CFF Keep Or Cut? – Week 3
The first order of business each week of the College Fantasy Football season is to evaluate the players on your roster and decide if there are players that could be cut to make room for new talent. Purple Reign has reviewed last week’s action and identified several players that fantasy owners may be considering the “Keep Or Cut?” question for.
QUARTERBACKS: Keep
Seth Henigan (Mem)
Fantrax Ownership 96%
Season Stats: 62 Att, 42 Comp, 469 P-Yds, 3 P-TDs, 0 INT, 6 Ru-Att, 24 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
What jumps out to me about Henigan is the lack of passing TD production. In Week 1 the ground game tore up an FCS opponent, but Week 2 brought a Troy team that would be a good measuring stick for the later schedule. He could only produce 1 TD on 32 pass attempts in that game. Henigan won’t get a good match-up for passing production until Week 5 against Middle Tennessee (Week 4 against Navy is questionable). The meat of his good fantasy match-ups are in the middle portion of the schedule starting in Week 7. You’re going to need to hang in there with Henigan on your bench for a while before we know if the passing TD production gets fixed or not.
KJ Jefferson (UCF)
Fantrax Ownership 96%
Season Stats: 29 Att, 19 Comp, 333 P-Yds, 2 P-TD, 1 INT, 20 Ru-Att, 89 Ru-Yds, 1 Ru-TD
This is the second week in a row that Jefferson has made this article. The hopes of Jefferson racking up rushing stats just hasn’t materialized. Part of that is due to RJ Harvey being dominant against inferior competition. The passing stats aren’t there because the ground game has been clicking. His Week 3 match-up with TCU will provide a defense where Jefferson will have to be more involved in the offensive production for UCF to win. If he fails that test and continues to be a “game manager” then he will be a solid cut option. The clock is ticking for Jefferson to show us what type of fantasy player he will be this season.
Kyron Drones (VaTec)
Fantrax Ownership 94%
Season Stats: 54 Att, 36 Comp, 452 P-Yds, 3 P-TD, 1 INT, 31 Ru-Att, 32 Ru-Yds, 1 Ru-TD
There are a couple of things that have me concerned about Drones. First is his lack of rushing production. A running QB that’s not generating rushing production is not a good thing. Second is the competition level played. Drones has not played in a blowout FCS game where he was pulled early. Instead, he has been in competitive games where he’s played for four quarters. Keep Drones on your roster for now but keep an eye on his rushing production moving forward.
Jalon Daniels (Kans)
Fantrax Ownership 68%
Season Stats: 47 Att, 27 Comp, 289 P-Yds, 3 P-TD, 4 INT, 10 Ru-Att, 35 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
I’m going to give Daniels one more week to see how he plays against UNLV before I move him to the Cut list. He has shown in the past that he is a dynamic runner, but he has only carried the ball 10 times for 3.5 yards/carry. All of those carries where against Illinois who is stingy with their rush defense. UNLV should provide him the opportunity to break some runs. My other big concern for Daniels is his 4 INTs. The majority of those came against Illinois, and my worries are that his INT problem could persist in conference play.
QUARTERBACKS: Cut
Preston Stone (SMU)
Fantrax Ownership 76%
Season Stats: 43 Att, 25 Comp, 336 P-Yds, 3 P-TD, 1 INT, 11 Ru-Att, 29 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
Stone has been a massive disappointment this season. He has not played an entire game yet, instead splitting time with Kevin Jennings. In Week 2 Stone was pulled from the game in favor of Jennings. Even when Stone is in the game, the SMU WRs haven’t shown much ability to gain separation and make plays. Even if Stone is the full-time starter moving forward the schedule is getting harder and the WRs will struggle even more.
Riley Leonard (ND)
Fantrax Ownership 74%
Season Stats: 62 Att, 38 Comp, 321 P-Yds, 0 P-TDs, 23 Ru-Att, 79 Ru-Yds, 1 Ru-TD
After two games Leonard has ZERO passing TDs. There’s no excuse why he couldn’t connect for at least one TD against Northern Illinois. I do think he will play better in conference than he did against Northern Illinois, but the lack of any explosiveness in the air is extremely worrisome when he plays in an offensive system that put up the numbers that LSU put up last season. I have a feeling this Notre Dame will focus on the running game, their strong defense, and playing field position. This is not the offensive philosophy we want to see for a fantasy QB.
Jacob Zeno (UAB)
Fantrax Ownership 41%
Season Stats: 64 Att, 45 Comp, 382 P-Yds, 2 P-TD, 2 INT, 16 Ru-Att, 34 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
The hopes that the UAB offense would become more explosive in year two with Zeno just isn’t materializing. As I mentioned last week’s Keep Or Cut article, Zeno is “dink & dunking” the ball around. His 6.0 yards/attempt is well below his 2023 8.3 yards/attempt numbers. Last season Zeno threw 9 INTs and he already has 2 INTs this season. Alcorn State and UL-Monroe aren’t the stiffest of competition and I’m worried about the upcoming schedule as it doesn’t become favorable until Week 8 with South Florida and Week 10 with Tulsa.
LaNorris Sellers (SCar)
Fantrax Ownership 40%
Season Stats: 38 Att, 21 Comp, 273 P-Yds, 2 P-TD, 1 INT, 29 Ru-Att, 64 Ru-Yds, 1 Ru-TD
Sellers has faced off with Old Dominion and Kentucky so far this year. The Kentucky game gives us a good preview of what we can expect from him once conference play begins. The good thing is that he is averaging 14.5 rushing attempts per game, but he’s only averaging 2.2 yards/carry. Without strong fantasy production on the ground he would need to make up for things in the air but the workload just isn’t there as he’s averaging only 19 pass attempts/game. Sellers is bound to have some good weeks in him later this season, but I believe its going to be too difficult to accurately predict when to put him in your line-up.
Dequan Finn (Bayl)
Fantrax Ownership 38%
Season Stats: 43 Att, 23 Comp, 307 P-Yds, 3 P-TD, 2 INT, 19 Ru-Att, 26 Ru-Yds, 1 Ru-TD
Finn was a great fantasy asset while at Toledo because he could use his legs and rack up fantasy points on the ground. Moving up to the Power 4 has proved difficult, as Finn is just averaging 1.4 yards/carry. His workload has been good with 8.5 carries per game, and while it would be difficult to rack up rushing stats against Utah, he could only muster 19 yards on 6 carries against an FCS team in Week 1. Finn won’t be able to generate fantasy worthy numbers with this type of rushing production combined with an average of 21.5 pass attempts/game.
RUNNING BACKS: Keep
Jalen White (GaSo)
Fantrax Ownership 94%
Season Stats: 18 Att, 56 Ru-Yds, 3 Ru-TD, 6 Tgt, 6 Rec, 14 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
I am placing White on the Keep list only if you have depth at RB on your roster. If you need to make room for improvements and have limited options I’d say cut him now and focus on getting fantasy wins. As of today, I wouldn’t put White in my starting line-up until Week 7 against Marshal and Week 9 against Old Dominion. That’s a long time to keep White on your bench. The issue with White is that he is not getting the type of workload we would expect. In Week 2 he only received 7 carries while the coaches split his reps with OJ Arnold who had 7 carries as well. The lack of RB carries in Week 2 wasn’t due to QB JC French stealing them as he only had 3 carries in that game. White is a LONG way from the 20 carries/game we expected to see and the way this season is unfolding I’m not sure if he will get to that workload level.
Roman Hemby (MD)
Fantrax Ownership 53%
Season Stats: 26 Att, 101 Ru-Yds, 1 Ru-TD, 4 Tgt, 4 Rec, 16 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
I am going to advice on holding off one more week before making the decision to cut Hemby. Michigan State provided a competitive opponent in Week 2, and Virginia will be another one in Week 3. If the coaches continue to split carries between Hemby and Nolan Ray against Virginia, then its going to be the sign that this is how the coaches are going to handle the rushing workload for the remainder of the season. We want to see Hemby getting at least 18 caries next week, but as of now he is only averaging 13 carries/game. This current workload level won’t provide enough production against the tough Big Ten defenses that Hemby will face in conference play.
RUNNING BACKS: Cut
Donovan Edwards (Mich)
Fantrax Ownership 100%
Season Stats: 19 Att, 68 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD, 4 Tgt, 3 Rec, 2 Rc-Yds, 1 Rc-TD
I said it last week and I’m saying it again, cut Edwards. The Michigan offense is just a shell of what it was last year. The QB play is terrible, allowing defenses to load the box to stop the run. The offensive line can’t generate enough push to give consistent holes to the RBs. Edwards’ 3.6 yards/carry highlight his lack of running vision. This year’s Michigan offense is just a lost cause.
Gavin Sawchuk (Okla)
Fantrax Ownership 99%
Season Stats: 10 Att, 19 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
Back in fall camp word was spreading that Jovantae Barnes was making a case to be the lead back. With two games under the belt this looks to be the case. In a Week 2 game that was surprisingly competitive with Houston, Barnes logged 12 carries compared to Sawchuk’s 4 carries. This is another example of workload expectations not meeting workload reality. The fact that QB Jackson Arnold is eating up rushing opportunities also hurts Sawchuk’s outlook of getting his workload increased moving forward.
Jacquez Stuart (Toled)
Fantrax Ownership 71%
Season Stats: 11 Att, 48 Ru-Yds, 2 Ru-TD, 3 Tgt, 2 Rec, 7 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-Td
Last week I made the recommendation to cut Stuart and I’m including him again since his Fantrax ownership is still high at 71%. The simple fact is that Toledo is spreading out their rushing attempts and Stuart is averaging 5.5 carries/game. He will never be a fantasy worthy player with that small of a workload.
Kaleb Jackson (LSU)
Fantrax Ownership 64%
Season Stats: 14 Att, 33 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD, 2 Tgt, 2 Rec, 13 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
The coaches are hell bent on splitting carries with the LSU RBs. Fantasy owners were hoping that the lost rushing attempts from last year’s QB Jalen Daniels would trickle down to this year’s RBs, but that just hasn’t been the case. Jackson would need to receive at least 15 carries/game to start to become relevant, but his 2.4 yards/carry aren’t good enough with that small of a workload. There’s just no way I can see Jackson improve his efficiency numbers or workload enough to make him fantasy worthy.
Nathan Carter (MSU)
Fantrax Ownership 37%
Season Stats: 30 Att, 107 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD, 3 Tgt, 1 Rec, -1 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
If you’re part of the 37% of people on Fantrax that is still holding on to Carter, you need to change that. The coaching staff is splitting the workload between him and Kayron Lynch-Adams. The Week 2 Maryland game gave us the preview of what we can expect for the rest of the season as Maryland is a conference opponent and the game was competitive and close in score.
WIDE RECEIVERS: Keep
Germie Bernard (Bama)
Fantrax Ownership 99%
Season Stats: 8 Tgt, 5 Rec, 70 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD, 1 Ru-Att, 13 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
Things improved for Bernard in Week 2 as his target share improved to 7 targets in that game. The concern is that his opportunities with the football are not as explosive as we’re seeing with Ryan Williams. We just can’t fully assess the Bama passing game yet. Week 1 was a blowout where the ball was being spread everywhere. Week 2 was a sloppy game that stayed close until late. The Week 3 game with Wisconsin will be a good benchmark to assess what Bernard’s role will be moving forward.
Will Pauling (Wisc)
Fantrax Ownership 98%
Season Stats: 15 Tgt, 10 Rec, 108 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
I have slight concerns over Pauling’s workload. He received 10 targets in Week 1 and that game was competitive despite playing a MAC school. In week 2 he only had 5 targets but that was likely due to the coaches focusing on the ground game against an FCS foe. Pauling needs a heavy workload to be fantasy relevant and that’s all that you should focus on right now (ignore the lack of TDs). The Week 3 game against Alabama and the Week 5 game against USC will give us a look at how much workload Pauling will see this season. If he is getting 8+ targets in each of those games you can stick with him.
WIDE RECEIVERS: Cut
Noah Smith (SamHu)
Fantrax Ownership 95%
Season Stats: 6 Tgt, 3 Rec, 16 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD, 1 Ru-Att, 6 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
What made Smith a good fantasy WR last season was a heavy workload. That workload has dried up this season as he has gone from 9.2 targets/game in 2023 to 3 targets/game in 2024. Cutting Smith is an extremely easy when he is getting 33% of the target share he received last season.
LaJohntay Wester (Colo)
Fantrax Ownership 88%
Season Stats: 15 Tgt, 9 Rec, 78 Rc-Yds
Last week I commented on how the offense looked like they were using Wester as the third option in the offense and relegating him to underneath routes. While the Nebraska game was not good for the Colorado passing game, the offense showed us that Wester’s yards/reception is still too low. I’ve seen enough on how the Colorado offense is using him to where I don’t see his role changing.
Will Sheppard (Colo)
Fantrax Ownership 50%
Season Stats: 6 Tgt, 5 Rec, 82 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
As I mentioned above with Wester, I have seen how the Colorado passing game is utilizing different WRs and Sheppard is another victim of being a dump off option in this offense. I don’t understand why they don’t use Sheppard as a field stretcher more, but since he is serving the fourth option its time to cut him loose.
TIGHT ENDS: Keep/Cut
None