND) is back from bye and could prove to be a decent add for this week with a matchup against the porous Green Bay defense.
- James Jones (GB) is another worth looking at in the short term with Greg Jennings not expected to play in week 5.

Tight End

2.5 stars
- Scott Chandler (BUF) was able to find the end zone twice in week 4 on eight targets. He’s getting about 6 looks per game, so he’s worth a shot if you are desperate.
- Fred Davis (WAS) has gone over 70 yards the last two weeks and has 11 catches in that span. The bad news is that he hasn’t scored yet this season, so skip Davis if you are in a TD-heavy league.