Teams I am DONE With for Fantasy Football (and What to Do About It)

It has only been two weeks of NFL Football, so it may be foolhardy to be so reactionary. However, he who laughs last in fantasy football, looks like an insane man laughing in a room with no viable moves left to make. The early bird gets the worm in this case, but enough with the Mother Goose niceties - let’s examine the teams we are DONE with after only two weeks for fantasy football.

Pittsburgh Steelers - Predictably, the Pittsburgh Steelers offense has become based around the power running of Najee Harris, who has 37 carries through 2 weeks. Najee is a legitimate trade target in this offense as he routinely gains steam as the season wears on and is already getting massive volume shares, even if he’s technically splitting snaps with Jaylen Warren. Jaylen Warren is a nice feature of our offense, but is not relevant except as a deep flex play. If you can still scavenge value by packaging Jaylen Warren with a woeful wide receiver to upgrade running backs, I would definitely make that move. George Pickens is a tremendous player, but will not see consistent enough value to return on his promise for fantasy football. The same can be said for Pat Freirmuth, who, after we joked about it all summer, actually did see the touchdown play go to fellow tight end and mountain of a man, Darnell Washington. The Muth can be cut looth by serious contenders, either as trade bait for tight end needy teams, or as a cut candidate in shallow leagues. Basically, when it comes to this team, I’m willing to hold the two running backs, Najee Harris and Justin Fields. I would be trying to sell high on George Pickens. That is all.

Denver Broncos - Technically, this team should have been first as the Denver Broncos are the worst assets to own in all of fantasy football. I’m biased as a Steelers fan. Genuinely, whatever you can get for Javonta Williams, Courtland Sutton or any other Denver Broncos player, take it. I would trade them for a wet hot dog right now. What is a wet hot dog? Don’t ask…

Los Angeles Rams - The Rams are the guy in all your fantasy leagues bemoaning that his entire lineup has been wiped out by injuries. They had already lost Puka Nacua to IR and now Cooper Kupp seems likely to miss several weeks. The wide receiver room here is going to consist of some walk-ons and longtime fill-ins. First, participating in a Robert Woods look-a-like contest we have Tyler Johnson. Jordan Whittington was a preseason darling who until now couldn’t crack the starting lineup. Demarcus Robinson and Tutu Atwell fill a similar role and have been longtime complimentary pieces for the Rams and will be worth owning in deep leagues, but neither of them saw more than 4 targets against a soft Arizona Cardinals defense. That’s because the Rams are also missing at least four of their five starting offensive linemen and are dealing with a litany of other injuries. As bad as they look right now, I believe Sean McVay can scheme some things up and will end up leaning heavily on his running backs, primarily Kyren Williams. If you can scoop Blake Corum off waivers and make a trade for Kyren, that could be a league winning move when you look back on this early portion of the season. Also, for what it’s worth, I would hold on to Colby Parkinson. He could definitely see yet another uptick in cheap targets as part of the game plan sans Puka and Kupp. It was a rough week against the Cardinals, but the tight end landscape is abysmal, so I would just keep him for now.

Tennessee Titans - Will Levis must be a distant relative of Thanos in some alternate universe. He is inevitable. For as tremendous as he is as an athlete, Levis will inevitably leave you scratching your head as he makes some mind-bending decision that ends up costing his team the game. It’s like a bad parody of the Matrix. There is no spoon. I digress… The Titans do have a couple things going for them, namely a trio of competent wide receivers, a passable tight end target and an excellent running back in one Tony Pollard. If you can somehow loosen Tony Pollard from the steely grips of his managers, it is worth the attempt. Calvin Ridley will have disappearing acts, but he will also have monster games such as he had this week. Regardless of his flaws, Will Levis does not fear the deep ball. However, I am actively shopping Ridley off the back of this good week, as he will definitely be a roller coaster player and I am trying to trade down into a more consistent asset. There is a chance Levis can still turn this thing around, but it doesn’t seem likely.

Chicago Bears - Yeah, we get it. The NFL has grown men playing to feed their families and the college game is different. NFL and fantasy football analysts have breathlessly brought up this talking point that I brought up pre-draft as concerns for Caleb Williams going number one overall. My other concern was the Chicago Bears stubborn nature of keeping the existing coaching staff on that one season too long, namely the rookie season of your potentially generational quarterback. As we’ve seen with the Carolina Panthers and Bryce Young, the Bears are potentially playing a dangerous game here. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron seems incapable of getting this offense going and the players seem generally frustrated. DJ Moore especially looked dejected during their Sunday Night Football matchup against the Houston Texans, who by contrast have done wonders with their young franchise quarterback in CJ Stroud. While I do project this team to get better in the second half of the season, if you are suffering an 0-2 start or a particularly bad string of injuries, I would aggressively shop DJ Moore and D’Andre Swift while they still have most of their value. By the time this offense finally starts clicking, it may not matter for your fantasy football team.

Carolina Panthers - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ok, now that we got that out of the way, it’s crazy to think that the solution to the Carolina Panthers offense is likely their longtime backup and former starter, Andy Dalton. I think Dalton will be effective in running Dave Canales’ system and reviving the fantasy football worth of not just Diontae Johnson, but also Adam Thielen. If Thielen has made it to waivers, I would be aggressively targeting him given the slew of injuries at wide receiver. Thielen was running wide open on a route where Bryce Young couldn’t even conceive of making that read. Andy Dalton will make that play all day. Speaking of Dalton, I am making heavy waiver wire claims on him also, especially in my Super Flex leagues where I’m dealing with injuries or myopic play from the quarterbacks. I do think Diontae Johnson will see more serviceable games now, but Thielen is the cheaper option and trade target for me. As far as the rest of this team, I need to see how the running back snap shares break down with Dalton under center, as so far Miles Sanders has led the way and done absolutely nothing with it. None of them are even worth rostering at this point, but maybe that changes under the Red Rifle. Hope springs eternal with grandpa Dalton at the helm for the Carolina Panthers, but otherwise, I’m still mostly done with this team for fantasy football.