The fantasy season is about to get real.
Week 11 brings the beginning of the stretch run in many fantasy football leagues. Just three or four games remain in the (fantasy) regular season, and for managers hovering around the .500 mark, the stretch run means crunch time. The margin for error has decreased to just about zero.
This writer should know. I should rename all my teams “4-6.” Not especially creative, but accurate — ain’t been my worst year, but it ain’t been the best, neither. I know, I know. You desperately wanted to know how my teams were doing. That’s why I mentioned it while using atrocious grammar — I’m relatable.
The stretch run is about more than solid starting lineups. Bench spots become more important, too. If you have a solid starter at quarterback or tight end whose bye has passed, carrying a backup is not necessary — especially in shallower formats. If your running back has a clear-cut backup on the waiver wire, they should be grabbed for insurance.
Having a 7-3 start ruined by a giant hole getting punched in the backfield isn’t especially fun. Of course, to add a guy, you gotta drop a guy. And these players have just about exhausted their usefulness for fantasy managers.
Note: Shallow-league drops are expendable in leagues with 10 teams or short benches. The others are simply expendable, and there are better uses for the roster spots these players leave behind.
(Rostered percentages courtesy of Yahoo!)
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Droppable in shallow leagues
Players to let go in leagues with 10 teams or short benches
TE Jake Ferguson, Dallas (88 Percent Rostered)
To say that the 2024 season hasn’t gone according to plan for the Dallas Cowboys is the mother of all understatements, with the season-ending injury suffered by quarterback Dak Prescott and subsequent blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles just the latest indignity heaped onto the pile. However, a few weeks back, Ferguson told reporters that regardless of the circumstances or last week’s score, he approaches every week the same.
“I think that’s important every week — having a flush win or lose,” he said. “It’s the NFL. You are going to play one of the best guys on the best 32 teams, and you’ve got to be sharp with whatever you’re doing. So, you can’t sleep, you can’t say, ‘Oh, we won this week. It’s going to be good. Oh, we lost this week. I got to do this much stuff.’ No, stay on your process, add a little stuff here and there, but don’t make it too crazy, or don’t try to go the extra mile. Stay on your process, trust it.”
Of course, that was before Prescott went down, and the offense imploded. Ferguson wasn’t exactly lighting the world on fire before he lost his quarterback, and while he led the Cowboys in receiving yards last week, it was with 24 — and a lost fumble. Dallas can’t run the ball. Cooper Rush was abysmal last week, and Ferguson would have a good week if you need both hands to count his PPR points. You won’t have to take off your shoes. Don’t worry.
WR Xavier Worthy, Kansas City (80 Percent Rostered)
That Worthy is still on eight of 10 teams shows how many fantasy managers are still living in the dreamland where the first-round pick with the fastest 40 time in NFL Combine history is a big-time factor in the Chiefs’ offense. In fairness, Patrick “Golden God” Mahomes admitted to reporters that he missed Worthy on what would have been a touchdown pass last week against Denver.
“The one to Worthy, it was a scramble play,” he said. “I just left it high when I kind of was off balance, saw him open and threw it. I’ve made those throws before. It’s just about going back, executing and making them next week or whenever that is this season.”
Of course, Worthy blew a would-be touchdown the week before with atrocious footwork during a game in which he completely vanished from the Kansas City offense in the second half. Worthy will get a deep target or an end-around here and there, but he’s, at best, the fourth option in Kansas City’s passing attack. And by “at best,” I mean he’s become a younger, faster Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Actually, that’s not fair — Valdes-Scantling did something for the New Orleans Saints last week.
Other Drops
Players to drop for literally anyone, including a second kicker
RB Jonathon Brooks, Carolina (61 Percent Rostered)
An argument can be made for fantasy managers with shares of Chuba Hubbard to hang on to Brooks, especially after Miles Sanders got hurt. But that’s it. Unless Hubbard goes down, too, the talented rookie from Texas isn’t going to see the field much as a rookie.
Brooks has yet to carry the ball in an NFL game, and Hubbard has been so impressive this season that the Panthers extended him. Hubbard earned that cheese (he’s been legit). Brooks is reportedly healthy but still holding a bench down with his butt, which is so Carolina Panthers. There’s no point in holding a player who isn’t, you know, playing.
WR Diontae Johnson, Baltimore (78 Percent Rostered)
To be fair, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh recently told reporters that Johnson’s snap count should go up, which makes sense, given that there’s nowhere for Johnson’s involvement to go but “up.” He has played 22 snaps total for the Ravens in two games and has one catch on two targets. Zay Flowers is the unquestioned No. 1 receiver in Baltimore; Rashod Bateman has as many touchdowns in 2024 as in his first three seasons combined; and tight end Mark Andrews is heating up.
Too many fantasy managers are living in 2021 regarding Johnson — he’s a depth add for the Ravens on his third team in two years. He’s a name with no numbers. In fantasy, numbers are all that matters.
RB Javonte Williams, Denver (87 Percent Rostered)
There isn’t a running back who has gone from the outhouse to the penthouse to the outhouse more than Williams this year. It’s enough to give you vertigo. He was going to get cut, then he was the lead back, then he was sharing carries, then he was the lead back again, then …. Stop the ride. I want to get off.
Williams hasn’t been terrible this season — his 3.8 yards per carry is better than his average from a season ago. But last week against the Kansas City Chiefs, rookie Audric Estime got 14 carries. Williams got one. One — as in less than two. Estime’s rostered percentage is four percent as of this writing, so it appears the ole Denver switcheroo is in order.
Gary Davenport is a two-time Fantasy Sports Writers Association Football Writer of the Year. Yell at him on X at @IDPSharks.
(Photo of Xavier Worthy and Jack Jones: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
