Trades You Need To Make In Fantasy Football Before Week 2
Trade Targets For Fantasy Football Week 2
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 10.
More: Fantasy Notebook: All The Usage Data From Week 1
Buy Bijan Robinson
Fantasy managers who used an early pick on Bijan Robinson are probably feeling a little uneasy right now. While his 16.1 fantasy points in Week 1 were totally fine, it certainly wasn’t what was expected in what was hyped up to be a wildly improved situation. I mean, Kirk Cousins looked bad and the offense only managed 10 points at home in a game they were favored to win. But again, 16.1 fantasy points is a quality outing and was good enough to be the RB19 in PPR scoring. However, if we look beyond the box score, it’s so easy to see that this is the absolute floor for Bijan Robinson.
His role and usage was absolutely everything we were hoping for coming into the season. First of all, he dominated the running back snaps. There was no more playing around with Tyler Allgeier like we were seeing last season. Robinson was on the field for 89% of the snaps and he accounted for 85.7% of the running back rush attempts. And in the passing game, Robinson ran a route on 78.6% of Cousins’s drop backs and had a 19.2% target share.
This is why we were drafting him. He just didn’t get the touchdowns. But we can expect he will get those score in future weeks. Remember, this is Week 1 against the Steelers defense in a game that Kirk Cousins was clearly rusty coming off the achilles injury. Things will only go up from here for the offense and that will give us the league winning performances we are banking on from Bijan Robinson.
Buy Michael Pittman
It was all about Alec Pierce in Week 1. Pierce was on the receiving end of two Anthony Richardson bombs. Ashton Dulin also took a pass 54 yards to the house. That didn’t leave much else for WR1 Michael Pittman. Three massive chunk plays like that are great for real life but they take away so many opportunities for the other pieces in the offense. Rather than getting 50+ yards in one play, normally that yardage would have to be attained over several plays. That’s part of why we only saw 19 pass attempts from Anthony Richardson and we saw such few plays from an offense that was at the top of the league in plays per game a year ago. But I digress.
The box score looked sad for Pittman (4 catches, 31 yards), but his role as the alpha in Indianapolis hasn’t changed. He still commanded a massive 42.1% target share. In comparison, Pierce’s big day came on a 15.8% target share. There will be much better days ahead for Pittman. I liked him coming into the season and now the cost to acquire him had dropped. His quarterback looked good in Week 1 and the flow of the game will normalize in future weeks.
Buy Amon-Ra St. Brown
Coinciding with a breakout performance from Jameson Williams was a quiet night from Amon-Ra St. Brown. While Williams was picking up chunk gains, St. Brown was held to three catches for 13 yards. Based on his history and everything we believed coming into the season, this is a one-off performance from Amon-Ra and he will be back dominating the box score in future weeks. He still received a healthy 21.4% target share. Weird things happen in Week 1, we see it every year. This is just another example.
St. Brown is coming off a 1,500 yard season and has been targeted 90+ times in every season of his career. He is a dominant route runner and the alpha in the Lions offense. Nothing has changed, except defenses will have to respect Jameson Williams more than in the past. That means less attention is they’re going to be able to put on St. Brown.
If whoever drafted him in your league is feeling some buyer’s remorse, shoot them an offer and get yourself a top-5 wide receiver.
Buy Dalton Kincaid
There were a lot of questions about the Bills wide receiver corps coming into the season. That led us to tight end Dalton Kincaid who had a strong finish to his rookie season and was looking like the best pass catcher in the offense. Then Week 1 happens. Kincaid is targeted twice and ends the day with one catch for 11 yards. Ouch. However, I’m not ready to move off of my preseason stance just yet.
This was just a weird game. Josh Allen only threw the ball 23 times. He attempted fewer than 25 passes just two times all of last season. And it was clear the Cardinals came to the same conclusion as I did on these Bills pass catchers and put a lot of emphasis on limiting Kincaid in this game. In fact, there are several clips that show the Cardinals defenders keying in on Kincaid and completely eliminating him with double and even triple coverage.
And while we still need better than an 8.7% target share from Kincaid, he ran a route on 83.3% of Allen’s drop backs, which was nearly double that of fellow tight end Dawson Knox. Hopefully the other weapons in the offense showed enough to deter future defenses from locking in on Kincaid as heavily as the Cardinals did. I’m still confident that Kincaid will be top-3 at the position when everything shakes out. It’s just one week. And we saw almost all of the top-drafted tight ends struggle in Week 1, not just Kincaid. So I’m buying low wherever I can. This is a great offense with a great quarterback and Kincaid is going to be a big part of that.
Buy Brock Bowers
The Raiders made it clear that rookie tight end Brock Bowers is going to be a big part of this offense in 2024. Not only did he score 11.8 fantasy points and finish as the TE3 on the week, but Bowers led the team in targets and receptions. That’s on a team that also includes Davante Adams. Bowers had a 24.4% target share and ran a route on 77.5% of the drop backs. The quarterback situation is shaky and the offense overall is subpar, but Bowers is going to be one of the bright spots in Vegas this season.
Even though he did score at the TE3 on the week, 11.8 fantasy points doesn’t jump off the page and scream breakout, so he is still absolutely attainable in trade. If you drafted a David Nkoku or a Jake Ferguson, or you punted the position, Bowers is a great trade target who can give you steady production.
Buy Evan Engram
Evan Engram only had one catch for five yards, but it was a low volume passing day for Trevor Lawrence and company. Engram still played his usual role and had a healthy 19% target share. He’s going to be just fine.
Buy Jerome Ford
Deshaun Watson might be toast but Jerome Ford is a bellcow back for the foreseeable future. Not only did he play 75% of the snaps and take 85.7% of the running back rush attempts, but he also had a 15.6% target share. That is about as elite of a role as it gets for a running back in today’s NFL. We want Jerome Ford on our teams.
Buy Drake London
Better days are coming for Drake London. It was one week with a rusty quarterback against a difficult defense. He still ran 100% of the snaps. Better days are coming.
Buy Amari Cooper
Deshaun Watson looked bad but the passing volume was there (45 attempts). Amari Cooper commanded targets as usual with 9 and he ran a route on 100% of Watson’s drop backs. The Browns won’t have to go up against the Cowboys defense every week so things should get better from here.
Buy Diontae Johnson
Bryce Young is atrocious but Diontae Johnson should be heavily targeted most weeks. It will help that they’ll be in comeback mode most of the time. Johnson won’t win you your league but he should return value at the low cost it will take to acquire him right now.
Buy Rachaad White
68% of Bucky Irving’s production came in garbage time. Rachaad White gives us the receiving production that is so valuable for fantasy football. In fact, he had more receptions and receiving yards than Mike Evans in Week 1. That role is not going away.
Sell Stefon Diggs
It was a great Texans debut for Stefon Diggs. He caught six passes and scored two touchdowns. His 21.9 fantasy points were enough to finish as the WR9 on the week. This is exactly why you drafted him, right? He’s been a stud wide receiver for years, has a fresh start in Houston, and is paired with one of the NFL’s best young quarterbacks.
However, there are some causes for concern when we look a bit closer. While Diggs did receive a healthy six targets, it only worked out to an 18.8% target share. That’s partly because the Texans ran a ton of plays, a volume that likely won’t be repeatable. Not only that, but both Nico Collins (25%) and Tank Dell (21.9%) still out-targeted him. Both also had more receiving yards. The two touchdowns were cool, but how often is Diggs really going to score twice in one game? Especially with the target competition in that offense. Those 33 receiving yards are not going to get the job done if they don’t happen to come in the red zone and result in touchdowns. The Texans were not targeting Diggs down the field, instead feeding him short throws which is why the yardage total was so low. We need more downfield looks if we’re going to get any sort of upside production. It seems, however, that the Texans have designated Collins and Dell to get the majority of those routes.
So if I’m rostering Diggs, I’m approaching the managers in my league who don’t look beyond the box score, will just see the WR9 finish and the two touchdowns and will pay a WR1 price to take him off my hands.
Sell Tony Pollard
There has been lots of Tony Pollard hype after his Titans debut resulted in 18.4 fantasy points, good enough for an RB12 finish. However, I am putting Pollard on the trade block in leagues where I roster him. I’m just not convinced this is going to be what we get going forward. We debated all summer about which Titans running back is the one to target in fantasy drafts—Tony Pollard or Tyjae Spears? Even the Titans offensive coordinator told us he expects a 50/50 split. Obviously, that’s not what happened in Week 1 and it does appear that Pollard will be the better running back in Tennessee for fantasy purposes, but I don’t think it’s going to be as clear cut as it was against the Bears.
While Pollard had a healthy lead in carries, Spears still played nearly 50% of the snaps. He also ran more routes and equaled Pollard’s four targets and 12.5% target share. Spears is not going away. He will continue to operate as the clear third down and receiving back and could earn more carries as well. We’ve seen Week 1 usage flip before, weird things happen in Week 1, so let’s give it some time before we crown Pollard the bellcow. We also know the Titans are going to be trailing in games more often than not which will likely mean more passing situations and more Tyjae Spears (less Tony Pollard). That will likely begin in Week 2 with a tough matchup against the Jets. So with that said, I’m taking offers for Pollard this week.
Sell Keenan Allen
Keenan Allen had the elite target share but lacked the production. He looked banged up at times. If he’s going to produce it’s going to be early in the season. Eventually the rookie Rome Odunze—who actually ran more routes than Allen in Week 1–is going to breakout and box out the veteran.
Sell Cole Kmet
I warned before the season that Gerald Everett was going to be a problem for Cole Kmet. And in Week 1, Gerald Everett was a problem for Cole Kmet. They both had the same number of targets, but Everett doubled Kmet’s routes. So on top of having to deal with DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze, and D’Andre Swift for target competition with a rookie at quarterback, Kmet is also losing opportunities to Everett. If I can’t sell him, I’m dropping.
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