Dynasty Trade Advice: James Cook, Dalton Schultz, Tua Tagovailoa (Fantasy Football)

Training camp is here, and your missing leaguemates are returning from whatever remote, wooded location they’ve been hibernating at for the last couple of months. You can ignore that guy who keeps offering you Elijah Moore for a third-round rookie draft pick. And stop stressing about Dillon Johnson going to Carolina. It’s time to consider more significant moves.

The August dynasty trade flurry is approaching. Prepare to include yourself in this activity bump. Some managers will look to shore up depth while others will aspire to more seismic reconfigurations. Training camp hype will artificially boost values, especially when it comes to athletic, unproven youth. It’s a hectic time of year. It’s time to get the house in order and finish shaping our 2024 rosters. Here are a few players to trade now in dynasty fantasy football leagues.

Dynasty Trade Advice: Players to Sell Now

James Cook (RB – BUF)

James Cook finished with two rushing touchdowns in each of his first two seasons. His 2023 total matches Tyjae Spears, Rico Dowdle and Dameon Pierce. Cook had significantly more rushing attempts than all of these players. The full picture shows that he supplemented this deficit with four receiving touchdowns. He also finished third in the league in scrimmage yards with 1,567. Alright, that’s very good, so why trade him?

Cook earned roughly a fourth of his total fantasy points in Weeks 14-15, finishing as the RB2 in each of these weeks. He finished in the top 10 on two other occasions. These productive weeks were dragged down by nine performances outside of the top 20 running backs. Cook’s skillset limits his fantasy production. He relies on explosive plays and lacks competence in the red zone. He also isn’t targeted very often, receiving the 17th-most targets among running backs. His yards per reception is impressive at 10.1, but Josh Allen is never going to pepper his running backs. Cook doesn’t have a consistent weekly floor. His RB12 finish was bolstered by two significant weeks, and you’d like to see a better overall finish from someone with 1,567 total yards.

The Bills drafted Ray Davis in the fourth round with the hope that he can properly fill that cutting, between-the-tackles role intended for Damien Harris and then given to Latavius Murray. The backfield’s limitations necessitated Allen’s 15 rushing touchdowns. Davis projects to immediately siphon valuable red zone opportunities and his versatile skillset means that he could earn snaps in other areas of the field. At the very least, we know that the Bills won’t deploy Cook like the Jaguars do Travis Etienne. Cook is an inherently limited fantasy player.

Dalton Schultz (TE – HOU)

There is a glow surrounding C.J. Stroud and the rest of the Houston Texans offense. Managers will likely hold Nico Collins, Tank Dell and Stefon Diggs. Dalton Schultz is likely the simplest option for contenders who want a piece of this offense. Thanks to his new contract, Schultz is easy to sell as a secure tight end with flash weeks in a highly productive offense.

Schultz had a productive mid-season stretch. He finished as a top-10 tight end six times in Weeks 4-11. These six games accounted for 68.4% of his overall production in half-PPR. Outside of these performances, Schultz averaged 4.2 PPG and he failed to break three fantasy points on five occasions. I’m still pretty scarred by the two-reception, 19-yard performance during the championship week. Outside of 2021’s TE3 season, Schultz has generally been a high-end streaming option. There’s a need for that for the right team, but he’s likely settled at his peak stable value.

The pass catchers are plentiful in Houston. In a perfect world, Collins, Dell and Diggs all command 100 targets. It looks unlikely that Schultz will reach the 88 targets he earned in 2023. Furthermore, the tight end room is more crowded than Schultz’s contract might suggest. Brevin Jordan flashed when given the opportunity and Cade Stover is a pass catcher who played with Stroud at Ohio State. All signs point toward a diminished role for Schultz.

Tua Tagovailoa (QB – MIA)

The battle is over. Tua Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212.4 million contract with $167 million guaranteed. He has the third-highest AAV in the league and he’s tied to the Miami offense for four more years. That’s a pretty nice sales pitch. And he’s entering his age-26 season. Last season, he led the league in passing yards (4,624). There’s a lot to like about Tagovailoa, but he’s shown us that he doesn’t have the traits to be a game-breaker or even finish an NFL season strong.

Tagovailoa finished 2023 as the QB9. He started the season off hot with multiple boom games. Then he didn’t reach 20 points again after Week 8. He averaged 12.4 points during this span. A full season of this standard would have finished as QB20; ahead of Gardner Minshew and behind Justin Fields. That’s the guy who shows up when you need him most. Tagovailoa generally needs three-plus touchdowns to finish as a top-10 quarterback on the week. He lacks the mobility to gain points on the ground, or the arm strength to improvise and drive the ball in poor conditions. He’s a solid but limited player. He’s good at what he does, but in the end, Tagovailoa doesn’t do enough.

Competent quarterbacks are hard to find. It’s understandable if you get your hands on a top-10 player and want to hold onto him for dear life. Understand that the 2023 season is realistically who Tagovailoa will be. He can finish first in passing yards and fifth in passing touchdowns and still barely place above Sam Howell in fantasy points.