Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Advice: Players to Drop & Hold (Week 4)

Let’s take a look at players our analysts consider on the fringe as you weigh your waiver wire additions for the week. And also be sure to check out our full waiver wire article for the week.

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Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Advice: Drop or Hold?

DROP RECOMMENDATIONS

Droppable

• Rashod Bateman
• Ty Chandler
• Antonio Gibson
• Rashaad Penny
• Samaje Perine

Rashod Bateman was on the “droppable with a chance of regret” list last week, but now he’s a full-fledged droppable. In Week 3, Bateman drew only three targets in a game that Odell Beckham Jr. missed. Bateman had only a 6-yard catch, and he played fewer snaps than both Zay Flowers and Nelson Agholor.

Ty Chandler hasn’t been getting many snaps behind Vikings RB Alexander Mattison, and the arrival of Cam Akers in a trade this week casts Chandler’s role further into doubt.

Uh-oh. Antonio Gibson lost another fumble on Sunday, and we know what happens when Gibson fumbles: He gets thrown into fumble jail by Commanders head coach Ron Rivera. Without secure playing time, Gibson isn’t worth rostering.

Rashaad Penny is a fourth wheel in a multi-pronged Eagles backfield, clearly behind D’Andre Swift, Kenneth Gainwell and Boston Scott on the depth chart. It appears that it would take multiple injuries for Penny to become fantasy-viable.

We knew the Broncos were going to use multiple running backs early in the season, but we thought it would be a two-man timeshare with Javonte Williams and Samaje Perine. It’s turned into a three-man backfield, with rookie Jaleel McLaughlin joining the two veterans. Perine played 19 of Denver’s 62 offensive snaps on Sunday and had three carries and two catches. With Williams likely to get more work as the season goes on and he gets further removed from the surgery he had to repair his torn ACL, Perine will be further marginalized.

Droppable with a chance of regret

• Tyler Boyd
• Damien Harris
• Juwan Johnson
• JuJu Smith-Schuster

Tyler Boyd is only rosterable with a healthy Joe Burrow quarterbacking the Bengals. Burrow isn’t healthy. Even when Burrow is completely fit, Boyd is only startable in the deepest of leagues when Bengals WRs Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are both healthy. There’s not much point in rostering Boyd until the Bengals’ offense starts roaring again.

Damien Harris isn’t even backing up James Cook by himself; he’s splitting the backup duty with Latavius Murray. Remember when Harris scored 15 touchdowns in 2021? Yeah, that was great. An injury to one of the other members of this backfield could boost the fantasy value of Harris, but his value is basically nil at the moment.

Through three games, Juwan Johnson has 7-61-0 on 12 targets. Johnson’s value has always been somewhat TD-dependent, and that’s especially true with Michael Thomas healthy and forming a strong WR trio along with Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed. Alvin Kamara will be back from suspension in Week 4 to steal some of Johnson’s targets.

At age 22, JuJu Smith-Schuster had 111 catches for 1,426 yards. At age 26, JuJu is averaging 6.4 yards per catch and 3.8 yards per target. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, it gets late early in the NFL.

Don’t drop yet

• Treylon Burks
• Jahan Dotson
• Justin Fields
• Rashid Shaheed
• Jaxon Smith-Njigba

The Titans’ dysfunctional passing game might not be healthy enough to prop up the fantasy value of both DeAndre Hopkins and Treylon Burks. Hopkins is the alpha, of course, and Burks isn’t startable at the moment. Still, hang onto the talented second-year receiver a bit longer to see if circumstances change.

Jahan Dotson seemed ready for a breakout season after giving us some tantalizing flashes as a rookie in 2022. But Dotson hasn’t topped 40 yards in any of his first three games this season and is still looking for his first TD. Hold tight. Dotson’s talent may yet prevail.

Justin Fields has been undeniably bad this season, but the Bears’ season has been such an unmitigated disaster that it’s hard to tell how much of it is Fields himself and how much of it is poor coaching. It’s wild that we’re even talking about cutting last season’s QB6 in fantasy scoring, but here we are. The Bears have an extremely soft schedule the rest of the way, so don’t get rid of Fields yet, but you might have to carry a second quarterback if you don’t have one already.

Rashid Shaheed was targeted only twice and was held without a catch Sunday in Green Bay after rolling up 9-152-1 in his first three games. Don’t panic-drop him.

Jaxson Smith Njigba is off to a sluggish start, with 9-57-0 on 14 targets. He’s a third wheel behind D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, but JSN is too talented to cast aside. An injury to one of Seattle’s veteran receivers would spike Smith-Njigba’s value.

Check out our full Week 4 fantasy football waiver wire article