Should you add Carson Steele, Roschon Johnson, Christian Watson and other retired fantasy football players?

Keep an eye on your fantasy football waivers for these players who may be out after Week 4.

The best addition to a fantasy football season is often not an undrafted player. Instead, it's someone who was initially selected but was later dropped by an impatient manager after a bad week or two. It's important to keep an eye on player departures across leagues, but sometimes valuable players can fall through the cracks.

Luckily, Fantasy Assistant is here to help. Fantasy Assistant uses predictive analytics to calculate Expected Drop Interest (EDI) for each player each week. The EDI is an estimate of the percentage of leagues in which a player is eliminated or retired each week. When you sync your fantasy league, you can see which of these players have become available in your respective league. Here are this week's leaders in EDI:

Spoiler alert, but this is a relatively unexciting week for EDI leaders. I will only recommend adding one of the top five EDI players. However, there is one truly shocking player with an EDI over 5%, which is always fun.

In addition, as is often the case at the beginning of the bye weeks, there are a few mandatory players who are eliminated from occasional leagues. I have listed these players at the end of the article. Let's get started!

Kansas City Chiefs

Steele is by far the leader this week with 14% EWI. As a huge Steele supporter after injury after injury, it pains me to say this, but you don't have to add him when he's out of your league. After fumbling on his first carry of the game, Steele finished Sunday with just three touches and an 18% snap share.

In deeper leagues, Steele is still a playable player. , who took over the Chiefs' lead after the rookie's fumble, was extremely inefficient last year. The 29-year-old did well in his first game with KC, but he will likely slow down at some point. If that happens, Steele could once again play a valuable role in this offense. However, it is absolutely not a must at this point.

Chicago Bears

Johnson, on the other hand, is a player I would quickly add if he were dropped in your league. It's true that the idea that he would be the Bears' leader again in Week 4 was clearly wrong. Instead, D'Andre Swift had by far his best result of the season, while Johnson only managed seven carries for a snap share of 37%.

However, Johnson's role actually increased on Sunday. He claimed the short-yardage and goal-line work previously designated for. Meanwhile, Swift's big game is a clear outlier in a long history of rapid inefficiency. At the very least, taking over Herbert's job on the goal line makes Johnson a very valuable handcuff, as he would monopolize key touches if Swift were to go down. But there's also still a real chance he'll play a starring role at some point, even if Swift is healthy; it might just come later than we briefly expected.

Green Bay Packers

This is a simple case where a player is out due to injury. Watson suffered an ankle injury early in the Packers' Week 4 game and is reportedly expected to miss at least a week.

However, Watson's injury appears to be short-lived; the Packers have not yet placed him on IR. Normally I would recommend jumping on an injured player to save him for later in the season. The problem is that Watson was already on the verge of fitness before his injury. In Week 3, his final healthy week, Watson posted just a 48% route participation rate and lost snaps to . Since he will likely only be in a part-time role even when he gets healthy, Watson may remain undecided in most leagues.

Cincinnati Bengals

Gesicki is another player not to pursue on the waiver line. For the season, his track participation rate is just 50.3%. Since the youth is talented and the backs are healthy, this number will only trend in the wrong direction. While TE's production is hard to find, adding a player with such a limited role to the roster isn't worth it.

Baltimore Ravens

Speaking of TEs with limited roles, we have Isaiah Likely. I covered Likely in detail in last week's article, as his roster share continues to decline week by week following his breakout in Week 1. After another week in which his route participation rate failed to break 50% (and he only completed one of two goals), Likely is still not a must-try.

Miami Dolphins

You read that correctly. Jaylen Waddle has an EDI of 5%, meaning a significant number of fantasy managers are planning on passing on the early-round pick. To be fair, Waddle is only the WR50 so far this season and his performances since his break have been completely useless.

However, Waddle is simply too talented a player to leave on waivers. If your league is one of the leagues where he is eliminated, this is one of those situations where you blow your entire FAAB budget. Trade for more FAAB to ensure you get the winning bid when you need to.

Houston Texans

With and/or both likely to return, Akers returns to handcuff status. Since we're still not sure how he and Pierce would split the work if Mixon were to go down again, Akers isn't even a top-tier handcuff. He can be placed on waivers in all but the deepest leagues.

Los Angeles Chargers

I believed in QJ's renaissance earlier this season, but things seem to be heading in the wrong direction for the sophomore. Obviously, a lot of his fantasy production was based on touchdowns. And after easily leading the Chargers on routes in the first three weeks, he posted just a 69% route participation rate in Week 4. Given that the Chargers have been a very run-heavy team so far, it's unlikely he'll reach fantasy viability without a clear WR1 role. He can still be kept in deep leagues, but leaving Johnston on waivers in most formats isn't a mistake.

Other players with positive EDI you should check for waivers

• WR, Chicago Bears

• WR, Tennessee Titans

• QB, Indianapolis Colts

• WR, Las Vegas Raiders

• RB, New York Jets

• RB, Carolina Panthers

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