Week 7 Fantasy Football Drop Candidates: Justin Fields, Cooper Kupp and More

Last week, I bemoaned the fact that the fantasy football market was too efficient for a good drops article, with the vast majority of widely rostered players deserving that status. Just one week later, things have changed. 

Aside from the ever-tricky tight end, I was able to find a player at every position rostered in at least 60% of leagues (and often far more) who should be cut in the majority of formats. Without further ado, here they are!

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QB Justin Fields, New York Jets (82.6% Rostered)

Here's the thing. Fields' dual-threat ability means he has elite fantasy upside. The issue is that he has seemingly regressed from his already very low standard of passing ability. And if you can't pass, you're not going to provide usable QB fantasy numbers, no matter how much you run.

Between yesterday's atrocity and London and his dud against the Bills (he left that one early with a concussion, but only in the fourth quarter, so I'm counting it) Fields has finished below five fantasy points in two of his five starts this season.

His other three outings have been excellent, but his lows are low enough to essentially single-handedly lose a fantasy matchup. Given the amount of viable fantasy quarterbacks available this year, the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

Especially with Garrett Wilson likely to miss some time, I don't see how Fields is trustworthy as a startable option going forward. Outside of Week 1 against the Steelers, even his productive outings have relied on garbage time against arguably the league's two worst defenses in the Dolphins and Cowboys.

And if you can't trust him in your lineup, he's probably not worth holding in 1-QB leagues. And this is all without mentioning the potentially real possibility that he gets benched for Tyrod Taylor.

Honorable Mentions: J.J. McCarthy, MIN (previously featured); C.J. Stroud, HOU (previously featured twice); Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals (previously featured)

On Thin Ice: Kyler Murray, ARI

RB Michael Carter, Arizona Cardinals (62.9% Rostered)

This is a pretty simple one. Carter was widely added after taking over as the Cardinals' lead back with Trey Benson and James Conner out for Week 6. Heading into Week 6, however, it was announced that Bam Knight would serve as the team's starting RB instead of Carter. 

Carter's role wasn't completely useless. He took over for Emari Demercado as Arizona's lead passing-down back, leading the backfield with four targets and a 40% route participation rate. He also saw nine carries, just two fewer than Knight's 11. With this in mind, I don't recommend you cut him in deeper formats.

But in shallow formats, the temporary RB1B for the Arizona Cardinals is not someone you have to hold onto. Carter has very little TD equity, as Knight is the clear preferred option near the goal line. Carter scored 7.4 points on Sunday against the Colts, and that's about the best you can expect from him going forward.

Especially with Benson's eventual return capping his long-term value, he's someone who could easily become a roster-clogger if you're not careful.

Honorable Mentions: Isiah Pacheco, KC (previously featured); Tank Bigsby, PHI (previously featured)

On Thin Ice: RJ Harvey, DEN; TreVeyon Henderson, NE

WR Cooper Kupp, Seattle Seahawks (78.6% Rostered)

Like Carter, this suggestion might not apply to managers in deep leagues. But in the vast majority of formats, it's time to let go of the former Triple Crown winner. Kupp's fantasy production hasn't been truly terrible, but it hasn't been useful, either, and he doesn't bring any long-term upside to make him worth holding.

So far this season, Kupp ranks as just the WR53 with 7.3 half-PPR points per game. He has been below nine points in four of six weeks and has yet to score even 13 points in a given week. His usage is thoroughly mediocre, with an 18% target share and a pitiful 15% air yards share, as Jaxon Smith-Njigba is rightfully vacuuming up all the valuable looks in Seattle's offense.

Those shares are also even worse than they look, as the Seahawks rank dead last in the NFL with a 50.3% pass rate. Sam Darnold has been efficient, but his 26.8 attempts per game rank 30th among qualified QBs. 

Meanwhile, with his age and the presence of JSN, there's no realistic non-injury-dependent path for Kupp to improve on his middling production. He's more likely to being losing work to rookie Tory Horton than he is to suddenly ascend as a reliable weekly option. 

With that in mind, Kupp's replaceable WR4-level numbers don't merit a roster slot. He's theoretically useful as a bye-week flex fill-in, but you should be able to find similar options on the waiver wire in most leagues. That bench slot is better spent on a higher-upside player, even if Kupp will technically project better than most waiver options every week. 

Honorable Mentions: Josh Downs, IND (previously featured); Calvin Ridley, TEN

On Thin Ice: Travis Hunter, JAC; Marquise Brown, KC; Jerry Jeudy, CLE

TE Colston Loveland, Chicago Bears (26.2% Rostered)

It's hard to find options at the tight end position in fantasy football, which makes it even harder to find options at the tight end position for this column. The standards for being rosterable at TE are low enough that most of the widely rostered players are at least reasonable. Even Evan Engram, whom I've picked on multiple times, is trending in the right direction. 

With that in mind, let's scroll down a bit to Bears rookie TE, who is still quietly hurting fantasy rosters in over a quarter of leagues. Loveland has been a staple of the honorable mention section of this article all season, but I wanted to give the rookie the benefit of the doubt at least through the Bears' Week 5 bye. 

Unfortunately, the bye has come and gone, and Loveland is still an afterthought in Chicago's offense. He did actually run more routes than Cole Kmet for the first time all season on Monday night, so that's something … but his 39% route participation rate was still a long way from fantasy viable. 

Truly elite fantasy TEs are almost always among the top two targets on their offenses; lower-end TE1s can sometimes get away with being the third option on good offenses. Loveland is clearly behind not just D.J. Moore and Rome Odunze, but also Olamide Zaccheaus and arguably fellow rookie Luther Burden III in the competition for targets in Chicago's offense.

He's trending in the right direction, but it's just not happening fast enough. He can safely be dropped in most formats at this point. 

Honorable Mentions: Evan Engram, DEN (previously featured twice); Jonnu Smith, PIT (previously featured)

On Thin Ice: David Njoku, CLE

Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasySP. Find him on Twitter and Bluesky @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.