Knowing when to pivot away from a player is one of the many struggles managers face in fantasy football. Especially in these early weeks of the season when every bad game by one of your drafted players feels like a betrayal. You scream, "You were the chosen one!" after you see Elijah Mitchell scored 4.1 points and will be out for about two months with an MCL sprain.
Making these decisions more difficult is the fact that the waiver wire options aren't that great either -- that's why they're available in the first place. For example, if you have Patriots TE Hunter Henry, do you cut him loose after he posted two receptions on three targets for 20 yards in Week 1? Well, the reality is it happened to Henry on occasion last season as well. In 2021, he had four games with fewer than five PPR points. That's the life of a mid-tier tight end. Can you stomach it for a full season or will you even have the confidence in that player to start him? I had Devin Duvernay on two teams and I cut him in both before the season even started because in my gut, I don't really trust him. That looks like a bad decision after one game, so we'll see if my gut knows what the heck it's talking about.
But in replacing a player like Henry, you may have considered a fringe, low-end TE2 coming into the season like Gerald Everett, who has now strung together two good games after he posted 6-71 in Week 2 (13.1 pts) and 3-54-1 in Week 1 (14.4 pts). Or maybe you're especially bold and pursue O.J. Howard or Taysom Hill, two players not expected to be much of a fantasy factor heading into the season.
