Read The Athletic’s latest fantasy football drops advice.
Fun fact. Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving. Know how I know this?
All the turkeys in my fantasy lineups.
At quarterback, Dak Prescott showed that he is totally up to the task of playing an elite defense on a national stage — by throwing for 153 yards and three interceptions against the San Francisco 49ers.
Advertisement
At running back, Rhamondre Stevenson continued his foray through the fourth circle of hell that is the New England offense. After 8 carries for 24 yards and no catches against the New Orleans Saints, Stevenson is averaging 2.1 yards per carry and ranks 45th in PPR points among running backs over the past three weeks.
Among wide receivers, Jahan Dotson continued the breakout season fantasy pundits (like this one) suggested was coming in 2023 by not breaking out at all against the Chicago Bears. Five games in, Dotson is averaging all of 28 receiving yards a game and ranks 63rd in PPR points among wide receivers.
Woo… hoo.
Now, you won’t find any of those players among this week’s drop candidates. We haven’t hit the point of no return with them yet — at least in most leagues — but with each passing clunker, it becomes more and more tempting to vote them off the island.
(Rostered percentages courtesy of Yahoo)
Daniel Jones, QB, NYG (55% — Droppable in 12-team leagues)
Jones is more a sad drop than an angry one. To be clear, his QB23 ranking after five games is gross, but it’s not all his fault. It’s not even mostly his fault — his wide receivers are hot garbage and his offensive line consists of five matadors. Now, after being sacked approximately 137 times in five weeks, Jones has a neck injury — one that he told reporters feels similar to the 2021 injury that cost him six games.
“Dealt with a similar issue [in 2021]. I’ll meet with the doctors and trainers and go from there,” Jones said. “It’s part of playing the position. You’re going to get hit playing in the NFL. There are good pass-rushers on the other side. So I have to look at what I can do to get the ball out of my hands, get the ball in space.”
Unless Jones starts throwing passes pre-snap (which would be a neat trick) it’s unclear what exactly he can do differently, as every dropback is, “Set, Hut OH GOD HELP ME THEY’RE EVERYWHERE [Splat].” You know that new secondary character in The Walking Dead you just knew was going to be Zombie Chow by the end of the episode? That’s Daniel Jones right now. His scrambling is the only thing that has salvaged any fantasy value at all, and now he’s hurt.
Advertisement
At least he’s being paid handsomely to get beaten to a pulp every week.
Dalvin Cook, RB, NYJ (69% — Droppable in 12-team leagues)
Does everyone remember the Dalvin Cook saga? The drama? The anticipation? First it was, “where will Cook wind up?” Then, once he signed with the New York Jets, it was, “What does this mean for Breece Hall?” When Cook put pen to paper in the Big Apple, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers talked up what a big-time addition it was.
“Dalvin has got it done for a long time at a high level, he’s motivated, he wants to win a championship,” Rodgers said, via the Associated Press. “Obviously, he made it well known to me during the process he wanted to play with me and play here, in Jersey, so we’re excited to have him, excited to get him in here.”
Well, we know what happened to Rodgers. And Cook hasn’t been that much more impactful.
OK, that was a little mean — to Rodgers.
In five games with the Jets, Cook has 36 carries for 97 yards. That’s a robust 2.7 yards per carry. Over a third of those carries came in Week 1. Last week in Denver, Breece Hall carried the ball 22 times for a career-high 177 yards. Cook received six carries for 23 yards and wasn’t targeted in the passing game.
If you have Hall rostered and want to keep Cook as a handcuff, fine. But Cook has no standalone fantasy value. None. Zero. Zilch.
Brandin Cooks, WR, DAL (47% — Droppable in 12-team leagues)
Hey! Speaking of veteran additions who haven’t amounted to jack squat, how about that Brandin Cooks?
When Cooks was traded for the fourth time (not even gonna go there — I already get accused of being too snarky), he was supposed to be the missing piece for the Dallas offense. The veteran presence, with six 1,000-yard seasons on his resume, was tabbed to fill the void opposite CeeDee Lamb that was noticeable after Amari Cooper was traded last year. Per the Athletic’s own Saad Yousuf, Dak Prescott raved about Cooks just before the season started.
Advertisement
“Just understanding when we added him, going back and looking at his resume, looking at the guys he’s played with, the quarterbacks and the coaches he’s played under, I knew we were getting a true professional,” Prescott said. “I guess you can say he’s exceeded my expectations. It’s really just the man he is, honestly. The way he’s come in, he’s led this group, he’s taken every responsibility that we’ve given him head on and has mastered that. Now, it’s about just going out there and putting it to real game action.”
Yeah, about that last part…
Five weeks into the season, Cooks is fifth on the Cowboys in targets. He has nine catches for 73 yards for the season. His catch percentage of 47.4 is dead last among Dallas wideouts. And he has scored as many touchdowns for the Cowboys in 2023 as I have. It was understandable to fall for the hype over the summer, but the reality has been much different in the fall.
Michael Wilson, WR, ARI (42 % — Droppable in 12-team leagues)
This one’s going to make a select group of people unhappy — said group being folks who just dumped a chunk of FAAB on the rookie wideout after his 7-catch, 2-TD game against the 49ers in Week 4. It was an outburst that made the third-round pick out of Stanford a hot waiver commodity, but one that Cardinals quarterback Joshua Dobbs said shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
“I was impressed when I got here,” Dobbs said, via Darren Urban of the team’s website. “I turned on the film and was just getting up to speed on the personnel just watching OTA reps, camp reps and the preseason games and he jumped off the film like, ‘Hey, who’s this?’ I thought it was a second-, third-year player in watching the film and I know that’s the rookie receiver Mike. That was really impressive. It was different once you get in the stadium, now you have longer game plans and more studying to do and stuff like that, but he’s owned it.”
That Wilson followed that big game up with 1 catch for 18 yards on 2 targets against the Cincinnati Bengals, in and of itself, isn’t reason to cut bait. But the reality is that Wilson has been targeted five times in a game once this year. He’s caught five passes in a game once this year. And he’s scored a touchdown in one game this year. Could there be another big game? Maybe. But there will all but certainly be clunkers scattered all around it.
David Njoku, TE, CLE (59% — Droppable in 12-team leagues)
I have a pair of confessions to make. The first is that I am a lifelong Browns fan — feel free to send sympathy cards (and nothing says “I care” in a sympathy card like cash — just saying). The second is that I have no earthly idea why Cleveland pays Njoku over $13 million a season. When I think about it, it makes my head hurt — almost as much as when fantasy managers invest draft capital in the 27-year-old in the hopes he’ll be a viable fantasy starter.
Advertisement
Is Njoku talented? Yes. Is he athletic? Sure. But that doesn’t much matter unless he has a prolate spheroid in his hands. And the numbers have just never really been there with Njoku. His career-high in catches (58) was set last year. He has never had 650 receiving yards or 5 touchdowns in a season. And he’s been targeted more than 80 times once in six-plus seasons. He has one Top 10 fantasy season (2018).
So far this year, Njoku has caught 16 of 18 targets for 138 yards without a touchdown — numbers that slot him a robust 20th in PPR fantasy points at his position. I’d need both hands to count the number of tight ends who have both higher fantasy upside and a lower rostered percentage than Njoku. Pick up Dalton Schultz. Heck, even Jimmy Graham’s corpse has a touchdown already this season.
CBSSports.com Most Viewed (as of 10/10)
When Gary isn’t railing about the unfairness of it all, you can find him on Twitter @IDPSharks
(Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k3JrcXFgaHxzfJFsZmpoX2Z9cMPHqGSdp12eeqW%2BzqlksJ2VoHp3edaaoK%2BdomLEqr7EaA%3D%3D