We are through the first round of the fantasy football playoffs, and there’s no room left for sentimentality. There are two rounds left, and that means that it’s time to figure out who can help us in the next two weeks. If they can’t, it’s time to move on. To make this list, a player must be on rosters in at least 50% of leagues. I don’t have to tell you to cut Jordan Mason or Bryce Young, for example. Let’s rock on the penultimate cut list of the season!
Quarterbacks
Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins (97% rostered)
Tua has fewer than 13 fantasy points in three of his last four games and has tough matchups with the Cowboys and Ravens on the horizon. They’ll try to make it work through the running game, or they might air it out, but either way, I can’t feel good about starting him the next couple of weeks. If you’re in a 2QB rotation, then Tua is the odd man out.
Sam Howell, Washington Commanders (77% rostered)
The Commanders benched Howell in week fifteen, and he finished with a smidge over 100 passing yards in about three quarters of play. Unfortunately for Howell rosterers, this was the good matchup remaining, as dates with the Jets (#32 in fantasy points allowed to QBs) and 49ers (28th in points allowed to QBs) are on the horizon.
Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers (57% rostered)
Cursory, as teams probably rage quit when he went out for the year, but… he’s out for the year.
Wide Receivers
Marquise Brown, Arizona Cardinals (83% rostered)
Brown is dealing with a nagging heel injury and left week fifteen with it. It’s possible that we won’t see him again this season. Even if we do, I doubt we want much to do with him in our starting lineups.
George Pickens, Pittsburgh Steelers (80% rostered)
Pickens and the cavalcade of garbage the Steelers have trotted out at quarterback this season haven’t been on the same page in a long time. He has at least 5 targets in 9 straight games, but he has just one game over 9.2 PPR points in the last eight weeks. He hasn’t been anything worth playing in a long time, and he has the Bengals and Seahawks—two okay but not spectacular matchups—on the docket.
Jahan Dotson, Washington Commanders (61% rostered)
Dotson has completely fallen off the map since he had 26 targets throughout three games from weeks 7 through 9. Since then, he has 18 targets in 5 games. He has an unsettled quarterback situation and has a date with the Jets on the horizon.
Christian Kirk, Jacksonville Jaguars (60% rostered)
Kirk is on IR and is out for the rest of the fantasy football season.
Josh Downs, Indianapolis Colts (51% rostered).
Saturday marked the sixth straight game that Downs had single-digit fantasy points, and with three straight games of exactly three targets, we don’t even have his fruitless 13-target effort in week 12 to hang our hats on anymore.
And no, I didn’t forget about Gabe Davis (83% rostered). You probably don’t want to start him (zero fantasy points in four of his last six games), but do you really want to risk him going off in your opponent’s lineup against the “gave up 63 points to the Raiders” Chargers next week?
Running Backs
Antonio Gibson, Washington Commanders (67% rostered)
They straight-up hate this man. There was no Brian Robinson in this game, and Jonathan Williams went out with a concussion. He still finished with 9 touches for 35 yards. I can’t keep doing this, Tony.
Kareem Hunt, Cleveland Browns (59% rostered)
Hunt has 19 touches in the last two games with Joe Flacco under center running the ball as much as humanly possible. There isn’t much left for Hunt as he plays out the string on his second stint in Cleveland.
Dameon Pierce, Houston Texans (58% rostered)
Pierce has 4 carries in the last two weeks. Houston doesn’t want him touching the ball, why would you want him touching your fantasy rosters?
Keaton Mitchell, Baltimore Ravens (56% rostered)
Mitchell suffered a non-contact knee injury on Sunday Night Football and is out for the year.
Tight Ends
Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh Steelers (62% rostered)
The Steelers offense is a mess, and Freiermuth has one game over 7 PPR points since returning from his injury.
