Should I Drop David Johnson?

Hey, I get it: We invested a first-round pick into a known fantasy stud. It’s hard to consider dropping David Johnson for some waiver wire hotness. I grabbed him in a few high profile leagues, so I feel your pain. I, too, tune into to Cardinals games week after week and peacefully move my TV out my living room window. But the playoffs are here, and David Johnson owners need to shake out of their first-round fantasies. It’s time to move David Johnson and stock up on waiver wire gold.

No one would have dreamed of dropping David Johnson week 6, when he scored 25 points, his fifth of six weeks with over 15 fantasy points. But ever since then he’s been a fantasy starter land mine. He followed that performance up with five straight weeks with absolutely no production, many of those weeks saw him active but just not on the field. Something is wrong with Johnson, his injury history appears to have caught up with him. We can now be certain that the Cardinals are resting him for next year.

This was made crystal this week: After having a bye to rest, Johnson only got 4 carries, doing nothing with them. We don’t have to be a New England Patriot spy to see coach Kliff Kingsbury’s blueprint. The Cardinals are out of the playoffs but have a great new starting quarterback and an all-world (when healthy) RB. Not only that, but they are paying David Johnson over TEN million dollars in 2020, and they don’t want him collecting those checks in street clothes on the bench.

This makes him a solid dynasty hold, but in redraft leagues, you’ve got to drop David Johnson for an RB gamble that could win you the title this year. Here are guys much more likely to be this year’s version of late 2018’s Damien Williams:

• Benny Snell, Jr: 34% owned in Yahoo! leagues. He got 21 carries last week and Pittsburgh’s offense can only get better
• Raheem Mostert: 13% owned. He turned 19 carries into 25 points on a mediocre outing for the 49ers’ offense:
• Derrius Guice: 50% owned. Last week he showed why he has been hyped so much: 129 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns

If you have been hanging on to David Johnson, drop him immediately and go stash one of those guys. Check out our week 14 RB sleepers articles later in the week for even more solid options at running back.

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[Photo Credit: https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:David_Johnson_2018.png under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en]