It’s week six, and we need to start shaking up our rosters. We can’t keep staring at guys on your bench, whose promise is long gone, or who just won’t cut it into your starting roster. It’s time to rip off some Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages with your fantasy football roster to expose the festering wound underneath. Only then can we excise the dead weight from our teams and retool for glory. To make this list, a player must be on rosters in at least 50% of Yahoo! fantasy leagues.
QUARTERBACKS
Jared Goff, Detroit (90% rostered)
The Lions lean into trick plays (two David Montgomery touchdown pass attempts in two weeks) and play bully ball with David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, leaving Goff with little left to do. Goff has one top-12 finish all year, and his “good” weeks hover in QB15 purgatory.
Kyler Murray, Arizona (81% rostered)
Kyler missed week six with a football injury, but this isn’t about that. He hasn’t cracked the top fifteen once this season, and he’s reaching the tricky part of the schedule if you’re hanging onto him for upside. He has Green Bay and his bye in the next two weeks, so you’re not starting him in either week. He plays Dallas in three weeks, but if you have to win now, then three weeks from now might be too late.
Justin Fields, N.Y. Jets (83% rostered)
This is the kind of boom-bust play that breaks fantasy rosters, as he’s put up 29.5, 27.1, and 26 fantasy points against defenses in the top five in fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks (PIT, MIA, DAL). In his other two games (Buffalo and Denver), he’s mustered a soul-crushing 3.98 and 4.90 fantasy points. He gets Carolina, and their 24th-ranked matchup this week means another week where you don’t want to start him.
Joe Burrow, Cincinnati (61% rostered)
He’s not coming back. It’s never been more Joever.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Jakobi Meyers, Las Vegas (92% rostered)
The vibes in Las Vegas have never been more rancid, as Geno Smith came just short of saying that he should walk into the ocean after the week six games. Meyers is struggling because of this. He has 21 targets and 15 catches in the last four games, for just 41 yards per game, with under 40 yards in three straight. He gets the Chiefs, his bye, Jacksonville and Denver up next, all bad matchups except Jacksonville. You can get rid of the “solid floor” Meyers if you need to get some boom on your bench.
Calvin Ridley, Tennessee (87% rostered)
Ridley had one target, one catch, and 18 yards this week before leaving with what appears to be a multi-week hamstring injury (he couldn’t even run on it to test it). If he misses the next couple of games, then he dives right into the teeth of bad matchups: Jacksonville and Cleveland, who are both bad matchups for wide receivers. Before this week, he had one game over 8.7 PPR points this year (in week five). Before that, his high was three catches for five yards in week two. Ridley was always on my bust list, so that’s not surprising. But this next one sure hurts:
Travis Hunter, Jacksonville (73% rostered)
The highlight-reel talent hasn’t translated to fantasy value. In six games, he has zero double-digit PPR weeks as he can’t get on the field enough to get a ton of value, and when he does play, it’s all short-area targets. He has an 8.9 aDOT, which does not bode well for his future, as his game is predicated on his big-play ball skills. I’d love to hang onto Hunter, but he’s not developing like we hoped he would for fantasy football this year.
RUNNING BACKS
Isiah Pacheco, Kansas City (82% rostered)
Pacheco had his best rushing game of the season in week six: twelve carries for 51 yards. He’s splitting with Kareem Hunt, and he isn’t getting the goal-line carries, so I am not quite sure what we are doing here. Pacheco has now put up under nine PPR points in five of six games this season. Unfortunately, if you took him as your RB2, you might have blown a hole in your roster.
RJ Harvey, Denver (81% rostered)
Drafting RJ Harvey wasn’t your fault. The fantasy football cognoscenti pointed directly at Harvey and screamed, “ALVIN KAMARA,” over and over until you took him. Unfortunately, that hasn’t translated into fantasy football production. Harvey has just one game over seven touches in six weeks, which turned into his only fantasy football outing over 10 PPR points. J.K. Dobbins has the backfield locked down, and Harvey is just an injury handcuff at this point.
Hassan Haskins, L.A. Chargers (51% rostered)
Kimani Vidal just buried him, as Vidal ran 18 times for 124 yards, added three receptions, and found the end zone as Vidal and Haskins took over for injured rookie running back Omarion Hampton. Haskins managed just six carries for 14 yards, in contrast. This is doing you a favor to move him off your roster.
Tyrone Tracy Jr., N.Y. Giants (50% rostered)
Like Haskins, Tracy has no role on this team after carrying the ball four times for six yards. Rookie running back/psychopath Cam Skattebo obliterated Tracy’s usage, outsnapping Tracy 49-21 and out-touching Tracy 21-4.
TIGHT ENDS
No one this week had a performance that made me want to drop them, but I am keeping my eye on a couple of AFC North veterans.
David Njoku (88% rostered) gutted through injury in week six, but Dillon Gabriel keeps feeding the tight end position (Harold Fannin finished with a 7/10/81 line).
Mark Andrews (85% rostered) has six or more targets in three of the last four games and back-to-back double-digit fantasy point games with Lamar Jackson. The struggles in his last two games came with Cooper Rush, but with a sustainable target load for fantasy football. The load should remain, but Cooper Rush will be gone once the bye week clears out.
