Six weeks of fantasy football action are in the books, and most leagues start their playoffs in week fourteen. That means that we are rapidly approaching the halfway point in the fantasy football regular season, and it’s time to [you know what] or get off the pot for some players. If you have a bust on your roster, you probably don’t have the ability to stick around and see what happens, as your window to use them is rapidly closing. Let’s dive into some players rostered in over 50% of Yahoo! leagues that probably deserve to hit the waiver wire.
QUARTERBACKS
Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia (82% rostered)
Hurts has a blood clot, and the Eagles almost immediately put him on season-ending IR. This is a troubling development for the dual-threat quarterback, not for fantasy football, but for his future health.
Bo Nix, Denver (66% rostered)
Bo Nix has the lowest average depth of target ever through six games, and he’s quite literally afraid to throw the ball past the flats. He also has single-digit fantasy points in two straight games, and half of his touchdowns came in week three against the Rams. If you want to hold on one more week, the Cardinals are on the docket; they are third in fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks. But, they just stymied the Rams; do you trust Bo Nix to be better than the reigning MVP?
Justin Herbert, L.A. Chargers (57% rostered)
The Chargers are the worst offense in the NFL, and things aren’t getting any better anytime soon. Herbert is yet to finish inside the top-20 at quarterback, and has four interceptions and two touchdowns in his last three games. He’s on bye next week, and has the Rams, Texans, and Ravens up after that. There isn’t a chance that you feel good about using him until Las Vegas in week fourteen, week one of the fantasy playoffs. Move on from the man they call “Herbo.”
RUNNING BACKS
There are a lot of running backs who pooped the bed this week. Omarion Hampton (92% rostered) & Cam Skattebo (98% rostered) specifically. However, running back is such a disaster right now that I felt the need to carve out this space to tell you to not do anything rash and cut them.
David Montgomery, Houston (86% rostered)
The Texans’ running back was not good before he suffered his groin injury, and those are notoriously difficult to shake. We likely see him in a part-time role sharing with Woody Marks going forward, which makes him an incredibly difficult prospect to hang onto in shallow leagues.
MarShawn Lloyd, Green Bay (85% rostered)
Lloyd is bad, and the NFL has no soul, which means that Josh Jacobs is returning sooner rather than later. You can mercifully move on from him and his one double-digit PPR game in the first six weeks of the season.
Tyler Allgeier, Arizona (68% rostered)
This was supposed to be Allgeier’s time to shine with Jeremiyah Love missing week six. Instead, he carried it 18 times for 38 yards, which brought his season-long yards per carry below 3.0. The Cardinals let Bam Knight eat his lunch to the tune of 17 touches for 98 yards, and with James Conner’s return imminent and Love’s injury likely a short-term prospect, there isn’t much of a reason to hang onto Allgeier unless you want a deep injury stash.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Jaylen Waddle, Denver (96% rostered) & Courtland Sutton (61% rostered)
The Broncos are circling the drain, and you don’t have time to wait around for Waddle in shallow leagues (though the same “he plays Arizona next week” caveat from Bo Nix applies). Waddle has one top-24 week and two top-45 weeks so far this season, and the Broncos don’t mind having a trash offense if it means they keep winning. You don’t have that luxury in a shallow league.
Sutton has one game over 7.6 PPR points, and it took catching a touchdown in week five to get him there. He has 12 targets, five catches, and 43 yards in his last three games combined. There’s zero reason to hang onto him outside of a Rube Goldberg-like series of events that sees Jaylen Waddle get hurt and the Broncos offense suddenly not suck out loud, simultaneously.
Marvin Harrison, Jr., Houston (78% rostered)
Only two wide receivers traded mid-season since 2020 averaged over 50 receiving yards per game in their second destination. So, history isn’t on MHJ’s side. He had three catches for 34 yards in his first game with Houston, so there’s some hope he might carve out a PPR scam role, but maybe trade him to someone else before you have a chance to see if the bottom is going to fall out.
Chris Godwin, Jr., Tampa Bay (63% rostered)
Godwin had eight targets on Sunday, but he turned that into just four catches for 37 yards. He is yet to hit double-digit PPR points in a game, despite getting eight and seven targets in two of his last three games. Once again, like a dad running out for cigarettes, we are dropping our juniors.
Brian Thomas, Jr., Jacksonville (55% rostered)
“BTJ” played fifteen snaps on Sunday and had one target. He currently has two day three wide receivers and a cornerback outproducing him in the wide receiver room. The Jaguars have figured out how to win without utilizing Brian Thomas, Jr., and if you are doing well in your fantasy football league, so have you.
Alec Pierce, Indianapolis (51% rostered)
Alec Pierce is “still weeks away” from playing, according to The Ringer’s Tom Pelissero. You can move on.
TIGHT ENDS
Mark Andrews, Baltimore (75% rostered)
This man has one game above 5.4 PPR points in his last four games, and it was a five-catch, 27-yard, one touchdown effort that got him there. Andrews suffers from serious drop issues and is a volume play on an offense that is looking to increasingly marginalize him after a costly OT fumble in week five. He doesn’t have much upside and is a floor play in fantasy football leagues. That’s not what you want from your tight end.
