Fantasy Football Trades You Need To Make Before Week 8
Week 8 Fantasy Football Trades: Top Buys & Sells
If you’re going to win a fantasy football championship, you have to be trying to find ways to make your team better week in and week out. One of the best ways to do that is to shop the trade market. Be active with making trade offers, updating your trade block, and engaging in conversation with your league mates. It’s also important that you make quality trades. The best way to make sure you don’t get taken advantage of by your league mates and that you are offering fair deals is to utilize our fully customizable redraft fantasy football trade calculator. Now here are a few buys and sells to consider building your trades around in Week 8.
More: Fantasy Notebook: Snaps, Targets, Air Yards, & Routes Data From Week 7
Buy Marquise Brown
It’s been a rough two weeks for Marquise Brown. He has combined for just 15.3 PPR points over the last two weeks. That’s after scoring more than 15 in each of the previous four. Part of that is due to poor quarterback play. Josh Dobbs started the season off strong but has gotten progressively worse over the last several weeks. He has completed just 50.5% of his passes over the last three games. Dobbs threw for just 146 yards in Week 7 and averaged 4.4 yards per attempt.
The good news for Brown, though, is that he has maintained his high target volume. He has seen 10 or more targets in four of seven games and has not been below seven targets since Week 1. He is still top-5 in air yards, top-5 in deep targets, and top-12 in red zone targets. That’s an elite role. The quarterback play just hasn’t been good enough to turn it into elite fantasy production.
However, help is on the way. The Cardinals opened the practice window for Kyler Murray last week, giving them 21 days to activate the injured quarterback. That means Murray is likely to return to the field in Week 9 or Week 10. Remember, Brown was dominant with Murray as his quarterback last season before both of them dealt with their respective injuries. Brown averaged more than 10 targets per game and 18 fantasy points per game with Murray.
If Brown maintains his current role and usage when Murray returns (he likely will), he will surely benefit from the upgrade in passing efficiency and volume in the Arizona offense. With a poor defense on the other side, the Cardinals will need to pass at a high rate in order to stay in games. With matchups against the Falcons, Texans, Rams, Steelers, and Bears down the stretch, Marquise Brown could play a major role in propelling your team to a fantasy football championship.
Buy Tyjae Spears
Tyjae Spears has been backing up Derrick Henry all season. However, Spears has actually out-snapped Henry in three of six games. He’s played more than 50% of the offensive snaps in all but one game. While Henry is still the king in the running game, the Titans just can’t justify keeping their explosive rookie on the bench. Now, that hasn’t resulted in a ton of fantasy production, necessarily (although, he was RB9 in Week 5), but Spears is an intriguing buy in fantasy football right now.
The Titans are a team in turmoil. They are last in the AFC South with a 2-4 record and are without their starting quarterback for the foreseeable future. The team has already started looking ahead to the future and beginning the rebuilding process. That became clear when they shipped off pro bowl safety Kevin Byard to the Titans earlier this week. Does that mean king Henry is next?
Henry is 29-years old and in the final year of his contract. With the team heading face first into a rebuild, what incentive do they have to keep their aging running back? Even before the Byard trade, the rumors were swirling that Henry could be dealt at the upcoming trade deadline. Teams like the Cowboys, Ravens, Browns, and Bills have all been rumored as possible destinations. That doesn’t mean a deal will happen, and probably won’t, but the door is open and a trade would make a lot of sense for the team’s long-term interests.
In that scenario, Tyjae Spears is thrust into the RB1 chair. Spears is a smaller running back but he is explosive, agile, and has an all-purpose skill set. He might actually be the perfect runner to have behind a bad Titans offensive line because of his ability to change direction and make guys miss with ease. The Titans also have one of the easiest upcoming schedules for running backs, including matchups against the Texans (twice) and the Seahawks in the fantasy playoffs. This is purely a speculative add, but it won’t cost you much to get him in a trade. He can probably be had as a throw-in. Even in the event Henry remains in Tennessee, Spears will still give you one of the more valuable handcuff running backs in fantasy football.
Buy Chris Godwin
Chris Godwin has underwhelmed in the fantasy football box score to this point in the season. But he’s commanding volume, per usual. Godwin has had double-digit targets in two of the last three games, combining for 30 targets over that stretch. He’s top-24 in receptions, receiving yards, and total targets. That’s with already having a bye week. What has held him back is the lack of touchdowns. Godwin has yet to find the end zone. Yet, he is top-12 in red zone targets and Baker Mayfield is just outside the top-12 in red zone pass attempts. Touchdown regression will hit and Godwin will return to scoring as a top-24 fantasy producer. The Buccaneers upcoming schedule, featuring matchups against the banged up Bills, Texans, Titans, Colts, Falcons, and Panthers should only help Godwin find his groove.
I almost didn’t include this one because I’m not as confident in it as I would like to be. But, Godwin can be had at a really good price in a lot of leagues right now and is in for some touchdown regression. He’s a true buy-low.
Sell Brian Robinson
Brian Robinson is a sell low. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses. Robinson has been a mostly game script-dependent player to this point in the season. But in a game where the Commanders trailed by just seven points for the majority of the day, Robinson still only played 49% of the snaps. He carried the ball eight times for just 23 yards (2.9 YPC). Luckily, he scored the team’s only touchdown which saved his fantasy day (barely) and his trade value (again, barely).
We could just chalk it up to a bad day, but there is more to the story with Brian Robinson. Robinson has only led the backfield in snaps five times this season. In most of those, Antonio Gibson wasn’t far behind. Then, over the last two weeks, the team has started to work in rookie Chris Rodriguez. His snap shares have jumped from single digits early in the season, up to 12% and 13% over the last two.
While that’s not a meaningful number quite yet, it’s a sign that the team is getting impatient with its current running back situation and want to see what their rookie can do. And even though he only played nine snaps in Week 7, Rodriguez had just one fewer carry than Robinson (7 to 8) and averaged a much more respectable 4.4 yards per carry on his way to a team-high 31 rushing yards.
Robinson was barely usable already. Now, he may be seeing even less work. It’s going to be difficult to produce for fantasy if he’s sharing snaps with two other running backs, is game script and touchdown dependent, on a bad team with a bad offense. It might hurt to sell low, but his value is only going to go down from here. Get out now while you can still salvage something.
Bonus Buys
- Drake London
- Jared Goff
Bonus Sells
- Dameon Pierce
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