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 9 fantasy football cut list?
Quarterbacks: Trevor Lawrence, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars
Rostered: 42%
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 his past three games, 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. 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: Cam Skattebo, RB, New York Giants
Rostered: 96%
This was a most unfortunate ending to a superb first half of a rookie season. Cam Skattebo still posted his seventh consecutive game of double-digit fantasy points before dislocating his ankle.
It was a scary sight with the New York Giants RB1’s ankle pointing in the wrong direction. He is done for the season and can be safely dropped.
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Joe Mixon, RB, Houston Texans
Rostered: 42%
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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Two weeks ago, 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.
Wide Receivers: Mike Evans, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Rostered: 65%
This was a very sad way for Mike Evans’ 1,000-yard receiving streak to end. With a broken collarbone, Evans will be sidelined for at least two months. While he does have an outside shot to return 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 contributes 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 you roster space, you have to let him go.
Keon Coleman, WR, Buffalo Bills
Rostered: 61%
Amazingly, Keon Coleman’s roster percentage actually increased from last week. It probably had a lot to do with the rash of injuries across the wide receiver position during Byemageddon.
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.
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: 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. Jeudy isn’t just not producing; he’s not even earning targets.
Jeudy saw a mere four targets in the Browns’ demolition of the Miami Dolphins two weeks ago. Then, this past week, 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.
Matthew Golden, WR, Green Bay Packers
Rostered: 76%
Matthew Golden entered the NFL with a very suspect production profile. He had a lot of makings of a bust. In fact, I did a deep dive into why fantasy managers should be highly skeptical of Golden.
Through half of his rookie season, Golden has been pretty unspectacular. He has a game with zero receptions. On Sunday night, he caught three passes for four yards.
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The rookie has yet to see more than six targets in a game. He’s hit double-digit fantasy points a mere three times, maxing out at 13.2 points. He’s also posted games of 3.6, 1.5, 7.7, and 3.4
Last week, Christian Watson returned, and he had a noticeable negative impact on Golden. Essentially, the two occupy the same role in the offense that stretch Z. The problem is that Watson does everything better. If Watson is this involved in his first game back, imagine what things will look like in a week or two.
There is no apparent path to fantasy relevance for Golden. We’ve already likely held on too long. Time to send him packing.
Tight Ends: Hunter Henry, TE, New England Patriots
Rostered: 79%
Hunter Henry is right on the border of being someone worth rostering and someone you can drop. We’ve seen his ceiling. He posted 29.0 fantasy points in Week 3. We’ve also seen his floor. He caught one pass for seven yards against the Browns. It just so happened to be for a touchdown, but the lack of targeting is concerning.
Henry has now played eight games this season. He’s seen three targets or fewer in half of them. He has just one game all season with more than five targets.
Drake Maye is playing fantastic football. But he doesn’t hone in on a singular receiving option. He spreads the ball around. It’s anyone’s guess who the top pass catcher will be on any given week. The fact that it could be Henry makes him worth starting if you don’t have anyone better. The lack of reliability makes Henry someone who can be cut if you have a superior option.
Dalton Schultz, TE, Houston Texans
Rostered: 43%
It was fun while it lasted…which is not at all. Dalton Schultz’s big game came two weeks ago when he caught nine passes for 98 yards on Monday Night Football. Of course, no one started him that week, but he was a popular streaming candidate with Nico Collins and Christian Kirk out last week.
Although the Houston Texans played well and secured a comfortable home victory over the San Francisco 49ers, Schultz wasn’t involved. C.J. Stroud threw for 318 yards, but just 24 of them came from his tight end.
Collins will likely be back in Week 9. Plus, it’s a tough matchup against a Denver Broncos defense that just prevented Jake Ferguson from catching a single pass. Schultz’s time in the spotlight has gone as quickly as it arrived.
