Fantasy Football Trade Targets: 5 WRs & TEs to BUY or SELL Before Week 8 (Ep. 2297)

0:00 Hello everybody, welcome into the Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. I'm Ryan Wormley, joined by Andrew Erickson. We are talking wide receivers and tight ends to buy and or sell. Erickson, we did the running backs and quarterbacks show already, so I hope everybody checks that out on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. As I said, this will be our pass catchers version of the show. Before we get into our picks, if you want a chance to give your fantasy league the ultimate championship upgrade, courtesy of our good friends at Trophy Smack, the number one destination for epic fantasy football hardware, then this is your shot.

0:33 We're giving away a 26 to 36 inch custom football trophy. It's a massive centerpiece built to make your league championship feel like a big deal and and the best part, you can make it your own. Choose your topper, personalize the center and front plaques, customize the columns, and create a trophy that represents your league. To enter, all you need to do is subscribe to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football YouTube channel right now, drop a comment below on any of our videos, and that's it. We'll be announcing a winner right here on the channel, so be sure to turn on notifications so you don't miss your chance to claim your prize. Erickson, we have a couple of big names in our wide receivers to buy segments.

1:06 Let's start with yours.

1:08 Parker Washington. by the Jaguars' number one wide receiver. I mentioned this last week about Trevor Lawrence and how he has the number one scheduled rest of season for fantasy quarterbacks. Who is that going to benefit the most? Probably his number one wide receiver in Parker, Washington. So I know that Washington has kind of been up and down a little bit to start the season. He's had some big games.

1:30 He's had some games where he left a little bit of production on the table. I know in the last game that he played, he played 11 targets. However, it was not a monster performance in terms of the receptions, the yardage, and the touchdowns. But on the year, Parker Washington still 10th in target share, 25%, 10th in air yard share, wide receiver 11 in rest of season rankings.

1:52 He's a top 10 receiver rest of season for me. So I think that you are getting some value on him here, just not coming off the greatest game, coming off a bye week. But the schedule, man, is just so good. Colts, Ravens, Titans. like this is exactly what you want the recipe for success for a fantasy wide receiver.

2:10 Just go on absolute tear. We saw him go on a tear last year in the second half of the season. We saw Trevor Lawrence take off in the second half of last season. I think you're going to see more of the same here with this Jack's passing game that they could trade away. Brian Thomas jr. Just further cementing Parker Washington as the guy in this offense. And I think when it comes to names that you could potentially trade for Washington, I mean, some of these wide receiver ones that have kind of been disappointed in the last couple of games, Justin Jefferson, Nico Collins. I know I talked about Christian Watson as a sell high. I would rather Parker Washington than Christian Watson straight up. Watson has

2:42 more competition than Parker Washington does. And if you're looking for a running back wide receiver type of flip, I think Chase Brown, again, he's a player I like as a buy, but if you need receiver help more and you have Chase Brown, I think that's a deal that could get done. Same thing with Josh Jacobs, right? I know you mentioned him as your running back to sell.

2:59 If you're hurting at wide receiver, I think you could trade Jacobs to get Parker Washington.

3:05 Parker Washington is so interesting to me because I feel like we have talked about him so much this season as, hey, we were really hyped about this in the draft season and it worked out and we're all really excited. But then you look like, if you look at the game logs, you know, obviously he had the bye week last week.

3:18 Prior to that, his last four games, wide receiver 28, wide receiver 94, wide receiver three, the big game, and the wide receiver 37. So three of the last four games, he has not even been inside the top 24 and yet I still feel very confident about him as a wide receiver one going forward.

3:34 I think most analysts do.

3:35 I mean, again, the consensus ranking the rest of the season is that he's wide receiver 11 going forward, but the production hasn't been there. So I think if you're in the right league where somebody isn't maybe paying as close attention to rankings like ours or to some of the usage stats or to the schedule, and they're just strictly looking at the production, they might say, well, listen, three of the last four games, he had 47 and 64 yards respectively.

3:55 Which Um, why is this guy being valued as a wide receiver one?

4:01 Sure.

4:01 I'll, I'll go trade him.

4:02 If you're going to give me an RB one, like a Josh Jacobs or, or again, whoever the example is that you want to use. So, but I think if you're in, in the wrong league or, you know, in a league where somebody is paying attention to that sort of thing and is kind of aware of the schedule coming forward, um, then maybe it wouldn't be so easy to go acquire him. So I think it's pretty league dependent whether or not he becomes somebody you have to really pay up for or somebody that you can maybe get, I don't want to say buy low, but buy at a bit of a discount relative to what we expect him to be rest of season. Because I'm in total agreement that rest of season he is a top 10 receiver, locked and loaded for me, no question about it. And

4:39 I think there are probably a lot of Parker Washington managers who agree with that already and therefore you're going to have to really pay up to get him. But I bet you there are some managers that aren't seeing the same thing and are just looking at the production in three of the last four games and aren't quite there yet. So I'm not entirely sure what the true market value is, even if the rankings from the analysts, right?

4:57 This is an expert driven rankings that we have are still quite high on him.

5:02 I think it's the receiver for receiver type of trade where you sell off the bigger name, but also a player that maybe has been kind of equally disappointing to Parker Washington over the last couple of weeks, Nico Combs, right? What has he done lately? Not much. Justin Jefferson. Is this ever going to get figured out with Kyler Murray?

5:20 Those are two way bigger names in Parker Washington that I don't think that another manager would scoff at that deal. Be like, oh, I get Nico Collins. Like, sick. Like, I'll just take Nico or I'll take Justin Jefferson. Top five wide receiver in the NFL. Like Parker Washington. Sure. Let's make that deal happen. So I think those are the names. Even Olave. right?

5:39 I was just going to say, Alave has not been a wide receiver one since week two. Now he's been a wide receiver two, four of those five weeks. It's not like he's been bad, but like that high, high end ceiling has not actually been there since week two.

5:51 Yeah. And if you look at the Saints remaining schedule, talked about it when we were discussing Travis Achan as a running back to buy, the schedule sets up much better for the running backs, for the Saints and the ground game to get going versus the receivers in the passing game to continue their success. It's funny. If you look at Olave's player page on Fantasy Pros, weeks one through six, it's all green matchups. And then when you look at week nine through 18, it's basically just like a sea of red with like a couple of green matchups in between. And the other part too with Olave is what if Jordan Tyson comes back and is like a dude and a baller? So that's also something to consider.

6:30 I just, I don't have any question marks about Parker Washington. He's the number one guy. The schedule's great, and I believe in Trevor Lawrence.

6:37 Let me throw one more at you. You had last week Christian Watson as a sell. They are back-to-back in ECR. Who do you prefer? Would you sell Christian Watson for Parker Washington? Yep.

6:47 Yep.

6:48 I think I would, too.

6:50 It's close, but yeah.

6:51 Let's go to my wide receiver to buy, and this is definitely a buy high. It's coming off of a good game, and yet I still think you are buying at a bit of a discount. It's kind of similar to Parker Washington, although, again, unlike Parker Washington, this guy's actually coming out for the big game. We talked about him on the tailgate yesterday. We've talked about him a lot on the show this year. It's Zay Flowers. And I know what everybody's going to think is like, of course you would want to go by Zay Flowers.

7:11 He's been awesome.

7:13 I just want to kind of highlight that as awesome as he has been, there is still room for even more improvement in terms of the fantasy production right now once Lamar gets back healthy. Zay Flowers, Erickson, has only played in four halves of football with Lamar Jackson this season. due to each of their respective injuries. And by the way, of those four halves of football, only two of them were they both healthy in. Because one of those was that game in Rio where Zay was clearly very limited still coming off of his hamstring injury, playing limited snaps, wasn't the same. So it's only really been two halves of football with two of them fully healthy, and only four they've even been on the field together this season.

7:53 And he has.

7:54 Three halves of football with at least 119 yards and a touchdown.

7:58 Three halves!

7:59 That would be a great game for any wide receiver one, and he has three halves of that, including the only two healthy halves with the healthy Lamar Jackson. His first half of week one, they were both healthy. First half of week four, they were both healthy. And in those two games, he had a combined in those two halves, 11 catches, 269 yards and two touchdowns in essentially the one full game of healthy Zay Flowers and Lamar we've seen this season. And of course, he had his really big first half this week against the Bengals without Lamar Jackson even on the field with Tyler Huntley, six catches, 120 yards and a touchdown first half of week seven.

8:35 It is astonishing how efficient he has been this season. He's the number two receiver in football. in yards per route run behind only jsn omar cooper is also ahead but that's on a way fewer snaps um but of the guys who have you know played the full allotment of snaps it's it's jsn and then zay and that's with zay dealing with his own injury and the quarterback injury and all that stuff um lamar is expected to be back this week i am really hopeful as a ravens fan that they waited the extra week to make sure he was coming back fully healthy, unlike last year where he came back too soon and it clearly impacted his play. Because if he's back to the Lamar we saw in the first four weeks of the season, he

9:12 looked like an MVP. And even setting aside all those stats, Erickson, that we talked about on the tailgate yesterday and I wanted to run back. We were kind of joking about it like, you know what? This is Zay Flowers week. We're going to talk about him at every show. Let's just keep running him back and sort of steering into the skid. Even aside from the stats, just watching him, he's unbelievable with the ball in his hands. The long touchdown he had. you know, really it was a short pass that he turned into a long touchdown for Tyler Huntley on that first drive against the Bengals this week.

9:41 I couldn't believe the players he was running by and the angles he was taking and just getting past everybody. I was like, he just looks like he's playing a different sport on the field right now. I can't believe the step he has taken. I truly believe if Zayn Lamar had been healthy all season, that this would be a 2025 JSN level breakout. I don't think he's as good of a receiver as JSN, to be clear. JSN is one of the handful of guys that I do think is a better NFL receiver than Zayn Flowers, but it would be that sort of statistical breakout that we just saw a year ago from JSN, I believe, because the efficiency numbers are astonishing. And again, you look at these numbers when they're on the he's on pace to

10:18 basically shatter the receiving record.

10:20 It's unbelievable what he's doing, Erickson.

10:22 So I'm here to say, even ranked as highly as he is in the rest of season rankings and as valuable as he is to fantasy managers right now, I think there is even more that you can get out of this guy and that you will get out of this guy if he and Lamar can both stay healthy the rest of the season. So even already ranked inside the top six rest of season rankings amongst receivers, that's not high enough. I would move heaven and earth to get him because I think he's a top three receiver rest of the season. And that might even end up being low if they are both healthy. Yeah.

10:53 It's a matter of what you trade for him. Cause I do think that the receiver for receiver doesn't really work with say flowers. Cause I think that he is in the right spot when it comes to the rest of the season rankings. Like if you want to trade, I'm on Ross St. Brown for say flowers. Okay. I'm not sure. Maybe you're right in the end, but maybe you're not. Again, I don't like making trades that I feel like are lateral trades. Now, maybe you feel differently.

11:17 If you're like, nope, Flowers, that's top three rest of season, okay. Then you've got to sell one of your elite receivers, CeeDee Lamb, after catching two touchdowns. You've got to sell him to get, say, Flowers. If you really believe- Malik Neighbors. Yeah, that would be another guy.

11:29 How much do you trust J.J. McCarthy long-term this season?

11:31 Yeah, that would be another one.

11:32 Drake London, you're worried if Penix gets hurt again, he has a long injury history.

11:35 If you could do those, I would. If you can't, then I agree. I think you need to look at a running back.

11:40 Yeah, a running back because teams are always going to need running backs. So, I mean, Jonathan Taylor.

11:47 Let me ask you actually quickly. We can get to Taylor in a second. Let me quickly ask you one more receiver. Would you trade, just given all of the combined off-field stuff and injury stuff— Would you trade Puka for Zay and then maybe say like, hey, throw in like some lottery ticket handcuff somebody– like throw in like a Bryan Robinson Jr. or something as like a handcuff lottery ticket? Would you downgrade from Puka to Zay? Because I would be open to it. Puka with Devontae out is going to get a billion targets, but Puka does not have an easy schedule the second half of the season.

12:17 And neither does Zay, but the Ravens schedule, because it is so challenging, it is the hardest schedule rest of season right now. Okay, they're going to have to throw then to keep up in these games because the defense hasn't been as elite as I expected it to be. And I do think once Lamar is back, they're going to have to throw a lot. So we might get to see more volume and not have to rely on the efficiency as much. So I say all that to say, I would at least be open to it with Puka.

12:37 Puka is a better player.

12:38 I rank him higher rest of season, but I would consider that given the injury stuff he's dealing with and the off-field stuff.

12:46 But as we just talked about, and as you outlined, really, there is no one catching Zay Flowers attached to Lamar Jackson besides JSN. So wouldn't that mean that Zay Flowers arguably should be wide receiver two rest of season? And there is basically, you trade any receiver not named JSN to get Zay Flowers. Because like you just said, Puka, you want to trade him to get Zay Flowers? That's getting done. You can trade any receiver, all those top receivers that are ahead of Zay Flowers in the ranking, except for JSN. and get him, adding to your point about how effective he's been with Lamar Jackson, they've played 67 snaps together. This is according to Ryan Mink, who covers the Ravens. Over those 67 snaps, the Ravens have

13:26 averaged 5.3 yards per play. Flowers has caught 16 passes for 353 yards. Unbelievable.

13:33 Dude, it's... Just simply ludicrous numbers.

13:40 And the fact they're playing the... Like... Actually, I'm really glad you brought this up because I think this is actually the move you got to make. It's buying Ollie Gordon for the running backs and it's trading any receiver not named JSN to get Zay Flowers on your team and just do it, right? Because if this does sustain and this is legit and real in this Declan Doyle offense and Zay Flowers is healthy and Lamar Jackson is healthy, then he will be the wide receiver to rest of season.

14:05 So again, I didn't expect to make this conclusion coming into the show. Again, you saw Zay Flowers on the show sheet or I did. I'm thinking, oh, yeah, of course. Like, I want to get saved. But, like, oh, well, I don't want to pay, like, a top-high receiver for it.

14:16 The point is that you should. You should pay up to get him.

14:19 Yeah, I think that's kind of, like, the conclusion I'm kind of coming to in the grips with reality here.

14:23 The receiver is, like, I think it's an interesting debate between, like, him or Jamar Chase or, you know, Puka or whatever.

14:29 I think those are interesting.

14:30 I'll say at running back. Gibbs, Bijan, Kenneth Walker, the only three names I would not trade to get Zay Flowers. Now there might be other factors at play in terms of like, if you only have one good running back and you're pretty stacked at receiver, maybe you can't do that. But in a vacuum, those are the only three running backs I would not trade straight up for Zay Flowers. Yeah.

14:46 So again, if we're playing devil's advocate or poking holes, you said Puka, the schedule's not great for him. And he has a lot of off field baggage when it comes to injuries, et cetera. So, okay. You could see Zay doing it. Chase has been disappointing. this year. I don't think that's breaking any type of news, but I mean, to T Higgins has been better than chase so far, a lot of this season. So that's something he has to compete with. Whereas a flowers is the only show in town, dude. Like, I mean, I know dude, Mark Andrews, man, dude, he is, he is so, so cooked. Like all those touchdowns are going to say flowers. He has no competition.

15:22 He has an elite quarterback.

15:24 You won that bet for sure.

15:25 I mean, it's a And then, again, I don't know why Amon Ra is the guy I'm getting hung up with the most because I just think Amon Ra is so consistent.

15:33 He's so consistent.

15:33 He's a top three receiver every year. So I feel like he doesn't have a lot of– and I want to say, oh, he doesn't have upside. Of course he's got upside. And he also plays for the Lions.

15:44 I think Amon Ra is a fine guy to say I prefer just because I know what I'm getting. Whereas Zay has missed time and so has Lamar this year. I'm okay saying I'm not going to make that trade just because– Again, the certainty, even if you think the ceiling is maybe a touch higher with Zay because of how ludicrous these numbers are, the floor is so incredible with Amun-Ra that, yeah, I'm totally fine. Also, Amun-Ra's schedule is amazing the rest of the season.

16:09 Yeah, so he is a guy you got to hold on to your lines. They're just too fun.

16:13 I would not be trading Amun-Ra straight up for Zay.

16:15 They only play in domes because, to your point, and I know that we're talking kind of like the best case scenario, we still need Lamar healthy, which is still not a fact. So I know we poked some holes in Chase and Puka about their performances so far this year and the risk that maybe they're attached to. But just going back to if you're right about Zay Flowers and we're right about Zay Flowers, like he could win you your league.

16:42 He will be one of those guys where at the end of the season, all that mattered was did you have Zay Flowers on your team or not? He can be in that very small group of players the way he's playing this season. Yeah.

16:52 Speaking of trades, Erickson, just a quick note here.

16:55 The Colts have traded Quentin Nelson. Ooh. Do?

17:01 I want to see if you can guess where he went. Where do you think he's going?

17:03 Can I get a hint? Can you say AFC or NFC at least?

17:06 NFC.

17:08 Ooh, NFC team. Okay. Who needs an offensive lineman really badly?

17:13 Um.

17:15 Who's trying to run the ball better? Man, nothing is coming to mind for me.

17:18 Who's a team that wants to run better who just lost an offensive lineman this weekend?

17:26 Oh, Green Bay?

17:27 No, although that could be– those hints could definitely have led you to Green Bay.

17:32 So that's valid.

17:33 Was that a terrible answer?

17:34 No, it's not a terrible answer. It's just I led you astray there. How about a team that we know is in their win-now window because they just won the Super Bowl?

17:43 Oh, Seattle.

17:45 Just lost Charles Cross.

17:46 They traded a third and a fifth to get Quentin Nelson, which, by the way, I wish the Ravens did.

17:53 I would have given up that.

17:54 Quentin Nelson is still really good, even though he's in his 30s now. And the Ravens just lost Vengo Ioane for a couple of weeks and struggling with that interior offensive line. There are other teams that could have used him, too. I just, from the Ravens fan perspective, I would have liked, I would have given, I wouldn't have given up like a first or a second, but man, a third and a fifth to get a guy like Quentin Nelson when you're trying to win now. I think that's a really good move for the Seahawks.

18:18 Yeah, I disagree.

18:21 Man, Nelson and Gray Zabel as their guards is pretty great.

18:27 All right.

18:29 Well, you, speaking of trades, can never wonder if you're winning a trade again if you use the Fantasy Pros Trade Analyzer. It instantly evaluates any deal based on your roster, scoring settings, and league, showing both the short and long-term impact. It even supports dynasty trades involving players and picks. Analyze your next deal at fantasypros.com slash analyzer. Erickson, who is your wide receiver to sell? And by your, I mean mine that you stole from me.

18:53 Yes, full disclosure. Worm put Stefan Diggs in the show sheet first and I said, no, no, no, I'm the analyst here. So I want to talk about Stefan Diggs. So I pulled my analyst card out just when I needed to here in week eight because I was I was struggling, everybody, to come up with a good wide receiver sell that I really liked because I just couldn't really find anybody. But Diggs was the one guy that stood out to me the most as a confident play of a player that you should sell. And I think there's a lot of reasons why he makes a lot of sense as a sell high. So anytime you can sell high on a player, I think when they're doing non-football things, when it's based on, okay, now with Terry McLaurin on injured reserve, Stephon Diggs is going to see

19:34 more opportunities in the offense, which Actually, it was not the case when Dan Quinn was asked about Stephon Diggs.

19:40 He specifically said that Diggs would not steal our role.

19:43 Yeah, he specifically said that, no, Diggs' role is not going to change in the offense.

19:45 Yeah.

19:46 Like, it's going to be more of Antonio Williams, the rookie that we drafted. It's going to be more Chinga Conqua, which I think makes a lot of sense to me. We haven't seen this commander's offense under David Blau really funnel through one player, even though David Blau talked about, I'm going to feed Terry McLaurin 10 targets per game.

20:01 That ended up not really being the case. Now, this doesn't mean that Diggs can't still be a productive fantasy wide receiver three. But I think that's really where he should be appropriately ranked and not being boosted up because of the absence of Terry McLaurin. Diggs is not a full-time player in this offense. 62.5% route participation. That ranks 61st among all wide receivers this season. Now, he has been hyper-targeted at a really high rate when he is on the field running routes, which is good. But it still caps his ceiling because he's only running a... a limited amount of routes in the offense. He's also averaging a career low in yards per route run at 1.6.

20:36 He's going to be 33 in November. So I'm just expecting more of these other pass catchers to stay involved in the commander's offense and not really to funnel. I think if the commander's offense is funneling through a 33-year-old Stephon Diggs, I think that's a problem for the offense, like rest of season, as we saw with the Patriots when they moved on from Stefan Diggs last year, because he is a nice player at this stage in his career, but he is not nearly the same guy that he was a couple of years ago with all the injuries he's also dealt with. So I just think that based on the anticipation of him getting more involved, you can get a strong return for a player like Stefan Diggs.

21:13 He's a guy that I'd be looking to buy one of these injured running backs with. If I'm hurting at running back and Diggs has been kind of like my wide receiver four on my team, I would flip him for Kyle Menungai, Jordan Mason, Blake Corum. You could flip him for a younger receiver. His rest of season ranking is kind of bunched together with players like Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate, Denzel Boston. You want to bet on these young talents taking over in the second half of the season, not a 33-year-old Stephon Diggs. So that's kind of the angle I'm looking at when it comes to selling on Stefan Diggs. Again, not to say he won't be productive, but if you look at what he's actually done production wise this year, it's really been touchdown dependent. He doesn't

21:56 have a game with more than 55 yards, which I thought was actually kind of crazy to look at because I felt like he's been high in the fantasy standings a lot of the weeks, but it's really been, did he catch a touchdown or not that week? So he only has five end zone targets on the year and he's converted four of them into touchdowns. So he's been highly efficient in the red zone. If that doesn't sustain then I think that he's going to be more of a low-end fantasy wide receiver three. And right now, he's creeping up into fantasy wide receiver two territory in the rest of the season ranks.

22:25 Yeah, I mean, you said a lot of the stuff that I was going to say when I picked him, so I don't have a ton to add. It's really, I'm a big fan of taking advantage of when I think there's too much hype about a new opportunity, like you said, when you're being boosted up by something that's not related to what you're doing on the field. in this case, the opportunity with Terry McLaurin going down. I was a big fan of Antonio Williams coming out of Clemson.

22:49 I was a big fan of him in rookie drafts this year. And before they signed Stephon Diggs, I was a big fan of him as being the number two receiver in this offense. I think he can step into Terry McLaurin's shoes. He's not going to be as good as Terry McLaurin, but I think he can fill that role and allow Diggs to stay in the same role he's been in, which to me is not worth bumping him up in these rankings as much as he is Um, you know, he's gone up a handful of spots in this last week, despite being on by again with this opportunity and everything. And I agree with you, these young names around him, I'd much rather have than the guys almost 33 and who I'm not sure.

23:22 About what the role is going to look like.

23:23 And also an offense that I'm not convinced is going to be really good the rest of season. Like It takes one bad tackle for Jaden Daniels to get hurt again. Or even if Jaden Daniels is in there and he's great, like, I think Dan Quinn could easily be fired in the next week or two. And if that happens, then, well, you know, what if they lose in an embarrassing fashion on Sunday night football to a hapless Eagles team? I think Dan Quinn's probably getting fired. And now you don't know who the coach is. You don't know what the stability in the organization is going to look like in that scenario. I could see this thing really falling off the rails. And even if it doesn't, I'm not convinced that this is going to be a great role for

24:01 Stefan Diggs for fantasy purposes. So yeah, I mean, he doesn't even have 60 yards in a game this season. He hasn't gotten over 50 since week one. He needs the touchdowns and maybe they'll come, maybe they won't, but I think it's going to be unreliable. And I think he can sell on the enthusiasm for him right now, which is really the big part of this. Agreed.

24:21 Great pick by me.

24:23 Yeah.

24:23 Nicely done.

24:26 Well, I was forced to pivot, which I didn't mind doing because I did have another name I was looking at here, and that's Omar Cooper Jr. coming off of a couple of great games for the Jets, a player I liked coming out of Indiana. Rookie wide receivers tend to be good bets in the second halves of season. Obviously, he missed some time with injury in the first five weeks, but Wide receiver six in week six, wide receiver seven in week seven, touchdown in each game, over 100 yards in each game, making big plays, really looks quite good.

24:54 I just think it's a little too much too soon in terms of some of the hype. I think that Garrett Wilson is still long-term going to have obviously a very significant role in this offense, even though his value has been a little bit nuked by Omar Cooper and I think that even if you are not buying in, even if you think that Cooper is maybe going to usurp Garrett Wilson in terms of the target share at some point in this offense, which I don't agree with, but if you feel that way, you know, this is still the Jets offense.

25:24 It's still Geno Smith.

25:25 There's still concerns about it. And then Erickson, it's not a great schedule. There are some games in there that are pretty good, right? He has the Raiders this week, Bills in week 10, Chargers week 11. That's all well and dandy. Some of these other games in here, though, The Chiefs in week nine is a tough matchup. There's a bye week still to come, which not everybody has.

25:46 We are at the point in the year where some players have had them and some haven't. You do have to start considering that in terms of value and how you're ranking players. The Broncos in week 14. And then week 16 is the Patriots who we did just, I think are a good defense and can be a good defense against him. He did just have a really good game against week six, which I recognize. But then the fantasy championships against the Vikings and their defense, which is brutal, right?

26:08 That's the one defense I most want to not be facing in my fantasy championship. So it's not a friendly schedule. It's a particularly tough schedule in the fantasy playoffs. And I think that the really remarkable production the last two weeks is going to boost his value in the eyes of managers enough that you can get something real bad.

26:27 He's wide receiver 36 right now. That's of course a huge jump from where it was a week ago. And I think he might even be valued even higher in trades because everybody knows about rookie receivers and in the second half of the season and because everybody's really excited about what they've seen. He's ranked around name. He's sandwiched between Roma Dunzay and Ladd McConkie, who again have been very disappointing this year. But I'm like, is he really there yet in terms of rest of season rankings? I'm just, I'm not convinced he should be inside the top 36.

26:55 And I think you can value him even higher in a trade. And I'd be looking to sell high on the strength of these last two games.

27:01 What do you think, Erickson? Am I crazy?

27:03 Am I selling out too soon on a guy who's going to really break out in the second half of the season?

27:07 What do you think?

27:08 Yeah, Cooper is tough because you just look at what he's done, even dating back to his first game with the Jets. He had one target and he ripped off a massive big play and then he got injured on it and we hadn't seen him since these last two games. Total rookie year numbers for Omar Cooper, 12 catches for 248 yards and two touchdowns on 13 targets. Basically perfect whenever he's gotten the ball and the explosiveness has really been his biggest strength. So he leads all players, minimum 45 routes run with 0.35 EPA per route, 12.2 explosive catch rate according to next gen stats, 19.1 yards per target, also leads all receivers to at least 10 targets this year.

27:50 So obviously some regression is going to kick in. You're not going to be able to average that 19.1 yards per target, not yards per catch, yards per target, 19.1, which is just absolutely ludicrous. Juno Smith's your quarterback. I think that, That won't sustain. There's also a chance, too, that the Jets, do they blow up? They fire Aaron Glenn.

28:11 They go to, oh my God, his name is escaping me. The rookie quarterback they drafted this year that's also on the Jets roster. I don't know why I can't remember his name. Yeah, Klubnik. Thank you. And that obviously is not ideal for any of the pass catchers on the New York Jets. So I do think that Cooper right now works better as a sweetener with a deal where, hey, I have this piece. You have a piece I'm trying to upgrade. Let me throw Cooper in a deal and use it to get a better one for two type of deal because you're getting Cooper for free because he was on waivers across the board. But he's had two monster games. And I think that just makes sense to sell high on a player. Again, Garrett Wilson is not

28:50 going to be this less involved or the lack of involvement for Garrett Wilson is not going to sustain over the next couple of games. Aaron Glenn has been really vocal about, dude, we got to get our Wilson the ball. Like this is my priority or my job's on the line. I got to get Garrett Wilson more involved. So again, not trying to discredit among Cooper for what he's been doing.

29:08 And first round rookie wide receiver that hits instantly. Like this is something that usually want to buy in, but To your point, it's about the price. And if you can get a really, really strong return. Now, what's a deal we can kind of come up with here, Worm, when it comes to a two-for-one where you're combining Omar Cooper with another piece to get something that you are one of our buys, whether it's one of the running backs we talked about, when it's receivers that we talked about, do you pair? I mean, that probably, I'm trying to think like, what is a good deal?

29:44 I feel like, I feel like from what you're describing and I would agree with this, that probably the best path to a deal is Omar Cooper and a running back for a better running back. That's kind of where my mind first goes. Like could you do something along the lines of Omar Cooper and Josh Jacobs to go get Basial Tootin? Could you do Omar Cooper and Quinshawn Judkins to go get Chase Brown?

30:12 Something like that if a team– is willing to do that. And it has the need at receiver.

30:17 I think sounds interesting going up to get a receiver. Yeah. Like, I don't think there's a real one for one trade here that stands out to me. I think maybe if it's like, maybe it's sort of the reverse and you're, you're using, um, you're using him with a, with a receiver to go up and get a better receiver and just doing a two for one, but strictly staying at the position. Maybe it's something like Omar Cooper and Stefan Diggs to go get like, oh, let me buy low on DJ Moore or Devante Smith because we're worried about this offense or something like that. I think that's probably a path that I would look into trying. Do those sound reasonable to you?

30:57 Yeah, those sound reasonable. I know to make reference to one of the running backs I wanted to buy, Travis Achan, you could probably trade Omar Cooper to get Achan. Straight up. If you are hurting at the running back position, I think that would potentially work another deal. You could pair Omar Cooper with Tony Pollard. Probably get Ashton Gentry, Chase Brown, that type of deal where I think that pairing Cooper with another piece, I think you can get an upgrade.

31:27 Let's go to your tight end to either buy or sell. What direction are you going this week?

31:31 I'm going with Travis Kelsey as my tight end to sell for the Kansas City Chiefs. So Kelsey has been a little bit, I mean, actually a lot of bit underwhelming over his last three games. In half PPR, he's been actually outside the top 18 in weekly finishes. So we've kind of seen Mahomes come back down to earth after coming out of the gates red hot over the first two weeks of the season. And that's obviously had a trickle down effect on Travis Kelsey. who only has two top eight finishes so far this season. So he is standing as the tight end seven in points per game.

32:04 He's a top 10 tight end in rest of season rankings. He was eight when I did my notes. I think he's at nine right now.

32:12 He's actually dropped down to 10.

32:13 Okay. So I see the market's catching up on Travis Kelsey, where I think that when I saw him at eight, I was like, this is a really aggressive for rest of season when he's already been tight in seven points per game, but the Chiefs had had no other receivers. in the offense. Rashi Rice is still banged up. And the hot rumor is that the Chiefs are going to be making a play for a wide receiver. So I don't think that necessarily helps Kelsey because he's really been more of a floor play this year, right? He's putting up modest production where if you're starting Travis Kelsey in your fantasy lineup, you don't feel terrible about it. You're like, okay, like he's getting me some points. Like I don't hate this,

32:49 but I think there are way bigger upside swings that you could make. And two of the guys that were right around him in the They were behind him. Maybe now the market's adjusted, but Brenton Strange, Dalton Kincaid, like those are two guys I'm looking to make a move on with Travis Kelsey as part of a two for two deal or something along those lines. Kincaid has been really up and down, but I think his upside is so much higher than Travis Kelsey and Brenton Strange, man.

33:14 This dude is just underrated. Again, going back to the Jaguars having a great schedule rest of season, it would not surprise me whatsoever. Brenton Strange is like a top five tight end rest of the season because being attached to Trevor Lawrence. If Lawrence is throwing four touchdowns every single week, Brent Strange is going to be heavily involved.

33:30 Great matchup this week against Indianapolis Colts, who we know have been just an absolute sieve against tight ends. So for me, tough schedule, rest of season for Travis Kelsey. He's going to be 37 years old. I just, he's had the opportunity to see the most targets over the last couple of games and he has been disappointing. And what, again, you're not expecting maximum efficiency from Kelsey at his age, but I think that his ceiling is so capped. And I think that you can profit off of what he's done so far this year and get a strong return and get someone more upside the rest of the way.

34:02 It's a wide gap in the rankings, and this other guy is still hurt. But who's more likely to win you your fantasy league this season, Travis Kelsey or Terrence Ferguson?

34:12 Yeah, it's Ferguson. It's Terrence Ferguson. He was my tight end to buy last week. And of course, we got crappy news after the show released.

34:17 I know. I came onto the show and I was like, dude, I was like bowing down to you. I said, this is going to be your single best player to buy of the entire season. I was so on board with it. I thought it was an unbelievably good call. And then like two hours later, they were like, he's not going to come off IR as soon as he's ready. Yeah.

34:37 I just, I just like, I knew that was going to happen too.

34:40 Right.

34:40 Because you had just been giving me all my flowers.

34:43 I was like, we're going to, we're going to clip this. We're going to drop it four weeks from now. And he looks like a league winner. It's going to be awesome. And it didn't happen, but I'm still would say like, I would, I would trade Kelsey. I mean, if you could, I don't know, but like I would trade Kelsey straight up for Ferguson and say, I'll just go find somebody off the waiver wire until Ferguson is back and take that upside swing. Travis Kelsey is not going to win you your fantasy league this year. Terrence Ferguson could. I'm not trying to finish in seventh. Like I'm, I'm trying to win. So yeah, to me, that's, that's an interesting name there. I think Chigakonkwo is an interesting name because

35:14 we really liked him before they signed Stefan Diggs and he hasn't really done much because they had, they'd signed Diggs. Now that McLaurin's out, it's sort of the same scenario of there's one proven receiver here and maybe now an opportunity for Chigakonkwo. He's ranked right in that same range as well in the rest of season rankings. So I would, I would maybe be thinking about him, um, I like the Brenton Strange call a lot. There's a lot of these names I would just rather take the upside swing on than Travis Kelsey. Great. Let's do some buy, sell, or hold at wide receiver.

35:44 How about A.J. Brown, Jameson Williams, D.J.

35:47 Moore? A.J.

35:48 Brown, Jameson Williams, D.J. Moore, buy, sell, hold.

35:52 So Jameson Williams probably might sell high just because he's coming off another big game with another two touchdowns. We know that the target share is going to fluctuate a little bit. I don't think that we're going to see that lack of involvement from Sam Laporta every single week. So look, this is the JMO experience, right? We all know how it works. You buy him when he puts up a goose egg and then you sell high after he has a three touchdown or two touchdown performance.

36:18 Back to back two touchdown games, by the way, this has five week in between.

36:21 So that's, so he's definitely not a player that's consistent. I think that we all kind of kind of agree with that. And that's not to say that he's not useful in fantasy because he can help you win your week. Just like he's done the last couple of games, but yeah, it's going to fluctuate. And if you can't deal with the inconsistencies, then you're going to get the most for James Williams right now, in my opinion, out of these three players. DJ Moore will be my hold because I want to see him just healthy. And to his credit, when he was healthy earlier in the year, it looked like, man, DJ Moore was a smash pick this season in fantasy.

36:51 He looked like he was going to be on his way to being a league winner, obviously dealt with the shoulder injury, but coming off the bye week, I think that he'll probably be in better shape and It's hard to sell players when they're injured to get the maximum return. So DJ Moore will be my hold. And then AJ Brown's still my buy, right? I'm not going to be dissuaded or moved off of my stance on Brown as the Patriots wide receiver one rest of season. Now, I know like the Thursday night game was not good. And I actually went back and watched all of his routes from Thursday night. And I watched all of his routes against the New York jets the week before, because I couldn't believe that I was watching him on Thursday night

37:28 and thinking, does he look worse than he did against the jets? Because that's how it felt watching it the first time. And then on the rewatch that it was true, he looked worse in his second game back. And I don't know if that's because, Hey, it was a quick turnaround. It was a short week. Again, coming off of the high ankle sprain, still kind of feeling the lingering effects of, OK, I've just played an NFL game. I got to play an NFL game four days later. OK, I'm still like not 100 percent. And if he catches that pass and doesn't get a or it should have been a pass interference call on that deep sideline throw, that would have been 50 yard gain. He would have gone over 75 receiving yards for the game total. And nobody would be

38:08 complaining about A.J. Brown as a mega bust in Thursday night football. So I still think that he's clearly the buy. He's still the alpha in this passing game. The Patriots schedule is still really, really good over the next couple of games. And he's still attached to Drake May. So Drake May is not the problem, right? It's just A.J.

38:24 Brown kind of knocking off more of his rust. So I didn't think that he looked washed, specifically going back to the Jets game. I thought he looked a little bit more explosive coming in out of his cuts. Not the same case when it comes to the Bears game. But I think that there's still a lot to be left for production wise for AJ Brown. So I would still be looking to buy him and you can get him even cheaper than we did when we talked about him a week ago. So that's my stance.

38:50 Yeah, I'm definitely selling Jameson Williams. That's an easy one. Brown versus Moore, I would very much be interested in buying both of these guys right now. I think both are very smart buys. So you can sort of nitpick between which one you would call a hold and which one you would call a buy. But Um, for me, like they are both buys, uh, if I had to pick, cause that's what I usually make you do. And I don't let you, uh, pick two for the same category.

39:12 Then I think I would agree with you with, with AJ Brown as a buy. It just feels like the ceiling is slightly higher there, but I like, I'm a really big believer in DJ more in this offense. And I think the injury has really kind of diverted our attention from what could have been a pretty successful season.

39:28 Like obviously that Detroit game.

39:30 Know, it's funny looking at like the wide receiver finishes and the weekly rankings for him, you know, it's wide receiver eight and week one wide receiver, 168 in week two, because he had negative points. He had the one carry for negative one yards is as low as you could possibly get. But then, you know, 10 targets in week three and, and then the injury stuff. But yeah, I think the schedule is actually pretty good for DJ Moore going forward. It's Ravens, Vikings, Jets, Dolphins, Chiefs, Patriots. Then you get Packers, Bears. Week 17 is the Dolphins again.

40:00 I'm pretty interested in trading for DJ Moore. Just to differentiate, I'll say DJ Moore is the buy and AJ Brown is the hold. But really, to me, they're both buys if I'm being totally honest. All right, one more trio here. Again, I actually put this name in before you made me pivot to this guy. So Omar Cooper is in this trio here. Omar Cooper Jr., Jeremy Bernard, Casey Concepcion. Only three rookies here who are all ranked in the same area.

40:26 These are receivers, wide receiver 33, wide receiver 36, and wide receiver 38. So they're all within about five spots of each other. Omar Cooper Jr., Jeremy Bernard, Casey Concepcion, buy, sell, and hold.

40:40 I will buy Casey Concepcion. I will hold Omar Cooper and I will sell Jeremy Bernard.

40:46 Is that easy?

40:47 You went through it pretty quickly. Like, is that like kind of a no brainer for you?

40:50 I mean, I guess for me, it's, I'm kind of putting my dynasty hat on for this because it's all three rookie wide receivers. And if I'm looking at it from, okay, long-term rest of season, right? Who would I want the most? It's that order, right? I want Concepcion the most. because he was the highest guy I had ranked coming out of the draft. He was a first round pick and he's been the most consistent of these three guys leading the Browns in target share. I believe so far this season, he finally had his breakout game. I was kicking myself worm because I ranked him so much lower this week with the idea that dude, all this guy does is put up a floor every single week. I want a ceiling.

41:24 And of course, I always know that if guys continue to just put up floor after floor after floor, eventually you do hit that ceiling game. And of course, it was the week that I ranked him lower versus consensus. Like, oh my God. So I was really mad about myself for that. But that being said, you definitely want to buy Casey Concepcion. I don't think that this is a fluke.

41:41 You know, I think he's a really talented player. Him and Denzel Boston are both excellent wide receivers. I think they're both going. The fact that I've been able to thrive with the context of Deshaun Watson being their quarterback is just a testament to how good and talented these guys are. Cooper, I would just hold on to because I think that, again, I like him more than Bernard coming out. And then Bernard will be the guy that I would probably sell based on, okay, the first or the last couple games. Obviously, this past week was the biggest disappointment. And I just don't know how sustainable the Rodgers pass-heavy approach is for the rest of season. Also, chance that Michael Pittman comes back and kind of throws

42:21 a wrench. into Jeremy Bernard's role in the Steelers' offense. So does that make sense? Cooper as the hold?

42:31 I have to say Cooper as the sell because I picked him as a sell on this show. So he's obviously locked in a sell for me. And then of the other two, I'd rather have Concepcion. So yeah, I'll say buy him and hold Bernard.

42:45 I guess the way I'm looking at it too is if I had Omar Cooper and someone offered me Jeremy Bernard for him, would I accept?

42:53 I would rather not.

42:54 Even though I have Cooper as my sell of the week, I would rather have Bernard. The reason Cooper's a sell is because I think you can get more than a guy like Bernard for him. Not because like, like I wouldn't sell him for just pennies on the dollar, which I think, I think not pennies, but you know, quarters on the dollar, the way Bernard would be.

43:10 I would rather have Cooper rest of the season than Bernard.

43:13 Just to make a fun little bow on this, Jordan Tyson or any of these guys. Where would you put Tyson?

43:20 I think I'd have, I'd put him last just because we haven't seen it yet.

43:23 Oh, okay.

43:24 I like Tyson. I like the ceiling.

43:26 I'd be happy to, I would trade any of the, or I would probably trade Cooper.

43:29 You know what?

43:30 I would trade Bernard for him. I would trade, I would trade Bernard for Jordan Tyson. I wouldn't, we're talking redraft, right? Yeah. Yeah. I would trade Bernard for Tyson, but I don't think, I wouldn't trade Cooper or Concepcion for Tyson just because like, we haven't seen it. How much time is it going to take him to shake off the, like, It might be like week 10 or 11 by the time we're like, okay, he's now startable in our lineup and we've seen it and trust him. And it's okay. Well, look, fantasy season is almost over by then. So for me, I would still have Cooper and Concepcion ahead, but not Bernard. Cool.

43:58 All right. And you said over all three of them for you. Is that what you said?

44:04 I think Concepcion I would keep. I think the Cooper versus Tyson is kind of interesting.

44:08 That is a really interesting one. I want to take more. I have them backed back in.

44:12 My rest of season rankings. So I'm clearly not. super bullish either direction. I'm just going back to like prospect brain with some of these players.

44:21 Yeah.

44:21 But then also I want to, you know, consider what they've done in the NFL, which Jordan Tyson has done literally nothing because he hasn't played yet. So it's hard to be, oh, you got to get Tyson now because we still don't know when and if he's going to come back and play considering he's already missed half the season.

44:37 So.

44:38 Let's go ahead and wrap things up there.

44:39 Thanks, everybody, for checking out our players to buy and sell at the receiver and tight end positions. If you missed our running backs and quarterbacks, again, go check that out on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

44:48 For Erickson, I'm Ryan Wormley. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you again next time.

44:52 Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts at fantasypros.com slash review or on Spotify. Follow us on X, Instagram, and TikTok at fantasypros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash fantasycrows.