Roster management is the single most crucial in-season task for fantasy football managers. Knowing which players to let go is as important as adding the right guys. Which players find themselves on our Week 9 fantasy football cut list?
Who Should You Cut in Fantasy Football in Week 9?
We are now entering the back half of the fantasy season, so the focus shifts toward the playoffs. Fantasy managers need to be cutting players who are either not going to help them get to the postseason or not going to help them during it.
Matthew Stafford, QB, Los Angeles Rams (72% Rostered)
The state of the QB position in both fantasy and the NFL is as bad as I can ever remember. Even so, why is Matthew Stafford so heavily rostered?
I’m not saying fantasy managers need to rush to drop him, but his roster percentage suggests there was at least something that prompted it to get that high. But there wasn’t.
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Matthew Stafford’s best game this season has been 17.16 fantasy points. To be fair, his worst game was last week with 12.38 fantasy points. He’s been remarkably consistent. But what is that consistency providing? You can easily stream his production. If Stafford is your QB1, don’t be afraid to drop him for a weekly option with a better matchup.
Kirk Cousins, QB, Minnesota Vikings (91% Rostered)
One of the main reasons the QB landscape is so bad is things like this. Tom Brady retired. We’ve been without Kyler Murray for half the season. We lost Aaron Rodgers in Week 1. And now we just lost Kirk Cousins.
The QB12 right now is averaging about 18 fantasy points per game. For context, in 2018, which I believe to be the last year before the start of the decline in QB quality, 20 quarterbacks were averaging at least 18 points per game. It’s a really sad state of affairs right now.
Unfortunately, one of those QBs over 18 points per game will now be jettisoned from rosters. I hate having to put names on here due to injury, especially guys like Cousins who are perennially underappreciated. Yet, here we are.
Jaleel McLaughlin, RB, Denver Broncos (43% Rostered)
The Jaleel McLaughlin story remains a great one. It’s always nice to see UDFAs not only make NFL rosters but carve out meaningful roles. For a moment, it looked as though McLaughlin might win the Broncos starting RB job. But such is the plight of the UDFA.
As Javonte Williams continues to grow more confident in his knee, he continues to play better. This has resulted in McLaughlin’s role decreasing to the point where he’s no longer rosterable in fantasy leagues.
McLaughlin has gone back to playing behind Samaje Perine. He saw a 17% snap share two weeks ago, and just 11% last week.
If Williams were to go down, I still think it would be McLaughlin who sees more work than Perine. But while all three are healthy, McLaughlin has no semblance of a fantasy-relevant role. He is a speculative handcuff, at best.
Dalvin Cook, RB, New York Jets (43% Rostered)
It is Week 9 folks. How is Dalvin Cook still on 43% of rosters? Allow me to lay out Cook’s fantasy performances since Week 2: 0.2, 5.9, 2.8, 2.3, 2.4, 0.5. For those keeping score at home, that’s 14.1 total fantasy points scored over a six-game span. It is completely over.
Once upon a time, there was Dalvin Cook. Now, Dalvin is just cooked. There is no scenario, even a Breece Hall injury, in which Cook would be fantasy viable. He should quite literally be 0% rostered.
Elijah Moore, WR, Cleveland Browns (51% Rostered)
Unlike Cook, Elijah Moore isn’t the worst player to roster. He is at least good enough to not get you zero. Moore has scored 5.0 fantasy points in all but one game this season. Of course, 5.0 isn’t exactly moving the needle for fantasy teams.
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Through seven games, Moore has yet to find the end zone. His best outing came in Week 3 when he caught all nine of his targets for a scorching 49 yards. Other than that, he’s yet to catch more than four passes in a game, nor has he reached double-digits in any other contest.
With the Browns getting bottom-of-the-barrel QB play, regardless of who their starter is, Moore doesn’t need to be rostered.
Kyle Pitts, TE, Atlanta Falcons (94% Rostered)
Allow me to preface this by saying you do not need to drop Kyle Pitts. This isn’t a “what is he doing on your roster?” situation. Rather, this is a “Holy expletive! Why is he still in 94% of rosters?” situation.
Cole Kmet, Dalton Schultz, David Njoku, and Jake Ferguson are all in the 60-70% rostership range. Jonnu Smith is at 37%. Taysom Hill is at 35%. I’m not even counting ascending talents like Dalton Kincaid and Trey McBride.
The issue isn’t so much that Pitts absolutely should not be rostered. Rather, it’s why he is nearly universally rostered while all of these tight ends are not. What do they have in common? Other than McBride, who is a far superior option to Pitts now that Zach Ertz is out, they are all averaging more fantasy points than Pitts.
For some reason, the name value of a guy who hasn’t done anything since 2021 to justify it continues to hold way too much weight. Pitts is just a guy. He is a random TE streamer. There’s no benefit to rostering as your TE1 over a matchup-based play. I am here to tell you that if there’s a TE you want to stream, you can safely drop Pitts.
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