Should you bench or keep starting your underperforming college fantasy football stars?
With four weeks of the 2019 college fantasy football season done it’s time to take a look at some of the unproductive players in your lineup. Especially the players who you drafted in the early rounds.
If your fantasy team is looking for a jumpstart, don’t be afraid to bench an early round pick for the time being. And we’re here to help. Here are six underperforming fantasy players you may have on your team and our verdicts for keeping them in your starting lineup.
Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence
If you took Lawrence in the first round of your college fantasy football draft, you’re not seeing first-round production through the first four weeks of the season. Lawrence is just 18th among all QBs. And he’s also thrown five interceptions — one more interception than he threw all of last season. Don’t fret, however. The Week 4 win over Charlotte was basically a preseason game and Lawrence should be piling up a lot of statistics in ACC play. He’ll end up as a top-10 QB by the end of the season.
Verdict: Keep starting
Missouri QB Kelly Bryant
Bryant has been Missouri’s most important offensive player through the first four weeks of the season. But he was a little bit off throwing the football during Missouri’s 20-point win at South Carolina. Those days could get more frequent during SEC play and Mizzou also has two very good running backs in Larry Rountree III and Tyler Badie. Bryant is currently 24th among all QBs and will be on the periphery of the top 25 for the rest of the season. If you’re in a 12-team league, that means there should be some better options out there.
Verdict: Bench
UCLA RB Joshua Kelley
UCLA’s season started off 0-3 and Kelley only played in two of those games. He had his best game of the season in the crazy 67-63 comeback win over Washington State. And to be fair, best is relative. Twenty carries for 90 yards isn’t a great average.
But UCLA’s offense should be better than it was in the first three games of the season. And that should make Kelley relevant from a fantasy perspective, especially considering he’s owned in over 90 percent of leagues. He should find the end zone against Arizona as Chip Kelly finds a happy medium in Westwood.
Verdict: Keep starting
Oklahoma RB Trey Sermon
Sermon is averaging over seven yards a carry in 2019. But he’s gotten just 27 carries so far in 2019 and, somehow, he’s third among Oklahoma running backs in yards per carry.
Things will certainly normalize as the season goes on but nine carries a game isn’t enough to justify starting Sermon with other running backs available who get more carries. Keep him on your team and see how things shake out with Oklahoma’s offense as Big 12 play begins. But for now, find a guy who’s getting 15-20 carries a game and put him in your lineup.
Verdict: Bench
Oklahoma WR CeeDee Lamb
This Oklahoma player should definitely be in your starting lineup despite being outside the top 40 of all wide receivers through the first four weeks. Lamb is going to get more targets as the season moves on and consider how productive he’s been with just nine catches this season: 228 yards and three scores. That’s a TD rate that’s going to take a dive but Lamb’s yards per catch rate should stay pretty stable. Keep the faith.
Verdict: Keep starting
TCU WR Jalen Reagor
Reagor is one of the best wide receivers in the Big 12. But good wide receivers still need reliable quarterbacks. And Reagor hasn’t had that just yet. Reagor has 23 points in three games and is ranked outside the top 400 overall players in college fantasy football.
That’s because TCU is still trying to find some productivity at QB. Max Duggan and Alex Delton have completed fewer than 50 percent of their passes and are averaging about five yards an attempt. Until the QB situation gets better, keep Reagor on your bench.
Verdict: Bench
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports
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