Week 11 was wildly entertaining! From Thursday Night Football, to the historic Monday Night Football game, NFL fans really were treated to an array of premiere games and matchups with playoff-like implications. While you may have the desire to rage-cut Todd Gurley after his disappointing effort — which cost me the playoffs in one of my leagues — here is a more realistic list of fantasy players to drop this week.
Michael Crabtree (WR, BAL)
It has just not worked out for Michael Crabtree in Baltimore. Fantasy owners drafted the ex-Red Raider for his ability to dominate in the red zone, yet he has only two touchdowns. Part of Crabtree’s failed season could be traced back to the team’s offensive mindset to run the ball first. You also cannot deny that the emergence of teammate John Brown has also put further pressure on Crabtree.
[Week 12 Fantasy Football Analysis: See waiver wire pickups, players to drop, sleepers, streaming kickers, streaming defenses and more.]
Diving into the numbers for this year, Crabtree has only finished as a WR2 once, WR3 twice, and has left fantasy owners with single-digit point results in three consecutive weeks. Finally, factor in the quarterback drama and you can confidently drop Crabtree. There are too many emerging WR’s that you can go and grab on waivers this week to wait any longer for Crabtree to emerge.
Nelson Agholor (WR, PHI)
Golden Tate has clearly taken over the slot duty for the Eagles, a job that once belonged to Nelson Agholor. This comes as no surprise, even though Agholor out-snapped Tate in Week 10, 55-to-18. The biggest surprise was that Agholor gifted his fantasy owners an ugly, zero-point effort. Yes, the entire offense was messy for Philly this week.
What hurts the most about Agholor has been his inability to create big-plays, as he did in 2017. With the full implementation of Golden Tate into the Philly offense, Agholor’s floor has been demolished and he can safely be removed from your team.
Kirk Cousins (QB, MIN)
Alright, I get it — this one could be tough to swallow but hear me out. Kirk Cousins is a player you can cut in some leagues. If you take out his two 35-point games, surprisingly, you are left with a quarterback that averages 16 fantasy points per game. A 16-point average is on par with the likes of Joe Flacco, Dak Prescott, Andy Dalton and Matthew Stafford – granted, they do not have the ceiling Cousins possesses. Within the same aforementioned games, Cousins has finished in the QB1 group only twice and is the 16th ranked quarterback during that time.
Another element to consider is Dalvin Cook, who is finally back at the helm of Minnesota’s running game, which will only eat into Cousins’ floor further. While I do not endorse all teams cutting Cousins, I would in smaller leagues; in larger leagues, I would be prepared for the tough matchups and stream better quarterbacks when possible.
Corey Clement (RB, PHI)
When Jay Ajayi experienced his unfortunate, season-ending injury, Corey Clement seemed like the running back to go out and get. Clement even posted two double-digit games (Weeks 2 and 3), furthering the expectation that he would become the main running back and excel in the role.
But fantasy experts got it wrong as Clement was finally shown the backseat to fellow running back Josh Adams. Frankly, anyone who has been watching the Eagles regularly knew this was imminent. Recently, Adams has looked like the best running back in camp. Head Coach Doug Pederson reinforced this by allowing Adams to out-touch Clement 10-to-4. And it would have been more, had the game script been friendlier to the Eagles’ running backs. As for Wendell Smallwood, he is still the primary receiving back, thus leaving Clement without a consistent role on the offense.
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