It’s week seven, headed into the Byepocalypse, 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 (94% rostered)
Jared Goff has one top-twelve finish this season (when they decided to tug on Ben Johnson’s heart strings), and he is perfectly content handing the ball off to Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery on the goal line. Goff also doesn’t run the ball enough to matter, so he’s mostly a fantasy floor guy. He’s also a part of the byepocalypse, meaning that he won’t help you through the roster crunch this week.
Jordan Love, Green Bay (87% rostered)
Love, like Goff, is more than content to let his defense and running back lead the day, just filling in around the edge. That is, he and Goff are more than content to be the mortar of the team rather than the bricks. Because of this, he is sitting at under 15 fantasy points in three of the last four games. If you have the roster space to hold him this week, you must do it with the eye toward starting him against the Steelers (ninth in fantasy points to quarterbacks). Otherwise, you should move on.
Justin Fields, New York Jets (75% rostered)
Aaron Glenn benched Justin Fields for Tyrod Taylor partway through the Jets’ loss to the Panthers, marking his third game outside the top-25 QB on the week. It’s likely that Taylor starts the next game, and Fields faces an uncertain future.
Kyler Murray, Arizona (73% rostered)
Murray has been out the last two weeks with a foot injury, and Jacoby Brissett has looked like the better quarterback in his stead. Kyler has five starts this season and has zero top-fifteen games so far. There is no reason to hang onto him in ten team leagues, and even twelve-team leagues, if you are grappling with the week eight byenado.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Jerry Jeudy, Cleveland (77% rostered)
Jeudy has under 20 yards in two of his last three games, under 50 yards in five-straight, and managed to turn a whopping 13 targets in week six into five catches for 43 yards in week six. The Gabrielifcation of this offense means that it will be beaucoup tight end targets and as many Quinshon Judkins touches as he can physically handle. That doesn’t leave a lot for Jeudy to do.
Calvin Ridley, Tennesee (77% rostered)
Ridley wasn’t anywhere close to playing this week with a hamstring injury, which means he probably isn’t going to play next week, either. Then the Titans face a tough passing matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Texans sandwiching the bye week. You likely aren’t starting him again until week twelve against Seattle, all in the hopes that he recreates his one game over 9 PPR points so far this season.
Keon Coleman, Buffalo (51% rostered)
Keon Coleman is facing a brutal pass defense stretch (Carolina, Kansas City & Miami, who all rank bottom-ten in fantasy points allowed to opposing wide receivers, and is yet to hit over 10 fantasy points without a touchdown, and has 7.5 or fewer PPR points in four of his last five games.
RUNNING BACKS
Tony Pollard, Tennessee (93% rostered)
Tyjae Spears arrived and turned this into a disgusting time share on the NFL’s worst offense. Move on.
TreVeyon Henderson, New England (89% rostered)
Did you click the link in the Tony Pollard section?
R.J. Harvey, Denver (79% rostered)
The Broncos scored 33 points, R.J. Harvey even scored a touchdown and he finished with 7.2 PPR points this marks the sixth time in seven games that Harvey failed to pass 8 PPR points.
TIGHT ENDS
Darren Waller, Miami (78% rostered)
Waller suffered a pec injury and is considered “week-to-week.” He’s not the type of player you wait around for, and maybe it would be a different story if the vibes in Miami weren’t as rancid as anywhere in the NFL.
