We’re entering the eye of the storm for the byenado, as the NFL wants to put 12 teams on bye in the two weeks surrounding Thanksgiving and, of course, no teams on bye on Thanksgiving weekend. After all, there are ratings to consider! With that in mind, we likely ended up with some folks that embarrassingly ended up on our roster to cover the bye week. We can quietly drop them back to the waiver wire, but what if you need to bolster your team? Let’s look at players rostered in at least half of leagues to figure out who we can drop back to the waiver wire. Let’s dive in!
Quarterbacks
Jordan Love, Green Bay (95% rostered)
The Green Bay Packers had themselves quite the day, and a lot of that was despite Jordan Love, not because of him. The 49ers’ defensive backups proved why they normally aren’t starters, letting three picks clang off their hands. He finished with just 163 yards and 2 scores, as Josh Jacobs led the way. He’s still in the middle of a terrible stretch of games, with #30 and #27 Miami and Detroit on the docket, respectively.
Jared Goff, Detroit (90% rostered)
Jared Goff and the Lions are cruising right now, behind their rushing game and defense. While Goff had 400 passing yards and 4 touchdowns in week 11 against the Jags, he took a backseat this week in Indy. Goff finished with under 11 fantasy points on 269 passing yards, and no touchdowns. He has some disastrous matchups coming up, as the entire remaining fantasy schedule ranks inside the bottom ten in fantasy points allowed to opposing quarterbacks.
Anthony Richardson, Indianapolis (64% rostered)
Richardson was supposed to take advantage of this matchup, after all, the Lions are a team that you can throw on, and a team that quarterbacks can run on. Unfortunately, those two things did not come out to mean a great fantasy output. He gets the Patriots next week, who just gave up four touchdowns to Tua, but who rank 22nd in fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks. This is purely if you have a better option that you picked up in his spread of terrible games and benching that you want to start next week. After that, it’s the bye week and then the blender-inducing defense of the Denver Broncos.
Wide Receivers
Christian Watson, Green Bay (60% rostered)
Watson let a long touchdown clang off of his hands. Even if that completion had come through, however, the Green Bay receiver still would have ended up only around 14 PPR points. That’s a nice day, but one betrayed by the boom-bust nature of trusting Christian Watson.
Tyler Lockett, Seattle (58% rostered)
There isn’t enough passing to go around to support Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Since JSN fully emerged after the bye week, Lockett is the odd man out. He has 6 targets, 4 catches, and 39 yards combined in those games; those numbers in one game are unacceptable.
Diontae Johnson, Baltimore (56% rostered)
He just doesn’t play anymore. He had 33 snaps in his first three games as a Raven, and I wrote this before the game on Monday. I knew in my soul that he wouldn’t play significant snaps in his fourth game as a Raven, he just isn’t there to do anything right now.
Update: he played six snaps. Yowza.
Running Backs
Javonte Williams, Denver (86% rostered)
Javonte finished with 8 carries for -2 yards, and caught two passes for six yards on Sunday. This week, Jaleel McLaughlin led the way in the backfield. That marks the third time in three games that a different running back led the Denver backfield in touches. If you’re in a shallow league, then you don’t have any sort of time for that. Especially since he gets the tough Cleveland defense, and the bye, in the next two weeks.
Raheem Mostert, Miami (65% rostered)
If you’re holding out hope that Mostert will return to his 20+ touchdown form from last season, you can let go of said hope. He has eight touches for 34 yards in his last three games, combined. The Dolphins fully turned it over to De’Von Achane as their RB1, and they aren’t looking back.
Two-For-One
Jordan Mason, San Francisco (55% rostered)
Zach Charbonnet, Seattle (52% rostered)
This NFC West combo meal has been relegated to a change of pace, pure handcuff running backs. Mason has 7 touches in his last three games, and Charbonnet has 16. They don’t get enough volume and are pure handcuff guys at this point. Unless you have the guys starting ahead of them (Christian McCaffrey & Kenneth Walker), then you can move on.
Tight Ends
Congratulations to the Tight Ends this week! Nobody was bad enough to merit inclusion on this list. Take a knee, get a drink of water. You’re all under the microscope again next week.
