Week 9: Identifying Fantasy Football Trading Trends Using Predictive Analytics
Week 8 was a wild ride of fun as the Kansas City Chiefs wrapped up a close 20-17 victory over the New York Giants to officially wrap up the first half of the fantasy football season. After upsetting the AFC North leading Cincinnati Bengals in Week 9, the New York Jets are hyped to head into Indianapolis to face an Indianapolis Colts team coming off a brutal overtime loss to the Tennessee Titans. The Titans are early 10.5-point favorites as we gear up for Thursday Night Football.
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After the NFL trade deadline passed yesterday, we are looking at which fantasy players are being traded at the highest rate at the midway points of the season. With four teams on bye (Seattle, Detroit, Washington, and Tampa Bay), now could be the perfect time to execute a trade in your league, especially since this is when you need to really make that postseason push in your league. Not to mention, many fantasy leagues set their trade deadlines for this time of year.
Keep reading here to access our Predictive Analytics or log into your account, and utilize the Fantasy Assistant. From there, you can see the predictive adds, drops, trades, and FAAB.
Predictive Trades:
[predict="trade-2021-9"]
WR Diontae Johnson, Pittsburgh Steelers
Nobody is being traded quite as much as the WR1 in Pittsburgh. Johnson has been targeted a ridiculous 13 times in three of his last four outings. After producing his best outing of the season in Week 4 with nine receptions for 92 yards and a touchdown, Johnson’s production has begun to slightly decline, despite the season-ending injury that JuJu Smith-Schuster suffered. Johnson caught two-of-two targets for 72 yards and a touchdown in Week 6 before failing to score in back-to-back contests. Johnson has still caught 15 passes on 26 targets over his last two games for 169 receiving yards, but he failed to find the end zone. For some reason, fantasy owners think now is the time to trade Ben Roethlisberger’s top target. Johnson continues to see ridiculous volume, and we all know that fantasy football is all about opportunities. Just because he hasn’t been able to score a touchdown in back-to-back weeks does not mean that his value has diminished. In fact, he seems to have separated himself from Chase Claypool even further as the top weapon in this offense outside of rookie running back Najee Harris. This seems like the perfect opportunity to get Johnson at a discount. He is going to be critical in Pittsburgh’s aerial attack if they have any chance at returning to the playoffs. If you can acquire Johnson (who already has his bye week) for someone like Brandin Cooks (whose bye week is in Week 10), I’d pull the trigger.
Use our trade analyzer to test out potential trades!
WR Jarvis Landry, Cleveland Browns
After getting hurt in Week 2, Landry was sidelined until he was finally able to return to the field in Week 7. Unfortunately, the Browns’ passing game has been abysmal this season. Since returning from injury, Landry has caught 10 balls for 102 yards and has failed to find the end zone. In fact, he doesn’t have a touchdown all season. It makes sense that fantasy owners are shopping Landry as much as they are ahead of Week 9, as Baker Mayfield seems absolutely lost out there and is struggling while playing through a shoulder injury. Landry is still the top wideout in this offense, but the Browns clearly are devoted to the running game. With Nick Chubb expected to be fully healthy in Week 9, the Browns are going to lean on the running game. While that might help open things up for the passing game, it’s hard to trust any pass catcher in Cleveland’s offense right now. Landry’s value has never been lower than it is right now. If you want to take a gamble, this could be a solid buy-low opportunity. However, there is a chance that the Browns continue to struggle moving the chains with the aerial attack. I’d advise fantasy owners to stay away from Landry and all over members of the Browns outside of Chubb.
WR Jaylen Waddle, Miami Dolphins
The rookie wideout out of Alabama has been a reception machine in Miami’s offense this year and has been undoubtedly the top receiving threat in this offense despite the return of DeVante Parker last week. Waddle is averaging eight receptions a game for just north of 50 receiving yards and has scored three touchdowns in eight contests. However, Waddle has been pretty hit or miss all season and is coming off one of his worst performances of the season against Buffalo’s stout defense. The rookie recorded just four receptions for 29 yards in Week 8. Perhaps that is why fantasy owners are trading him as such a high clip as we gear up for Week 9. If you are in a PPR league, Waddle is an excellent WR3 to target in a trade. Take advantage of owners overreacting to one poor performance and pull the trigger on a deal.
[lastten="Jaylen Waddle"]
RB Michael Carter, New York Jets
Rookie running back Michael Carter has been an absolute beast, especially in PPR leagues over the last two weeks of the season. During that span, he has carried the ball 26 times for 114 yards and a rushing touchdown while adding an eye-popping 17 receptions on 23 targets for an additional 162 receiving yards. He is coming off his best game of the season in which led the Jets to an upset victory over the Bengals in Week 8. If you own Carter, it might be difficult to get rid of him, but this is the perfect time to sell high. His value will never be higher. You have to remember that the Jets will likely be playing from behind in every game that they play and the game script will be negative for the rookie. Plus, it makes no sense for the Jets to run the wheels off the franchise running back, whose future is very bright. I know it’s hard, but now is the time to get tons of value for Carter.
WR Keenan Allen, Los Angeles Chargers
Allen has quietly had a very strong season despite only scoring two touchdowns through seven games. Allen has 45 passes for 496 yards and continues to be one of Justin Herbert’s favorite targets in the Chargers’ high-powered aerial attack. Fantasy owners may be comparing Allen to previous years and are not quite as excited with his production as they should be. Considering Austin Ekeler’s role and Mike Williams’ emergence, Allen is still holding his own as the veteran receiver in the offense. If I owned Allen, I would not be trading him unless I was getting extremely consistent production in return. It’s hard to get a player as reliable as Allen in fantasy football. I’m not quite sure why Allen’s Expected Trade Interest (ETI) is so high heading into Week 9. Fantasy owners need to be happy with what they are getting from the talented playmaker.
[career="Keenan Allen"]
WR Mike Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Evans has been an absolute monster this season, as he has been the sixth-most effective receiver in all of fantasy football. However, he is heading into his bye week and his value is incredibly high right now after scoring six touchdowns in his last four contests. Four of those touchdowns came in his last two games when Antonio Brown was sidelined. For that reason, I think now is the time to trade Evans for a monster of a player. You might be able to get someone as good as Travis Kelce for Evans right now, which is an absolute steal!
[lastten="Mike Evans"]
Well, that’s it for this week. Check back in ahead of Week 10 to see the biggest movers on the trade market. To access trading predictive analytics, utilize the Fantasy Assistant on FantasySP.
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