Sal wins A new Yahoo Fantasy contributor this season. He will write a weekly football trade story focusing on tackle players. This week, he highlights five players to trade and two targets.
Note: You can check out recent trades completed in Yahoo Fantasy for the players mentioned in this article to give you more ideas on potential deals. Visit Trade Market for more details.
He had his best game of the season in Week 4 against the Broncos’ last-ranked defense. Herbert played a season-high 79% of the snaps and earned 23 chances. That led to a game-high 122 yards on 22 touches. But this might be the best game of the season. It was a great matchup and Herbert had a positive game script all day.
Moving forward, Chicago has some good matchups against the Vikings, Raiders and Chargers, but they aren’t favored in any of these games. If they fall behind in these matchups, it could lead to game usage for backup Roscon Johnson.
Now is a good time to test the market and trade Herbert. Despite this solid performance, I don’t consider him a top-30 RB for the rest of the season. I’d rather trade him for someone like James Connor, Jerry Judy or Chris Godwin.
He’s a top-24 WR through four games. The Broncos’ defensive struggles led to a high volume of passing for their offense. So, Sutton gets top 20 routes and you get more goals as you run more routes.
But here’s the problem: He’s only had one strong game this season. In Week 3 against Miami, Sutton averaged 19.1 points on 11 field goals. His other three games have been punctuated by touchdowns, which aren’t consistent.
In Week 4, we continued to see Jerry Judy and Marvin Mims Jr. get more involved. Mims played a season-high 39% of his routes, while Judy had a team-high 20% of his targets. Not to mention, TE Greg Dulcich should return from IR soon.
Sutton is a solid fantasy option right now, but could stop when the touchdowns drop off. If you can, sell to someone like Tank Dell or Sam Laporta for a higher price in Sutton.
Sell high on Derrick Henry
Vintage Derrick Henry returns in Week 4 for the first time this season. He broke nine tackles and gained 133 total yards on 23 touches.
Despite dominating this game, Henry only played 60% of the snaps. Backup TJ Spears played 53% of the snaps and had eight chances. Spears is a key passing-down on third downs and in a two-minute offense.
Clearly, this didn’t affect Henry’s production in Week 4. But as we’ve seen in previous weeks, it affects his snaps and touches when the Titans trail. Another problem is that the Titans face a Bengals offense that currently ranks last in the NFL. This is the perfect spot for Tennessee to stay in a close game where Henry could see 20+ touches. It may not progress with tough matchups coming up against the Colts and Ravens.
Try to sell Henry this great game. I’d like to trade him for Tony Pollard, Travis Etienne Jr. or Seadee Lamb if you can.
Buy less at Tank Dell
It was Nico Collins’ performance in Week 4 that opened the buy-low window for Tank Dell. Niko added more than 30 points on nine goals, while Tank had just four points on three goals.
Despite this, Tank still found an elite role as he led the team in 82% of routes and saw the majority of WR snaps. In three weeks as a starter, Tank is now running 83% of his routes and averaging 6.7 targets per game.
Bad games happen; Just a week ago we saw Collins score five points on three field goals. But we have clear evidence that Tank Dell can win in the slot and out wide this season. We also know CJ Stroud is good, and this raises the floor and ceiling of Tank Dell.
If Stroud keeps this up, both Tank and Niko could end up as top-24 WRs. Buy short of the tank before this happens.
Over the past three games, Davis has averaged 15.5 points, ranking in the top 20 among WRs. This time he is running 84% of his routes, but only earning 15% of his goals. Here’s where Davis’ problem comes in: He’s not earning goals. Davis has scored a touchdown in three straight games, capping his recent stat lines.
He has three receptions in just one game this season. He currently ranks 91st among WRs in receiving targets and 59th in WR efficiency. Davis hasn’t seen much red-zone use and has mostly survived on deep touches.
The problem with this use is that the Bills have more passing-game options than in previous seasons. James Cook sees RB targets and both TEs run routes down the middle of the field.
According to PFF, Davis is expected to average just nine points per game based on his usage. Trade him for a tank tell if you can.
Trade for Travis Etienne Jr.
He played a quiet 84% of the snaps in Week 4. This led to 23 opportunities. It’s elite use, but it goes unnoticed because he only scored 10 points.
Etienne was often ineffective on the ground; He produced just 55 yards on 20 carries. A predictable game script with Jacksonville in the second half and the Jaguars’ O-line struggled to create running lanes.
But here is the good news. Etienne’s main backup is Dank Bigsby, and he’s handled just five total over the past three games. On the season, Etienne played 77% of the snaps and allowed 21.3 chances per game. He ranks top-five in RB usage and is top-10 on offense.
A good matchup and a strong game overall in Week 5 against the Jacksonville Bills. Buy Etienne before this game starts…
Sell too much at Puka Nacua
He leads all players with 50 goals this season. He had another big game in Week 4, gaining 163 yards on 10 targets. He’s so talented and has earned so much—that’s Davante Adams’ recipe for fantasy success. But the excitement has reached its peak. Many believe Puka will be a top 15 option throughout the season.
Believe it or not, he wasn’t even a top-25 pick this year.
Cooper Cup could return this week. Kupp averaged over 11 goals and 25.6 points per game with Stafford. When Gub returns, he will take the utility back from Buka.
This would relegate Puga to the role of Robert Woods in the offense from previous years. That would make him a solid top-20 WR, but not an elite upside option every week. Now is the time to sell.
Puga gets as much as he can. If you can get Jamar Chase or Tony Pollard, do it. Otherwise look for sets that include guys like Calvin Ridley, Chris Olave, Josh Jacobs, Joe Mixon or the aforementioned Etienne.
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