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 8 fantasy football cut list?
Quarterbacks: Justin Fields, QB, New York Jets
Rostered: 76%
This was supposed to be the year. Justin Fields more than proved himself capable of being an NFL starting quarterback during his stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers last season. On a New York Jets team with 36-year-old Tyrod Taylor as the backup, Fields finally had job security. There was no way he could be so bad that the Jets would be inclined to go to Taylor. They know Taylor is not the future. Yet, here we are.
Fields got benched at halftime of what would be the Jets’ seventh consecutive loss to open the season. Prior to his removal, Fields threw for 46 yards and ran for 22. He didn’t turn the ball over, which he never does. But he continued to offer the team nothing.
Now that Fields is no longer a starting quarterback, you can’t justify continuing to roster him. Perhaps he gets the job back at some point. Even if he does, the floor he displayed against the Denver Broncos in Week 6 is scary low. It will be very difficult to trust him ever again.
Trevor Lawrence, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars
Rostered: 52%
The more opportunities Trevor Lawrence gets to play in standalone games, the more people will realize there’s no way he should be starting for an NFL team next season.
Lawrence cannot read a defense. He can’t move beyond his first read. He processes the game very slowly. It’s astounding that he’s gotten this long of a leash.
Over the past three weeks, Lawrence has managed to scam his way to solid fantasy numbers. He’s hit 17+ fantasy points in four of his seven starts this season.
The Jaguars have one of the more difficult remaining schedules for quarterbacks, though. Their bye week is upon us. And Lawrence simply lacks the upside to be anything more than a weekly streamer.
If you find yourself in a bind later in the season and Lawrence has a favorable matchup, spot start him. But he does not need a weekly roster spot.
Running Backs: TreVeyon Henderson, RB, New England Patriots
Rostered: 90%
I waited as long as I possibly could. It’s time.
It’s not uncommon for rookies to start slowly and see their playing time and production increase as the season wears on. They gain experience. They get better. With TreVeyon Henderson, it’s been the opposite.
Henderson saw 11 opportunities in Week 1, including six targets. He caught all of them. It was frustrating that Henderson only played 35% of the snaps, but it was the first game for a rookie. Surely he would only earn a larger role as the season progressed.
Of course, that didn’t happen. In fact, we saw Antonio Gibson carve out a larger role. But then Gibson tore his ACL, consolidating this backfield between Rhamondre Stevenson and Henderson. Surely, it would be something like a 60-40 split with Henderson as the satellite back…nope.
In the two games since Gibson went down, Henderson has seen his two lowest snap shares of the season. He was at 30% two weeks ago. That fell to a mere 14% last week. He played one more snap than Terrell Jennings. I have no idea who Terrell Jennings is.
At this point, I am not convinced that Henderson is even the handcuff to Stevenson. We have no idea what is going on behind the scenes, but the only conclusion we can draw is that Henderson is not impressing at meetings or in practice.
The rookie has a mere two games of double digit fantasy points on the season. He’s scored 4.7, 4.6, and 0.5 in each of his last three. There is no longer a compelling case to keep him on rosters.
Trey Benson, RB, Arizona Cardinals
Rostered: 56%
It appears many fantasy managers have already moved on. This isn’t a situation where you absolutely have to drop Trey Benson — he’s on IR — we know the deal. Benson will miss another 2-4 weeks. When he returns, he will almost certainly reclaim the feature back role. Can you afford to hold him?
If Benson isn’t costing you a roster spot, then there’s no reason to drop him. Don’t drop any player if their remaining on your roster isn’t restricting you in any way.
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This is for those managers who need the spot. Benson will have value when he returns, but that is likely going to be on the longer end of the projected timeline.
When he does get back on the field, it will be as the lead back on a bad team. His upside isn’t so significant that you can’t afford to let someone else have him. If you need the spot, don’t feel compelled to hold Benson.
Joe Mixon, RB, Houston Texans
Rostered: 47%
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 gotten any concrete updates on Mixon’s timeline to return, so every bit of news we have gotten 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.
Bhayshul Tuten, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars
Rostered: 40%
Whenever you draft rookies, you have to be prepared to be patient, especially early in the season. It’s unrealistic to expect every rookie to burst out of the gate with instant fantasy value.
That was the case for Bhayshul Tuten, who was always going to open the season behind Travis Etienne Jr. and Tank Bigsby. But Bigsby was traded to the Eagles weeks ago, and it’s now been six weeks of this being mostly a two-man backfield. Yet, Tuten hasn’t made any sort of move on Etienne’s lead-back status.
Two weeks ago, Etienne played 60% of the snaps and touched the ball 16 times. Tuten had five opportunities, matching his total from each of the past two weeks. He isn’t even the clear RB2, as LeQuint Allen operates as the passing-down back. He out-snapped Tuten 18-11.
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Last week, even in a game that was never even remotely competitive, Tuten’s snap share wasn’t any better at just 28%.
If Etienne were to go down, Allen’s role would remain unchanged, though. Tuten is the handcuff and would be the primary back in that scenario. However, the theory behind drafting Tuten was that there was a path to him seeing fantasy-relevant work without an injury to Etienne.
At this point in the season, it’s safe to say that is no longer the case. Tuten needs an injury. He is officially a pure handcuff, and pure handcuffs only need to be rostered to the extent there isn’t a superior option.
Kendre Miller, RB, New Orleans Saints
Rostered: 27%
The first two years of Kendre Miller’s career did not go as he hoped. This was largely due to his inability to stay on the field. Miller missed more games than he played in 2023 and 2024.
This year, Miller finally has been healthy, and he’s been pushing Alvin Kamara for more carries. Unfortunately, his run of good health appears to have come to an end.
Miller left last week’s game with a knee injury that the team is describing as “concerning.” It sounds as if it is going to require a lengthy absence, if not the rest of the season.
Miller’s value was mostly as a handcuff to Kamara anyway. If he’s going to miss even a couple of weeks, he is not worth burning a roster spot.
Wide Receivers: Jerry Jeudy, WR, Cleveland Browns
Rostered: 77%
Jerry Jeudy was a popular bust candidate heading into this season. I certainly won’t be taking a victory lap on 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. It’s not just that Jeudy isn’t producing, he’s not even earning targets.
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Jeudy saw a mere four targets in the Browns’ demolition of the Miami Dolphins last week. It marked the third time in his last five games that he saw five targets or fewer. While he did see 13 targets two 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.
Keon Coleman, WR, Buffalo Bills
Rostered: 57%
The Buffalo Bills were on bye last week. So, perhaps you forgot about Keon Coleman. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
The last time we saw him was another dismal effort from the sophomore. Coleman caught three passes for 11 yards, so he’s now failed to score more than 7.5 points in four of his last five games. If not for a fluke touchdown two weeks ago, it would’ve been five straight. Even with injuries to Dalton Kincaid, Curtis Samuel, and Joshua Palmer, he couldn’t get going.
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.
Brandon Aiyuk, WR, San Francisco 49ers
Rostered: 41%
The fantasy regular season is now at its midpoint after. Yet, we are no closer to a Brandon Aiyuk return than we were back in August. The best update we have is that head coach Kyle Shanahan expects to have a more concrete timeline “soon.”
You figure that even when the announcement of Aiyuk’s return comes, we’re still at least three weeks away from him playing football beyond that. So maybe in the best-case scenario, we get him back in Week 11.
There will be a ramp-up process and heavy target competition with Ricky Pearsall, George Kittle, Jauan Jennings, Christian McCaffrey, and, apparently, Kendrick Bourne. Maybe you’re compelled to use Aiyuk in Week 12. But, again, these dates really are ambitious.
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The San Francisco 49ers have a Week 14 bye. How worth it is it to hold Aiyuk for the potential to use him for a week or two in the fantasy regular season? Then, if he doesn’t quite look like himself, which it’s unlikely he will, are you trusting him in the first round of the playoffs?
All of this is to say the scenario in which Aiyuk contributes anything meaningful this season gets less likely by the week. If you need the roster spot, feel free to move on.
