Fantasy Football Trade Analyzer: Buy-low and sell-high candidates for Week 2
Sal Vetri is a new Yahoo Fantasy contributor this season. He'll write a weekly football trade story focusing on players to deal. This week, he highlights five players to trade away and two to target.
Note: You can view recent trades completed on Yahoo Fantasy for the players mentioned in this article to help provide ideas on potential deals. Visit the trade market for more details.
Trade Dameon Pierce
Week 1 was the worst-case scenario for Dameon Pierce. He played just 46% of the snaps and found himself in a three-headed backfield. Mike Boone played the majority of the two-minute drill snaps and 60% of the third-down snaps. Devin Singletary was involved on early downs, playing 21% of snaps.
To make matters worse, the Texans O-line is already down three starters this season and this showed Week 1 as Pierce earned just 38 yards on 11 carries.
The Texans will be underdogs in most of their games. This will force Pierce off the field and likely keep him in a three-back rotation.
Derrick Henry is a sell candidate
Believe it or not, Henry didn’t lead the Titans in RB snaps Week 1.
Rookie Tyjae Spears played 54% of the snaps to Henry’s 48%. Henry still earned 17 opportunities but this is worrisome as Spears was explosive in the preseason and the Titans clearly want to get him involved.
Tennessee surprisingly had a top-10 neutral pass rate Week 1. This means they threw more than they ran in one-score situations. Typically, they run heavy in these situations. This led Spears to play more; he ran 20 routes compared to just 10 for Henry.
Henry will still earn 15-plus touches in most games, but there’s now an elevated risk of him being phased out when Tennessee is trailing by seven-plus points.
Go get Elijah Moore
Moore led the Browns in WR usage in Week 1. He ran a route on 80% of the pass plays and earned a team-high seven targets. Moore also added two rush attempts for 19 yards.
He was a top-five WR in his final seven games of 2021 on similar usage.
Moore was used in all levels of the field and earned 62 total yards despite the poor Week 1 weather and being pulled in the fourth quarter due to a 20-point Browns lead. Buy low on this great usage.
Trade away Keenan Allen
Allen had a productive Week 1, earning nine targets and 11.20 half-PPR fantasy points. But this production is skewed as Mike Williams missed most of the game with an injury.
But here’s the real issue: the Chargers ranked LAST in neutral pass rate Week 1.
This means they passed at the lowest rate when tied or in a one-score game. It’s clear new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore wants to leverage the run game with Austin Ekeler and Joshua Kelly. Both backs had 16 carries and combined for 208 rush yards.
Despite Allen playing in the highest-scoring game of the week and mostly without Mike Williams, he scored under 12 fantasy points — that's not good.
Isiah Pacheco is a trap
We saw similar Chiefs' RB usage that we got last season in Kansas City, but slightly worse. Pacheco’s 48% snaps led Chiefs RBs, but Jerick McKinnon continued to be involved playing 31% of snaps. Clyde Edwards-Helaire started and earned 14% of snaps as well.
Pacheco won’t see much third-down work for this team, as he was 141st in RB pass protection last season and McKinnon was re-signed to be the third-down back. This was on display in Week 1 as McKinnon played 86% of the third-down snaps.
The Chiefs are a top-five neutral pass-rate team; they throw often in tied or one-score games. This leads to fewer rush attempts, meaning Pacheco won’t see many high-touch games. He’s a TD or bust player as long as he remains in this role.
Trade For Jahmyr Gibbs
Gibbs was fantastic on his nine touches in Week 1. He broke a league-high six tackles despite earning just seven carries. He was the seventh highest-graded Week 1 RB ahead of Austin Ekeler and Nick Chubb, according to PFF.
Coach Dan Campbell stated he intentionally limited Gibbs' snaps to give him a taste of game action and that he’ll be used more moving forward. Gibbs earned 6.7 yards per touch which would have led all RBs in 2022.
Now, imagine what he’s going to do with more touches.
Trade Jakobi Meyers away ASAP
Meyers finished as the Week 1 WR3 in fantasy points on a team-high 10 targets.
The Raiders mostly operated out of 12-personnel in Week 1. They had two TEs play the majority of snaps, while only two WRs saw over 25% of snaps. This means Meyers will have strong usage in 2023 but Week 1 is still an outlier. It’s unlikely Davante Adams will be held to 66 yards moving forward. Josh Jacobs also struggled in this game, earning just 48 yards on the ground.
The Raiders were a bottom-10 neutral-pace team in Week 1. They chose to run more often in tied or one-score situations.
Meyers suffered a concussion in Week 1 but he’s expected to be back soon. Regardless, sell him off after this two-touchdown performance.
