Whether you’re buying or selling, here’s a list of players to consider making a move on before it’s too late.
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Players to Buy
Matt Ryan (QB – ATL)
When fantasy owners talk about elite quarterbacks, you often hear about Rodgers, Mahomes, Brady, Brees, and Cousins, but nobody talks about Ryan despite his MVP-caliber start to the season. Despite already getting his bye out of the way, he currently sits as the No. 2 fantasy quarterback. His upcoming schedule includes the Redskins, Browns, Cowboys, and Saints. He’s an every-week fantasy starter.
Dak Prescott (QB – DAL)
One of the more underrated impacts of Amari Cooper being traded to the Cowboys is the effect it’ll have on Prescott. Don’t forget how good Prescott was with a “washed-up” Dez Bryant as a fantasy quarterback. He finished as the QB6 in 2016 and QB11 in 2017, which is obviously much better than his current QB22 ranking. Not that he’s an every-week QB1 or anything, but he’s someone who you should buy on the cheap in 2QB formats.
Leonard Fournette (RB – JAC)
What has changed in Fournette’s outlook from the start of the season when he was a top-10 pick? Blake Bortles is still not very good at football, their offensive line was never a strength, and their defense is still top-10 in terms of points allowed. What? His hamstring injury? The Jaguars played it safe with him knowing that their bye week was coming up and that they were going to ride him after it. He’s still the same exact player in the same exact situation. As for Carlos Hyde, yeah, he looked really good toting the ball six times for 11 yards in Week 8. He’s averaged 3.3 yards per carry this season and the Jaguars used a fifth-round pick to get him. He’s strictly a handcuff.
Kerryon Johnson (RB – DET)
The departure of Golden Tate should benefit Johnson and Theo Riddick the most, as his average depth of target was just 5.8 yards, which is essentially running back territory. Johnson has been dominating as of late while Riddick’s been out, giving the Lions little reasons to take him off the field. Since Week 3, he’s been the No. 22 running back in fantasy, and that’s despite him having a bye week mixed in. Seeing him get more work in the passing game is more valuable than him stealing a handful of carries away from LeGarrette Blount. He should be viewed as a high-end RB2 for the remainder of the season.
Tarik Cohen (RB – CHI)
There’s been two instances where Cohen has played more than 50 percent of the snaps in his two years with the Bears. Both of those instances were over the last two weeks. He totaled just seven touches against the Jets may worry some, but you shouldn’t be one of them. He’s the engine that makes this offense goes, similar to James White in New England. You shouldn’t be shocked if Cohen finishes as a top-10 running back this year. You may not know it, but he’s currently the RB12 in PPR formats, ahead of Joe Mixon.
Aaron Jones (RB – GB)
This is your last chance to get Jones, though his asking price likely rose after his 86-yard, one-touchdown performance against the Rams. If you didn’t hear, the Packers traded away Ty Montgomery, who was seeing 5-8 touches per week all season. The Packers gave Jones 14 touches last week while coming off the bye week, with Jamaal Williams getting just four touches, and Montgomery getting three touches. They may have adjusted the timeshare during the bye week, which would make Jones a bonafide RB2 for the remainder of the season who comes with high upside.
Chris Carson (RB – SEA)
After the Seahawks dilly-dallied with Carson the first two weeks, he’s been the clear-cut No. 1 running back over the last four games he’s played. In those games, he’s averaged a ridiculously-high 23.8 touches per game. While it’s always tough to rely on a Seahawks running back, he’s clearly the head of the pack right now with Mike Davis and Rashaad Penny battling for the scraps. Knowing Penny got zero touches last week should reassure you that Carson is an every-week start.
Julio Jones (WR – ATL)
I cannot tell you how many messages I get each week with something like, “Why does everyone overrate Julio Jones? The guy doesn’t score touchdowns!” To know that he’s failed to score a single touchdown, yet is the No. 9 fantasy receiver in points per game should tell you everything you need to know. He’s now totaled 812 yards without a touchdown, so regardless of how you view his red zone prowess (or lack thereof), he’s going to start finding them soon. Take advantage of the guys who don’t deserve his consistency on a week-to-week basis, as he’s yet to score less than 11.2 PPR points in any game this season.
Keenan Allen (WR – LAC)
There’s probably a lot of Allen owners out there who are growing frustrated with their second-round pick’s performance to this point, making this your opportunity to buy-low. After 10 weeks of the season last year, Allen sat there as the No. 29 wide receiver in fantasy football. We all know what happened in the second-half of the season. With Rivers throwing the ball so well and now Melvin Gordon dealing with a soft tissue injury, this could be Allen’s opportunity to shine. Did you know he has one more catch and 28 more yards than Antonio Brown this year? The touchdowns will come soon.
Kenny Golladay (WR – DET)
There’s been a lot of wonder as to who will get the target share left behind by Golden Tate. While the running backs will receive some of it, so will Golladay, who has somewhat played the possession-style role in the offense with an average depth of target of 11.5 yards, while Marvin Jones has been the field-stretcher at 16.3 yards. Moving forward, Golladay should be considered a WR2 who I’d take over guys like Emmanuel Sanders, Jarvis Landry, and Julian Edelman.
Amari Cooper (WR – DAL)
Go ahead and hate all you want, but for those Amari-supporters out there, all they’ve ever wanted was volume. After seeing three or less targets in half of his games with the Raiders, he’s going to a team that traded a first-round pick for him because they absolutely needed a wide receiver. Despite Dez Bryant failing to get much separation in 2017, he averaged 8.3 targets per game with there being just four games that he saw less than six targets. Cooper may take time to develop chemistry with Prescott, but he’s going to get targeted and he’s got one of the easiest schedules in football for the remainder of the year.
Jack Doyle (TE – IND)
Despite coming off a five-week absence with a hip injury, Doyle jumped right back into the fire playing 57-of-78 snaps, while Eric Ebron played just 17-of-78 snaps. Doyle also outproduced Ebron with six catches for 70 yards and a touchdown. He’s an every-week TE1 that needs to be in lineups, though for whatever reason, there’s still some doubters out there.
Players to Sell
Deshaun Watson (QB – HOU)
Watson’s performance on Thursday night football was fantastic, but it’s also your chance to get off the roller coaster of an offense that is the Texans. According to the current strength of schedule, he doesn’t have a top-10 matchup for the rest of the year and ranks 25th among quarterbacks. The Texans did replace Will Fuller with Demaryius Thomas, though he doesn’t bring the same skill-set or familiarity with the offense that Fuller did. Some may be willing to buy Watson for more than he’s worth right now.
Christian McCaffrey (RB – CAR)
Many will see McCaffrey’s two touchdowns and think, “Ah, there it is. The touchdowns always had to come his way.” Well, not really. If you watched the game, McCaffrey ran into the back of his offensive lineman, that caused him to bounce backwards, and it appeared that most defenders thought the play was over, so kudos to him for taking advantage of the opportunity. The next touchdown was on a deflected pass that was intended for Devin Funchess which went straight up in the air and McCaffrey happened to be where it went. He finished the game with just 56 total yards, and it was the fourth consecutive game he finished with less than 95 total yards. If he’s not going to be scoring many touchdowns, he needs to total a bit more yardage to live up to his reputation. His schedule is lightening up down the stretch, so you don’t want to just give him away, but you should be open to offers for him. You could always wait until after his game against the Bucs this week to sell him, too, as he should perform well in it.
Le’Veon Bell (RB – PIT)
There’s a real chance that Bell doesn’t even play this year, as it seems like he and the Steelers are nowhere near close to an agreement. The thought all along was that he would return after Week 10, because if he doesn’t sign his franchise tag by November 13th (the Tuesday after Week 10), he cannot play for the remainder of the season and the Steelers can technically have the right to franchise tag him again, though that’s not going to happen with James Conner playing the way he is. There’s simply too many questions surrounding Bell, so feel free to trade him away for pennies on the dollar.
Jordan Howard (RB – CHI)
In case you haven’t noticed, Howard doesn’t exactly fit the Bears new offense. He’s averaging a career-low 3.5 yards per carry and has seen his snap counts decline as the weeks have gone on. Here’s his snap percentages starting in Week 1: 71, 73, 62, 54, 51, 56, 57. As you can see, he’s settled in as a 50-58 percent of snaps type player, which is a far cry from years past. He’s also seen just one target in each of the last four games, so he’s been phased out of the part of the game that leads to the most fantasy points. He’s currently a gamescript-dependent RB3.
Golden Tate (WR – PHI)
He’s seen 69 targets through seven games with the Lions, but you can be assured that volume goes down when he gets to the Eagles. Not only do they have Alshon Jeffery in the clear-cut No. 1 role, but they have Zach Ertz running through the middle of the field, where Tate had no competition for targets in Detroit. If the Eagles had no other threats, there’d be room for optimism, but they do, so Wentz doesn’t need to target him relentlessly. He’s more of a low-end WR3 moving forward.
Courtland Sutton (WR – DEN)
Many are going to say that Sutton is a must-play moving forward, but let’s step back and take a look at the big picture. He’ll play the Texans this week, which could be a decent game, though he then has his bye week, and will come out of that to play against Casey Hayward and Joe Haden the following weeks. Most seem to forget that he’s likely to see the top cornerback now that Thomas is gone, unless Emmanuel Sanders stops playing the slot, which wouldn’t make too much sense. He’s a WR3 moving forward, but he’s far from a sure thing.
DeSean Jackson (WR – TB)
Aside from asking for a trade from the team, Jackson is now down to No. 4 on the pecking order. Here’s the snap counts from the last two weeks: Evans 152, Godwin 129, Humphries 119, Jackson 89. He’s still getting opportunities, so he’s still on the low-end WR3 radar, but some will be buying-high now that Ryan Fitzpatrick is back under center. Now may be the best time to sell Jackson, who is less valuable than Godwin in my rest of season rankings.
Tyler Lockett (WR – SEA)
I’ve started to move off the idea that you should buy Doug Baldwin now that Russell Wilson has failed to exceed 26 attempts in the last five games, but if that tells you anything, it’s that Lockett should be considered a sell-high. He’s now scored in 6-of-7 games, so there’s owners out there who’ll overvalue the touchdowns and not look at the fact that he’s seen just six targets over the last two weeks combined and has totaled just 47 yards.
Eric Ebron (TE – IND)
With Jack Doyle returning to the offense, Ebron played just 17 snaps, while Doyle played 57 snaps. It’s clear that even after a five-week absence, Doyle is the No. 1 tight end on the team. Keep in mind that Ebron averaged 53.8 snaps per game with Doyle out of the lineup. It’s not to say that he won’t have any value, because he does, but your leaguemates may see that he still played well against the Raiders and not even think about checking snap counts. He’s just a low-end TE1 moving forward.
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Mike Tagliere is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @MikeTagliereNFL.