Sometimes you’re walking down the fantasy streets, drinking your fantasy coffee and saying hi to your fantasy neighbors at the fantasy bakery and you encounter a fantasy football score on your bench that just doesn’t make sense. Hang on, Jalen Coker has how many points this season?
You then have to evaluate your priors: did I underrate Jalen Coker? Should I start him? If I’m not going to start him, should I trade him to someone who will? Is depth more important? Can I fill a hole at RB2? You then have a fantasy panic attack because you don’t have the answers.
"Sell highs" don't actually exist, and need to be managed carefully
For a detailed description of how I think trading in fantasy football actually works, please check out the intro to my recent “Buy Low” column. TL;DR: I think trading is a massively overrated part of fantasy football, and you can win your league without ever making a trade. Additionally, “buying low” on players doesn’t actually exist, since fantasy player values are not stocks, are not liquid and cannot be directly exchanged for points — you’re basically trying to buy art, which you’ll always end up overpaying for.
Selling high, meanwhile, also does not exist, but for a different reason. Picture the scene: I walk into your house, completely uninvited, with my beloved Picasso painting from 1931 and offer to sell it to you. Would you react by saying, "Wow, what a treat, I can’t believe this guy is so kindly offering to sell me his Picasso!” or would you think hmm … why would he want to sell his Picasso? Is it really a Picasso? You’ll probably entertain the idea, but will pay nowhere near the asking price because 1. This is suspicious, and 2. You have all the leverage.
In short, for all these players, do not go out and solicit trade offers for them. You may think a drop in the group chat saying “I’m listening on offers for Jalen Coker” will work, but nobody is going to trade you Drake London for him. They’re just not. If someone comes to you asking about these players, though, now we’re talking. Or, start by asking about the player you want and then slide the sell high guy into the negotiation. Now we have some leverage, and we can make things happen. Alright, onto the “sell highs.”
WR Jalen Coker, Carolina Panthers
After making up much of the introduction, Coker is finally here after a sterling first two weeks in which he looks like the clear number two target in Carolina Panthers and it might even be more of a 1B to Tetairoa McMillan’s 1A. He’s averaging nine targets per game, went nuts in Week 1 and is just generally frying people. So why would you want to trade him?
Because Coker’s value right now is based on two weeks of absolutely laughable passing volume from the Panthers. They played the Chicago Bears and the Atlanta Falcons, neither of whom appear poised to stop a parked car let alone an NFL passing offense. Coker is talented and it’s awesome to see him putting things together, but I wonder if he’s more of a Jordan Addison type player rather than like … Chris Olave? I don’t think the Panthers can sustain this kind of volume, and if they can’t, Coker’s value will take a nose dive.
He will be hard to trade, since he was probably picked up off waivers in a lot of leagues. But he’s the type of potential breakout that people may actually want to go out and get, so if someone comes knocking, see what you can get.
TE Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo Bills
A trend with my “sell highs” is that they’re more like “sell highers,” since I don’t think any of these players are bad or a true Ponzi scheme of value. You’ll notice that Denzel Boston is nowhere near this list even though he’s the WR12 in terms of total points because of two super long touchdowns … nobody is out here trading for Denzel Boston, and if they are, you’re not going to get anything but a bench player.
Kincaid is the kind of player I think you could get supreme return value for even if he is someone potentially worth keeping. He’s been a huge part of the Buffalo passing offense so far and only barely trails Trey McBride as the overall TE2. But ask yourself: is Kincaid a league winner? Or is this nuclear reactor of a Bills offense eventually going to cool off?
Kincaid is someone you could go big game hunting with. You could go looking for guys like Rashee Rice or Drake London, injured players like Nico Collins; tight ends are simply replaceable in a way that wide receivers and running backs are not. If someone sees how cool Josh Allen is and wants a piece of that offense, you could ask for the moon in return.
RB Kyren Williams, Los Angeles Rams
You’re probably not seeing 15.6 points per game and screaming “SELL HIGH,” but of running backs that have scored 30 or more fantasy points in the first two weeks (there aren’t that many), Williams is easily the most likely to regress. He is in a true split backfield with Blake Corum, and has to be so alarmingly efficient to be an RB2 that I’m not sure how interested I am in this experience.
Chances are the person you’re trading with knows that and so this might turn into a “sell now” rather than a “sell high”; bucking what I said in the introduction, I would actually go out and try to trade Williams actively. A lot of teams probably need an RB2, a lot of people could talk themselves into 15.6 points per game. But I cannot talk myself into 10-12 carries a game in an offense that feels pass focused if not technically pass first. I would get out if there’s a get-out.
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