RADIO
Chris B's college fantasy football players to drop to the waiver wire for Week 2 of the 2026 season. He helps CFB fantasy football managers determine who to drop and cut in Week 2.
Welcome, fellow fantasy footballers, to the cut list. In this weekly article, I will discuss players who are over 50% rostered on Yahoo and should be considered for the cut list. You don’t win your league by your dominating draft, though it certainly helps.
The best fantasy football players know when to cut bait on a player clogging up their roster when there are higher-upside pieces available on the waiver wire. They also know when to hold out for one more week when they have a player who’s been underperforming but still has league-winning upside.
I will provide a player for each position: one that fantasy owners should consider cutting and another that fantasy owners should try to hold onto. Some cut suggestions may seem drastic or reactionary; however, with the regular season lasting only 11 weeks in most standard 10-team leagues, fantasy owners don’t have time to wait for players to figure it out. I will also mention one player to give another chance to. Let's dive in.
Quarterbacks to Consider Dropping
Drew Mestemaker, Oklahoma State - 98% Rostered
What happened to the No. 2 ranked quarterback in the portal on Saturday afternoon? The transfer had an abysmal day, completing only 59% of his 49 pass attempts! Despite ranking third in all of college football in pass attempts and facing a middle-of-the-road pass defense in Tulsa, Mestemaker only managed to score 9.94 fantasy points. His final stat line for the game was 29 completions on 49 attempts for 241 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions, including the red-zone interception below.
Drew Mestemaker, oh no pic.twitter.com/4Div8sqMCF
— NFL Draft Files (@NFL_DF) September 5, 2026
Last year, Mestemaker led CFB quarterbacks in passing yards by over 300 yards. He also tied for second in passing touchdowns with 34; however, he struggled to translate his on-field success into top-10 fantasy quarterback production, finishing the season as QB11 per FantasyData. I’d rather take a chance on a quarterback who can raise both his ceiling and floor with his ability to run the ball. Unless you are in a superflex league where you can start two quarterbacks, you should be looking at different options.
Running Backs to Consider Dropping
Dylan Edwards, Kansas - 68% Rostered
This one seems like an obvious cut candidate. The transfer junior running back totaled just six carries for 32 yards and four catches for 34 yards, totaling only 8.6 fantasy points in his Kansas debut against LIU Brooklyn on Friday night. Edwards transferred from Kansas State in the portal this offseason and, per 247Sports, was ranked RB21 in the portal.
Edwards has never had more than 76 carries in a season, so he is completely reliant on the work he gets receiving the ball out of the backfield, and he has been trending downward in that category since his first year at Colorado, when he caught 36 passes for 299 yards and four touchdowns. The best-case scenario for Edwards is catching around 50 passes and getting around 70 carries. That just isn’t a big enough workload to justify rostering him in fantasy football.
Both Yasin Willis and Jalen Dupree had more carries than Edwards on Friday in the blowout win despite being listed behind him on the depth chart. Edwards is currently not ranked in RotoBaller’s running back rankings.
Wide Receivers to Consider Dropping
Danny Scudero, Colorado - 75% rostered
The Colorado passing game looked ghastly on Thursday night against Georgia Tech. The transfer senior wide receiver didn’t add much to the attack, hauling in four of five targets for 12 yards and totaling 3.2 fantasy points. Scudero had a dominant 2025 campaign with San Jose State, hauling in 88 catches for 1,297 yards and 10 touchdowns, finishing the season as WR8 in total fantasy points with 189.7 points.
The biggest problem for the Buffaloes' passing game was former five-star quarterback Julian Lewis, who struggled with accuracy. The Sophomore quarterback completed only 51.9% (which is second-worst of all qualified quarterbacks in Week 1) of his passes for 124 yards and one touchdown. The touchdown came in the final minute of the game and, admittedly, was an NFL-level throw. If Lewis continues to be this inaccurate, he will destroy his receivers' fantasy value.
This was an NFL throw from Julian Lewis with the game on the line sheesh pic.twitter.com/Sb4xtZTn77
— John (@iam_johnw) September 4, 2026
Another confounding variable was his lack of deep targets in the game for Scudero.
Last season, Scudero led college football with 41 targets of 20 or more yards per PFF, and he turned those opportunities into 729 yards and five touchdowns. Scudero seems to have been miscast into a gadget-type role for Colorado, as three of his five targets came behind the line of scrimmage and one was less than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. Colorado wide receiver Deandre Moore Jr. had nine targets in the game, and five of those were more than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage. It seems like the Buffaloes plan to use Moore as the deep threat over Scudero.
Tight Ends to Consider Dropping
Dorian Fleming, Maryland - 79% Rostered
The tight end position is the most difficult position to assess in college fantasy football. Last season, the TE1, Tanner Koziol, only finished with 108.7 fantasy points for the season. Tight ends in college fantasy football are often reliant on touchdowns, which are the most difficult stat to predict or anticipate. The position is a true touchdown-or-bust position.
Dorian Fleming is this week's nomination for tight end to cut. The junior Terrapin had one catch for nine yards on two total targets in Maryland’s 62-0 blowout against Hampton. Last season, Fleming totaled 53.1 fantasy points on 40 catches for 351 yards and three touchdowns to finish as the TE54. However, nine of his 40 catches came in one game against Washington, and he still only managed to turn those into 57 receiving yards.
When in doubt, rostering tight ends attached to high-scoring offenses is a good bet in college fantasy football. Last season, five of the top 10 finishers at the position were on offenses that finished the season in the top 11 points scored per game.
Keep Holding
Byrum Brown, Quarterback, Auburn - 73% Rostered
This offseason, Auburn landed last season's QB1 in fantasy points in transfer Byrum Brown from South Florida. Last campaign was a historic year for Brown as he became one of 13 quarterbacks in CFB history to throw for over 3,000 yards and rush for over 1,000 yards. Coming into this season, there was skepticism about whether Brown could carry that same production into an SEC schedule, and he didn’t do himself any favors with his Week 1 performance.
Brown finished his Week 1 game completing 73% of his 35 pass attempts for 259 yards and three interceptions, while rushing 21 times for 27 yards and one touchdown. Brown finished the week with only 16.06 fantasy points.
Like a bad habit, it should be hard for fantasy owners to quit quarterbacks with elite rushing upside. Last season, nine of the top 10 quarterbacks finished the season with over 500 rushing yards. Brown led all quarterbacks with 21 rushing attempts in Week 1, and that type of rushing volume should yield better results moving forward.
Gideon Davidson, Running Back, Clemson - 79% Rostered
The season opener for Clemson at LSU was a tough game to watch if you're a Clemson fan. They were blown out in Death Valley 51-10. It's difficult to draw any conclusions about the Clemson running game from that game. LSU jumped out to two scores early, and Clemson was forced to abandon the run. That being said, Davidson still had a terrible performance. The sophomore totaled 20 rushing yards on seven attempts and finished the game with two fantasy points.
Last season, Clemson running back Adam Randall was the RB29 in a pass-heavy offense. The team downgraded at quarterback, which could mean they intend to emphasize the run more this year, and Davidson has the potential to be a bell cow back for them. Fantasy owners should consider rolling out Davidson in a flex or RB2 slot next week against FCS opponent Georgia Southern.
