Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Debate: Tyrone Tracy Jr. vs. Dylan Sampson

Evaluating who to pick up in fantasy football ahead of week nine, between Cleveland Browns RB Dylan Sampson and New York Giants RB Tyrone Tracy Jr..

Oct 19, 2025; Denver, Colorado, USA; New York Giants running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. (29) reacts after a play during the second half against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High. | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Two injuries to RB1s in week eight of the NFL season are bringing different names back into the fantasy football picture. Cleveland Browns Quinshon Judkins suffered a shoulder injury in week eight, and New York Giants Cam Skattebo dislocated his ankle. With this unfortunate injury news, Browns RB Dylan Sampson becomes a potential fantasy play, and so does Giants RB Tyrone Tracy Jr. Here is a breakdown on who fantasy managers should prioritize in picking up off the waiver wire this week.

Dylan Sampson

Sep 7, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Browns running back Dylan Sampson (22) is chased by Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Barrett Carter (49) and safety Jordan Battle (27) during the second half at Huntington Bank Field. | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Cleveland Browns' other rookie RB Dylan Sampson will see a huge spike in his workload. The lone game where Judkins did not play this season was extremely encouraging for what Sampson can do in fantasy football in a feature role. In week one against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sampson had 12 rushes for 29 yards and eight catches for 64 yards. His passing upside could be huge, with the Browns not being good this season. The majority of their game scripts call for the pass rather than the run because they are often trailing the opposing team.

Another factor that needs to be taken into account in this waiver wire debate is the presence of RB Jerome Ford in the Cleveland Backfield. Ford this season has 21 receptions for 76 yards compared to Sampson having 20 receptions for 133 yards. He also has a similar rush total having 21 carries for 73 yards, and Sampson having 28 carries for 51 yards. An encouraging note in this is that Sampson has had greater volume in the past three weeks than Fordon the ground. He has nine carries compared to Ford just having three. The two do have the same reception total over that span.  

Tyrone Tracy Jr.

Oct 9, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. (29) reacts after a touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles by running back Cam Skattebo (not pictured) during the third quarter at MetLife Stadium. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

A devastating sight on Sunday saw rookie RB for the New York Giants, Cam Skattebo, be carted off the field against the Philadelphia Eagles in the second quarter. With this, the RB1 headed into the 2025 season for the Giants, Tyrone Tracy Jr. will need to step up in a major way for New York. In the game against Philly, he had 10 carries for 39 yards and two receptions for 14 yards. He has yet to show it this year, but Tracy Jr. has great fantasy potential.

Last year in his rookie season for the New York Giants, Tracy Jr. had three games over 100 yards rushing. In this, he also showed that he can be a solid pass catcher. In the 2024 season through 17 games, he had 38 catches. In four of these games, he logged four or more catches.

A major positive that Tracy Jr. has that Sampson’s fantasy outlook is a bit hindered by is that there is no major competition behind him on the depth chart. To start the year, it looked as if seventh year RB Devin Singletary would play a role in the offense, but that now looks like that may not be the case. He has a total of 28 carries for 84 yards on the year. His two highest totals came in weeks four and five, where he garnered a total of six and seven carries. These games followed immediately after Tracy Jr.’s injury in week three against the Chiefs. In his latest game against the Eagles, Singeltary had two rushes for zero yards and one catch for 28 yards. Singletary has not been used in the pass game a notable amount this year. He has just three receptions this season.

Final Verdict

In the debate on who should take priority in adding to the fantasy waiver wires between Tracy Jr. and Sampson, both are great adds, but Tracy Jr. should take priority over Sampson. The main factor is that he has proven that he can put up big fantasy numbers, showing so last season, and the presence of Sampson definitely limits what Sampson’s fantasy ceiling is. Sampson can still put up meaningful numbers, but he will have to do so with Ford getting a notable amount of snaps every game. Also, Skattebo's season ending injury appears to be way more severe than Judkins' injury. This also goes into making Tyrone Tracy Jr. the priority add.