The Cut List - Time to Let Go? Who to Drop for Fantasy Football Week 2

Rob's fantasy football players to drop when making waiver wire moves for Week 2 (2025). He helps fantasy football managers decide on who to cut from rosters.

The opening week of NFL games is in the books, but it’s important we’re not too reactionary. Bad games happen. Flukey stuff happens, and when it occurs in the first week, it’s far more exaggerated, because we don’t have any other data to say, “yeah, but…”.

So, as we look forward to this year’s first edition of The Cut List, we want to take a deep breath and remember, this is a long season. Don't make rash decisions. Last week was just one small piece of a large data set, and we don't have the rest of the information yet, so it's often best to be patient.

With that said, last week did provide us with our first real taste of new stats and new information, and we’d be foolish to dismiss it completely, but we must delve deeper than the box score, so let’s get started. Be sure to also check out my Week 1 waiver wire pickups article -- because with almost every waiver wire add, there is also a player to be dropped.

Editor's Note: Identify fantasy football draft busts, overvalued ADPs, and key players to avoid so you can draft with confidence this season.

Quarterbacks to Consider Cutting

C.J. Stroud, Houston Texans - 69.3% Rostered

This one may be a bit reactionary. I went into the 2025 season hopeful that some new weapons - Christian Kirk, Jayden Higgins, and Jaylin Noel - a new offensive coordinator, and more competition along the offensive line would bring out the Stroud we saw in his rookie season.

It’s only one week, and it was against a quality Rams’ defense, but it was a very lackluster performance from Stroud and the Houston offense. He’ll have better days, but at this point, there are just far more quarterbacks I trust more than Stroud who are rostered in fewer leagues.

Jared Goff, Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence, Michael Penix Jr., and Geno Smith are all better options who are rostered beneath Stroud's percentage. Stroud doesn’t use his legs, and it looks like everything, offensively for the Texans, will be a struggle.

Running Backs to Consider Cutting

Kaleb Johnson, Pittsburgh Steelers - 83.9% Rostered

If you want to hold onto Johnson, I wouldn’t fault you for it. We know who Kenneth Gainwell is, so it’s perfectly reasonable to expect Johnson to climb the depth chart. Unless Arthur Smith manages the depth chart.

Johnson played just two snaps yesterday. Gainwell played 29. Even Jaylen Warren, who has been far more productive than Gainwell throughout their careers, played 25. It’s not a stretch to say that, based on what we know about these three players, Smith played the least talented one the most. That’s Arthur Smith.

It’s nothing new. It is who he is. The Steelers’ running backs finished with 54 yards on 19 carries. It doesn’t look like a strong running game, and even if Johnson gets a shot at some point, you know Gainwell and/or Warren are still going to be involved in some capacity.

Jerome Ford, Cleveland Browns - 75.9% Rostered

Ford ended up playing more snaps and running more routes than rookie Dylan Sampson. That’s where the good news ends. Despite out-snapping Sampson, he finished with half the amount of carries (12 to 6, Sampson).

Despite running nine more routes, Ford was out-targeted by Sampson eight-to-one. Sampson had eight catches for 64 yards. Ford’s lone catch lost three yards. Sampson had 29 rushing yards on 12 attempts. Ford had eight yards on six attempts.

Quinshon Judkins signed before Week 1 and is expected to make his debut in Week 2. Fantasy managers should expect Judkins to handle the early-down work and Sampson to be the pass-catcher. Ford will fall to complete irrelevance. If Ford only had seven opportunities in Week 1 with no Judkins, what's going to happen once he's back?

Wide Receivers to Consider Cutting

Marvin Mims Jr., Denver Broncos - 38.6% Rostered

Based on his preseason utilization, it looked as though Mims was going to be Denver’s clear No. 2 receiver behind Courtland Sutton. It took one week to completely dispel that notion. Denver has one full-time receiver, and that's Sutton. After that, it was a three-way share between Troy Franklin, Mims, and Trent Sherfield Sr.

Franklin played more snaps, ran more routes, and earned more targets than Mims. Even worse for Mims, Franklin was far more efficient. He finished with four catches for 44 yards. Mims had three catches for 21 yards. Sean Payton has been reluctant to give Mims a full-time role for three years; maybe there's a reason for that.

Hold On For Now

Jared Goff, Detroit Lions - 68.3% Rostered

If Goff is your second quarterback and you have any of the top five (Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Joe Burrow, or Jayden Daniels), or even Justin Herbert or Justin Fields, you can go ahead and drop Goff.

In any other circumstance, I’m holding Goff yet. Detroit is working with a new offensive coordinator. They were on the road against a hostile and very good divisional opponent whose defense just traded for Micah Parsons. Week 1 didn’t change my opinion that Goff will still be a quality QB2 with a solid floor.

Players Trending Down

• Kenneth Walker, Seattle Seahawks - 97.9% Rostered
• James Conner, Arizona Cardinals - 97.6% Rostered
• David Montgomery, Detroit Lions - 95.3% Rostered
• Isiah Pacheco, Kansas City Chiefs - 94.1% Rostered

All of these running backs, except for Conner, flopped when it came to how many fantasy points they scored. Conner found the end zone, which salvaged what otherwise would have been a dreadful day. Bad games will happen. We know this. We expect it. However, bad utilization games, especially in Week 1, are another thing entirely.

Walker played fewer snaps, ran fewer routes, and had fewer carries than Zach Charbonnet. This is a major red flag. Even if Walker eventually operates as Seattle’s No. 1 running back, it’s clear that this will be way more of a committee than we’ve come to expect in Seattle.

Trey Benson had a 40% rush share on Sunday. Conner still had a healthy lead in terms of snaps and routes, but it appears that Benson is going to be a bigger part of the game plan than he was last year. Conner was one of the biggest workhorse backs last year based on snap share, route share, and rush share, but we shouldn’t expect the same level of dominance in those three areas this season.

just a reminder we have Trey Benson on our team@trey_uno1 | @FSUFootball pic.twitter.com/BFbNxmRaZI

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) September 8, 2025

Jahmyr Gibbs played over 70% of the early down snaps on Sunday. Some of that could have been tied to the game script, but Gibbs hit that number only once last year, and Monty was hurt a few games.

When Ben Johnson left, I wondered if we might see Montgomery’s role decline a bit. After all, Gibbs is an elite talent entering the prime of his career. On the flip side, Montgomery is 28 and coming off a torn MCL injury from late last year.

Pacheco and Kareem Hunt effectively played the same game. Pacheco ran 21 routes to Hunt’s 17. They each had three targets and five carries. Hunt handled the majority of short-yardage and third-down plays, while Pacheco got the lone goal-line snap. This is a 45% (Pacheco), 45% (Hunt), and 10% (Brashard Smith) committee. It’ll be yucky all the way around.

On the Hot Seat

Josh Downs, Indianapolis Colts - 66.9% Rostered

I had my concerns about Downs coming into the season, and Week 1 did nothing to quiet them down. He’s a slot-only receiver who never plays in 2-WR sets. That trend continued in Week 1. What that does is significantly lower his routes. He ran just 17 routes compared to Michael Pittman Jr.’s 29, Alec Pierce’s 27, and Tyler Warren’s 24. That’s an issue.

The second concern I had was that everyone forgot how good Pittman is when he’s not playing with a broken back. From 2021 to 2023, he averaged 142 targets, 99 catches, and 1,050 yards. He had three straight seasons of at least 125 targets, 85 catches, and 925 yards. Now, add elite tight end prospect Tyler Warren.

The target competition is legit. You couple that with his playing time concerns and slot-only role, and we have a real problem. We haven’t even touched the fact that Indy is most likely going to be a run-first offense, and Daniel Jones (probably) isn’t in the midst of his Sam Darnold renaissance season, although it is possible.

You put all that together, and it spells major trouble for Downs. Another performance and utilization like this next week, and he might be on the Cut List.

Sell High Candidates

Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs - 97.9% Rostered

Even in a game where Patrick Mahomes passed 39 times with Rashee Rice out with his suspension and Xavier Worthy, who played only three snaps, Kelce was still only able to muster three targets. Kelce seemed to have lost a step last season, and it doesn’t look like the offseason has done anything for him. He’s arguably the greatest tight end ever, but Father Time is undefeated.

TRAVIS KELCE TOUCHDOWN
pic.twitter.com/WBh1xPIJMw

— NFL Retweet (@NFLRT) September 6, 2025

When JuJu Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton, two receivers even the New England Patriots didn’t want last year, are seeing more targets, Father Time isn’t just knocking on the door; he’s making himself comfortable on your couch.

If I can trade Kelce for George Kittle, who just suffered a hamstring injury and is slated to miss some time, I would. Maybe that owner is desperate, and I’d stream tight ends until Kittle came back. That’s probably shooting high, but Kelce is the book’s definition of a sell high. Use his touchdown, and the questionable receiver depth room to cash in while you can.

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