With all the major injuries mounting—and all the random salaciousness with Anthony Richardson’s benching, the Diontae Johnson trade—it’s getting harder and harder to cut fantasy assets with potential value. Any one of them could be a league-winner, maybe. Who represents a fantasy football drop for NFL Week 9?
But still, nonetheless, many of us will face roster conundrums ahead of waivers this week. With whom can we confidently part, feeling like whatever potential upside these players had at the beginning of the season is all but faded away? That’s the key question.
Let’s get into it.
Drop ’em
Anthony Richardson, QB, Indianapolis Colts
I don’t mean to be taking such curmudgeonly stances the last two weeks, but the NFL has been a little unhinged in Weeks 7 and 8, no? Richardson pulling himself out of the game on Sunday because he was out of breath wasn’t even the most salacious story from Sunday. Feel free to do your own research re. the rest. We’ll stick with Richardson, here.
You’re not dropping Richardson because I’m a curmudgeon. You’re dropping Richardson because of the atrocious dead-last completion percentage stat you’ve seen floating around the social mediasphere. The one that ranks him right around the likes of Tim Tebow and JaMarcus Russell. It’s, to say the least, not franchise-quarterback company.
It’s entirely possible Richardson starts again before the Colts’ Week 14 BYE. This could just be a slap on the hand. But he’s fantasy’s QB27. Keep in mind he missed a game and a half. So, really, he’s like QB21-22.
Still not good enough. He’s no more of an upside play in this Colts offense in 2024 than Justin Fields is should he ever start for the Steelers again. And Justin Fields is on most, if not all, standard league waiver wires.
Jordan Whittington, WR, Los Angeles Rams
No doubt the Rams loved what they saw from Whittington in their Week 5 loss to the Green Bay Packers. I wrote a piece about how McVay had Whittington out there running the Puka Nacua route tree. At the time, Nacua’s knee injury was thought to keep him out several weeks longer than his Week 8 return against the Vikings. It was feasible to think Whittington might get a few games of Nacua-opportunity.
No longer. The boys are back. I’m sure Whittington will get action, but this is a Rams team that needs to run the table—despite the barren desert that is the NFC West—in order to be a legitimate contender. They’re unlikely to go away too much from Nacua and Kupp, unless there’s still some lingering injury concerns there. Which there might be, specifically for Kupp.
In any case, Whittington is droppable. He’s a WR3 with upside (how many times have we said that this year?), and he’s, like, one of five of those on the Rams.
Isaiah Likely, TE, Baltimore Ravens
Who do we think is going to be negatively-affected most by the Diontae Johnson trade to the Ravens? Could be Bateman, seeing as Diontae Johnson’s ability to create space and be aggressive at contested-catch points has led to a similar yards per route/yards per target profile.
But with the re-emergence of Mark Andrews, the why-would-you-go-away-from-it success with Bateman downfield, and whatever hybrid gameplan Todd Monken has for Zay Flowers that’s only half working, I think Flowers and Isaiah Likely are the ones on the chopping block, unfortunately.
Flowers is a different story, but Likely isn’t poised to see the uptick in volume we thought he might after his 2024 opening night. The Diontae Johnson trade was the death knell for hopes of a TE1 year.
Justice Hill, RB, Baltimore Ravens
Similar to Likely above, it feels like Justice Hill’s best games were game-script dependent. And the Ravens haven’t found themselves in too many negative game scripts this year. I doubt this Browns loss will do anything but rekindle the flame anew for hanging numbers on lesser opponents.
Hill hasn’t been involved the last four games. Time to move on.
Jerry Jeudy, WR, Cleveland Browns
I’m over it. I looked at the Browns’ advanced receiving metrics from their win against the Ravens on Sunday. David Njoku, Cedric Tillman, and Elijah Moore all scored better than Jerry Jeudy did.
It’s just not gonna happen with this guy at a WR2 level in 2024. Probably never. I say again: I’m over it.
JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR, Kansas City Chiefs
DeAndre Hopkins, at the very least, halves Juju’s potential volume going forward. It’s Fortnite and TikTok for our favorite logo-dancer, as far as fantasy’s concerned. He’ll win a ring with the Chiefs this year, maybe, but he’s not going to catch more than five passes in any game the rest of the year.
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