Dynasty League Cut List - Top Fantasy Football Drop Candidates for Week 5

Nick's top dynasty fantasy football drop candidates for dynasty leagues heading into Week 5 of 2025. Who is safe to cut in dynasty fantasy football leagues?

After four weeks of professional football, maybe your dynasty team is feeling more like an expansion team. We’ve all been there. But we’re not going to be rash, even when it feels right.

Is your season feeling over-ish with New York Giants receiver Malik Nabers (knee) out for the year? Did you have Baltimore Ravens running back Justice Hill’s point explosion on the bench like I did? Are you desperate for Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels (knee) to come back right this very moment, please?

It’s OK. We’re going to get there, and another sensible roster update is how. We’ll look at another group of players who can probably go to waivers and why, which is a huge part of making your dynasty roster the best it can be. As always, thanks for reading.

Russell Wilson, QB, New York Giants

For managers who have been playing dynasty for a decade or longer, Wilson’s demotion with the Giants is the end of an era. 

Wilson was an all-time pick for managers who acquired him early in his career with the Seattle Seahawks, with whom he blossomed into a reliable every-week starter who had solid passing production and regular rushing upside on one of the NFL’s top teams.

Beyond fantasy, Wilson was one of the single most valuable draft picks in modern NFL history by going from a third-round pick to a franchise-changing Super Bowl champion quarterback who will draw legitimate consideration for the Hall of Fame.

But his time as an NFL starter has come to pass.

Wilson is already on his third team in three years, and there is little doubt that this season was his last, best chance  — and it lasted all of three games.

Certainly, there is some self-preservation at play here with a Giants coaching staff that is desperate for rookie Jaxson Dart to save their jobs. Though Wilson publicly handled the change with grace, Dart’s debut made it clear there will be little reason for New York to go back to Wilson, as the Giants are almost certainly going to prioritize the young quarterback’s development for the rest of the way in 2025.

Jaxson Dart on Russell Wilson's mentorship before for his first start pic.twitter.com/OLRwPefvg2

— New York Giants (@Giants) September 30, 2025

Even before the Giants made the move, Wilson has been so unremarkable since being traded to Denver in 2022 that it’s now highly unlikely any franchise will view him as anything other than a trusted veteran backup.

While Wilson’s career accomplishments are noteworthy, the next step of his career — if he chooses to keep playing beyond this year — is in the class of backups like Carson Wentz, Mac Jones, and Marcus Mariota. 

In very deep leagues, there’s still some value to a reliable non-starter, but in many formats, there’s no reason to keep a player who isn’t playing anymore. Wilson is unlikely to fetch anything on the trade market, and he no longer has a clear path to playing.

Zamir White, RB, Las Vegas Raiders

After the Raiders fired former head coach Josh McDaniels in 2023, Las Vegas had some juice. They rallied behind coach Antonio Pierce, they beat the eventual champion Kansas City Chiefs on the road, and they created a solid running game behind White, who logged four straight top-20 finishes among fantasy running backs. 

In the year-plus since, White’s time has been filled with injuries and meager statistics. He hasn’t been back in the top 20 since Week 18 of 2023 and has not taken more than six carries in a game in a calendar year.

The team just spent a top-10 pick on another running back, Ashton Jeanty, who is getting the lion’s share of the touches out of the Vegas backfield, relegating White to waiting for an injury to be fantasy relevant. 

Ashton Jeanty in his first game back with his signature stance:

▪ 138 Rush Yds
▪ 21 Carries
▪ 3 Total TDs pic.twitter.com/aWzWzYxY5W

— NFL on Prime Video (@NFLonPrime) September 29, 2025

White’s biggest value going into the season was that he was an acceptable hedge for managers who drafted Jeanty, but now, he might not even be that. The Raiders made White a healthy inactive in Week 4, and with a new staff running the show, it certainly seems like he’s headed for a new uniform within the next year.

Raheem Mostert, who many people found out played for the Raiders on Sunday, was active and had some success against a bad Chicago Bears defense, which was an all-around bad sign for White. He can be sent to waivers without much regret.

Keandre Lambert-Smith, WR, Los Angeles Chargers

During the offseason, the Chargers were a natural fit for some additional help at receiver behind last year’s top target, Ladd McConkey.

To round out their receiver room, they signed franchise favorite Keenan Allen and drafted both Tre’ Harris and Lambert-Smith, and it seemed like at least one of the rookies could have a decent role right away.

Instead, they aren’t really playing enough to trust. The Chargers’ current coaching staff has turned the much-maligned Quentin Johnston into a legitimate weapon after a forgettable rookie year in 2023, and now there isn’t much room for another young receiver to get a meaningful role in this offense.

The stutter route from Quentin Johnston 😳

LACvsNYG on CBS/Paramount+https://t.co/HkKw7uXnxV pic.twitter.com/2S6J4KIbEl

— NFL (@NFL) September 28, 2025

While the jury is still out on both Harris and Lambert-Smith — it’s only been four weeks, after all — the road to meaningful playing time on offense seems especially unlikely for Lambert-Smith.

Johnston and McConkey have played at least 74% of the team’s snaps in all four games, Allen is playing an average of 65%, and Harris is picking up the scraps with snap shares of 31%, 29%, and 19% in the past three weeks.

Lambert-Smith, meanwhile, has been the least involved of all of them, drawing zero targets in the past three weeks. He did take over kick returning in Week 4, which could keep him on the active roster regularly, but he’s so far behind in the receiving pecking order that he’s nowhere close to a fantasy starting lineup.

For rookie receivers, that’s very rarely a good sign. Perhaps he’ll carve out a regular special teams role as the year progresses, but it would take some serious movement for him to grab hold of a fantasy-relevant position on the Chargers’ offense. 

He’s fine for now as a taxi stash in formats that allow it, but the best-case scenario for Lambert-Smith looks to be a distant WR3 or WR4 on his own team, which is waiver-worthy in most formats.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling, WR, San Francisco 49ers

Valdes-Scantling has played almost exclusively on contending teams in his nine-year career. He’s played with Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen.

He’s now in Kyle Shanahan’s offense, which needs an additional receiver to step into the mix with Brandon Aiyuk (knee) still on injured reserve. 

Yet with all of that opportunity, Valdes-Scantling has a grand total of zero top-50 seasons in either PPR or half-PPR formats, and is now getting DNP’d in favor of Kendrick Bourne and Skyy Moore.

KENDRICK BOURNE: "I wouldn't call it rust [with Brock Purdy and I], I think it's just building a relationship. I gotta catch the ball. That's how I look at it from my end... I gotta look at it from my standpoint, not from his." pic.twitter.com/9D8x38uIuh

— KNBR (@KNBR) September 29, 2025

Despite Bourne's brutal showing in Week 4, there's no reason to burn a roster spot on Valdes-Scantling, even in the deepest of leagues.

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