RADIO
Every league is filled with different managers. You have some managers who are ready to cut players after one or two bad weeks. They’re very reactionary. Other managers are incredibly patient, often making decisions one to two weeks too late. We all can think of those managers who cut Christian Watson or are still holding JuJu Smith-Schuster. Finding the happy middle ground between these two extremes is crucial.
With six weeks officially in the books, no one is safe from the cut list. I’m more cautious with the bigger names after just three or so weeks, but we’re approaching the halfway point of the season and if it hasn’t happened yet, chances are it’s not going to. At least not with any sort of consistency. Don’t be afraid to be bold if you’re 0-6 or 1-5. If that’s the case, your roster likely needs a shakedown anyway.
Deciding who to cut can always be a difficult process, but it's important to take emotions out of the equation. It's important to stay active on the waiver wire and continue making tweaks to your fantasy team. To do that, you'll need to say goodbye to some of your players. Below you'll find the biggest names that managers can safely cut in traditional 10 and 12-team leagues. You will also find players that you should hold if possible. If you have any questions, give me a follow @RobFFSlayer and shoot me a message. My DMs are always open and I’m more than willing to answer questions.
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Quarterbacks to Cut in Week 7?
Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys – 87% Rostered
Dak Prescott is an example of a rather big name who I’ve been hesitant to cut bait on. He was on the Hot Seat last week. However, it’s been hard to get a read on the Cowboys. They won three games by 95 points, lost one game by 32 points, and lost another by 12. That’s just one game where the offense operated in a typical fashion. Not only have their game scripts been super funky, but they’ve also been working to get used to head coach Mike McCarthy as the new play-caller this season.
However, I can no longer make excuses for Prescott. He has just as many games under seven points as he does above 15. He has just one game with more than one touchdown pass. The Cowboys offense looks completely out of sync. With other quarterbacks such as Sam Howell, Brock Purdy, C.J. Stroud, and Matthew Stafford playing so well, there’s virtually no reason fantasy managers should hang on to Prescott.
I know, he had a great game last night, finishing with just under 25 points. However, nine of them came from rushing. He had 40 rushing yards. Dating back to the 2019 season, he’s had two games over 35 rushing yards. Two! Prior to last night, he had two rushing touchdowns total since 2021. If you’re chasing that rushing production, you’re going to be disappointed. He still has just one game this season with multiple passing touchdowns. One spike week off the back of an outlier rushing game doesn’t make him someone you need to hold through the bye week.
Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks – 67% Rostered
Fantasy managers were incredibly high on Geno Smith entering the 2023 season. He exploded last year and finished as a top-12 quarterback. Then Seattle went out and added Zach Charbonnet and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Not only that, but the team’s two rookie tackles would be more experienced and likely even better than they were in 2022. In theory, it all made a ton of sense. However, through six weeks, Smith has been one of the bigger disappointments in fantasy this season.
He has just one game with more than 16 points and four (!!!) games where he failed to reach 11. That’s absolutely brutal. The fact that he’s struggling so much despite having D.K. Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and JSN is surprising. Maybe it shouldn’t be though. In hindsight, fantasy managers should’ve been baking some risk into Smith’s profile as he was 32 years old last year when he had his first good season. That certainly has the sound of a potential one-hit wonder. Smith has two games with less than 115 passing yards and just one out of six games with multiple touchdowns. Right now, Howell and Stafford look far more appealing than Smith.
Running Backs to Cut in Week 7?
Cam Akers, Minnesota Vikings – 66% Rostered
Cam Akers has been a Viking since Week 3. He was inactive for Week 3, which is totally understandable. In Weeks 4 and 5, he played 29% of the snaps and finished with seven touches in both games. In Week 6, his snap share fell to 16% and he touched the ball twice. There isn’t a committee in Minnesota. There’s not even one brewing. It’s the Alexander Mattison show. Akers is a pure handcuff and nothing more. If there were hopes he might work his way into eight to 10 touches, or maybe even become the 1A in Minnesota’s backfield, those dreams were ruined this past weekend. He’s completely cuttable. As far as handcuffs go, there are much better ones available.
Emari Demercado, Arizona Cardinals – 61% Rostered
Well, that was fun while it lasted. Arizona called up practice squad member Damien Williams and gave him more touches than Emari Demercado. This backfield looks to be a three-man committee. While Demercado led the team in snaps and routes run, Williams and Keaontay Ingram both received more carries. Demercado had just two carries while Ingram had 10, and Williams had eight.
Even though Demercado ran 27 yards to Ingram’s 11 and Williams’ three, Ingram still ended up out-targeting Demercado two to one. Even Williams, running just three routes to Demercado’s 27, finished with the same number of targets (one). This is an ugly backfield committee on a below-average offense. Starter James Conner will be back in three weeks. Fantasy managers should completely avoid this situation until then.
Dalvin Cook, New York Jets – 55% Rostered
Dalvin Cook is washed. This is Breece Hall’s backfield now. Even if Hall were to get hurt, fantasy managers would be stuck with an inefficient early-down runner with no receiving role (that would fall to Michael Carter) on a bad offense. If you’re thinking the offense has been decent, it really hasn’t been better, but the only reason you might think that is because of Hall. Cook isn’t even a good handcuff. Buh-bye.
Antonio Gibson, Washington Commanders – 55% Rostered
No. Just no. Antonio Gibson is averaging less than five touches per game. He’s currently on pace for just 45 carries and 146 rushing yards. His receiving stats are nowhere near good enough to make up for that. He’s on pace for 48 targets, 37 receptions, and 320 receiving yards. He’s not even on pace for 500 total scrimmage yards. He shouldn’t be anywhere near rosters right now.
Other Running Backs to Cut: Zach Charbonnet, Seattle Seahawks – 50% Rostered, Jerick McKinnon, Kansas City Chiefs – 44% Rostered, Ezekiel Elliott, New England Patriots – 43% Rostered, Samaje Perine, Denver Broncos – 39% Rostered, Jamaal Williams, New Orleans Saints – 39% Rostered
Wide Receivers to Cut in Week 7?
Jahan Dotson, Washington Commanders – 62% Rostered
Wow. I’m not sure what else to say. It is ugly out there. So very ugly. He has one game with double-digit points in half-PPR scoring and he needed the touchdown he scored to accomplish that. In his other five games, Jahan Dotson has been held to less than 6.5 half-PPR points. He’s been held to fewer than five half-PPR points in four out of five games and just put up a goose egg in Week 6. He’s currently on pace for 88 targets, 48 receptions, and 397 yards. He’s got to go.
Tutu Atwell, Los Angeles Rams — 55% Rostered
Three is most definitely a crowd. There’s enough room for Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua in Los Angeles, but not Tutu Atwell, as well. Since Kupp has returned, Atwell has just six targets, three receptions, and 39 yards. If it wasn’t for a two-yard touchdown catch in Week 5, he’d have two straight games below four half-PPR points. I have no doubt there will be some weeks where Atwell splashes, connecting for a long touchdown catch, but predicting when that’ll happen is going to be virtually impossible. He’s nothing more than a boom-or-bust WR5. He can safely be sent to the waiver wire.
Other Wide Receivers to Cut: Skyy Moore, Kansas City Chiefs – 33% Rostered, Odell Beckham Jr., Baltimore Ravens – 31% Rostered, JuJu Smith-Schuster, New England Patriots – 28% Rostered, Treylon Burks, Tennessee Titans – 28% Rostered, Rashod Bateman, Baltimore Ravens – 26% Rostered
Tight Ends to Cut in Week 7?
Tyler Higbee, Los Angeles Rams – 69% Rostered
Atwell has more targets, receptions, and yards than Tyler Higbee, and if three's a crowd to the point where fantasy managers can safely cut Atwell, then four is a horde. Higbee has been pretty dreadful this season. Even prior to Kupp's return, Higbee did not have a single game with double-digit fantasy points. However, since Kupp's return, Higbee has had six targets, four receptions, and 38 yards. He's averaging 2.9 half-PPR points per game over the last two weeks. The workload that Kupp and Nacua are handling is such a large one that when you factor in Atwell and running back Kyren Williams, there's virtually nothing left for Higbee.
Zach Ertz, Arizona Cardinals – 55% Rostered
Zach Ertz has been a volume sponge, but not much more than that. Through six weeks, Ertz does not have a single game over nine half-PPR points. This is despite being one of the most heavily targeted tight ends in the NFL. He has the sixth-most targets, but he's not even in the top 15 in half-PPR PPG scoring for tight ends. That gives you a very good idea of just how inefficient he's been with his targets. He has 168 yards on 24 receptions, which amounts to just seven yards per reception. The worst thing for Ertz is his stranglehold on the starting tight end position in Arizona seems to be slipping.
At long last, the #Cardinals have mercifully reduced Zach Ertz's role. Yesterday:
Snaps: Trey McBride 44, Zach Ertz 35 (out of 76)
Routes: Ertz 24, McBride 22 (on 46 Dobbs dropbacks)
Targets: McBride 5, Ertz 5 (on 41 pass attempts)— Adam Levitan (@adamlevitan) October 16, 2023
The Cardinals are in rebuild mode, so it makes sense for the team to see what they have in Trey McBride. If McBride's role continues to grow, Ertz's value will essentially be washed away. As it stands right now, he's nothing more than a boring TE2 streamer, but if this Week 6 utilization is a sign of things to come, Ertz will be unstartable.
Other Tight Ends to Cut: David Njoku, Cleveland Browns – 55% Rostered, Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh Steelers – 53% Rostered, Hunter Henry, New England Patriots – 48% Rostered
On The Hot Seat
Rachaad White, Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 92% Rostered
Rachaad White is definitely not a must-cut, but the only reason he’s not is that he’s getting a bunch of touches. The running back position is hurting right now and being able to start someone who is averaging 14 carries and 3.2 receptions per game isn’t the worst thing in the world. However, at some point, all the touches in the world don’t mean anything if he’s not going to do anything with them.
Despite having 86 touches through five games and being on pace for 292 touches, White is only on pace to finish with 1,122 yards. That’s just 3.8 yards per touch. That’s just dreadful efficiency. That kind of “production” is bad enough where he could potentially lose his job or at the very least, his stranglehold on the backfield touches.
As nice as all the touches are, and they are, White has been held to under six half-PPR points in three out of five games. He has just one lone contest where he’s scored in double digits. As long as White maintains a hold on basically all of the running back touches, he’ll hold low-end RB3 value during the bye weeks. However, if the touches dry up because he’s doing virtually nothing with them, he’ll be an easy cut. He’s on the hot seat for that reason.
Hold On
Dameon Pierce, Houston Texans – 96% Rostered
We’re holding on to Dameon Pierce, but Week 6 was alarming. Devin Singletary played more snaps, ran more routes, had more targets, received just one fewer carry, and finished with more rushing yards. Many, myself included, expected Pierce to start performing better as Houston’s offensive line got healthier, but that hasn’t been the case.
He cannot be viewed as anything more than an RB3 and cannot be started with any sort of confidence after how the coaches used him and Singletary this past weekend. However, despite the poor Week 6 showing, Pierce is still averaging 17.6 touches per game. That’s 300 over 17 games. That kind of volume is eventually going to lead to fantasy value. Even in Week 6, Pierce still touched the ball 13 times.
He’s had a gauntlet of a six-week schedule. He’s faced teams who have allowed the seventh, 10th, 11th, and 12th fewest rushing yards in the NFL. He’s also played against teams that allowed the second, fourth, ninth, and 15th fewest fantasy points to running backs. For four weeks, he’s been running behind four backup offensive linemen. It hasn’t been pretty, but there’s a reasonable explanation for that. While he cannot be started right now, he shouldn’t be cut either.
Sell High
James Cook, Buffalo Bills – 97% Rostered
Fantasy managers should be very concerned about James Cook’s utilization over the past two weeks. Now might be a good time to sell high. While he didn’t have a great Week 6 game, he did get 14 carries and churned out 71 rushing yards. Fantasy managers may also be able to use Damien Harris’ injury as a selling point that Cook could be on the verge of getting more goal-line touches.
The reality is that those touches appear as though they’ll go to Latavius Murray. Murray and Harris have been chipping into Cook’s workload the past few weeks and as a result, Cook’s fantasy value has quickly deteriorated. He had 13 targets and 10 receptions in the first three weeks of the season. In the past three weeks, he has just five targets and four receptions. In the first three weeks, he had 44 carries compared to just 31 in Weeks 4-6. Everything is moving in the wrong direction along with his point-per-game average, which has fallen from 12.8 to 8.3 half-PPR PPG.
Cook looks more like an RB3 with little upside due to a lack of touchdown opportunity and a declining role in the passing game. However, with mounting injuries, his name value, his association as Buffalo’s starting running back, and Harris’ injury, fantasy managers may be able to sell him as an RB2. If I’m able to do that, I’m jumping at the opportunity.
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