It’s a buy low, it’s a sell high … no! It’s a fantasy football trade target!
Now that you’ve graduated from fantasy football trading school and have a good understanding of who to start and who to sit each week, it’s time to get academic, a bit more granular, metaphysical, if you will. It’s time to go out and get your guys.
There is no objective list of players you should absolutely go trade for, because that list would just be … the best players, whom nobody is going to trade. Imagine if you clicked on this article and I just ripped off “Jahmyr Gibbs, Jaxson Smith-Njigba, Jamarr Chase, Christian McCaffrey …” that would be deeply unserious. And this is no laughing matter.
A “trade target” is not a buy low, but rather someone you should aggressively go out and make an offer for with your finest wares because you think they are actually good and you are willing to give up something to get something. Generally, I would advise the two-for-one offer approach, but really more like a 1.5-for-one, since you need to include an actually valuable asset in each offer. We’ll see a sample of this with our first guy. Because this is the first one I’m doing this season, no special gimmick; these are simply the players I’m going out and making offers for right now in my 10-team, PPR league.
WR Davante Adams, Los Angeles Rams
Adams is the perfect trade target. He’s been balling and certainly won’t be cheap, but there are a number of reasons you could make this work and one simple reason you should try to: I think Adams has equal value with or without Puka Nacua, and I bet I’m the only one stupid enough to think that.
Here’s why: obviously Adams’ target volume will be lower with Nacua on the field, but you’d be surprised how much more single coverage Adams will get if he is — he won’t be the same kind of supreme target hog he has been for the last two weeks, but I still believe he’ll be quite valuable. You’re not trying to trick anyone, but just show the guy with Davante the report that Nacua logged a full practice and could return soon as justification for why you’re not willing to pay top dollar. Even though he might be worth it.
To illustrate the kind of trade I’m constructing for each of these players, here’s a sample offer that could actually happen in my league: Rashee Rice and Braelon Allen for Davante Adams. I think that could get done either way, and I would definitely give up both Rice and Allen for Adams; it’s the perfect trade — bakes in a bit of risk for each party with uncertainty around Allen’s role and Breece Hall’s injury, but contains a real piece going both ways. Between the two, though, I would much prefer Adams over Rice.
TE Tyler Warren, Indianapolis Colts
I’m convinced this Tyler Warren season is one of the lowest-key breakout stories in all of fantasy football. I haven’t even thought about Warren all year, but he’s quietly logged double-digit points in all three weeks of the season with a massive target volume in Alec Pierce’s absence. He plays every snap and is coming off a 10-target game in Week 3. 10 targets?! For a tight end? In this economy?!
Trading for tight ends is like … the hardest thing in the world, because every team just has one, and so you’ll have to give up your tight end and a valuable piece to get a tight end upgrade. It’s going to be tricky, but I would personally offer (literally from my actual team in this league) Sam LaPorta and Luther Burden III for Tyler Warren. There are a million configurations of that exact package, but basically a mid-tier TE + a good wide receiver for a TE I think might be top-tier. That sounds like a lot, but no trade that ever gets done doesn’t sound like a lot … unless the person you’re trading with doesn’t know what they’re doing, WHICH WE LEARNED ABOUT IN TRADING SCHOOL.
WR Zay Flowers, Baltimore Ravens
Before you admonish me for recommending you go and trade your third-round pick for a wide receiver with a hamstring injury, hear me out. I was anti-Zay Flowers coming into the year. I believe I said “Zay Flowers is a total stay away” in my pre-draft wide receiver tiers. But listen up: I was wrong. Flowers looks incredible this year, and I’m taking advantage of any lingering uncertainty surrounding the injury to go acquire him ASAP. He looked completely fine against the Cowboys and I’m buying the dip (if there is a dip left to buy) — he looks so obviously like the best receiver in this excellent offense.
Now, what’s the package? Generally with receivers I try to include a running back, so I would throw out Kyren Williams and Rome Odunze, or some other name-brand wide receiver who’s been underperforming enough for you to cut bait. I’m not even sure that’d be enough to get Flowers, and would go as high as Javonte Williams to pry him loose; I think it’s worth it.
RB Cam Skattebo, New York Giants
Skattebo has a fairly high name value relative to his actual performance and injury concerns, but he’s slowly consolidating more and more of this backfield and should be leaned on even more heavily without Jaxson Dart as the Giants may struggle to throw downfield. If you think, "Ah, but he’s definitely going to get injured," then I can’t help you; if you can see past it, Skattebo profiles a lot like mid-2010s Alvin Kamara, so lock in.
He may not look it yet this season, but Skattebo’s biggest advantage in fantasy is his strength as a receiver; he’s a legitimately great pass-catching back, and should PPR his way to the moon if you can move past the idiotic assumption that he will just of course get injured — says who? In some hilarious Eagles/Giants reverse karma construction … thing, I would trade Saquon Barkley for Cam Skattebo. You heard me.
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