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By Steven Van Tassell (@SteveVT33)
We are well into the 2022 Dynasty Owner off-season and another milestone was reached last week when all current Dynasty Owner teams finally got under the $145.74 million salary cap for the 2022 season. Almost all teams did so voluntarily with a few teams needing the assistance of one of the Dynasty Owner team of Commissioners. With salary increases and free agent contract signings, Dynasty Owners were faced with decisions about which players to drop in order to fit under the 2022 salary cap.
On the Wednesday Dynasty Owner Livestream, Tim surprised me with a quiz about the most dropped players during the Dynasty Owner now that every Dynasty Owner team was under the $145.74 million salary cap. Basically, it was which players were dropped for free (most likely) by Dynasty Owners during the 30 days between the start of the new league year and the enforcement of the 2022 salary cap. If you watched, you might remember the identity of the most dropped player (if you didn’t watch or forgot, you’ll see his name again). For the record, I did not identify the player correctly.
In addition, since Jay Pounds was on vacation and hadn’t seen the Livestream, I did the same thing on the Dynasty Owner Podcast. Jay was also unable to identify the most dropped player.
Since neither Tim nor I produced the full list of most dropped players for our viewers or listeners, I thought it would be a good idea to break the list down by position to see which position had the most players. In addition to listing them, I will also highlight a player on the list at each position who I don’t think belongs on it and should have been kept by more Dynasty Owners.
All of the most dropped players either became free agents in the off-season and remain unsigned, or received a new contract that became effective during the off-season once the new contract was signed. Either way, these contract changes enabled their Dynasty Owners to drop those players for free and avoid the usual 25% of the total remaining contract drop fee.
The list is in order of the number of Dynasty Owner leagues in which the player was dropped. The current roster percentage might be higher for a player dropped in more leagues. Using the percentage of leagues may have been fairer, but some data are unavailable, so I’ve gone with what we have. Regardless of the method of counting, a lot of Dynasty Owners have decided that these players aren’t worth their new salaries in 2022. Anyone doing a 2022 start-up Dynasty Owner draft should take heed and think about whether or not these players are worth drafting when start-up drafts begin on May 14th, which is just three weeks away.
All stats cited are based on the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system as outlined in the updated Dynasty Owner Constitution. Standard Dynasty Owner scoring gives you .1 points for every yard rushing or receiving, .1 point for every 2 yards passing, 1 point per reception, 6 points for a rushing, receiving or passing touchdown and 2 points for a successful 2-point conversion (rushing, receiving, or passing). Interceptions or fumbles lost cost you 3 points, while a fumble that is recovered by the player’s team is a loss of only 1 point. Bonus points are available for 100-199 yards rushing (2 points), 200 yards rushing or receiving (6 points), 300-399 yards passing (1 point) and 400 yards passing (4 points). There is also a 3 point bonus for clutch scoring, which is a score that results in a lead change in the final two minutes of the 4th quarter or overtime. Kickoff and punt return touchdowns are worth 6 points for the player and kickoff and punt returns are worth 1 point for every 40 yards.
For the purposes of this article, all statistics, roster percentages and 2021 position ranks were current as of the afternoon of April 25th. All 2022 contract information is currently listed on the Dynasty Owner platform (number of years and salaries) and has been taken from Spotrac (https://www.spotrac.com/). Players with salary figures in italics are free agents, have not signed yet for 2022 and have their 2021 salary listed.
Quarterbacks
As the most expensive players in Dynasty Owner, you may have expected a lot of the most dropped players to be QBs. However, there were only two (Cam Newton and Sam Darnold) who were among the Top 10 most dropped players and just two more within the Top 25. At a salary of $18.858 million for 2022, Sam Darnold is the player with the highest salary on the Top 25 most dropped list. While Dwayne Haskins was dropped by the second most Dynasty Owner teams overall due to his death, he was not included below.
| Player | Drop Rank | 2021 Rank | 2021 Points per Game | 2022 Salary | Roster Percentage |
| Cam Newton | T-5 | QB37 | 11.5 | $6,000,000 | 13.9% |
| Sam Darnold | 9 | QB30 | 15.3 | $18,858,000 | 27.85% |
| Teddy Bridgewater | 13 | QB23 | 18.8 | $6,500,000 | 43.0% |
| Mason Rudolph | T-17 | QB54 | 10.55 | $5,080,000 | 21.5% |
| Baker Mayfield | 27 | QB26 | 16.3 | $18,858,000 | 62.7% |
Baker Mayfield was just outside of the Top 25, but I included him since I wanted to have five QBs on the list. He is also the only player listed who is still currently on a roster in a majority of Dynasty Owner leagues.
Player Who Shouldn’t Be on this List: Teddy Bridgewater
The only reason that Bridgewater was dropped by so many Dynasty Owners is that he’s now the backup to Tua Tagovailoa in Miami. However, Tua isn’t exactly the model of health and seems likely to not be able to start all 17 regular season games in 2022. Last season, Tua only played in 13 games with his backup, Jacoby Brissett, starting four games and playing significant time in two other games. In 2020, Tua was named the starter for Week 8, was injured in Week 11 and missed Week 12. Don’t forget that he missed his final two regular season college games and the bowl game in 2019. He hasn’t played a full season since 2018.
It’s because of all of his injuries that Teddy B is going to play some QB for the Dolphins in 2022. It is true that paying $6.5 million for a backup QB is a lot, however, it’s almost a full $5 million less than his 2021 salary. With the playmakers on the Dolphins’ roster (Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Chase Edmonds, Mike Gesicki), it’s a great situation for a backup QB to walk into and possibly play well enough to use as your Bench QB. I kept Teddy B in both of the Dynasty Owner leagues in which he’s on my roster and look forward to using him when the inevitable happens and Tua gets hurts.
Running Backs
In contrast to the QBs, all six of the RBs who ranked in the Top 25 most dropped players are still NFL free agents right now. I would expect most of them to eventually sign with a team and be on a roster as a backup RB to start the season. Carlos Hyde is the likely exception as he’s the oldest player on this list at age 31 and Urban Meyer isn’t going to be a NFL Head Coach again.
| Player | Drop Rank | 2021 Rank | 2021 Points per Game | 2022 Salary | Roster Percentage |
| David Johnson | T-5 | RB62 | 6.2 | $5,000,000 | 18.35% |
| Devontae Booker | T-14 | RB34 | 9.0 | $2,750,000 | 39.9% |
| Carlos Hyde | T-15 | RB86 | 3.65 | $2,250,000 | 12.7% |
| Devonta Freeman | T-17 | RB32 | 9.35 | $1,075,000 | 41.8% |
| Jordan Howard | 22 | RB71 | 8.9 | $990,000 | 30.4% |
| Jeremy McNichols | 23 | RB67 | 5.3 | $920,000 | 24.7% |
| Tarik Cohen | T-24 | N/A | N/A | $5,750,000 | 13.9% |
Both Johnson and Freeman are 30 years old, while Booker is 29, Howard is 27, and Cohen and McNichols are only 26. Cohen hasn’t played since Week 3 of the 2020 season and at $5.75 million had a contract that was just too expensive to keep. Both Jordan Howard and Jeremy McNichols have contracts of less than $1 million, making them the two lowest paid players in the Top 25 most dropped.
Player Who Shouldn’t Be on this List: Devonta Freeman
Devonta Freeman was dropped in more Dynasty Owner leagues than Latavius Murray, his teammate in Baltimore in 2021. Murray is older than Freeman (32 vs. 30 for Freeman) and didn’t play as well as in 2021 (7.5 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game vs. 9.35 for Freeman), but is still rostered in slightly more Dynasty Owner leagues (42.4%) than Freeman. At the same salary. That doesn’t make sense to me.
Back to Freeman as even though he is the most rostered RB on this list, I’m surprised that he is available in a majority of Dynasty Owner leagues now. The ability to drop him for free since he is a free agent is understandable, but his salary is only $1.075 million and if he gets a bigger contract for 2022 that you don’t like, you’ll have an opportunity to drop him for free again. The fact that he joined the Ravens only three days before their first game and ended up playing in 16 games, led the team RBs in rushing yards, receptions, receiving yards and tied with Murray for the most TDs shows me that he could do the same thing for another team in 2022. He scored 149.6 Dynasty Owner fantasy points with seven games of 10.0 or more points, so he was an adequate Bench RB or even a FLEX starter for a good portion of the season. I think that’s worth a Practice Squad stash for only a little over a million dollars.
Wide Receivers
There are more WRs on the most dropped list than any other position. That’s not surprising at all. Out of the eight WRs on the list, half were still free agents when the Dynasty Owner salary cap started to be enforced and the other half had signed new free agent deals. A.J. Green was still listed on the Dynasty Owner platform as a free agent with a $6 million salary when salary cap enforcement started.
| Player | Drop Rank | 2021 Rank | 2021 Points per Game | 2022 Salary | Roster Percentage |
| Cole Beasley | T-3 | WR41 | 9.9 | $7,250,000 | 19.0% |
| Christian Kirk | T-7 | WR27 | 12.2 | $18,000,000 | 48.7% |
| Antonio Brown | T-7 | WR63 | 17.3 | $3,075,000 | 36.1% |
| Cedrick Wilson | T-10 | WR48 | 9.2 | $7,350,000 | 37.3% |
| Robby Anderson | T-10 | WR53 | 8.1 | $14,750,000 | 12.0% |
| A.J. Green | 12 | WR42 | 9.8 | $3,500,000 | 35.4% |
| Emmanuel Sanders | T-17 | WR58 | 9.4 | $6,000,000 | 19.6% |
| Kalif Raymond | 20 | WR54 | 8.65 | $4,750,000 | 23.4% |
All of these WRs, except Christian Kirk, finished well outside of the Top 24 WRs and should not have been starting for your Dynasty Owner team. Kirk received the largest total contract (4 years/$72 million) of anyone on the Top 25 most dropped, which explains his presence. Antonio Brown had the best season of any player on the list by far, averaging 17.3 Dynasty Owner fantasy points per game. However, he was released by Tampa Bay after an incident during a game against the Jets and at age 33, may have played his final NFL game.
Player Who Shouldn’t Be on this List: A.J. Green
This is a little unfair as Dynasty Owners with A.J. Green on their team had to decide whether or not to keep him at his $6 million salary because his 2022 contract amount wasn’t immediately available. That left them to wonder how much he would be making in 2022 and possibly caused some to drop him to get under the cap. His salary wasn’t updated until a few days ago and was first listed as a one-year contract for $3 million. The contract has been updated and is now listed as $3.5 million for one year, so his salary will be going up another $500,000. His roster percentage should be higher now and at that revised amount.
I’ll admit that I wasn’t on the A.J. Green bandwagon last season at $6 million, but I’ve changed my opinion for 2022 and would be happy to have him on my Dynasty Owner roster at just $3.5 million. He is the WR2 for Arizona right now and it’s possible that he retains that spot once the season starts. Last year, he was moving to a new team and was the WR3 behind DeAndre Hopkins and Christian Kirk. A healthy DeAndre Hopkins plus the presence of Zach Ertz for the entire 2022 season will reduce Green’s targets, but hopefully he’ll have a full season of Kyler Murray at QB to make up for it.
Tight Ends
At TE, we have two of the most dropped players in Dynasty Owner this off-season, including the most dropped player of all in Taysom Hill. Since Hill is now listed as a TE, he is included here even though everyone who had him on their roster in 2021 used him as a QB.
| Player | Drop Rank | 2021 Rank | 2021 Points per Game | 2022 Salary | Roster Percentage |
| Taysom Hill | 1 | TE17 | 11.2 | $10,000,000 | 21.5% |
| Tyler Conklin | T-3 | TE16 | 8.1 | $6,750,000 | 24.7% |
| Jared Cook | 16 | TE19 | 8.3 | $4,500,000 | 23.4% |
| Will Dissly | 21 | TE54 | 3.3 | $8,000,000 | 8.9% |
| Blake Jarwin | T-24 | TE68 | 4.1 | $5,500,000 | 10.8% |
Honestly, I was surprised that more TEs didn’t crack the Top 25. Both Ian Thomas and Evan Engram spring to mind, but neither was even in the Top 50. Engram got a salary increase of almost $3 million after finishing 2021 as TE24, but is still rostered in 65.2% of Dynasty Owner leagues. Thomas is rostered in only 11.4% of leagues after his TE63 finish in 2021. Thomas was likely rostered in fewer leagues at the end of last season, which could explain his omission.
Player Who Shouldn’t Be on this List: None – they all deserve it
None of these players should be the starting TE on your Dynasty Owner team, so none of them deserve to take up $4.5 million or more in salary cap room. Tyler Conklin was an excellent Bench TE and bye week or injury replacement in 2021, but his salary was also just $685,258. At nearly ten times that amount on the Jets splitting time with C.J. Uzomah ($8,000,000), it was a no brainer to drop him for free as soon as his contract changed. And if you didn’t, I have good news for you. His salary went down from $7 million per season to $6.75 million recently, so you still might be able to drop him for free. If so, go do that now!
Kickers
No kickers were in the Top 25 most dropped players. It makes sense as there are only 32 starting NFL kickers, and you should have at least two (and preferably three) on your Dynasty Owner roster. The most dropped kicker was Greg Zuerlein who is still on a roster in 72.15% of Dynasty Owner leagues now. He may have been dropped by some Dynasty Owners after his release from Dallas and then picked up after he got signed by the Jets. Both Michael Badgley and Chase McLaughlin were also in the Top 50 most dropped players.
The two kickers who signed the biggest off-season contracts after making less than $1 million in 2021 were both outside of the Top 50. Younghoe Koo signed an extension with Atlanta for $4.85 million per year (5 years/$24.25 million) and Jason Sanders signed an extension with Miami for $4.4 million per year (5 years/$22 million). Both are still rostered in a significant number of Dynasty Owner leagues (74.7% for Koo and 67.7% for Sanders).
Few Dynasty Owners dropped Daniel Carlson even though he signed a new 4-year/$18.4 million contract ($4.6 million per year) with Las Vegas. They had him on their roster at $3.384 million in 2021 and he finished as the #1 kicker, so most were ok with paying him an extra $1.216 million.
Conclusion
It will be interesting to see if any of the players on this list see an uptick, or further downward slide, in roster percentage after the NFL Draft. After the draft is over, many of those who are still free agents will sign with a team and have their 2022 salaries known. Signing a minimum salary contract, or for something close to that amount, will make it more likely that the likes of Cole Beasley, Devonta Freeman, David Johnson and Emmanuel Sanders will be added to some Dynasty Owner rosters.
The weekly Dynasty Owner livestream continues with Tim Peffer and me on Wednesday at 4 PM (Eastern). We weren’t able to finish our look at NFC team needs and will hopefully get to that, but also need to discuss WR and TE NFL Draft prospects since the NFL Draft is only a couple of days away. Set the timer on YouTube so you don’t miss it live, or make sure to watch it afterwards. Either way, don’t forget to smash the Like button. You can also listen to it starting Wednesday evenings wherever you get your podcasts.
Jay Pounds and I are also doing a weekly Dynasty Owner podcast. If you haven’t checked one out, go do it now to hear us talk about Dynasty Owner and what’s been happening in our 2022 off-season. The 2021 Chase for the Ring Champ SKOL Vikings posted “Great job, good listen!” on Twitter and we’re proud to have that endorsement. New podcasts are scheduled to drop on Friday mornings so download them and listen on your way to work, or while you’re there.
Finally, please read all of the off-season articles from our Dynasty Owner team. On Mondays, I write about players, salaries and contracts to help new and returning Dynasty Owners navigate how to play our unique game. Jay Pounds is writing about everything on rebuilding your Dynasty Owner roster and his articles appear on Tuesday. Nate Christian is back for 2022 and doing prospect previews to get Dynasty Owners ready for rookie drafts every Thursday. Finally, Friday is Free Agent Friday with Matt Morrison – The Jerk and his current New Contract Spotlight series.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Steven Van Tassell is the Head of Content for Dynasty Owner
Follow us on Twitter: @SteveVT33 and @Dynasty_Owner