CFF Keep Or Cut? – Week 6
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: 195 Att, 125 Comp, 1339 P-Yds, 7 P-TD, 2 INT, 24 Ru-Att, 60 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
Henigan has not had a single game with more than 2 passing TDs in 2024. This is due to the coaching staff favoring the running game inside the red zone. Its surprising that Henigan is averaging 39 pass attempts/game but only averaging 1.4 passing TDs/game. His receiving core isn’t making enough plays to score on long throws. Wait until his next two games in Weeks 7-8 when he faces South Florida and North Texas which should be favorable match-ups. If he fails to put up TDs in those games it will be time to cut him.
Noah Fifita (Ariz)
Fantrax Ownership 84%
Season Stats: 130 Att, 82 Comp, 1060 P-Yds, 7 P-TD, 4 INT, 9 Ru-Att, 13 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
I like that Fifita has thrown the ball more than 30 times in three of his four games. He’s not going to give you rushing stats so he needs to be productive through the air. When you remove the New Mexico game he has been lacking in throwing production. Over the last three games he’s averaging 1 TD/game and has only cracked 200 yards passing once. His Week 6 match-up with Texas Tech will tell is what to do with him. If he has a good game and remains on your roster, you’ll have three more games where he can serve as a spot starter in your line-up.
Kyron Drones (VaTec)
Fantrax Ownership 94%
Season Stats: 140 Att, 83 Comp, 954 Y-Yds, 4\6 P-TD, 4 INT, 61 Ru-Att, 261 Ru-Yds, 2 Ru-TD
Summary of previous week’s Cut write-ups: Has had up and down performances in both competitive and blow out games, has good rushing workload but lacking TDs, wait until Week 6 match-up with Stanford to make a decision, best portion of the schedule is Weeks 9-11.
QUARTERBACKS: Cut
None
RUNNING BACKS: Keep
Ollie Gordon (OkSt)
Fantrax Ownership 100%
Season Stats: 88 Att, 334 Ru-Yds, 4 Ru-TD, 18 Tgt, 12 Rec, 80 Rc-Yds, 1 Rc-TD
There are many people that think Gordon got injured in the Week 2 game against Arkansas and he’s been playing hurt ever since. In Week 1 against San Diego State, Gordon averaged 4.5 yards/carry. In the next two games he averaged 2.9 and 2.4 yards a carry against Arkansas and Tulsa. Neither of those two run defenses are as good as Week 4 opponent Utah, but in that game Gordon’s average raised to 3.8 yards/carry. Last week was the first time Gordon got back his efficiency stats back up, running for 5.1 yards/carry against Kansas State. It looks like Gordon is recovering from that “ghost injury” from Week 2. He still hasn’t had more than 17 carries/game since that injury but we can look for a workload increase in this week’s game against West Virginia which is followed by a bye. After the bye its best to leave Gordon on the bench until Week 11 when the schedule opens up with quality match-ups.
Damien Martinez (MiaFL)
Fantrax Ownership 100%
Season Stats: 54 Att, 250 Ru-Yds, 4 Ru-TD, 8 Tgt, 6 Rec, 79 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
Its still difficult to predict a good game to start Martinez. All five games he’s had this year have been against run defenses that are ranked #99 or worse in fantasy points allowed but he’s only been able to put up two good fantasy performances. There’s only two games remaining against run defenses ranked #81 or worse in fantasy points allowed. There may be games where the match-up isn’t good but the coaches feed him the ball to run out the clock. If it was me I would look to move him ASAP, but I’d still hang onto him unless I see a back getting a good workload consistently.
Kaden Feagin (Ill)
Fantrax Ownership 76%
Season Stats: 67 Att, 306 Ru-Yds, 3 Ru-TD, 6 Tgt, 5 Rec, 37 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
It looks like Feagin will not be the next Ron Dayne. After averaging 16 carries/game over the first two weeks his workload has fallen to 11.67 carries/game since. He’s only broken 100 yards once against an FCS school, hasn’t scored a TD in two games, and the offense has a tendency to throw the ball in the red zone more than hand it off. If you have him you should start him in Week 6 against Purdue, but after that there isn’t another favorable match-up until Week 13 against a Rutgers rush defense that ranks #75 in fantasy points allowed. Once you squeeze whatever juice you can from him this week, drop him next week.
Jaydn Ott (Cal)
Fantrax Ownership 100%
Season Stats: 40 Att, 133 Ru-Yds, 2 Ru-TD, 8 Tgt, 8 Rec, 40 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
Summary of previous week’s Cut write-ups: Only good game this season has come against an FCS team, is only averaging 13.3 carries/game, upcoming schedule has bad match-ups, would wait to see how he plays against NC State in Week 8 before making a decision to keep or cut him.
RUNNING BACKS: Cut
Tomarion Harden (UCLA)
Fantrax Ownership 90%
Season Stats: 41 Att, 125 Ru-Yds, 1 Ru-TD, 15 Tgt, 13 Rec, 88 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
If you remove the Indiana game from Harden’s stats, he has ran the ball a total of 29 times for 77 yards and no TDs in three games. His workload is too low, and his efficiency stats vary too much from week to week. UCLA will be at the bottom of the Big Ten standings and they will find themselves in many games where the game script calls for throwing the ball from behind. Add in the difficulty of Big Ten rush defenses and you have a recipe for some awful match-ups remaining on Harden’s schedule.
Donovan Edwards (Mich)
Fantrax Ownership 100%
Season Stats: 59 Att, 258 Ru-Yds, 2 Ru-TD, 9 Tgt, 7 Rec, 23 Rc-Yds, 1 Rc-TD
Summary of previous week’s Cut write-ups: Only averaging 11.8 carries/game, not going to retake the RB1 job and see a workload increase outside of injury.
Gavin Sawchuk (Okla)
Fantrax Ownership 99%
Season Stats: 18 Att, 33 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD, 3 Tgt, 2 Rec, 10 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
Summary of previous week’s Cut write-ups: The QB position is syphoning too many rushing opportunities, Sawchuk is running second string and averaging a paltry 4.5 carries/game.
Jamal Haynes (GaTec)
Fantrax Ownership 98%
Season Stats: 58 Att, 238 Ru-Yds, 5 Ru-TD, 11 Tgt, 11 Rec, 64 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
Summary of previous week’s Cut write-ups: Has scored a TD in all but one game this season, has not had a 100 yard rushing game, has had just one game with more than 12 carries, only two upcoming rush defense rank worse than #60 ((Virginia Tech & NC State) are left on the schedule.
Jahiem White (WVU)
Fantrax Ownership 98%
Season Stats: 37 Att, 194 Ru-Yds, 3 Ru-TD, 8 Tgt, 5 Rec, 26 R-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
Summary of previous week’s Cut write-ups: White is currently working as the RB1-B in the offense, averaging only 9.25 carries/game, but has scored a TD in his last three games.
Marcus Carroll (MIZ)
Fantrax Ownership 86%
Season Stats: 35 Att, 164 Ru-Yds, 2 Ru-TD, 7 Tgt, 6 Rec, 50 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
Summary of previous week’s Cut write-ups: Carroll ended up as the #2 RB for Missouri and only averaging 8.75 carries/game.
Jacquez Stuart (Toledo)
Fantrax Ownership 71%
Season Stats: 30 Att, 95 Ru-Yds, 2 Ru-TD, 7 Tgt, 6 Rec, 127 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
Summary of previous week’s Cut write-ups: Toledo is using too many rushers and Stuart is only averaging 7.5 carries/game.
WIDE RECEIVERS: Keep
Sean Atkins (SoFL)
Fantrax Ownership 99%
Season Stats: 41 Tgt, 27 Rec, 309 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
I’m placing Atkins on the keep list but if he were on my team I would probably cut him. What I like is that he has received a good workload during Weeks 2-4 (31 targets) and had deeper yards/reception compared to other games. What I don’t like is that he has failed to score this year, and QB Byron Brown is dinged up. Once South Florida comes off their bye in Week 7 they don’t get a favorable pass defense match-up until Week 11 against Navy. Atkins’ late season schedule shapes out nicely for the playoffs and Brown should get back to full form by then. The question is can you afford to sit him on the bench that long? If you need wins now I would drop Atkins and try to pick him up after he plays Florida Atlantic. This is a tough one and each fantasy team may have a different answer to the question of what to do with Adkins.
Kole Wilson (TxSt)
Fantrax Ownership 80%
Season Stats: 30 Tgt, 14 Rec, 131 Rc-Yds, 1 Rc-TD
My inclusion of Wilson on the keep list is just like Atkins. I think there’s merit to cut or keep him, and how your fantasy team is performing right now should dictate your action. If you need to wins games now to have a shot at the playoffs I would cut and run from Wilson. If you can afford to let him ride your bench, there are good match-ups in the fantasy playoffs. Texas State has been spreading the ball around to lots of WRs this year. This has made it difficult for Wilson to amass good yardage and TDs. He still has a good workload of 7.5 targets/game, but he is only averaging 32.75 yards/game. He has only had one game with 10+ yards/reception. Without being a deep threat Wilson will remain a dump down option moving forward.
WIDE RECEIVERS: Cut
Evan Stewart (Oreg)
Fantrax Ownership 100%
Season Stats: 20 Tgt, 14 Rec, 162 Rc-Yds, 1 Rc-TD
Last week’s game against UCLA told me that Stewart will not be the big-body deep threat WR we hoped he would be this season. That mantle has been taken by Traeshon Holden (more about him in this week’s Waiver Wire article). Holden has scored in the last three games and during that time Stewart has scored once. If you remove the Boise State game from Stewart’s stats they get even worse, averaging a paltry 4.33 targets for 3 receptions, 16.67 yards and no TDs per game with an average of 5.55 yards/reception. Everyone of those three games were match-ups that Stewart could have made big plays if the offense was going to feature him.
Dalvin Smith (W Ky)
Fantrax Ownership 84%
Season Stats: 18 Tgt, 12 Rec, 123 Rc-Yds, 1 Rc-TD
The only reason Smith is still on so many Fantrax rosters is due to a name recognition from draft season. So far this season Smith has never had more than 5 targets, or 4 receptions, or 37 yards in a single game. He is not being featured in this offense, so if he’s still on your roster make the move and drop him NOW.
Jimmy Horn (Colo)
Fantrax Ownership 74%
Season Stats: 36 Tgt, 23 Rec, 327 Rc-Yds, 1 Rc-TD, 1 Att, 3 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
Outside of a good Week 1 performance Horn has been in a slump. Since Week 2 he is averaging 6.75 targets for 4 receptions, 32.25 yards and no TDs per game. With the exception of the Nebraska game, Colorado has had good/decent match-ups for the passing game. There are still good match-ups on the schedule where Horn could break out of this slump, but you’ll be grasping at straws to guess which one. He has now become unpredictable for fantasy production and is more likely to lose you a fantasy game than win one.
Zachariah Branch (USC)
Fantrax Ownership 73%
Season Stats: 31 Tgt, 18 Rec, 217 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD, 1 Att, 15 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
The last two weeks have shown us how well the USC offense will play in the Big Ten and who they will lean on in tough games. Branch was used extensively in the Michigan game with 13 targets and 98 yards, but when you exclude that one game he is averaging 6 targets for 4 receptions, 39.67 yards and no TDs per game. Much like the Colorado offense, USC is a high-volume passing team which gives Branch the opportunity to have a game like he did against Michigan. When will that next game be? I couldn’t tell you with any certainty. The only reason to hang onto Branch at this point is if you are in a keeper or dynasty league as he is only a sophomore and has time to grow in this offense.
Marquarius White (Tenn)
Fantrax Ownership 98%
Season Stats: 11 Tgt, 8 Rec, 121 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD, 1 Att, -7 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
Summary of previous week’s Cut write-ups: Not receiving the same workload he had in 2023, offense is spreading the ball out to multiple WRs.
Noah Smith (SamHu)
Fantrax Ownership 95%
Season Stats: 20 Tgt, 11 Rec, 73 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD, 5 Att, 58 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
Summary of previous week’s Cut write-ups: Smith is lacking the heavy workload he that produced his 2023 fantasy value, is averaging 4 targets/game, and has yet to score a TD this season.
TIGHT ENDS: Keep
Luke Lachey
Fantrax Ownership 93%
Season Stats: 18 Tgt, 12 Rec, 97 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
Summary of previous week’s Cut write-ups: Quarterback play is bad, might only have value in tough contested games, wait until after the Week 6 game with Ohio State to make a cut decision.
TIGHT ENDS: Cut
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