The Best Fantasy Football RB & QB Trade Targets for Week 7 (Ep. 2278)

0:00 Hello, everybody.

0:01 Welcome into the Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. I'm Ryan Wormley, joined by Andrew Erickson on this Tuesday morning. We're talking trades here ahead of week seven. Some buys and sells. This will be the running backs and quarterbacks version of the show. We'll have the receivers and tight ends version for you coming out a little bit later.

0:18 Erickson, how you doing?

0:19 Doing good, man. It is a great day to be talking trades with you. We're entering week seven. Can't believe the season is already at this point. flown by Patriots are playing on Thursday night. So that's, it was exciting. And we had a really fun Monday night football game that did not look like it was going to be fun at all whatsoever. Now had some wide receiver injuries, which is always tough, but I do think that the way the commanders at least rallied a little bit in the second half to make that game interesting was, uh, was good for those that are watching.

0:52 Yeah, this is my final, as you know, on Monday nights in the fall, I have softball games. So we kind of are watching the games through the phone and miss stuff here and there when we're in the dugout at the game.

1:04 I had my last one last night, so I'll be a little more dialed in for the future weeks.

1:08 But obviously I was paying attention to everything as best I could through the phone. And, you know, the Terry McLaurin injury, you kind of alluded to the receiver injuries, was obviously like, you know, the one that was kind of blown up and, you know, apparently looked quite devastating. I didn't go back and rewatch it. you know, the highlight of that. But, you know, I saw everybody's reaction to it. Obviously, that's a really tough one for a beloved player like that. You know, Mike Evans as well, you know, with his different type of injury, of course.

1:35 Final score here was 23-17 with the Niners. I really thought the Niners were going to absolutely blow the doors off the Commanders. So credit to the Commanders for keeping this one closer than I thought. Even though the Niners were up, you know, pretty much the entire game by a comfortable amount, still, you know, Washington deserves some credit, especially fighting through the injury like that, for keeping this one closer than I expected.

1:54 Yeah, I mean, the Niners were heading into half up 20-3, over 300 net yards to the Commanders' 90. They had 17 first downs to the Commanders' 2. first like it was like, oh, man, seven and a half points was not enough for the commander. And that's the side that I was on. So, of course, the commanders lose by seven points because of an extra point that was missed by Eddie Pinheiro. So, yeah, I'm wearing an egg on my face because the commanders actually ended up covering that game barely by the chin of the chin, chin, chin or whatever the phrase is. So that was not ideal, but. Yeah, and people came after me about Mike Evans, right? Where, this is your fault, Erickson, because you called him sell

2:37 high last week. And I'm like, guys, I have him on teams. I tried to trade him this week and I couldn't. So he was in a lot of my lineups. So again, I don't want to see guys get hurt. Never the case. And I mean, he was still productive too before he went down. And it's actually interesting because how much of an impact he made, you saw in the second half when he wasn't out there, the 49ers offense was a shell of itself. Like not moving the ball effectively, especially against a commander's defense that teams have picked on basically all season. So at least the Evans injury, the McLaurin one is feared to be season ending. It was a knee injury. So I don't think we're going to see Terry the rest of the season with Mike Evans.

3:15 At least it seems like this won't be season ending for him or super, super long. Now the 49ers have a game this week, but then they're going to want to buy on week eight. So the earliest we'll probably see him is probably around week nine. But in the meantime, it's more of, okay, next man up mentality with the 49ers, whether it's Chris McCaffrey, whether it's George Kittle, and then they have that hodgepodge of Brandon Cooks. Are they going to make a trade, right? I tweeted out during the game, is Brian Thomas Jr. going to be a San Francisco 49er at some point? He's got a connection with Mac Jones.

3:44 You know that at least one quarterback in the QB room would vouch for him. And this team just needs more juice because they feel top heavy. And although they're 6-0, you get concerned about, can they keep this type of pace up? So I'm interested to see if they are buyers at the, I got to imagine they make some type of move at the trade deadline.

4:02 Just quickly, what's your interest level moving forward in Diggs and Antonio Williams if we operate under the assumption that McLaurin is out for a long time and very possibly the year?

4:12 Yeah, so I don't think that obviously both guys get a major boost. I liked Antonio Williams a lot as a rookie third round pick from Clemson. A guy could fit the slot really, really well and he stepped up. He actually caught three third downs in this game. So Jane Gaines was looking for him in crucial situations. Diggs is obviously the veteran that is going to be the wide receiver one with Terry McLaurin out. I do kind of question maybe the ceiling with Diggs because he's a bit, again, these older receivers, Diggs already dealt with a hamstring injury this year. Is this something that he's going to be up to the task to be the wide receiver one for the rest of the way? So I do think that he kind of like Might be an interesting sell

4:49 high player, especially with the commanders on a bye week and the fact that he will be thrown put on the throne as like, oh, he's the number one guy no matter what. When you saw other guys get involved, Antonio Williams was getting involved. Chica Conquo actually had a pretty big game, caught seven of seven targets for 69 yards.

5:04 He led the team in routes running, ran a route on a season high 86% of the dropbacks. So that's really, really strong usage for a fantasy tight end that is borderline elite. So I like the Conquo a lot. You know, from Tennessee, I thought that he was underutilized in that offense. The commander signed him to a big free agent contract.

5:22 And obviously, his fantasy value got nuked because they added Stephon Diggs.

5:26 Yeah, we were all over him before Diggs.

5:28 Yeah, and then you have to readjust your expectations because like, well, now he's not, he can't be the number two on his offense. You fall to number three and it's just really, really hard. He also started the season with an injury. So a lot of Diggs' early season production did come with Okonkwo not playing. So I do think that the target share might be a little bit more flat than some people are expecting. So Diggs, I think maybe would be a potential sell high just based on a primetime game, scored a touchdown. He did play really well though. He had that one drop early on and he like busted up his finger, but he ended up being okay and obviously scored a touchdown later in the game. So that's

6:03 kind of like the receiver room and Rashad White was the RB1 for the commanders, but they did mix in some other guys. Jeremy McNichols, Austin Eckler played a little bit because I don't know where we're going to see Ja'Core Kroski-Merritt Anytime soon get placed on injured reserve before week six game and Dan quid said that it was the third time that he injured his groin. So I think that it's going to be a while before we see a bill back in action. So white is kind of the RB one on offense that can't really run the football, but white catches passes. So that'll work for an RB two slot.

6:32 Let's get into the running backs to buy and sell. We'll start with the running backs to buy. As always, Erickson, you threw out a couple of names into the show sheet. Did you find it a struggle to pick guys this week or did you find it relatively easy to settle on? I feel like this is the section that's usually the toughest for us, right, is the running backs to buy.

6:51 How did you approach it this week?

6:52 Yeah, so the running backs to buy has not worked out super great the last couple weeks. When I look at guys that have just been getting injured, basically, and from playing through injuries. So Jeremiah Love, I think, was last week. Ashton Gentry the week before. So it has not really panned out for those types of players. Because right now, it's like, if you have your star running back that's playing well, you're not moving off of this type of player. So I know that you put in the show sheet originally Jordan Mason. I didn't want to totally rehash the analysis on Jordan Mason because I know that we've talked about him I think the last three weeks of this is your last chance to buy Jordan. Yeah.

7:25 I just want to be clear with that. It's still a buy because I do think that he's going to take over as the RB one in this Vikings backfield. And I think this is the last chance. So I get rest of season rankings have Aaron Jones ahead of Jordan Mason. I think that gap is going to narrow after we see week seven and as the season progresses.

7:42 So I would buy Jordan Mason, but going to a different running back for the sake of, hey, let's look at something else because these guys keep talking about buying Jordan Mason and selling Aaron Jones. Chase Brown, another player that is not coming or is not top of mind because similar to Jordan Mason, he's coming off the bye week.

8:00 I think that the narrative around Chase Brown is probably pretty negative right now, where he's probably underwhelmed versus where you drafted him as the back of round one, round two type of pick. I don't think he has a top 12 finish at all this season in any week that he has played. So definitely has not met up to draft expectations. And the last time we saw him, he was getting outproduced by Samajai Piran. So I know Piran was a popular waiver ad. Obviously, the bye week kind of poured some cold water on how aggressive people were going to be going after Piran. But Look, Chase Brown still was the leader in the opportunities the last time we saw these teams play. Again, it was closer to a 50-50 split, but sometimes we see this with

8:36 coaches where they go with a hot hand approach in one particular matchup. Chase Brown lost a fumble in that game, and we've seen a lot of running backs go to fumble jail this season for one week, and then they go back to their normal role. So we've seen this backfield between Samaj MP Ryan Chase Brown for seasons, right?

8:52 We saw it all in 2025, and it was the guys very in specific roles where Chase Brown is playing 70% or so of the snaps and Samajit Pirine is closer to 30% or more of the snaps. And it's interesting. So Pirine had 14 carries in this last game against the Miami Dolphins. Seven of them came in the fourth quarter and he also caught a six yard touchdown. His snap share was up to 51%. He had 14 carries twice last year as well. And what happened in the following games after he had 14 carries is his carries went back down to six or seven. So I don't think that this is one week sample size is enough to just, okay, we got to write off Chase Brown.

9:33 Samaj P Ryan is going to be a 50% snap guy rest of season when we've already seen this picture play out where it's always Chase Brown. That is the RB1 in this back for the not Samaj AP Ryan. So Chase Brown is RB11 expected fantasy points per game this season, RB21 in actual fantasy points. So to me, it's suggesting, hey, There is some regression here that's going to work out in Chase Brown's favor. You're buying a running back on a really good offense that we expect to kind of start humming a little bit more. The Bengals are traditionally slow starters. and I think Chase Brown has kind of felt the brunt of the slow start, where if they come out of the bye week firing on all cylinders, the schedule isn't necessarily like, oh, this

10:07 is the reason why you should buy Chase Brown. But it's more like the environmental factors, the fact that he is still a bell cow, in my opinion, and the fact that his stock is kind of down after a lackluster start to the season.

10:18 Yeah, we've seen him finish strong after a slow start before in seasons.

10:22 I think it's really interesting.

10:24 Anybody inside the top 15, there's such a delineation between this top 15 running backs and the rest of season rankings and then the confidence level you would have in anybody else.

10:32 And he's inside that top 15.

10:34 So it is always, I think, really fascinating to consider what it would actually take to pry one of these guys away from somebody, even somebody who is disappointing like Chase Brown and who hasn't quite lived up to the volume and the expectations that you would have had during draft season. He's still inside that top 15 in a way that I do think fantasy managers are going to be reticent to part with him unless you are willing to spend a little. So I wonder how much of a buy low versus a buy normal this is. Who are some names that come to mind for you that would make sense to trade for him? And also, by the way, I will say you are correct. He has not been inside the top 12 this season. And in fact,

11:08 since week one, he has not finished inside the top 20 in any game this season.

11:13 He was RB14 in week one.

11:15 Since then, 22-30, 22-34. That's in half PPR scoring.

11:19 Yeah, so definitely underwhelming. And I think that just opens up an opportunity where you can buy a running back that would surprise nobody if he's a fantasy RB1 the rest of the way. So in terms of making a deal, Brown, to your point, is kind of in that weird tier of running backs where you can't really just trade another running back for him straight up. because of kind of where the lineage falls with him as like the last running back you can trust or one of the last running backs you can trust as a fringe fantasy RB1.

11:46 So I think for me, it's wide receiver that you would have to do. So we know that when you make a receiver for running back trades, you have to kind of trade down or the wide receiver has to kind of be like a tier above the running back because of the scarcity of running back versus wide receiver. So for me, it's the tier of Neagle Collins, Justin Jefferson, neighbors, Christian Watson, Parker Washington. Like that is like the tier of receiver you're going to have to trade to get Chase Brown. For me, I know I did this last year.

12:13 I traded Nico Collins to get Chase Brown straight up. And it was a good trade for both parties because they needed a receiver. I needed a running back. We made the trade. Both guys were productive after the trade was made. And it was like sick, like good deal to make. So if you're sitting on, whether it's Watson or Washington or neighbors, because you drafted them a little bit later on, you need more help at running back because your RB2 has been just not good. I think these are the interesting moves to make. And it's not to say that you have to trade these wide receivers away, but you have to make sure that you address your running back need if you have a big one. So I think that that's kind of the range I would

12:49 be looking at to move for a running back of Chase Brown.

12:52 If you were going to look at other running backs, he's one spot behind Jalen Warren in the rest of season rankings. I know we just talked about Warren as a buy last week, but that was before Rico Dowdle. Going back and seeing what that usage looked like. Would you rather have Brown than Warren? Because maybe that could be a trade that you could get done.

13:07 I think it still kept Jalen Warren in there. I know that Dowdle, especially in the first half of that game, was more involved. But I think it's interesting because you look at the Steelers and how good was the offense when they were splitting it 50-50? It's not good. They were losing in that game. So it's one of those things where you're hoping that conventional wisdom and coaching will come into play here and be like, well, we split up the backfield and we didn't score any points. But then when we went to Jalen Warren in overtime, when it mattered the most in crunch time, what do you know?

13:36 We ended up being way better offensively. So I know that Chase Brown and Jalen Warren kind of check off the buckets of these more underrated running backs in real life. I do think that Jalen Warren actually is in terms of like a snap or snap, like just watching them play. I think he probably is a little bit better. Now Chase Brown has had the better role throughout his NFL career, but I do think things will bounce back for Warren.

13:56 So I think it's close, but I do prefer Warren.

14:00 For my running back to buy, as always, again, this is the section that I most struggled with picking a player for.

14:06 I looked a little bit lower and cheaper. I went with Blake Corum. He's RB26. He was RB28 when I put together this sheet. And I really am.

14:16 I guess, not planting my flag, but I'm sort of making the point that I do ultimately think there are better days ahead for the Rams. We actually talked on the tailgate this week with Debro about how the Rams are maybe more in trouble than we thought coming off of this loss to the Cardinals. At the end of the day, though, I think the chance that the Rams are still very good at some point this season, in which case Blake Corham is going to have a lot of opportunities later in games, scoring touchdowns, kind of the path that we anticipated this summer to him being a successful fantasy pick. And then also the upside still remains immense if anything were to happen to Kyron Williams. And he's been RB, you know, I think it's, yeah, RB

14:56 15 and RB 14 the last two weeks, respectively. Half of his games this season, he's been inside the top 24. He's ranked outside the top 24. I think the touchdown opportunities are still going to be there moving forward. It's also an easier schedule moving forward. It's not, you know, if you look at the game log on fantasypros.com, it sort of highlights, you know, friendly matchups are in green, unfriendly matchups are in red. I think it's a bit misleading on his game log right now. There's some red in there. Teams like the Chargers and the Commanders, I think that those are teams that the Rams could go in and play very well against and have a big lead.

15:30 And then we see Corham kind of getting those yards late in the game. I also think that he's just good enough that they will continue to sprinkle him in at other points during the game. And we'll have those touchdown opportunities, even if the Rams aren't blowing out opponents the way we expected them to. But again, the upcoming schedule is the Raiders, the Chargers, the Commanders, the Cardinals again.

15:47 And then you get the bye.

15:48 I think those four games leading into the bye, we could see the Rams win them all. in which case I'm going to like Corum a lot. And again, the upside remains really high if there were to be an injury in this backfield. But again, he's already outperforming this rest of season ranking, you know, by a wide margin, even without having that added opportunity of an injury or anything like that. Snap counts, not that high. Again, you're talking about a backup here, but as far as backups go.

16:12 I think this is a good one.

16:13 And again, like he's ranked, you know, almost outside the top 30. That's a guy that is affordable. You would think if anybody in your league is looking at these rankings, And, you know, people know the upside. I'm not saying you can get him for pennies on the dollar, but I do think you can get him for, I don't know, quarters on the dollar, half dollars on the dollar.

16:30 I think he's attainable.

16:33 What would you look to move to get Blake Worm like a player?

16:37 I think for me, this is one where you could look at another running back and sort of try to identify somebody who would just rather have a starter and not sort of play for that upside going forward and take the bigger swing.

16:49 A little more safety.

16:50 He's one spot behind Tony Pollard in the consensus rest of season rankings. He's two spots behind Ollie Gordon. He's three spots behind Aaron Jones, who I know you like as a sell. Any of those, I think depending on the makeup of my roster, I would be willing to move. Some harder than others, right? Ollie Gordon has been getting a lot of really nice workload and everything like that.

17:08 But if you're looking at somebody saying, hey, he's coming off the bye. You need help now. I want to take the upside swing on Glick Corum. I think that's a deal that could get done. Some of the guys ranked behind him. Or Marion Hampton, just say, hey, a couple of guys who like, you know, upside swings.

17:21 Let's just trade lottery tickets with each other or something like that.

17:24 Cam Scadaboo coming off of his performance. Common on guys, somebody getting optimistic about his return. I think any of those names are actually really intriguing, right? Like sometimes you look at the players at the same position ranked around a guy and you go, it doesn't really make sense to make these one-for-one trades. I think any of those names, the right roster fits with each other could actually make sense.

17:44 Yeah, remember, upside wins championships, right? So when you look at Blake Corm around these other players, yes, his week-to-week meeting projection may not be as good as these starters on other offenses, but you just laid out the case where the Rams offense is so much higher above a lot of these other teams that even as the RB2, he's outproducing a lot of these guys. Just so far this season, that's without any type of really substantial workload.

18:10 I will highlight too that His best two games have been his last two games that he's played. Last week, the split was much closer with Kyron Williams. Now, I'm not saying in any way, shape, or form, please don't take this out of context. Okay, well. It's time. Coram's finally taken over the back. Really? That's not, it's not happening again. I've done this too many times. I refuse to get burned by it again, but that being said, he is a player that has been producing with his limited opportunities. And what do we see with teams and coaches?

18:39 When players do this, they get more opportunities. So, and I'm not saying that's even going to come necessarily at a detriment to Kyron Williams because they, the Rams have used both guys effectively throughout this season, throughout last season. And one point that you didn't make that I think is actually another interesting nugget here, no Devontae Adams. Are the Rams going to continue to throw as aggressively as they were beforehand? Or it's like, no, let's lean into what we do best. Heavy personnel, multiple tight end sets, and run the crap out of the ball between our two running backs that we feel really, really confident about.

19:11 So specific with Corum, the thing that's been lacking with him is the red zone usage. Now that has obviously been more towards Kyrie right now in this last game, he did get some more red zone run. The fact that there is no Devontae Adams taking away those red zone touchdowns, I think it's good for both Kyron Williams and Blake Horm trying to find the end zone a little bit more. So if this offense is able to be productive, I think that both running backs will probably benefit.

19:31 So I think this one's really sharp worm where it doesn't seem like he's a screaming buy, but it's, hey, when in doubt, you need a running back. Did you get Blake Horm? Again, he's a worst case scenario. You know, he's good, right? Like, you know, he's a good running back and he has that contingent upside, especially if Kyron were to go down. So, and he's attainable.

19:48 The other thing too, I would say, on the Devante Adams point, I'm glad you brought him up because I was going to bring him up after was like. so much of Kyron's value this year has been this added passing game usage. So even if the Rams say like, Hey, we're not necessarily going to run the ball at a greater percentage, which I do think is totally possible. Of course, What they might say is, well, we're going to throw more to Kyron. And just by the nature of he's getting this extra usage there, maybe we then run the ball more with Corum because Kyron is getting even more of the passing game usage because that has been a skill set of his this year. And eventually the Rams just don't have that many people to throw to. So, yeah,

20:26 I do think Devontae Adams coming out, like maybe it lessens the chance of this offense being a juggernaut, which you would think would offer some late cheap touchdowns for Corum.

20:33 But it could help in other ways, too. So I think it's a good point to bring up.

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21:07 Get $ 25 free after you deposit just $ 10. All right, Erickson, who's your running back to sell?

21:13 So this is the one I probably struggle with the most. I know that you were struggling with Arby's to buy. Arby's to sell was the toughest for me. And I refused to do the cop out of, well, I've said to sell Aaron Jones for the last three weeks. I just bring it back and play the hits. So again, he is still a sell. Mason's still a buy. But I went in a different direction here with running back for the Cleveland Browns, Quinshawn Judkins. So Judkins was one I buy for me, I think probably around like week two, because I liked how cheap he was and he was going to play some positive matchups at home and he ended up like delivering in a couple different decent spots so if you didn't buy Judkins on the cheap I

21:44 don't think that was like a terrible move but now I'm feeling less optimistic about his rest of season outlook so I look at him in the rest season rankings the last time I checked he was RB22 so still being valued as a top 24 running back kind of in this weird running back purgatory where it's like Judkins and then all the injured guys like the Brees Hall, Saquon Barkley, Guys that it's really hard to kind of address of what is this guy's actual value right now?

22:08 What is it rest of season? I look at Judkins and the upcoming matchups for the Cleveland Browns. They have three straight road games at the Titans, at the Steelers, at the Saints. Now on paper, Titans and Saints aren't necessarily bad matchup for the run game, but the Browns offense overall in the offensive line does not play nearly as well on the road than they do at home.

22:27 Bad offensive lines don't travel. That's been an issue for the Cleveland Browns dating back to last season with Quinshawn Judkins. If you just look at his home road splits, it's bad. He's much better at home. And then after those three straight road games, they get the Houston Texans and then a bye week. So I think that you're looking at underwhelming production at best for Quinshawn Judkins. And that's if he comes back from this injury. The fact that it's the same ankle that he's dealing with an injury that he suffered last year when he had the season-ending injury, that concerns me. Anytime we're dealing with foot injuries, with running backs, I feel like I was the same back to Joe Mixon. And it just, it never, ever panned out.

23:04 He never was the same again. He was just a total zero for the rest of the season. So that's also kind of creeping the back of my mind. And if it's still RB22, top 24 running back production, when I think Judkin's healthy and playing well is... a top 20-ish running back. So given all these red flags, the matchups coming up, the fact that Dylan Sampson is going to be coming back soon, right? We saw Judkins fantasy value get a major boost because how much he was being used in the passing game. Sampson, that is where he thrives as a running back. So Judkins, I'm concerned about the three down role that he would have in this Browns offense that again is like lackluster average at best.

23:41 And so far this year, he has not been good as a rusher, similar to last year. Third worst in rushing success rate, fourth worst in EPA per attempt and fourth worst in yards per carry. So to me, looking for running backs to sell, where am I kind of pulled out of your playbook where I looked at where there are the rest of season rankings had this player.

23:58 It's like, if he's being valued as a top 24 running back, I want out because I see how this goes way off the rails in this offense with these matchups with the injury, except for a secretary. It's extra. So that's kind of where I stand with Judkins.

24:10 I really thought the Browns looks terrible. In their win against the Ravens. We talked about this on the tailgate. I thought that was so much more about the Ravens making mistakes. Like Deshaun Watson has been awful the last two weeks. And yet Debro has made the point that he's been actually really quite bad the entire season, even early on when there was some like, oh, Deshaun Watson's playing a little better.

24:29 Truly the last two weeks. So I think he's looked absolutely dreadful.

24:32 And obviously that's going to drag down everybody in this offense, particularly a player like Judkins.

24:36 Didn't play on Sunday, of course.

24:37 But do you feel like if Shadur Sanders comes in and becomes a quarterback anytime soon that you'll think about this differently? Or would you maintain kind of your same stance on Judkins in that scenario?

24:49 I think it would just be a reason to ship off Judkins. I just think that Judkins is a RB2, right? I think that's like best case scenario. Is Shadur Sanders going to make this offense top 10? I don't think so. Like, he can make it average, but I think that's what we've seen when the offense has been averaged. That's when we've seen the best out of Judkins. So I just don't think the ceiling is super, super high where you're going to look back and be like, man, this totally burned me when I traded away Judkins. A player that I like, Flip, Jordan Mason, man. Like, this is the time. Like, this is the perfect deal to make that I think you can definitely get done because Judkins has been playing, got obviously dealing with the injury now, but we haven't

25:25 seen Jordan Mason. Out of sight, out of mind. So I think that's a deal, especially when you look at rest season rankings, like it's pretty stark. where Mason is ranked versus where Judkins is ranked.

25:32 What about Judkins for Blake Corum? They're four spots apart in consensus CCR rest of season.

25:40 I mean, I'm not going to say to sell Judkins and then support your Blake Corum buy and not co-sign on this. So I do think that that is the right move to make. And it feels weird because Judkins is a starter, but Blake Corum is the backup. But you have to take that within the confines of these offenses, right?

25:55 Even as the number two running back on the Rams, that probably has way more value than being the number one running back on the Cleveland Browns. So, yeah, I think that's another deal that you can definitely get done. Again, especially because Judkins could really dud out if this injury is worse, right? Reaggravation of an injury from last year.

26:13 That's just red flag city. And that's what gets me concerned about him.

26:19 My running back, you can definitely sell. It's Derrick Henry. And it's kind of an interesting one. Actually, I'll just ask you before I get into it. Were you surprised to see me put Derrick Henry on here? Or did you read it and go, oh, okay, I kind of see it?

26:34 I was a little surprised because you're a Ravens fan and you love Derrick Henry. I was curious to see what your angle was going to be because we don't know why we have certain names on the sheets. There's no analysis. Just, hey, Derrick Henry. I'm like, Does worm like have the insider information? He's like, just not going to play her. And I mean, I, and also to like, I thought maybe it would be schedule based too. Cause I know that the Ravens schedule is not like amazing, but again, please enlighten me. Why are we getting rid of the, why are we getting rid of the King?

27:01 So the schedule isn't the main reason at all. It's a small part of it.

27:04 I mean, they, they had the easiest schedule in the NFL or one of them to start the season from this point on, I believe it is the toughest or the very least as close to the toughest going forward. Um, Derrick Henry is still a very good player. I do think he is a small step down from what we've seen. The numbers he has put up have been very volume-based.

27:25 His carry totals this season, 24-16, 26-23, 24-17. The yards per attempt outside of that week one game against a Colts defense that you and I talk about a lot as absolutely dreadful, his yards per carry in those games 4.3, 3.4, 3.2, 4.3, 3.4. He's been under 3.5 yards per attempt in three of the last four weeks, Erickson.

27:49 He's been really.

27:50 Relying on heavy volume and getting touchdowns. And he only has one touchdown in the last two weeks. It wasn't a rushing touchdown. So that hasn't been effective. He has not been good in the short yardage this season. The Ravens haven't been good in the short yardage. I'm not putting all the blame on him, of course. The offensive line hasn't been great there. The fact that they couldn't run effectively against this Browns defense... is extremely concerning to me.

28:11 I know they were crowding the box because Tyler Huntley doesn't throw the ball downfield.

28:14 I don't care.

28:15 This defense has been gashed by the run the entire season. And Derrick Henry, 17 for 58, no touchdowns. I thought that was really disappointing by the Ravens' offensive line. Now, generally speaking, I'm not going to come out here and say, hey, one bad game. He's been really productive. So you have to sell him for that reason.

28:32 I'm looking at it like, listen, I know we think Derrick Henry is timeless. And again, he is still good.

28:37 This is not me saying that he is washed and bad at all. He's also 32 years old. He's already had like, I don't know what, 140, 150 touches this season just six weeks in. I don't know how he's going to hold up, even though he's typically a player that is much better later in the season. And the Ravens offensive line, while it is improved from last year, I don't know that it is actually good, especially with all the center injury stuff. We're hoping Cam Juergens is going to be a problem solver there, but he was pretty bad in Philly, honestly. We don't know how he's going to fit in this offensive line quite yet. John Simpson hasn't been the best signing for the Ravens at guard to Varvenga. Ioane is incredible, but the rest of

29:18 the additions they made on this offensive line haven't quite panned out yet this season. So I just get generally a little bit nervous about a guy who's relying on this much volume, who's this old, who has had this much volume in the past, so has a lot of tread on the tires, and and who needs touchdowns it seems like to be a high level fantasy running back right now he's gotten them early this season and obviously has the name value and he's rb7 in the consensus rest of season ranking so the the other point to all this erickson is you can get a lot for him i think even coming off of a down game i worry that maybe there's more down games in the future than we expect and then there's always going to

29:55 be a floor with derrick henry as long as he's healthy so I don't think you are ever going to see the bottom truly fall out for him. But I wonder if that ceiling maybe isn't quite as strong as it looked like when he had six touchdowns in the first four weeks. And if selling high, again, not selling just to sell, but selling at a, hey, everybody needs running backs. I'm going to give you like maybe one of the best running backs of all time who's still ranked as a top seven guy.

30:19 And then you can get now a lot back for him. that interests me.

30:23 So, so maybe this is more of a shop Derrick Henry than a sell Derrick Henry, but I think you should be open to those conversations and looking to see if there's maybe a blockbuster deal in your league that can make sense for both sides.

30:34 Yeah. I like you bringing him to the table here, especially with you being a Ravens fan, watching these games really close. If anyone is going to see if Derrick Henry has lost a step, it's going to be you, right? You've watched this guy very close over the last couple of seasons. So he does leave the NFL in touches.

30:51 through the first six weeks of the season. So that's kind of just illuminating your point there about the workload being the reason why he's been really productive for fantasy for the most part. I do think that I still probably want to wait. I feel like he's going to have like a three touchdown, like especially when Lamar Jackson comes back. I know the Browns matchup was tough, but when you have the Browns, the Browns are just a defense that plays so much better at home. It doesn't matter like what their personality, they just play better at home.

31:17 It was Tyler Huntley starting and Todd Munkin, right? Like the guy knows the Ravens personnel. So I think if anyone's going to throw a wrench into what the Ravens could do offensively, it would be Todd Munkin knowing about how these guys work, especially when it comes to Derrick Henry. So I'm cool with shopping Derrick Henry, like you said. Again, don't trade him for anything less than his value. And I think that value could increase because they're playing the Bengals this week, right? Like this could be a monster game for Derrick Henry. So if he scores three touchdowns, but again, not as much involved in the passing game, maybe he just, it's really more, again, volume dependent, volume driven than maybe you can flip him for one of

31:52 these like Uber elite receivers. Like, I guess for me, it's like right now, what do you want to get back for Derek Henry? Are you looking to flip him for Kyron Williams? Like straight up? Are you trying to do, I want to get Jamar chase. Like that's kind of my direction of where I'm thinking. Like I have an asset like Derek Henry, that should be highly valued RB seven. Again, running backs are tough to come by, especially elite ones.

32:12 Or is it a matter of you find a manager that needs running back the most and you, you float Derek Henry out to them and be like, Hey, what can I get back for Derek Henry? Because your running backs are buns on your roster. Yeah.

32:24 I do think that this is one where obviously you need viable alternatives, whether coming back in the trade or already on your roster, maybe you're just really lucky and actually have multiple running backs. You really like that's helpful for that reason, because it's hard to find running backs. If that's not the case, then it does get harder to do like a receiver for running back deal. I think like I would, I would look in a vacuum and say, based on just the rankings, like, on the own team, I would trade Derrick Henry away to get Zay Flowers, right? Like to me, that's a trade that makes sense in terms of where they're ranked in value, but you need to have a running back that's coming back in this deal, unless again, you were absolutely loaded there.

33:00 So I think what might make more sense and is sometimes harder to do because you're giving away the better player is something like, oh, can I get Chuba Hubbard and a wide receiver too, right? Can I get Bashaw Tootin and somebody else on top of that? You know, maybe it's like, I don't know, Jalen Coker and Chuba Hubber.

33:20 Maybe it's Matthew Golden and Bayshall Tootin. To me, that is a scenario where you're giving up the better player, but I don't think the gap is going to be that wide at the running back position if you're getting another guy inside that top 15. Again, you can only make this deal if you are getting back the value of, oh, this guy's ranked as a top eight running back rest of the season. Again, I'm not trading him for pennies on the dollar. I'm trading him If you can get a really hefty deal, because I don't even know if he's lost.

33:47 A step, Erickson, but has he lost a half step?

33:50 That to me is like if it's enough where somebody is holding him up as King Henry of old. Again, looking at the production that he's had so far this season has still been excellent. I worry that if the volume goes away at all or if he gets less efficient just again at his age with the volume, you know, heavy workload weighing down. Or if the offense, like we saw Lamar come back last season from an injury and did not look the same. And the offense really struggled because he wasn't 100% healthy. I'm really hoping that's not the case this year, obviously. But I think it has to be in the back of your mind. So if he does come back, it's a really tough schedule the next three weeks too.

34:23 Bengals, Bills, Jags.

34:24 Like the offense might not be in the place that we want it to be. And I think we could look back and say that trading Derek Henry for a haul is something that panned out.

34:35 I do think that among the players we kind of talked about, the running backs today to either buy or sell, et cetera, I do think that there's an interesting point to can you get Chase Brown plus a receiver to get with Derrick Henry? Do you do a top-end receiver and pair that with Blake Corum or Jordan Mason, right?

34:53 I think those are the deals to make with Derrick Henry, so hopefully we've given you guys enough names where if you have Derrick Henry, float him out there, maybe you can get a package back. But it seems like it's more in line with a package now than getting a straight one for one with derrick henry which i i think i agree.

35:09 With the world in which you're just doing a one for one again is one where you happen to get lucky and you were the guy who took the swing on chuba hubbard and bayshall tootin late and you also have like core like like that's a scenario where it's like okay maybe derrick henry straight up for i don't know like like i said zay flowers chris alave drake london like like that's one where i'm like okay one for one getting a absolute stud back could be could make sense um Most people I think are not in that bucket, in which case I think a package.

35:36 Is where I would look.

35:37 Okay, I like it.

35:38 Erickson, who is your quarterback to buy or sell?

35:41 I'm going with Trevor Lawrence as my quarterback to buy. So he is currently the QB3 overall. He's only QB9 in points per game. But this schedule the Jaguars have faced to start the year has been tough. It was something that I noticed when I was doing a lot of my Jaguars previewing. one of my favorite MVP bets, worm, you know, this was Trevor Lawrence at 24 to one to win the MVP. And I acknowledge that this might be a buyback opportunity with Trevor Lawrence, where to start the year, maybe it's a little lukewarm in terms of his production because it's tougher. The rest of the schedule, according to the fantasy pro strength and schedule tool, number one for fantasy quarterbacks is Trevor Lawrence. So the fact

36:22 that he's on a bi-week, I know he's coming off obviously a monster game against the Houston Texans. Again, just like Just further supporting that Trevor Lawrence is someone you want to be invested in. You want Jaguars pass catchers on your fantasy football team. So even though he is coming off a big game, the fact that a lot of people don't like to trade quarterbacks, they don't really feel like there's a market for quarterbacks. I think that the iron is hot right now to strike a deal to get T-Law on your team. I think that he can be one of these players that he just is one of the engines to your offense today. or to your fantasy team for a playoff type of championship run.

36:54 Like he was last year, right? It was after week five or week six last season when he came to, he took off and outscored every other player in fantasy. And I think that he has all of the ingredients to do that yet again. So for me, he is a screaming by and the guy that I think you can get the deal done with. You take your Brock Purdy and you go get Trevor Lawrence.

37:15 I think Trevor Lawrence is a good call.

37:16 The only concern I would have is, you know, if his manager is again, like coming off of a QB one performance, you know, just kind of gets, becomes unwilling to sell. The schedule is amazing from here on out. I mean, I think that the toughest defense that he has left the entire season, it's probably Houston who he was just QB one against this week. Like he gets the giants, he gets the bears, he gets the Cowboys.

37:40 Like there is just a lot of real, the Colts are his next game. Like, It is a really friendly schedule for him. I totally agree. He's just ranked pretty highly already. But you know who's ranked higher? It's Brock Purdy, right?

37:51 In the consensus rest season rankings.

37:52 Trevor Lawrence is QB5. Purdy is QB3. I think selling Purdy makes a lot of sense, obviously, with the quarterback injuries there, too.

37:58 So, yeah.

37:59 I mean, I'm on board with this. Let me ask you this. Because you said Purdy, who's QB3. QB4 is Drake May. Who would you rather have rest of season in fantasy, Drake May or Trevor Lawrence?

38:08 Can't put that on me.

38:10 I am putting it on you.

38:11 I mean— I don't have Drake May anywhere because I just drafted Trevor Lawrence. So this isn't a real-life problem that I have to deal with. So... Well, Drake May also has a really, really good schedule, as we'll talk about on the wide receivers to buy and sell show. So I think that I'll shoot it to you now.

38:29 Lamar Jackson, do you just kind of wipe your hands clean? Like, I don't feel like dealing with whether he's healthy or not. I don't want to deal with it. I know Trevor Lawrence is healthy. I know he's balling. And I'm just going to wipe... Because that's a deal that I don't think that Maybe the manager hesitates like, well, Lamar's banged up, but oh, it's Lamar Jackson. So what about that?

38:48 Touche, because I didn't expect you to turn it around on me. So I'm taking it back by this. I actually think that's a fantastic question. And I think I might say Trevor Lawrence. I still think obviously Lamar is the better quarterback in my opinion, but I can't shake what we saw last year, where when he finally came back, it was clear he wasn't the same guy. This ankle injury has had a real sense of mystery around it. Now, it wouldn't surprise me if he just practices in full all week, and they're like, hey, we were just waiting until he was 100%, and now he's back. That could totally happen, and Lamar has been incredible, obviously, in this Declan Doyle offense, and maybe I come to regret this decision,

39:25 but I think I would Trevor Lawrence feels less risky to me I mean Lamar has a better ceiling because he has a better ceiling than pretty much any quarterback in the world not named Josh Allen but I mean Trevor Lawrence's ceiling is also quite high and just feels a little bit less risky I think what I would want to do is see if I could get another piece back like alright if I'm going to sell a guy with the name value of Lamar Jackson give me Trevor Lawrence and like jordan mason could you do that maybe that's too much you know something like that just some sort of a swing later on at the running back or receiver position but i think i would i think i would tear down i wouldn't i wouldn't do a one-for-one swap i don't think i could quite get

40:01 that far but i think i would look i would be happy to tear down to trevor lawrence if that's.

40:05 Doable which i don't know maybe it is maybe it isn't.

40:08 Good question yeah that's a tough one i don't like i didn't like that when you did it to me i like doing that to you.

40:12 I mean you came at me with my boy drink may.

40:14 Let's go.

40:17 Let's do some quick buy, sell, or hold trios here amongst the running backs. Running back was tough for me this week to come up with these, quite honestly, especially not hitting on names that I feel like we've already talked about a bunch on this show. So I just did three guys that were ranked right around that RB10 mark and not really based on like, oh, I saw their market value is this and I'm curious what Erickson's going to think. More just like these guys are all kind of clumped together in my opinion. So who do you like best? And again, it's not a ranking, but who are you buying, who are you selling, who are you holding? Kyron Williams, Javante Williams, Ashton Gentry. They are back-to-back-to-back in ECR at 8, 9, and 10. Kyron Williams,

40:51 Javante Williams, Ashton Gentry.

40:53 Who are you buying? Who are you selling? Who are you holding?

40:56 So, Gentry was a buy for me a couple weeks ago because of the underwhelming performances from him. But when I pair him against these other three running backs, I would rather have those guys than Ashton Gentry. And I think Gentry still, again... there are buyers for Ashton Genting. I, again, maybe I'm a sucker because I was one of them and I wanted to buy Ashton Genting, but the lack of rushing efficiency continues to thwart his fantasy production. Although his receiving has been really good. Mike Washington continues to look explosive and kind of look like a guy that can play in this league. So I think that Genting in a vacuum is still a buy for running back needy teams. But I mean, I'm keeping Kyron and I'd

41:36 rather buy like Javante Williams. I'd rather buy Kyron Williams, rather buy Javante Williams because these guys play on super high powered offenses. Javante has the ideal workload similar to an Ashton Gentry, but he actually scores touchdowns, which Ashton Gentry has not. So far, Ashton Gentry had his first rushing touchdown last week and he still averaged under three yards per carry. So I think for me, it would be probably buying Kyron because I think he's coming off a bad game. Maybe you can get him for a little bit cheaper. Probably hold Javante and then probably sell Gentry.

42:07 I didn't expect to say this when I put this together. I think I might sell Javante. I've often been on the train of, you know, people say, Oh, he needs the, he needs the touchdowns to be an effective fantasy player.

42:18 I don't care.

42:18 He's going to keep getting the touchdowns, right? This is a good offense. He's their only option.

42:22 Like, like who cares? He doesn't have a hundred yard rushing game this season. I don't care.

42:26 He's going to keep getting touchdowns. So I generally quite like having Javante on my roster. The schedule is not great. And there are some matchups in there that are good. Of course, there's still a lot of the season left, but like, San Francisco's on there. Seattle's on there. The Rams are on there and they might be a lot better that by that point in the season, he has a late buy. So if you need to win late, like you might not have them in week 14, which I don't like a couple of Philly games. Like that defense still is really talented, even though Philly is kind of falling apart. So there it's the Jacksonville in week 16, the semifinals of your fantasy playoffs, like one of the toughest rushing match. So like, I wonder if you find

43:00 somebody who does say, Hey, I believe in Javante to keep getting all these touchdowns. If maybe he is actually the correct sell or, I'm holding Kyron like you can't pry him from my cold dead fingers, Kyron Williams, which leaves Jenty as the buy, which I actually don't hate. I would rank him third of these three. So again, that sort of emphasizes that this is not a ranking.

43:20 This is a market sort of playing it out. I just– I'm such a believer in Clint Kubiak, and I feel like Jenty– like There's a world where Gentee figures it out and becomes one of the better running backs to have in fantasy the rest of the season. I don't know if that's worth betting on, but if he's valued at least of these three guys because they're all three really good, then maybe you can get him the cheapest.

43:38 Then I think I'd probably buy him, sell Javante, hold Kyron.

43:41 Warren, you're so smart, dude. Because when we do these things, because you have the more of the mental prep, because you know exactly how you're going to combat my- So I'm not smart.

43:49 I'm just prepared.

43:50 Which is always wrong with these, because I always change my mind after I hear what you have to say about Gentee maybe being more of this ascending piece. And again, I talked about him as a buy a couple of weeks ago. I think it was last week. And although it's still kind of been lackluster- I think that the touchdown deodorant with Javante Williams, there's a chance that that does go sour at some point. And he's not scoring as many touchdowns. If the schedule gets tougher to your point, I think those are astute points that you make. And maybe the deal you make is you do Javante for Ashton Genty plus a piece. You get Blake Cormer thrown in, you get Jordan Mason thrown in. So it's like, right.

44:25 I'm taking my inefficient running back for your inefficient running back. That doesn't score touchdowns, but I'm betting on this offense turning it around in the second half. And, To make a good point about comparing it to a different situation, you know what running backs were horrible last year to start the season? Bears running backs with Ben Johnson. They were terrible. I remember Sal DeAndre Swift. This guy can't do anything. He's so inefficient. And then they just weren't an absolute run because they finally kind of like bought into the Ben Johnson run game. And it took a couple of weeks to kind of really get going. But then those guys were off to the races. We saw Menungai and DeAndre Swift be super productive to end the season.

44:59 So That wouldn't shock me if we see something with like that from Ashton Gentry, who we also know has kind of been banged up, right? Been bailing with his ankle injury. So I agree. I'm not backing down on buying Ashton Gentry. And I guess Javante would be the guy that would be first to go.

45:14 One more trio here, Erickson, Kyle Menungai, Josh Jacobs, obviously some news there with the commissioner's exemplars, and Cam Scadaboo, who's coming off a zero-touch game.

45:24 And obviously Menungai didn't play recently. So three kind of really interesting guys.

45:28 None of these three guys touched the football in week six is what I'll say here, but.

45:31 All for three completely different reasons. So who are you buying? Who are you selling? Who are you holding here?

45:36 You know, I'm really interested that you didn't do the trio of injured running backs. Jeremiah Love, Saquon Barkley, and Brees Hall. I was expecting that to be one of the trios. I'd be like, right, Erickson. You know what's funny?

45:47 I didn't think about that. I totally would have if I thought about it.

45:49 Because when I looked at each of those names individually and thinking about other trios, I go, oh, I can't include them because they're injured.

45:55 But putting them all together would have been fun. That's a miss by me.

45:57 You could have literally just put all the injured guys. Because I was ready for that one. Because I was like, oh, Worm is going to be devious here. And he's going to put all three injured running backs. I'm like, right. What are you doing with these three guys? Because I know, I mean, people are pulling their hair out trying to figure out when the Breeze Hall is coming back. Does Saquon have any value? And Jeremiah Love, the saga, continues in Arizona with whatever he's doing. But that's not the trail you pick. So we could do something a little bit more easy. So Menungai Jacobs and Cam Scadaboo. I think Cam Scadaboo is going to be a hold for me.

46:25 I would expect his touches to increase next week. That being said. there's still an openness by this team to use four running backs. So I know the Harbaugh has been very vocal about, I just want some guy to step up. It's no debate in my mind who the best running back on this team actually is. And it's Cam Scadaboon. If anyone's actually going to be the RB1 for the Giants, it's going to be Cam Scadaboon or nobody, right?

46:46 So I would hold him because it's, I would not trade him right now because he's going to get more involved next week. The way that he phrased it, the way that some of the Giants beat reporters are talking about, this really was a one game thing. to teach scam cam scataboo a lesson. And he's going to see not back to his normal workload, but at least playing time because he's so much better than all these other running backs.

47:08 And so I'll hold cam scataboo. Josh Jacobs, I think is probably the, I guess he's kind of like the sell high, honestly, because he's now RB 20 in the rest of the season rankings. The, coach speak around him has been really positive about like, yeah, he's going to go back to like full-blown Josh Jacobs workload. And I, that's kind of what I expect, but he's also like a ticking time bomb where he could come back for one game. And then the NFL decides, oh, you know, we're going to suspend him for the rest of the season.

47:36 So this is a total like flip based on hype type of move with Jacobs. And I think right now you'd actually get the most for him versus the other guys. And then Manung guy would probably be the buy because he's hurt right now. But when he does actually produce in this offense, he's, We know he can be an absolute monster alongside DeAndre Swift. So that's how I view it.

47:57 I don't know if you view it differently.

47:58 I actually view it exactly the same. I don't really have anything to add. We're on the same page as this.

48:01 So I guess it wasn't that challenging of one then because I don't want to try to change your mind. I totally agree across the board here. So we'll just go ahead and wrap things up there.

48:09 Keep it simple.

48:10 Don't forget about our weekly trade live stream on our YouTube channel where you can come and ask your specific fantasy trade questions. We'll be with you every Wednesday at 3 p.m.

48:17 Eastern.

48:17 For those listening on the pod, just go to youtube.com slash fantasy pros, subscribe and click the bell to be notified of all of our weekly live streams.

48:25 For Erickson, I'm Ryan Warmly. Thanks for tuning in.

48:27 Please be sure to check out our receivers and tight ends version of this episode coming out shortly.

48:31 We'll see you next time.

48:32 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 Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash fantasypros.