Fantasy Football Trade Analyzer: Buy-low and sell-high candidates for Week 3
Sal Vetri is a new Yahoo Fantasy contributor this season. He'll write a weekly football trade story focusing on players to deal. This week, he highlights five players to trade away and two to target.
Note: You can view recent trades completed on Yahoo Fantasy for the players mentioned in this article to help provide additional ideas on potential deals. Visit the trade market for more details.
Trade DJ Moore away immediately
This is concerning, Moore ranks 83rd in WR usage through two weeks. He’s behind guys like Dontayvion Wicks and Brandon Johnson.
Now is the time to move Moore off his 100-yard performance in Week 2. This Bears offense has not improved since 2022. The play-calling is poor, the offensive line remains a bottom-10 unit and Justin Fields ranks 30th in accuracy through two weeks.
The most disappointing part is Chicago has trailed in the second half of both games. Despite this, Moore has just nine targets this season.
Trade Moore for someone like Michael Pittman or Garrett Wilson.
Sell Brian Robinson
Robinson is having a strong start to the season. He’s played 57% of the snaps and earned 79% of the Commanders rush attempts. This usage has led to Robinson ranking third in RB fantasy points through two weeks.
But Robinson has scored 36% more points than expected thanks to that usage. This is due to some early TD luck and unsustainable receiving production for a player who’s not running many routes.
Robinson is a solid fantasy starter moving forward, but now is the time to cash in. He and the Commanders are 6.5-point underdogs in Week 3. This is the exact game environment where Antonio Gibson should earn more playing time, limiting Robinson's upside.
Deal Robinson for someone like Kyren Williams before this happens.
Buy Sam LaPorta
You want to get this rookie now. LaPorta has been solid to start his NFL career. In Week 1, he ran 72% of the routes and earned five targets. TEs who see similar usage average a top-12 fantasy finish. LaPorta brought in all five targets for 39 yards in Week 1 and this usage improved Week 2.
In Week 2, LaPorta ran an elite 84% of the routes and earned six targets. He’s now run 56 routes compared to 14 for all of the Lions' other TEs.
LaPorta has always produced as a starter dating back to his 2021 breakout year at Iowa. He averaged 7.2 targets per game over his final two college seasons. He’s NFL-ready and it’s showing over these first two games.
Trade Raheem Mostert
According to PFF, Mostert is the third-luckiest RB in 2023. He’s earned 70% more points than expected based on his role. This means his production is not sustainable.
That said, we can’t take away what he’s done. Mostert has played 73% of the Dolphins' RB snaps, earned 58% of the rushes and ran 65% of the routes. This is legit RB1 usage and it’s led to 18.6 fantasy points per game. This ranks top-five among RBs.
Mostert has averaged an impressive 5.7 yards per touch on his 31 touches. But Jeff Wilson is expected to return from the PUP list after Week 4. Mike McDaniel loves the "thunder" that Wilson brings. Last season Wilson was the main red-zone back for Miami and played more snaps than Mostert when healthy.
Try to trade Mostert for someone like Jerry Jeudy or Alvin Kamara.
Drake London is a sell candidate
Try to trade London off his 15.7-point Week 2 performance. If you watched this game, you’d know London was fantastic. He was getting open deep and winning a tough matchup vs. Jaire Alexander.
But London’s talent has never been the issue; it’s his offense that’s the concern. The Falcons ran 45 times in Week 2 and only threw 32 times despite trailing by two scores in the second half.
Week 2 may be the best-case scenario for London, with Atlanta throwing over 30 times and Kyle Pitts gaining just four targets.
If 15.7 points is London's best-case scenario, that’s a major concern. Trade London for someone like Chris Godwin (more on him below) or Mike Williams.
Deal Christian Kirk
After scoring 1.9 fantasy points in Week 1, Kirk dropped 16.46 points on a massive 14 targets against Kansas City in Week 2. Kirk saw his routes increase from 66% in Week 1 to 84% in Week 2.
At first glance, you may think he took the WR2 job from Zay Jones, who had 32% fewer routes in Week 2. Sadly, this was not the case. Jones was still the WR2 but he missed time in this game with an injury. Calvin Ridley also missed some snaps due to injury.
Kirk was the only fully healthy WR in this game for Jacksonville. When you pair this with Trevor Lawrence throwing 40+ times, it starts to make sense why Kirk earned a 36% target share in Week 2.
Sell Kirk off this unsustainable performance for someone like Michael Pittman or Jerry Jeudy.
Go get Chris Godwin
It’s been the Mike Evans show the first two weeks of the season. Evans is the No. 2 fantasy receiver through two weeks. Despite this, Godwin is still seeing strong usage in what looks like an offense that is here to stay.
Yes, Baker Mayfield has been bad the past few seasons but this Bucs offense under new offensive coordinator Dave Canales is legit. He’s making things easy for Baker. Canales did the same thing for Geno Smith last season in Seattle. All told, Baker is a top-three-graded QB through two weeks.
In Week 2, Godwin led the Bucs WRs in routes with 28 and he earned a solid seven targets. Godwin has now averaged 31.5 routes per game through two weeks, the most on the team.
It’s worth noting too, Baker missed Godwin on a would-be 15-yard TD in Week 2. Godwin’s role remains strong, and you want to trade for him before Week 3.
