Players to Drop in Fantasy Football for Week 5 Waiver Pickups

As important as it is to find the top fantasy football waiver pickups for Week 5, adding those players comes with a cost.

You'll also need to find players on your team to drop to make these additions. It's not always as simple as dropping your players who put up the lowest fantasy scores either, as a deeper look at workload and matchups could reveal them to be bounce-back candidates moving forward.

With that in mind, let's look at four fantasy football players who are still owned in at least 50 percent of Yahoo! Fantasy Football leagues that should prove safe to drop this week in order to make room for waiver wire pickups.

1. Latavius Murray, RB, New Orleans Saints (57% Owned)

It's becoming clear that Latavius Murray is not simply stepping into the "Mark Ingram" role in the New Orleans Saints' offense this season. The last two games have seen Murray play his two smallest snap shares (25.4 percent and 20.7 percent) of the season, with only seven combined opportunities (six carries and one target) in that time. His value would obviously explode if Alvin Kamara went down, but a handcuff in a Teddy Bridgewater-led offense is tough to keep around on your bench through bye week season.

2. Jason Witten, TE, Dallas Cowboys (54% Owned)

Jason Witten found the end zone in each of his first two games this season, but there haven't been many other positive indicators for his fantasy value. He has not seen more than four targets in any of his four games in 2019, and while touchdown upside in a potent offense could make him worth considering some weeks, he's a streaming option at best, and most weeks you'll be able to find a more valuable tight end worth starting on the waiver wire.

3. Matt Stafford, QB, Detroit Lions (55% Owned)

Matthew Stafford's solid start to the fantasy season was bolstered by some favorable matchups, including the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1 and Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4. However, his other two games (against the Los Angels Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles) were rather pedestrian. With a Week 5 bye followed by two tough matchups (at the Green Bay Packers and vs. Minnesota Vikings), he's not likely to crack your starting lineup until Week 8. In typical one-QB leagues, the position is deep enough that there's no need for a mid-tier producer like Stafford to take up a bench spot for so long.

4. Antonio Brown, WR, Free Agent (50% Owned)

Antonio Brown's ownership has fallen by 22 percent since last week, and there have been no positive signs that things are turning around for a potential return this season. There's a good chance he doesn't play another snap in 2019. Even though his upside is huge when he does play, that's enough of a long shot that it's not worth having Brown take up a roster spot now that bye weeks are rolling in and further increasing the value of bench spaces.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.