With one week of real NFL football behind us, it is time to focus on roster management. Whether you drafted a great team or need some help, this is where you win your championships. Playing the waiver wire correctly each week can help you on a weekly basis. It is often easy to identify the players on the waiver wire that you should try and add. But identifying the players to drop on your fantasy football team can be much harder.
Occasionally you will have some easy decisions. You may have lost a player to injury for the year. Or you could have a player that is underperforming. But if you have no easy drops you need to dig a little deeper.
This weekly article will identify several Fantasy Football Roster Cloggers that you should consider dropping, to make room for the top waiver options. Roster cloggers are players that are on a high percentage of rosters, but not in a high percentage of starting lineups. In other words, roster cloggers take up your valuable bench spots with little starter upside on a weekly basis. If you do not have any easy drops, move on from your roster cloggers. It is much better for your team to have them on an opponents bench than your own.
Quarterbacks
Matt Ryan (Atlanta Falcons)
This offseason, Matt Ryan was one of my targets if I was drafting a late round QB. According to FantasyPros ADP, fantasy football managers drafted Ryan in the 10th or 11th round of drafts this year. This is not high draft capital, but I expected to see him started on the majority of teams he was rostered on. However, according to ESPN he is rostered in 45.1% of leagues and only started in 9.9% of leagues.
If you play in a single QB league, you should not be rostering multiple QB’s unless it is a very deep league. But if this was not enough, Ryan had a very underwhelming performance in a matchup that he should have done well in. His Week 2 matchup against the Buccaneers will not be any easier. So if you did not start him in Week 1, you should not be starting him in Week 2. You should feel comfortable dropping Matt Ryan to stream a QB or add a waiver option at RB, WR, or TE.
Running Backs
Michael Carter and Tevin Coleman (New York Jets)
This offseason, we learned that the Jets would approach the RB position using a committee. After Week 1 it is clear that Ty Johnson is the leader of the committee. Johnson more than doubled the snaps of either Michael Carter or Tevin Coleman in the Jets matchup against the Panthers. Coleman did lead the team in touches, but he was far less efficient than Johnson.
Coleman should still command a significant chunk of the workload to start the season. Unless Coleman gets more efficient he will be phased out in favor of Ty Johnson or even Michael Carter. Coleman technically does not meet the qualifications to be a roster clogger, but if you do roster him, you should drop him in favor of one of the top waiver options this week. Michael Carter was very inefficient with his limited touches. As he acclimates to the NFL speed he will likely improve. But it will take time for him to get a significant enough role to be relevant in fantasy football.
The Jets are expected to struggle early in the season, so it is going to be tough to find much fantasy value here. Carter and Coleman were both started in less than 2% of leagues in Week 1. With several tricky matchups over the beginning of the season, I expect more struggles from the Jets RBs.
Wide Receivers
Michael Gallup (Dallas Cowboys)
This season you likely used your 10th or 11th round pick to draft Michael Gallup. At that part of the draft you were not expecting him to be one of your weekly starters. But you were expecting to use him as a bye week fill in or for good matchups. In Week 1 Gallup was rostered in 88.8% of leagues, but he was only started in 21.1%. Unfortunately in the Cowboy’s matchup against the Buccaneers, Gallup injured his calf and landed on the IR. He will be unavailable for at least the next three weeks.
If you have an IR you should absolutely be stashing Gallup there. But if you do not have an IR and you need to add someone off waivers, you can consider dropping Gallup. If you do not need to add a player from waivers you should not drop Gallup, because he will offer value to your fantasy football team later in the season.
Mecole Hardman (Kansas City Chiefs)
Like Gallup, you drafted Mecole Hardman in the 10th or 11th round and weren’t relying on him to be in your starting lineup. Hardman is currently rostered in 60.2% of leagues, but was started in just 4% of Week 1 lineups. . In Week 1, Demarcus Robinson out-snapped Hardman slightly. Hardman had one more target than Robinson. On such a high powered offense, Hardman will have some very good fantasy weeks. But getting him into your lineup during the correct week will be tricky.
If you did not start Hardman in Week 1, you are unlikely to start him in the future unless there are injuries to the other pass-catchers on the Chiefs (or your fantasy football team). With several decent waiver wire options, Hardman is a player that you can consider dropping if you need to.
Curtis Samuel (Washington Football Team)
The Washington Football Team placed Curtis Samuel on the IR prior to their Week 1 game. This move was made after Samuel struggled with a groin injury all offseason. With the timeline of Samuel’s return uncertain, you should drop him unless you have an IR spot you can stash him in.
Tight Ends
Austin Hooper (Cleveland Browns)
As a late draft pick, Austin Hooper should be a fairly easy drop to make to add a better TE option. For Week 1, Hooper was rostered in 58.1% of leagues, but started in only 12.8% of them. Hooper had the highest snap share of all of the TEs on the Browns in Week 1. Unfortunately, those snaps did not turn into fantasy production. He caught only three passes for 27 yards.
David Njoku was the better fantasy football TE for the Browns in Week 1. He caught three of five targets for 76 yards. This led the Browns in receiving yards against the Chiefs. In such a high scoring matchup, I was hoping to see more usage from Hooper. If you roster Hooper, you likely were not starting him, so he is safe to drop. If another one of your league mates adds him, he will just clog their bench instead of yours.
Roster Clogger Watch
Zack Moss (Buffalo Bills, RB) and Trey Sermon (San Francisco 49ers, RB)
Zack Moss and Trey Sermon are both rostered in over 71% of leagues. Both players were surprise healthy inactives on gameday. This is something we need to pay attention to this week and moving forward. If they are inactive again, they will be on future versions of this article.
Ronald Jones (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, RB)
I am not quite ready to call Ronald Jones a roster clogger. Despite being the best runner on the Bucs, Jones was only on the field for six offensive snaps in Week 1. On just his 4th carry of the game, Jones fumbled the ball. Jones did not get another touch after that. Jones currently is not a roster clogger, but if he is not more involved in Week 2 he will be.
