I redshirted one of my freshman and his WE dropped from 46 to 20.   He has high potential in a handful of categories (SP,P, ST) and average in others but he won't get much PT this year so I tried to RS him. 
Would it be better in the long run to take the redshirt off and hope his WE jumps back up or keep it on and get the extra year but at lower WE? 

Thanks for any insights! 

When will he be a starter for you? If he started after his redshirt season you'd regain that lost WE faster. Even if he didn't start until sophomore season I think it'd still be worth it. If you think he'll still be on the bench by then I'd remove the redshirt

Personally, I would say no under the new engine. WE seems to be a huge factor even if you have HIGH potential. I have had guys recently at 20 or so WE with high potential that can't even gain 10 pts in freshmen year getting 15 min a game. With 40+ WE, I have had guys get almost 20 pts. I know there is low HIGH, high HIGH and everything but I would not take a huge hit like that. Instead I would keep reinstating him and redshirting him agian till the first game and see if he accepts. Sometimes, I have gotten a guy to accept on the 4th attempt. If it doesn't work, then I'd keep him on the bench.

With no playing time and a WE of 20 you are going to see very little improvement.  Plus, he'll be angry.  I just bite the bullet and let them play.  The WE will jump back to normal if you reinstate the player, as you may know.  Also, I wonder if he would be more likely to transfer?  not sure how often that happens when initiated by the player though.  My 20 WE guy with about 15 min PT has improved around 20 points so far, and the season is about over... with no playing times I bet it would be even lower.

Take the Red Shirt off. the 20 WE is gonna kill you.

Take it off and reapply.

Take it off and reapply.

It looks like he still hasn't played this season. Try putting it on again, he shouldn't reject it this time (I would be surprised if he does, but it definitely won't be as bad with 7 games, and 0 min played).

So I pulled off the red shirt and the WE jumped from 20 back to 46.  I then put the redshirt back on and now the player sends me an email saying he's glad for the extra year to work on his game... and his WE stayed at 46.  Thanks for the help!

Thanks for the idea guys.  Same thing just happened to me.  Redshirted a Soph who wasn't gonna get much playing time behind a bunch of upperclasses, and took a 20 point work ethic hit.  Took the redshirt off and put it back on after game 6, now he is happy I did it and no work ethic penalty.   Appreciate the tips from the vets.

sometimes - not always - it works to take off and put back on

often, however, if you take it off and apply again the WE will go EVEN lower....still comes back if you THEN take it off