As we continue on the path to the fantasy football playoffs, roster management continues to get more important. There will be more late week injuries popping up, as players continue to get more fatigued. If you do not have the roster spots or bench players to maintain flexibility to sustain injuries and bye weeks, you are just giving away potential victories. As we approach the playoffs getting those victories is of even more importance.
There are a lot of players on roughly 50% of rosters or more who offer your teams little week-to-week fantasy football value. These roster cloggers prevent you from having the flexibility you will want to have over the remainder of the season. Most of the roster cloggers I will discuss are on at least 50% of rosters and not started in many of those. These bench players that you can’t get into your lineups during bye weeks offer you little upside and limit your flexibility.
This weeks article does not feature a single TE. This is on purpose. I was able to come up with some justification to keep the TE with over 50% rostership on your fantasy football rosters. Unlike the other positions, it appears that the majority of fantasy players are only rostering one TE, which I think is the right move in most situations. So if one of the TEs that is startable most weeks is injured or on bye, it is expected that they would not necessarily be dropped.
Quarterbacks
Daniel Jones, New York Giants (46.4% Rostered, 22.6% Started)
Even though Daniel Jones was a somewhat popular streaming option in Week 9, he left fantasy football managers disappointed. Jones only threw for 110 yards, one touchdown, while losing one fumble. This is the 5th game this season that Daniel Jones has had at least one turnover. With the Giants on bye in Week 10, this should be a very easy drop. He is not the kind of QB that you should be carrying on your bench through the bye week. Unless of course you play in a superflex, 2QB or superflex league.
Running Backs
Devontae Booker, New York Giants (84.1% Rostered, 66% Started)
Devontae Booker has been the lead back for the Giants since they placed Saquon on IR after he suffered an injury in Week 5. During Booker’s time as the lead back, he has performed pretty well. His involvement in both the running and passing game allowed him to maintain fantasy relevance without being super efficient. However, with the Giants on bye in Week 10 and Saquon off of the IR, it is likely that Booker will not maintain enough work to be worthy of a starting spot in your fantasy football lineups.
If you play in a deep league, Booker may be worth stashing; but he is likely to just burn up one of your bench spots that you could use to roster a higher upside player. For example, with the injury to Chase Edmonds, Eno Benjamin is about to step into a larger role. He could offer immediate value in Week 10. Booker offers you nothing this week and will only gain value again if Saquon gets hurt.
Chuba Hubbard, Carolina Panthers (72.7% Rostered, 10.4% Started)
Last week I had Chuba Hubbard on the watchlist due to the news that McCaffrey was likely to be active. I encouraged you to try and trade him if you could, since he still had some fantasy trade value. With McCaffrey now active, it is unlikely that you would be able to get much in return for Hubbard. In the Panther’s Week 9 matchup against the Patriots, Hubbard only had 3 rushing yards with an additional 33 receiving yards.
The most concerning thing to come from the Panther’s Week 9 matchup was his snap share. Once CMC was activated, we knew that Hubbard would have a decrease in snap share. We were not expecting Ameer Abdullah to jump past him in snap share. Abdullah’s involvement in the passing game was also interesting when thinking about CMC’s value, but that is for another article.
So Ameer Abdullah’s usage yesterday was interesting. He tied CMC in
🔹opportunity share (44%)
🔹target share (25%)This is most likely temporary as CMC gets up to speed, but I was surprised how little Chuba was used yesterday (16.9% of snaps/ 11.1% opp share)
Game script? 🤷🏾♂️
— Troy King🧙🏾♂️✨ (@TKingMode) November 8, 2021
Hubbard was only the field for 10 of the Panther’s 59 snaps, compared to 22 for Abdullah. At this point, Hubbard is droppable in all but the deepest leagues with large benches.
Wide Receivers
Robby Anderson, Carolina Panthers (56.9% Rostered, 13.9% Started)
Robby Anderson was on this list last week, and he still deserves to be here. Even though he played the most snaps and ran the most routes, he still only saw three targets. He caught only one of his targets for just 2 yards. I wish this was his worst game this season, but it wasn’t. In Week 8, Anderson was 2nd on the team in WR snaps and routes run. But he was not able to catch his only target.
Since targets started getting tracked in 1992, there has never been a WR season with 60+ targets and fewer than 4 yards per target.
Robby Anderson is on pace to become the 1st.
— Jared Smola (@SmolaDS) November 8, 2021
After such a poor start to the season, it is surprising that Anderson is still started in so many lineups. If you are not starting him, he is just wasting one of your bench spots. If you are starting him, you can most likely due better off of the waiver wire on a weekly basis. It is time to move on from Anderson.
Michael Gallup, Dallas Cowboys (49.6% Rostered, 1.3% Started)
Michael Gallup has been on IR since Week 2 and he should be returning for the Cowboys Week 10 game. Gallup did catch 4 of his 7 targets for 36 yards in Week 1. Not a terrible performance for a the clear WR3 on the offense, but not something fantasy football managers can rely on each week.
Cedrick Wilson currently has the 3rd most targets of the Dallas WR’s with just 27, compared to 66 and 61 for Lamb and Cooper, respectively. I would guess that Gallup will have more involvement than Wilson has had in his absence. But it is unlikely that Gallup gets to more than 4-5 targets a game for the time being.
If you play in a deeper league I am fine stashing Gallup. But if you have a shallow bench, you are better off without Gallup on your roster.
Roster Clogger Watch
Allen Robinson, Chicago Bears (79.1% Rostered, 30.6% Started)
For the 2nd week in a row, Robinson is on the watch list. I was tempted to move him up to the real list, but I am still holding onto hope that he will get better in the coming weeks. Robinson has always played with subpar QBs, but this is by far his worst season to date. Through nine weeks, Robinson is on pace for 640 receiving yards. Currently Robinson is 2nd on the team in targets, receptions, and receiving yards behind Darnell Mooney.
In Week 9, Robinson caught four of six targets for 68 yards. By no means a good game for fantasy football standards. But, this is the most receiving yards he has had in a game this season. If there is any way for you to trade him off of this game, you should take that opportunity. With Robinson on bye this week I would not be opposed to dropping him to make sure that you can field a full lineup. If you have Robinson on your roster, you most likely want to have him on your bench. Without an improvement in production he is just wasting that bench spot. We really need to see some improvement before he can get into your starting lineup.
Adrian Peterson (52.9% Rostered) and Jeremy McNichols (57.5% Rostered), Tennessee Titans
Almost immediately following the news that Derrick Henry would be out indefinitely due to a foot injury, the Titan’s signed Adrian Peterson. Peterson signed a relatively low value contract, but he was immediately elevated from the practice squad indicating that he would have a significant role. However, Jeremy McNichols was already on the team and was already getting some work in the passing game, even before the Henry injury. Before the game, there was a split in the fantasy football community as to which RB would be given the bulk of the work.
In Week 9, McNichols led the team in RB snaps, followed by Peterson and then D’Onta Foreman. Peterson led the team in rushing attempts while McNichols led in RB routes and targets. D’Onta Foreman led the team in rushing yards on the lowest number of rushing attempts. Peterson did get the lone touchdown for the RB’s, but he was also the least efficient when he ran the ball. We need to watch next week’s matchup to see which RB we should be using in our lineups. If I had to guess, Peterson is going to see more work and will get more efficient as he gets back into football shape.
Adrian Peterson gets his first TD as a Titan 💥
(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/TGqjyeNO69
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 8, 2021
Khalil Herbert, Chicago Bears (80.2% Rostered, 48.8% Started)
While David Montgomery was on the IR, Khalil Herbert took full advantage of the snaps he got. Herbert had four straight games with over 70 rushing yards, and was pretty efficient with his touches week-to-week. With Montgomery activated for the Bears Week 9 matchup against the Steelers, Herbert lost his workhorse role.
Herbert was reduced down to just a 16% snap share in Week 9 after three straight weeks of playing on at least 75% of the snaps. His four carries were for just 13 yards, which was a bit of a drop in efficiency. This drop could be in part due to the fact that he was only given the ball on 1st and 10, so the Steelers were most likely expecting a rushing attempt. Herbert’s drop in snaps was expected, but it seemed like he did enough to maintain a bigger share than he did. I am expecting a bit more usage moving forward, but if he does not get what I expect it is an easy cut to make.
Jakobi Meyers, New England Patriots (70.8% Rostered, 29.4% Started)
As we get closer to the end of the fantasy football regular season, it is important to build high powered rosters. In fantasy football, touchdowns are everything. Jakobi Meyers is just not getting any. Meyers has had several redzone targets, but he has yet to convert them into a touchdown. I am not ready to drop Meyers yet, but as playoffs approach I may consider it in the coming weeks. If Meyers is not able to find the endzone, I would rather him be in my opponents starting lineup than my own.
Will today be the day Jakobi Meyers goes all the way?
No WR that never caught a touchdown has been blue balled like Jakobi. Not even close. #SadStats pic.twitter.com/k52D4Hhl5n
— Jeff Henderson (@Statholesports) October 31, 2021
