Roster management is the single most crucial in-season task for fantasy football managers. Knowing which players to let go is as important as adding the right guys. Which players find themselves on our Week 10 fantasy football cut list?
Quarterbacks: C.J. Stroud, QB, Houston Texans
Rostered: 55%
C.J. Stroud sustained a concussion in the Houston Texans’ Week 9 loss to the Denver Broncos. That’s not the reason to drop Stroud, though. At least not entirely.
The third-year quarterback has a great matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars next week, if he’s available. Although he only posted 12.4 fantasy points against them in their first meeting.
The reality is, Stroud isn’t that good of a fantasy quarterback. He’d been better lately, but still has just two games of 20+ fantasy points and three with 18+ points.
Stroud is a fine streaming option in the right matchup, but he’s not an every-week must-roster player. If he can’t start this week, or you simply don’t need him, drop him.
Joe Burrow, QB, Cincinnati Bengals
Rostered: 55%
It’s déjà vu for the Cincinnati Bengals. The 2025 season is pretty much a redux of the 2024 season. The offense scores a boatload of points. The defense can’t stop anyone. As a result, the Bengals continue to lose games.
Cincinnati is now 1-6 since Joe Burrow went down. They carry a 3-6 record into their bye week. Coming out of the bye, they have a gauntlet to run. Their next five opponents are the Steelers, Patriots, Ravens, Bills, and Ravens again.
The Bengals are not expected to win any of those games. Two more losses essentially end their season. They’re taking at least three. By the time Burrow can return, this team will be mathematically eliminated. He’s not going to play again this season and can be safely dropped.
Running Backs: Chuba Hubbard, RB, Carolina Panthers
Rostered: 88%
To be clear, you do not absolutely have to drop Chuba Hubbard. He remains the clear RB for the Carolina Panthers and would be startable in the event of a Rico Dowdle injury. Dowdle actually left Sunday’s win over the Packers briefly with a leg issue before returning and finishing the game.
MORE: Free Fantasy Start/Sit Optimizer
Hubbard is on the cut list because, right now, he has no fantasy value. The Panthers turned to Dowdle as their lead back. After he was the catalyst behind their upset victory over the Packers, there’s no going back.
Dowdle’s role was essentially the same as it was during the two games Hubbard missed. He played 72% of the snaps, and it would’ve been even higher had he not checked out of the game for a brief period. Hubbard played only 22% and saw five total carries. If there’s someone better on the waiver wire, don’t feel compelled to hold Hubbard.
Joe Mixon, RB, Houston Texans
Rostered: 40%
We’ve reached the point in the season where injuries and bye weeks are starting to take their toll on fantasy rosters. Even though Joe Mixon doesn’t directly cost a roster spot, he may indirectly do so if he occupies an IR spot that another player could use.
If you have a relatively healthy team and open IR spots, by all means, don’t drop Mixon. This is for the fantasy managers who need to make moves, but aren’t quite sure if it’s okay to drop him. It is.
We haven’t received any concrete updates on Mixon’s return timeline, so every piece of news we have received has been pessimistic. The most likely scenario is that he doesn’t play football this year. Do not feel obligated to hold Mixon any longer.
Wide Receivers: Matthew Golden, WR, Green Bay Packers
Rostered: 63%
Not every Round 1 wide receiver can pan out. In every draft class, there will be busts. Sometimes, they are surprising. Other times, they are Matthew Golden.
In one of the most predictable flops in recent memory, Golden just isn’t an NFL-caliber wide receiver. This isn’t revisionist history. I wrote about it in August.
Everything about Golden’s prospect profile screamed bust. Sure enough, here we are more than halfway through the season, and Golden has shown absolutely nothing.
The rookie’s slow start is to be expected. There was a brief period where we thought maybe he might be starting to put it together. It turns out that was just the two worst defenses in the league making him look moderately competent.
Over the past three weeks, Golden has had a total of 10 targets, nine receptions, and 50 yards. Christian Watson’s return provided more competition from a superior talent.
As if that isn’t enough, Golden picked up a shoulder injury in the Packers’ home loss to the Panthers. Golden was on this list last week, but he is still on far too many rosters. Let’s correct that this time around.
Mike Evans, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Rostered: 60%
This was a very sad way for Mike Evans’ 1,000-yard receiving streak to come to an end. With a broken collarbone, Evans will be sidelined for at least two months. While he does have an outside shot of returning before the end of the NFL regular season, he almost certainly will not. Even if he does, we’re talking about Week 17…maybe.
The most likely scenario is that if Evans can get back on the field this season, it will be for the NFL playoffs. It’s unlikely he will contribute anything for fantasy managers this season.
If Evans is sitting on your IR and you don’t have more injured players than IR spots, by all means, hang onto him. It doesn’t cost you anything. But the moment Evans starts costing your roster space, you have to let him go.
Keon Coleman, WR, Buffalo Bills
Rostered: 55%
The Buffalo Bills returned from their bye in Week 8, and it was more of the same from Coleman. He caught three of four targets for 30 yards. He’s now failed to score more than 7.5 points in five of his last six games. If not for a fluke touchdown three weeks ago, it would’ve been five straight.
This past week against the Kansas City Chiefs, in a game where Josh Allen threw for 273 yards, Coleman had two catches for 17 yards.
Coleman had a rough rookie season and has shown no improvement as a sophomore. He cannot separate and thus does not earn targets. His Week 1 explosion was purely a product of the sheer amount of plays the Bills ran in negative game script. There is no upside with Coleman. Drop him.
Jerry Jeudy, WR, Cleveland Browns
Rostered: 57%
Jerry Jeudy was a popular bust candidate heading into this season. I certainly won’t be taking a victory lap for getting this one correct. It wasn’t exactly a bold claim. But I will not profess to have expected anything like what we’re seeing.
The Cleveland Browns don’t exactly have a loaded pass-catching corps. Jeudy isn’t just not producing; he’s not even earning targets.
MORE: Free Fantasy Football Trade Analyzer
Jeudy saw a mere four targets in the Browns’ demolition of the Miami Dolphins three weeks ago. Then, in their last game, he caught zero passes. It marked the fourth time in his last six games that he saw five targets or fewer.
While he did see 13 targets three weeks ago, he only caught five of them for 43 yards. Those 9.3 points represent his second-highest output of the season.
The last time Jeudy hit double-digit fantasy points was back in Week 1. He barely got there with 11.6. Through half the fantasy season, Jeudy has been barely startable once. It’s hard to justify continuing to roster him.
Tight Ends: Tucker Kraft, TE, Green Bay Packers
Rostered: 98%
Perhaps the most devastating news from Week 9 is that Tucker Kraft tore his ACL. This is most unfortunate for the breakout tight end who had been operating as Jordan Love’s No. 1 target in the passing game.
With Kraft’s season over, there’s nothing to do but drop him.
Evan Engram, TE, Denver Broncos
Rostered: 54%
Do you absolutely need to drop Evan Engram? Probably not. But you’ll never feel good about starting him. Engram is liable to flop any given week.
Against the Texans, the Broncos’ tight end played about 50% of the snaps. He’s playing behind Adam Trautman.
Engram saw a mere three targets and didn’t catch any of them. He’s now hit double-digit fantasy points once this season. Tight end is always a challenge in fantasy, but you can do better than Engram.
