30 fantasy football players you should target ahead of your deadline
By Nick Villano
16. Isiah Pacheco, RB, Kansas City Chiefs
Current Ranking: 46
Trading for an injured player is always a huge risk. Trading for an injured running back can be asking for trouble, but the reward for the risk is unlike most other trade candidates in the middle of the season. At the draft, there are dozens of players who could be one thing or another in fantasy. We always have players coming out of the woodwork. While every once in a while an injury replacement dominates, it’s definitely not something fantasy owners should rely upon.
Pacheco suffered a broken fibula, which sounds like a gnarly injury that should end a season, but that’s not the reality for him. He’s working his way back, and he shared a post where he was running on a treadmill recently. His return to football shouldn’t be too far after that. If you can make this work (a team would need to be good enough to make the playoffs as is, or even subtract whoever you trade for Pacheco for this to work), it could be a championship winner in the right place and time.
Targeting a player like Isiah Pacheco could be a win-win for your trade partner. If they are desperate for talent to replace the players currently giving them zeros, a trade makes a ton of sense. It’s the same concept we put together for Christian McCaffrey. However in this case, Pacheco comes with about a third of the price tage of CMC.