Things went haywire this weekend in the NFL, with high-profile names like Breece Hall, D.K. Metcalf and David Njoku all suffering injuries ranging from “we hope he will be back soon” to “clear out his locker until 2023.” With all that in mind, there’s a lot of shuffling to be done on our fantasy rosters. Let’s take a look at who we need to shuffle off of our fantasy rosters for new blood to help our championship campaigns. To make this list, a player must be on rosters in at least half of fantasy leagues (as measured by Yahoo!). Let’s dive in!
Quarterbacks
Geno Smith, Seattle (76% rostered)
Geno will be without D.K. Metcalf for the foreseeable future, is coming off of back-to-back sub-14 point days, and has a bad schedule coming up. Geno is still taking care of the football, throwing just one pick in the last four games, but he also has just two touchdowns in the last two, his first two games against tough defenses since playing against the 49ers in week two (and scoring just over 6 fantasy points). In the next four weeks, he gets the Giants (outside the top-20 in fantasy points allowed to QB), the Cardinals (who Geno failed against in week six) and the Buccaneers (20th in fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks), and then the bye. The Geno Coaster is about to get really bumpy.
Jared Goff, Detroit (56% rostered)
Jared Goff now has 7.38 fantasy points in the last three weeks combined. He had a bye week last week, so that’s not exactly fair, but averaging fewer than 4 fantasy points over his last two games isn’t exactly fair to his fantasy managers, either. For those who unfortunately held onto Goff through his Bye, they were rewarded with 1.52 fantasy points against the Dallas Cowboys. Granted, the Cowboys allow the seventh-fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks, but this is a whole new floor. You can move on from Goff, especially considering that the Lions’ offense is quickly shaking apart.
Matt Ryan, Indianapolis (53% rostered)
The Colts benched Matt Ryan for Sam Ehlinger and went out of their way to say that it had nothing to do with Matt Ryan’s shoulder injury. This might be it for the old man.
Running Backs
Breece Hall, N.Y. Jets (99% rostered)
Breece Hall tore his ACL, damaged his meniscus, and will miss the remainder of the 2021 season.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Kansas City (94% rostered)
CEH ranked third on the Chiefs in snaps this week and has played over 50% of snaps just once this year. A touchdown saved him in this one, as he turned 7 opportunities into 32 yards and a score. The score saved his week, just like the score saved him in weeks 1, 3, and 4. You probably shouldn’t cut CEH but the end of his relevance is very close. Trade him while you still can.
A.J. Dillon, Green Bay (91% rostered)
A.J. Dillon belongs on all rosters in 12 teams or deeper, but I’m not entirely sure what he’s doing on 10-team rosters at this point. He had 4 carries for 15 yards on Sunday and hasn’t topped 9.5 fantasy points since week one. He’s currently the RB34 in total fantasy points and it doesn’t seem to be getting better anytime soon. You should still stash him in most leagues, but the shallow ones should move on from Dillon.
J.K. Dobbins, Baltimore (70% rostered)
Dobbins underwent an arthroscopic knee procedure and will miss the next 4-6 weeks. That puts him back in early December. If you don’t have IR slots, you might have to move on from Dobbins, who the Ravens were handling with kid gloves, in order to even make your December matter.
Kenyan Drake, Baltimore (61% rostered)
Easy come easy go. The breakout of week six notched 11 carries for 5 yards as he took a backseat to Gus Edwards.
Jeff Wilson Jr., San Francisco (55% rostered)
When everyone on the 49ers is healthy, Wilson is all the way down to RB3 on the roster with Christian McCaffrey and Elijah Mitchell sitting in the #1 and #2 slots. Wilson had just seven carries in a game where McCaffrey was, admittedly, limited due to being brand new to the team.
Wide Receivers
Drake London, Atlanta (83% rostered)
Arthur Smith seems dead set on passing as little as humanly possible, leading to both Drake London and Kyle Pitts eating terrible fantasy days. London last had a double-digit fantasy day on September 25, a full month ago. The Falcons were behind for 58 minutes in this one, and Mariota only threw the ball 13 times. This marks the fourth time in five weeks that he had 20 or fewer pass attempts in a game. This has nothing to do with London, but rather, the Falcons’ offense not passing the ball enough for anyone to matter.
Tight Ends
Kyle Pitts, Atlanta (95% rostered)
Pitts has just 12 targets in his last three games. This has nothing to do with Pitts but more with the team around Pitts. The Falcons simply refuse to pass the ball, and that has led to Pitts passing 25 yards once so far this season. He also has just one touchdown. No targets, no yards, no touchdowns, and no real point in keeping him around in shallow leagues.
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[Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Kyle_Pitts_Falcons_vs_Giants_SEP2021.png, cropped via CC BY SA 2.0]
