The NFL season is 3 weeks in, and it’s likely that in just those 3 weeks your team looks very different from how it started thanks to injuries, add/drops, and trades. Whether you’re 0-3 or 3-0, your team can always improve; so, I have put together a list of guys I am looking to trade for and trade away as we look ahead to the rest of the season. Take these lists with a grain of salt. Context is always important (look at roster construction, scoring, etc.), so don’t force a trade just because of a potential buy-low or sell-high opportunity if the price isn’t right, it could be detrimental in the long run.
Based on different factors, each player will get a number score of 1-5, with 1 being on the lower end and 5 being on the higher end on how much I want to trade for or trade away each player. They are all in these categories for a reason, so there are no bad options, but for the sake of adding extra context to how I feel about each player I think this is helpful.
Trade For
For added reference to the number scores, a 1 is someone that I’d like to have on my team, but it’s no big deal if I can't grab them and a 5 is someone I am ready to give up a good haul for.
Antonio Gibson (5)
Gibson hasn’t had quite the start I’d hoped for, but I’m in full stan mode and expect things to get better for him based on his volume. He showed terrific ability on his 73-yard screen TD, but it may not be enough to sell some managers on his fantasy upside. I would go after him before he blows up like he did last year.
Robert Woods (3)
Woods has been the clear WR2 rather than WR1B with Kupp absolutely killing it so far, however I think some positive regression comes his way as the season goes on. He hasn’t been that bad, but I’m sure most Woods’ managers are looking at Kupp and feeling disappointed. Use it to your advantage and see if you can snag him.
Julio Jones (4)
Julio hasn’t had the greatest of starts, but we saw that he still has it in the Seattle game in week 2. With AJ Brown going down and this recent poor performance, Julio is probably someone you can grab for cheaper than his actual value.
David Montgomery (4)
Through 3 weeks, Montgomery is averaging a little over 17 touches per game, but a mixture of bad TD luck and tough matchups hasn’t helped with his point totals. Try to grab him before he sees a string of easier matchups where I would project him as a low-end RB1.
Corey Davis (2)
Davis set expectations high in week 1 and hasn’t been able to live up to them since, but he’s averaging just over 7 targets a game. Similar to Montgomery, he has also seen some difficult matchups the first 3 weeks, but with Tennessee and Atlanta next things may be better for the former first round pick.
Jonathan Taylor (4)
JT has been vulture by Hines a few times already this season, and while that may continue in some capacity, I doubt it will be at the rate that it is now. Taylor has yet to touch pay dirt, and I think we all expect that to change.
Allen Robinson (2)
Matt Nagy’s strategy with Fields as the QB did not go according to whatever plan he had in mind and this negatively affected Allen Robinson, who has been a perennial top-12 wideout for fantasy football. Based on some recent news that Dalton could miss extra time, Fields may continue to start. As Fields gets into the game more, I think we’ll see some major improvements that lead to Robinson targets. That and they don’t have to play Myles Garret and the rest of the Cleveland defense again this year, which is always a plus.
Of course, I am worried about Robinson, and unfortunately don’t think he has the same top-12 finish this year as he normally does, so proceed with some caution when looking at who to offer for him.
Ruggs (2)
The Raiders are a surprising 3-0 after many people (myself included) thought they might be at the bottom of the AFC West by week 4. Derek Carr has been impressive and after a poor week 1 Ruggs has been a good fantasy option and with 7 targets and a rushing attempt in each of his last two games, the volume is there as well. Carr has taken more deep shots than anyone in the NFL and has completed almost 50% of them, per JJ Zachariason. As we all know, many of these have and will continue to go towards Ruggs. 50% is a little high, most quarterbacks are hovering around the 30%-40% range, but even if this drops closer to the average, Carr’s volume of deep pass attempts still allows for ample opportunity for Ruggs to make a big play every week. Renfrow has also looked great, and I feel like he has distracted from Ruggs’ performance, so you can still probably grab him for cheaper. The year 2 wide receiver breakout for Ruggs may have just started a week late.
Ty’Son Williams (3)
The next man up had a poor week 3 against a bad Detroit Lions defense, but it was at no fault of his own. Williams was only given 5 carries, which may be part of the reason Baltimore didn’t do too hot in this one, a game where they were expected to annihilate the Lions coming off a big win in Kansas City. Despite this bad fantasy performance, Ty’Son “Tyson Chicken” Williams (it’ll stick I just know it
Terry McLaurin (5)
Despite having some not-so-great QB play with Fitzpatrick going down, Terry has still been solid. Of course, the Terry McLaurin manager may not think so based on their expectations of him given the area he was drafted in. The opportunity is still there because where the hell else is Heinicke going to throw the ball?? Take advantage of the sandwich of “meh” games and go get McLaurin.
Rondale Moore (1)
Rondale Moore is a rookie wide receiver. This is important to remember when he has a bad game. Regardless of the player, it takes some time to get fully adjusted to the speed of the NFL, and with talented wideouts such as Moore it usually shows around the halfway mark. For reference, Justin Jefferson, who had the greatest rookie wide receiver season of all time, started off with 3/5 games at 7.4 PPR points or less. As the season progressed, he adapted to the pros and averaged almost 20 PPR points a game over the last 8 games. The second half of the season is normally when a rookie receiver comes into his own on a more consistent basis given ample opportunity, and I believe Moore has that opportunity.
Antonio Brown (3)
Thanks to Brown’s run-in with COVID and his bad week 2 game, the week 1 AB performance may be completely out of the minds of some fantasy managers. Brown may have the occasional dud game thanks to the other 3 talented options that Brady has, but I’d expect more games in the 10+ fantasy point category than not.
Tyreek Hill (5)
This one may be a bit more difficult, but there’s no harming in trying, right? Tyreek exploded in week 1 with almost 40 fantasy points but has since been pretty mediocre as far his fantasy standards go. Of course, this is still Tyreek Hill, and the name value there might make a trade for him a little more difficult, but you might as well go for it and see.
Joe Mixon (4)
Joe Mixon is 2nd in touches only to Derrick Henry (big shock there huh), and while he hasn’t been very efficient with them, the volume will lead to opportunity. After his great week 1 performance, Mixon hasn’t done too much. Now is a great time to swoop in with a trade offer for the Bengals back.
Courtland Sutton (3)
Sutton started off the year clearly limited in week 1, then proceeded to shrug that off and show why he was the Broncos’ WR1 before Jeudy arrived with a great performance in week 2. The Broncos didn’t need to do a whole lot offensively against a very bad Jets team, so it comes as no surprise we didn’t see him get the deep shots he did in week 2. Capitalize on many likely thinking of week 2 as a fluke and go after him, I expect him to lead the Broncos in targets while Jeudy is out and continue to thrive even when Jeudy returns. He wasn’t a 1,100-yard receiver 2 years ago for nothing.
Trade Away
For added reference to each number score, a 1 is someone I’d trade away if a good deal arises, but I’m not in a rush to give away, and a 5 is someone I want to get off my team as soon as a decent trade opportunity arises.
Zack Moss (5)
After being inactive in week 1, Zack Moss has been good for fantasy in both weeks following. This came mostly through TDs, which we all know aren’t a sticky stat, meaning they fluctuate quite a bit from week-to-week. I would expect things to slow down for Moss, who has 3 TDs in his first 2 active weeks. He's a good player to use in a package to get an RB upgrade to bolster your team.
Trey Sermon (4)
Trey Sermon started off horribly in his first start in week 3, and people were wondering at halftime if it would’ve been better to just go with a free slot rather than play him, but he was able to turn it around in the 2nd half, scoring a short TD run and actually going for positive yards. Despite this, I was very concerned with the amount of play Kyle Juszczyk had as a runner rather than his normal fullback position which he excels in and would try to use Sermon’s performance to unload him onto a team that needs running backs. There are probably a few of them given all these injuries.
Najee Harris (2)
Najee just had one of the weirdest weeks I think I’ve ever seen thanks to Diontae’s absence and losing JuJu, with 19 targets on the week. Now don’t hear what I’m not saying with Najee (or don’t read what I’m not typing I guess), Najee will be a weekly start and I wouldn’t just trade him away the first chance I get, but I think you can capitalize off his last two performances and upgrade to a better RB1, one that has a better team with a better offensive line would be nice. Ezekiel Elliot would be someone I’d look to target using Najee.
Clyde (3)
Clyde finally had a good game, though I think it might be more of an indictment on the Chargers’ run defense rather than Clyde being “back” so to speak. I think Clyde will fall somewhere in between what we’ve seen the last two weeks on average, but his floor is very low as we’ve seen, and I’d be concerned to start him every week. Consider putting some trades out there with him off this nice performance.
AJ Green (4)
AJ Green has been a surprisingly good play the last couple weeks and I think he’ll continue to have value, although I believe it will be very unpredictable, something you want to try and avoid as much as possible when you roster players. He’s also been the beneficiary of nice matchups as well as Hopkins being hurt in week 3. He may be a pain to roster as time goes on with Hopkins being healthy and both Moore and Kirk being good receivers, so I would try to move on, likely by packaging him with someone else in a trade offer.
Beasley (2)
This is another situation where I don’t necessarily think you MUST trade him because his volume is going to drop off a cliff, but with Diggs and Sanders around it will be difficult for the slot receiver to continue to produce big PPR numbers and target totals. His floor is decent, but a touchdown will be rare for him, and I would look to turn him into someone with higher upside.
Marquez Callaway (5)
Callaway had a very nice preseason and generated some hype going into the season that was quickly squashed with back-to-back dropworthy performances. He seemingly has bounced back in week 3 with a score, but I personally do not feel confident in him to continue to do this more than two or three more times this season. He’ll be too touchdown dependent to want to ever start, and if there are any managers in your league that are still high on him try to unload him onto them.
DJ Chark (4)
Chark is truly the definition of touchdown dependent. After seeing 12 targets in week 1, only 3 of which were caught, Chark has seen a much lower average of 5 targets per game in weeks 2 and 3. 5 targets isn’t terrible, but 5 targets on a bad team lowers the value a little bit. There are still differing opinions on who the first, second, and third options are in Jacksonville, but I stand firm in my belief that the order is as follows:
WR1-Marvin Jones
WR2-Laviska Shenault
WR3-DJ Chark
With differing opinions still at work, some managers in your league may believe in Chark as the WR1 and could see a trade with him in it as a steal.
James Conner (3)
James Conner doesn’t have a ton of trade value, but this 2 TD week might give him a little boost as an ancillary piece to maybe push an offer over the edge that someone was on the fence about. If you’re in a deeper league, the waiver wire likely has about 0 good options for pickups at the running back position, so teams with poor running back depth are good targets here.