11 Fantasy Football Players to Drop or Hold (Week 9 Waiver Wire)

Let’s take a look at players our analysts consider on the fringe as you weigh your waiver wire additions for the week. And check out all of our fantasy football waiver wire advice for Week 9.

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Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Advice: Drop or Hold?

DROP RECOMMENDATIONS

Droppable:

• Kirk Cousins
• Josh Dobbs
• Jordan Love
• Jerick McKinnon
• K.J. Osborn
• Desmond Ridder

It’s QB drop week, and we’ll start with Kirk Cousins, who’ll be widely dropped this week through no fault of his own. Cousins had been enjoying a fine season but tore his Achilles Sunday against the Packers and will be out for the season. You like that?! No, we do not.

Kyler Murray is expected to return to the Cardinals’ lineup in Week 10, which means that Josh Dobbs has only one game left in his run as Arizona’s starting quarterback. Unfortunately, that run will end against a strong Browns defense. Dobbs isn’t a viable streaming option this week and can be jettisoned.

Since Week 3, Jordan Love has averaged 219.2 passing yards per game and 6.0 yards per attempt, with five TD passes and eight interceptions. The last three of those games have been against the Raiders, Broncos and Vikings, so it’s not as if we can blame Love’s struggles on tough defensive matchups. If you’re still holding him, cut him loose and stream the position.

McKinnon is still being rostered in 35% of Yahoo leagues, which is hard to fathom considering that he’s averaging 2.6 rushing yards and 15.8 receiving yards per game. Granted, McKinnon does have a knack for finding the end zone, with 10 touchdowns last year and two touchdowns on only 26 carries this year. But good luck figuring out exactly when McKinnon is going to score his touchdowns.

K.J. Osborn had fantasy value with Justin Jefferson hurt and Kirk Cousins healthy. With Cousins done for the season and Jaren Hall taking over at quarterback for the Vikings, Osborn is no longer fantasy-viable.

Desmond Ridder went into concussion protocol, but after fumbling seven times, throwing six interceptions and taking 25 sacks in eight games, Ridder might remain out of the lineup for a while. Even if Falcons head coach Arthur Smith decides to let Ridder keep his starting job rather than giving backup Taylor Heinicke a shit, Ridder hasn’t done enough to keep his spot on fantasy rosters.

Droppable with a chance of regret:

• Kenneth Gainwell
• Elijah Moore
• Miles Sanders

Kenneth Gainwell is strictly a backup to D’Andre Swift with no standalone fantasy value. And the thing is, Gainwell might not even be a true handcuff, because if anything were to happen to Swift, the Eagles would probably parcel out RB touches to the trio of Gainwell, Boston Scott and Rashaad Penny.

Elijah Moore hasn’t provided 60 receiving yards in any game this season, and he has zero touchdowns. It’s too early to give up on Moore in dynasty leagues, but you can probably move on in redraft leagues. There just haven’t been many signs that a 2023 breakout is nigh.

Miles Sanders was out-snapped by Chuba Hubbard 45-12 on Sunday and out-touched 17-2. Sanders was RB17 in PPR fantasy scoring through the first three weeks of the season, but his fantasy relevance has gone up in a puff of smoke.

Don’t drop yet:

• Dalvin Cook
• Jonnu Smith

The few fantasy managers still hanging on to Dalvin Cook should continue to keep him around until Tuesday’s trading deadline has passed. It’s possible Cook could be dealt to a team that needs backfield help.

Jonnu Smith had a 13-yard catch Sunday on his only target of the game. Smith has only seen four targets in his last two games after averaging 6.4 targets, 5.0 receptions and 56.4 receiving yards over a five-game stretch from Week 2 to Week 6. If you can’t afford to carry a second tight end, feel free to cut Smith loose. Just realize he has a pretty decent matchup against the Vikings this week.