Should You Add Patrick Taylor, Braelon Allen, Tank Bigbsy Other Dropped Fantasy Football Players?

We have reached the fantasy football semifinals! At this point of the season, waiver wires have never been barer. Hopefully, you can count on your leaguemates to help you out by dropping players who can slide straight into your lineup (or at least onto your bench). However, it may be hard to know what commonly dropped players to look for, especially if you are in multiple leagues and can’t stay on top of every single transaction.

Luckily, the Fantasy Assistant is here to help. The Fantasy Assistant uses Predictive Analytics to calculate Expected Drop Interest (EDI) for every player each week. EDI is an estimation of the percentage of leagues in which a player will be or has been dropped each week. If you sync your fantasy league with the Fantasy Assistant, you will also be able to see which of those players have become available in your particular league. For those of you who haven’t synced your leagues, here are this week’s leaders in EDI:

    

Yikes. It makes sense, as most fantasy teams are now inactive, and the teams that are left likely have fairly streamlined rosters, but this is still a disgusting list. With only a couple of exceptions, these players are not worth chasing if they have been dropped in your league. Still, it’s worth breaking them all down, so let’s get started!

RB Patrick Taylor, San Francisco 49ers

Taylor is the one glaring exception on this list, as I think he is absolutely a must-roster at this point. Isaac Guerendo missed the 49ers’ practice on Wednesday with a hamstring injury, a new development after he dealt with a foot injury heading into Week 15’s contest. 

It’s possible that Guerendo will end up suiting up in Week 16, as he did in Week 15. But if he doesn't, Taylor will suddenly become a very viable option as the RB1 in a Kyle Shanahan offense. At this stage of the season, that is exactly the kind of player to hold on your bench. Grab Taylor immediately if he was dropped in your league.

RB Braleon Allen, New York Jets

Early on in the season, I would have waxed poetic about Allen as one of the league’s top handcuffs and called him a must-add. However, things are trending very badly for the rookie out of Wisconsin. For one, Breece Hall returned in Week 15, returning Allen to handcuff/backuff status. For two, Allen is dealing with an injury of his own, a back injury that caused him to leave last week’s game injury.

Third, and most importantly, we’ve now seen Allen’s usage without Hall, and it wasn’t as exciting as we might have hoped. Instead of taking over as a three-down workhorse, Allen was in a near-perfect 50/50 split with fellow rookie Isaiah Davis. Given Hall’s health, his own injury, and the fact that he isn’t even a locked-in starter when Hall is out, Allen is not a must-roster outside of particularly deep leagues. 

RB Tank Bigsby, Jacksonville Jaguars

It’s not surprising that Tank Bigsby is trending downward after a Week 15 game in which he was out-snapped 54 to 22 by Travis Etienne. Bigsby also saw fewer opportunities than his veteran counterpart, with 11 carries to Etienne’s 14 and one target to his five. However, I don’t think Bigsby’s value is dead just yet. Etienne is more involved than would be ideal, but Bigsby still seems to be the Jaguars’ preferred early-down rusher. In a positive game script in Week 14, he saw 18 carries to Etienne’s four. Especially heading into matchups with the Raiders and Titans, Bigsby still has a chance to finish his breakout season strong. 

TE Juwan Johson, New Orleans Saints

I’m conflicted about this one. On the one hand, Johnson is coming off a bad outing in which he saw just three targets, catching only two for 12 yards, and the Saints’ offense as a whole is spiraling without Derek Carr. On the other hand, his usage has been very solid since Taysom Hill suffered a season-ending injury, with route participation rates of at least 75% in each of the last three weeks. That’s not bad at all for an athletic receiving tight end on a team desperate for playmakers.

On the other other hand, this is not the time of the season to be holding a backup tight end. Even if Johnson has a big game in Week 16, would you start him in the fantasy football championship for Week 17? If your answer is no, he’s not worth adding. If your answer is yes, then go ahead and grab him. 

RB David Montgomery, Detroit Lions

Montgomery is done for the season with an MCL injury. I imagine the only reason this number isn’t higher is that managers either aren’t bothering to drop him after having been eliminated from the playoffs or are simply holding him for sentimental reasons. Unless you also want to get “Knuckles” a ring, he doesn’t carry any value in Redraft formats.

WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Tennessee Titans

After a glorious eight-week stretch in which NWI averaged one touchdown per game and ranked as the WR11 in Half-PPR, he has now scored 2.4 and 1.9 points in his last two games. Those numbers aren’t even necessarily unexpected, as he saw five targets combined over those two weeks. 

If we are looking for reasons to believe in a bounceback, I would argue that Mason Rudolph is an upgrade over Will Levis. NWI also ends the fantasy season with a dream matchup against the Jaguars’ atrocious pass defense. Even still, I can’t imagine wanting to start him outside of an obscenely deep league. He can safely be left on waiver wires.

RB Sincere McCormick, Las Vegas Raiders

McCormick’s breakout season was unfortunately ended prematurely by an ankle injury. He can safely be left on the waiver wire in all Redraft formats, although I hope he will get another chance to make an NFL impact in 2025.

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