Week 2 has come and gone and our fantasy teams are taking shape. It’s still early enough to consider it an overreaction by trading the player you took in the first round. But the clock is also ticking closer to your trade deadline and the number of games you can benefit from a move.
Luckily, FantasyPros has you covered. Not only is there the ‘Who Should I Trade?’ tool where you can get instant trade feedback but every week in this space, we’ll dig even deeper into players that should be moved. There will be the classic one-for-one deals but also deals where multiple pieces would equate to one piece which will be indicated with a ‘-plus’ next to the players’ name.
If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant, which allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.
The Trade: Mac Jones (QB – NE) for Jimmy Garoppolo (QB – SF)
The Reasoning: In the battle of New England quarterbacks — past and present — the edge should be given to the non-Patriots quarterback. Mac Jones, the current New England quarterback, is who he is. A game manager who will rarely throw for 300 yards or more than two touchdowns in a game. He did one or the other of those seemingly pedestrian totals just four times last season and never in the same game.
Make no mistake — Jimmy Garoppolo is a game manager too and will never be confused for Patrick Mahomes II. But he is on a far superior team with better coaching and better players around him. Take last year as an example. Garoppolo had five games of 300-plus throwing yards despite missing two games. Mac also finished with just two more touchdowns than Garoppolo despite playing in two more games.
There’s no doubt that Jimmy Garoppolo will be a popular player in your fantasy league, whether it’s on the waiver wire or otherwise. But if someone with a deep roster (or had Trey Lance and took Jimmy G as insurance), there are some deals to make especially for someone like Mac.
The Trade: Derrick Henry (RB – TEN) for Aaron Jones (RB – GB)-plus
The Reasoning: It’s been a tough start to the season for Derrick Henry and his fantasy managers. Despite 34 carries in two games — good for sixth-most in the league — Henry has managed just 107 yards and one touchdown. And whether it’s Henry that drives the Titans’ offense or the Titans’ offense that opens it up for Henry, Tennessee is now 0-2 and will have a tough road the rest of the season if they want to make the playoffs for the fourth straight season.
For Henry managers, some of whom took him in the top five or even top three of fantasy drafts, there was no reason to suspect a down year. Before Henry’s injury that ended his 2021 season after eight games, he was on pace for a 2,000-yard season. That followed an actual 2,000-yard season in 2020. On top of that, Henry had scored at least 10 touchdowns in four straight seasons, including last year when he only played half a season. And while there are plenty of games left, the signs are ominous that Henry can remotely match the production that warranted a top pick in fantasy drafts.
For Aaron Jones deniers, they’ll point to the full-blown committee/hot hand approach currently being deployed in Green Bay as a reason to not trust him. But if it’s working for Green Bay, it can work for you. Granted, Jones won’t be averaging over nine yards per carry but does average more than five for his career. Additionally, unlike other teams that use the committee approach and label their backs with a specific role, i.e. the passing down back, Green Bay uses Jones and A.J. Dillon interchangeably. This means Jones, even if he struggles to get to 200 carries, will see plenty of action in the passing game. He’s seen at least 60 targets in each of the last three seasons and has seen eight so far this season.
The Trade: Gerald Everett (TE – LAC) for Dawson Knox (TE – BUF)
The Reasoning: When it comes to fantasy production, Gerald Everett is about as consistent as it gets. He’s seen at least 60 targets (but never more than 63) and a total of 400 yards (but never more than 478) in each of the previous three seasons despite playing on two different teams. He’s now on this third team in three years and is off to the best start of his career. His 125 yards through two games is more than 25% of his highest yardage season total (478) set last year. He’s paired with stud quarterback Justin Herbert in L.A. and has quickly become a favorite, tying for the team lead with 14 targets.
It’s all good now but it’s a long season and there is just nothing in Gerald Everett’s history to indicate, at 28, that he can keep this up. Even in a good fantasy game during Week 2, he managed to get beat for a goalline touchdown by a Chiefs defender who returned the interception for a touchdown.
Dawson Knox has not had the same start to the season Gerald Everett has had. Production-wise he’s on the TE2/TE3 line when it comes to fantasy points, totaling just five receptions for 46 yards on the season. And this with new Bills No. 2 receiver Gabriel Davis missing a game. But don’t despair present and future Dawson Knox managers — the Bills look like a team of destiny and they’ve locked in Knox for the ride. After the 2021 season that saw him reach career highs in targets (71), receptions (49) and yards (587), not to mention nine touchdowns, the Bills extended him and made him a top-seven tight end when it comes to annual salary and guaranteed money. Those are not the actions of a team that plans on ignoring a player indefinitely.
Knox is the better bet when comparing Knox and Everett and their respective situations. Yes, Everett has been more consistent but the ceiling for that consistency just isn’t that high. Everett’s quarterback is also banged up from a rib injury that could affect him for the rest of the season. Meanwhile, Knox is on an offense firing on all cylinders and has a clear path to targets with or without Gabriel Davis in the lineup.
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If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant, which allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.
Michael Moore is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Michael, check out his archive and follow him @DLF_Moore.