Fantasy Football Week 6 Trade Analyzer: Who should you look to deal off a big game?
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 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 George Pickens Away
Pickens earned 146 total yards on 10 targets against the Ravens secondary in Week 5. This performance shows the upside Pickens possesses, but these good weeks won’t be consistent.
The Steelers offense has been bad this season. It’s a mixture of poor play-calling and concerning QB play. Kenny Pickett ranks 31st in true completion rate and the Steelers' passing game ranks last in the league. Pickens is great, but it’s hard to overcome an awful environment at the wide receiver position.
Through five games, Pickens has been able to sustain a top-20 fantasy season but he’s about to have a lot more competition for targets. Diontae Johnson should return in 1-2 weeks. Pickens' targets drop by over 15% when Diontae is active. I’d sell Pickens for Nico Collins, Michael Pittman Jr. or Raheem Mostert.
Trade Christian Watson Away
In Week 5, Watson regained his full-time role in the Packers offense. He ran 29 routes and earned a team-high seven targets. He also had a massive 70+ yard reception on a broken play. But other than that play, he was held to just two catches for under 20 yards. The entire offense struggled with Jordan Love completing just 53% of his passes.
Love ranks 29th in QB grades, around guys like Desmond Ridder and Bryce Young. He’s struggled to throw with anticipation and downfield. This is concerning for Watson’s game. Besides a good matchup against the Bears in Week 1, we haven’t seen Love consistently perform like an NFL QB.
Further concerns arise when you look at the Packers QB depth. No one is coming to save the day. Late-round rookie Sean Clifford is the backup.
Take advantage of the broken play in this game that inflated Watson’s yards and see if you can sell him for someone like Tee Higgins (more on him later) or Isiah Pacheco.
Trade Alexander Mattison Away
His usage dropped in Week 5; that's not good. Mattison played just 53% of the snaps and he saw his rush share drop from 74% in Week 4 to just 47% in Week 5.
Fullback CJ Ham took a chunk of the passing down work from Mattison. Cam Akers was also involved, earning 40% of the early down usage, more than any back has seen behind Mattison this season.
Mattison needs the Vikings to be ahead in order to have upside on the ground and in the red zone. But with Justin Jefferson out for at least four weeks, it will be harder for Minnesota to move the ball on offense. There’s also the chance that Akers will eat more into Mattison’s usage in the next few weeks.
Mattison has a good matchup against the Bears in Week 6, but after that, he has some tough spots against the 49ers, Saints and Falcons. Look to trade Mattison for Jahmyr Gibbs or Rachaad White.
Buy low on Tee Higgins
He will likely miss another one to three weeks, but this factors into him being a great buy-low option.
Joe Burrow looked healthier in Week 5. He threw the longest pass of his career and had a 10-yard scramble. Not only that, but Burrow threw for over 300 yards and made some impressive throws that we didn’t see in Week 4.
Burrow looking healthy is what we needed in order to trust the top options on this team. Through three healthy games, Higgins has run over 90% of the routes and earned eight or more targets in every game. He had tough matchups against the Browns and Ravens to start the season and still posted a 29-point fantasy day against Baltimore in Week 2.
Higgins' injury was to his ribs. It’s a low re-injury rate for receivers once healed. Target Higgins in trades while his value is low.
Trade James Cook — but after Week 6
His usage has been concerning the past two games. In Week 4, Cook saw a season-low in passing game usage. Latavius Murray ran more routes and earned more targets than him.
Then in Week 5, Cook earned just five carries and a total of negative four rushing yards. Despite Buffalo trailing often in this game, Cook didn’t see elite passing-game usage. He played just 38% of the third-down snaps and earned only 11% of the targets.
The main issue is Buffalo continues to use three RBs. Over the past two games, Murray has played 26% of the snaps and Damien Harris has seen 21% of the snaps. This limits the upside of Cook, who is averaging just 10.5 opportunities the past two weeks.
Look to trade Cook after his Week 6 matchup against the Giants. The Bills are 14-point favorites against the Giants' 30th-ranked run defense. Target Kyren Williams or Aaron Jones in trades for Cook.
Trade For Kyren Williams
People are panicking over Kyren Williams and I’m here to bring you some clarity. Last week we mentioned that Williams was in the sketchy spot of the week. He had a brutal matchup against the Eagles No. 1 ranked defensive line.
This led to his worst game of the season, with 15 touches for just 57 scoreless yards. But Williams still saw his workhorse usage. He played 85% of the snaps and handled a season-high 92% of the RB carries.
Last week, we saw backup Ronnie Rivers earn 11 opportunities and nine carries. But this was in a breather role as Williams earned 28 opportunities in Week 4. Expect Williams' elite role to continue in easier matchups moving forward. He will face the Cardinals, Steelers and Packers over the next month. All three are bottom-10 against fantasy RBs.
Sell High On Dallas Goedert
In Week 5, Goedert produced 21.7 points on a season-high 9 targets. This was more than he had in his previous four games combined. It was clear the Eagles wanted to get him involved, as he was targeted three times on the opening scripted plays.
But here’s the concern: Goedert ranks 32nd in target rate among TEs. He’s earning a target on just 14% of his routes. This is a decrease from his 22% rate last season. There’s a clear reason for this: D’Andre Swift is earning an 11% target share. This is two times better than Miles Sanders had in this offense last season.
It was already difficult for Goedert to remain relevant while competing with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, but the addition of Swift has made it even harder. Look to sell high on Goedert for Chris Godwin or Tee Higgins.