The following is an excerpt from the latest edition of Yahoo’s fantasy football newsletter, Get to the Points! If you like what you see, you can subscribe for free here.
Look, there are plenty of weeks on the fantasy calendar where you can afford to go on autopilot for a few days and not obsessively focus on your team, but this week isn’t one of them right now.
It’s time to lock up, folks.
We’re heading into Yahoo’s standard Saturday trading deadline, so there’s work to be done. When you wake up on Sunday morning, one of the essential paths to improving your selection is closed for the season. Everyone loves trading, so let’s get started.
Our mission is to give you three key trading pieces of advice and then offer some imaginative buy-low candidates to focus on.
1️⃣ If your offer doesn’t meet the other team’s needs, it won’t go anywhere
Every league has a manager who approaches transactions thinking only about the players they want to dump, and not about the holes other teams may need to fill. A few times a season, that person will spam the league with Kadarius Toney offers (or something similar) and then complain that no one is ever willing to trade.
The smallest amount offered up front can go so far. Take 30 seconds to review the selection of the team you want to work with, and then suggest something to help both parties. If your offer doesn’t include anything that will clearly improve the other manager’s selection, then it’s just a time waster and not a conversation starter.
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2️⃣ It’s a good time to pack two players for one, or three for two
A good guiding principle in fantasy trades is that if you get the best individual player in the deal, you’ve done well. We’ve reached the point in fantasy season where competing teams must focus on building the best possible starting rosters, sacrificing depth in the process. We must try to maximize the weekly scoring potential.
The depth of the rosters is funny: it is incredibly valuable in September and not at all in December. It becomes less important every week. By the time we reach the money weeks of the playoffs, your starting lineup should be so loaded that it basically establishes itself, while your bench should be full of lottery tickets.
3️⃣ To win the competition, sometimes you have to lose a trade
Some of you are simply not wired to follow this advice, which is a shame. At some point it’s going to cost you a fantasy title.
We must never become so paralyzed by the fear of losing a deal that we forget the real priority, which is lifting the league trophy at the end of the season. If a trade can improve your team’s starting roster, it’s probably worth making. The whole idea is to tackle weaknesses from areas with surpluses. If both parties are somewhat uncomfortable with the deal, it’s probably a winner.
5 buy-low fantasy trading goals
Here are five early-season underperformers that A) are strong candidates for positive regression, B) are endlessly frustrating to the manager who drafted them, and C) are available via trade at a discount to their draft prices:
Tee Higgins, WR, Cincinnati Bengals
He’s apparently dealing with one of the worst quad injuries in quad history, as it’s already cost him three games. Although he’s making progress, he won’t be able to compete against the Chargers on Sunday. Let’s not forget that this year, when healthy, he was his usual self, averaging 9.0 targets and 68.2 receiving yards per game. When he’s ready in December, he’s a clear potential difference-maker.
Josh Jacobs, RB, Green Bay Packers
There are few players who are as chronically disrespected as Jacobs. He’s almost always available via trade despite being one of the NFL’s most elusive running backs. According to PFF, Jacobs is currently among the leaders in missed tackles (33) and yards after contact (3.73 per carry). He’s bound to run a top-tier offense, but has reached the end zone just four times this season. Jacobs is currently the RB17 of the season, but he is a clear candidate to enjoy a surge after the bye.
Isiah Pacheco, RB, Kansas City Chiefs
We are nearing the end of the original recovery period from the broken leg Pacheco suffered in September. He shouldn’t have much trouble regaining the key rushing role for KC. Kareem Hunt has been a great distance find this season, but he hasn’t exactly delivered a convincing imitation of a healthy Pacheco. Hunt is averaging just 3.6 YPC and the underlying numbers are somehow less impressive. Only five of his 125 carries have gained 10 or more yards and he’s averaging just 2.36 yards after contact per attempt.
Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City Chiefs
The best quarterback in the world is still outside the top-12 position when it comes to fantasy scoring this year, and he faces a tough matchup at Buffalo. It’s an excellent time to buy. He’s thrown six touchdown passes in his last three games while averaging 273 passing YPGs, so it’s already clear his weekly lead has returned with DeAndre Hopkins now in the mix.
Diontae Johnson, WR, Baltimore Ravens
Pretty gross, right? Yes, we know that. But again, the idea here is to highlight good players who can actually be acquired via trade.
Johnson is set to hit some waiver wires this week after back-to-back blindside performances for Baltimore. However, he was never a good bet to put up numbers in his first game for the Ravens after a midseason trade — and then his second game was a Thursday night, leaving little time to expand his role. He’s a proven multi-year producer and one of the best refs in the game, so we shouldn’t worry about his ability to leapfrog guys like Nelson Agholor in this team’s receiving hierarchy.
