The fantasy football regular season is in the rearview mirror, and it’s time to put all your mental health into the next three weeks! With fourteen weeks in the books, it’s time to cut dead weight for your fantasy football playoff push. To make this list, players must be rostered in at least 50% of Yahoo! leagues.
QUARTERBACKS
Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay (93% rostered)
Baker is coming off four-straight games with one passing touchdown per game, with one rushing touchdown in the mix. Because of this, he hasn’t finished inside the top twelve in three weeks. Granted, he is coming off of three bad matchups, but Atlanta, on a short week (eighteenth in fantasy points to quarterbacks), and Carolina (25th in fantasy points to quarterbacks) are next up on the schedule. This one is iffy in ten-team and deeper leagues, however, as the Falcons have given up multiple touchdowns to quarterbacks in three of their last four games.
Jayden Daniels, Washington (79% rostered)
Jayden Daniels dislocated his elbow several weeks ago. This week, he returned to a lost season, and partway through the third quarter, he landed on his previously dislocated elbow. Dan Quinn said he decided not to let Daniels return. Check the news to see if they’re holding him out for the rest of the year. They should, but they should have put him on ice for the season already.
Daniel Jones, Indianapolis (78% rostered)
Daniel Jones ruptured his Achilles tendon and will miss the rest of the season.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Emeka Egbuka, Tampa Bay (98% rostered)
Egbuka hit the rookie wall, and it coincided with Baker hitting the wall, as well. He hasn’t finished as a starting wide receiver since week ten, and that is the only time that he has finished inside the top-30 at receiver since week six against San Francisco. Egbuka is getting the targets (8+ in seven-straight games), but he just isn’t converting them. This is the shallowest of league drops, but a drop nonetheless.
D.J. Moore, Chicago (84% rostered)
Moore finished week fourteen with three targets, one catch, and -4 yards. This marks the fourth time in the last five games that Moore failed to pass 5 PPR points, with a blowup game against the second-best matchup (Pittsburgh) thrown in there to boost his per-game average. The 64 yards in that game account for 67% of his yards in the last five weeks.
Romeo Doubs, Green Bay (76% rostered)
Christian Watson returned to action in week eight, and since that time, Doubs has just two double-digit PPR games, and those are the only two games where he’s finished inside the top-36 at the position, as well. The Packers received more depth in their receiver corps, with Jayden Reed returning this week, as well. Doubs is getting crowded out, and finished week fourteen with zero catches on just two targets.
Darnell Mooney, Atlanta (61% rostered)
Mooney finished week fourteen with just four targets, one catch, and six yards. This is his sixth time in his last seven games finishing with under 35 yards, and his third-straight contest with five or fewer targets. The Buccaneers are a good matchup, so if you are desperate, you can hang onto him, but I doubt you’re starting Darnell Mooney of all folks in the first round of your fantasy playoffs.
RUNNING BACKS
Isiah Pacheco, Kansas City (67% rostered)
The Chiefs split the first and second down role between Pacheco and Hunt, and Hunt handles all the goal-line carries. With Pacheco nursing multiple lower-body injuries, he doesn’t have the explosiveness to justify carrying him around on your fantasy team in a between-the-20s role.
Rachaad White, Tampa Bay (57% rostered)
What is it you say… You do, exactly? With Bucky Irving returning and Sean Tucker horning in on the goal line, White is down to part-time usage. He has 13 carries and five targets in the last two games, making him nigh on useless without a Bucky Irving injury.
Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Washington (53% rostered)
The JCM dream is dead, as he has just 20 touches in his last three games combined.
TIGHT ENDS
Zach Ertz, Washington (71% rostered)
Ertz tore his ACL and is out for the season; given his age, that could be the end of his career, too.
Sam LaPorta, Detroit (61% rostered)
This number likely belongs to the people who quit on the season after the Lions declared him out for the year.
Oronde Gadsden, L.A. Chargers (68% rostered)
Gadsden will always have weeks six through nine, but he has single-digit yards in three straight games before Monday Night Football’s effort. He’s a blob tight end, and you can move on from him to go get Harold Fannin, for example.
