Dynasty Cut List Week 6 Edition

Nick's top dynasty fantasy football drop candidates for dynasty leagues heading into Week 6 of 2025. Who is safe to cut in dynasty fantasy football leagues?

One week can be an aberration, but five is a trend. After five weeks' worth of games, we’re starting to see how things might play out across the NFL, which players have broken out, which projects are worth keeping an eye on, and, crucially, which players are no longer worth the roster spot.

Success in dynasty formats is tied to maximizing your roster spots, whether that’s holding onto a rookie who hasn’t gotten his turn yet or staying patient for Rashee Rice to please come back and save the season.  

From time to time, that means some players have to go. We’ll look at another crop that looks destined for waivers as we approach Week 6.

• 2025 fantasy football rankings
• Running back (RB) rankings
• Wide receiver (WR) rankings
• Quarterback (QB) rankings
• Tight end (TE) rankings
• Defense (D/ST) rankings
• Kicker (K) rankings
• FLEX rankings
• Dynasty rankings

Adam Thielen, WR, Minnesota Vikings

To Thielen’s credit, his second act with the Carolina Panthers was far better than most predicted, and managers who bought low on Thielen before 2023 were rewarded when he finished as the No. 17 overall PPR receiver.

His return to Minnesota two years later, however, has been a total dud outside of one two-point conversion in Week 1.

Adam Thielen gets the 2-point conversion and the Vikings lead by 3 with 9:46 to go

MINvsCHI on ESPN/ABC
Stream on @NFLPlus and ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/rgVAWNGBsf

— NFL (@NFL) September 9, 2025

Some outside factors have been part of the issue in Minnesota, which concluded Sunday’s game against Cleveland with four replacements on the offensive line, a backup quarterback, and its opening-day starter at running back in street clothes. 

Even in the midst of a time when the Vikings needed to get creative with their secondary pass-catchers -- receiver Jalen Nailor ran for a first down and backup tight end Josh Oliver snuck past the Browns defense for a touchdown on a trick play on Sunday -- Thielen has been a total non-factor. 

Following the return of Jordan Addison in Week 4, the veteran wide receiver has played just 16% and 22% of Minnesota’s snaps. It bears mentioning that the Vikings trailed in the second half in both games, necessitating three-plus-receiver sets and clear passing situations, yet Thielen still wasn’t involved.

Week 5 was the low point, marking the first time Thielen played offensive snaps without drawing a target since 2015. 

Anecdotally, Thielen is one of the absolute best stories of his era. He was a Division II college player with no draft interest whatsoever who turned a tryout attempt with his favorite team into a Pro Bowl career in which he tied Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson for the most 100-yard games in a row with eight. 

Pragmatically, all the numbers show Thielen’s best days as a receiver are past, and retirement is probably likely at some point in the next 15 months. At this stage, he’s not playable or tradable.

Jermaine Burton, WR, Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals ignored all of the red flags on Burton, risked a third-round pick that they could turn him around, and have gotten functionally nothing from the risk.

Multiple high-profile teammates, including quarterback Joe Burrow, wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, and cornerback Mike Hilton, called out Burton’s effort last year. In addition to teammates publicly criticizing him, which rarely happens in the NFL, Burton caught all of four passes as a rookie.

Our first time talking with Jermaine Burton since last season.

Two minutes and some main themes:
* Be a professional
* Better habits
* Be consistent#Bengals @FOX19 pic.twitter.com/xsZRPFxwr3

— Jeremy Rauch (@FOX19Jeremy) June 3, 2025

With additional reports this year about him being late for meetings, Burton has yet to be active. It would be surprising if he’s on the team next year. The talent always has been there, but it’s sure looking like Burton will become one of those what-if stories.

Sam Howell, QB, Philadelphia Eagles

Some of us are old enough to remember when the fantasy managers who took Howell for middling draft capital or even picked him up on the waiver wire looked like the smartest people in the room.

A fifth-round NFL Draft pick firmly in taking-a-flier territory, Howell was a borderline excellent fantasy quarterback in 2023 for a bad Washington team that chucked the ball over the field. He fell just short of 4,000 yards passing and finished as the No. 12 fantasy quarterback.

SAM HOWELL TIES IT UP‼️

Commanders-Eagles is headed to OT 👀

(via @Commanders)pic.twitter.com/KHfC5ri3Yu

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 1, 2023

And then the jig was up. Washington cashed out on Howell for a mid-round pick, opting for a different backup even before drafting Jayden Daniels, followed by Seattle making the same choice for a late pick after just a year with the team, followed by Minnesota moving on just a few months after acquiring him.

Howell is now on his fourth team since March 2024, and is not even an immediate backup quarterback. The Eagles traded for Howell to back up Jalen Hurts in the early weeks this season, but now that Tanner McKee is back to full health, it’s McKee who would play if Hurts were unavailable. 

Howell has been relegated to emergency third quarterback duty for the Eagles. While it’s plausible he’s on a new team next year, it’s unlikely it will be as a starter. He’s still only 25 and may have some shelf life as a backup, but it’s an awfully long road to playing again -- which means his fantasy value is fading away.

Elijah Moore, WR, Buffalo Bills

The Bills' pass-catcher carousel isn’t generally an experience fantasy managers enjoy in the first place, and now Moore additionally appears to be headed toward being the odd man out.

Khalil Shakir remains the top-targeted receiver, Curtis Samuel and Tyrell Shavers have kept places on the active roster because of special teams roles, and the duo of Keon Coleman and Joshua Palmer is running ahead of Moore, to say nothing of Buffalo regularly using two tight ends.

Moore has four catches on the year and was inactive in Week 5, and his best route to playing time is more than one injury elsewhere or on another team entirely.

From a fantasy perspective, neither is great. Moore may still be preferable to waiver wire options in very deep leagues, but a player already on his third team at age 25 and getting healthy scratched likely has a long road to being playable again.

Thomas Fidone II, TE, New York Giants

Fidone had some draft-season intrigue as a possible mid-round player of interest. One of the top tight-end recruits in his high school class, Fidone never fully launched into college stardom at Nebraska due to suffering a pair of major knee injuries. 

He did, however, have something of a breakout in 2024, during which he played 12 games, started nine, and had a career-best 39 catches. Fidone followed that up with good showings at both the NFL Combine and the Senior Bowl.

Though he’s a bit on the light side for a tight end, he ran an encouraging 4.7 in the 40-yard dash to pair with big hands and a long wingspan, making him the type of project that is sometimes worth betting on with a taxi-squad spot. But teams were clearly scared away by the injury history, as he fell into the sixth round.

Even though he landed with the Giants -- a roster in which playing time was in the range of possibility -- he hasn’t factored into the equation at all. New York likely has its tight end of the future in Theo Johnson.

It was always a long-shot bet, but we can safely call it following five weeks in which he has yet to take a single offensive snap and has been mostly a healthy scratch.

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