This is a crucial point in the season. Teams are figuring out where they are at, bye weeks are hitting hard, injuries are piling up for some teams, and now is the time to strike. Start to figure out what players are expandable on your team that could be good chips for trade talk. Once you’ve isolated a few key players that have good fantasy value and that you are deep in that position, figure out what you need not only for the coming weeks, but into the playoffs if that is your goal. The key is to find the players that are just coming off a good game or have some sort of news that puts them in a positive light and then sell high and make a trade that gets as much fantasy value as you can for them. There are some fantasy players are that hitting their stride while others are hitting their humps. It’s a good time to take a look at some players that would be wise to sell now as they still have good trade value.
Sell High Fantasy Players
Torrey Smith is coming off a back-to-back touchdown games. In this past week, he has 2 touchdowns in the game. When owners look at those stats along with his name, they will think he is just coming on and will certainly bite on almost anything you might want to get for him. Obviously you are not going for their RB1 or something, but look at their roster and find some depth for your lineup. Get a good RB like Bradshaw or maybe a TE like Jordan Reed. The reason that it’s good to get value for him now is that the season is coming up on the halfway mark and if he goes back into another slump, it will be too late in the season to get anything for him and harder to sell his value at that point. The reason he is not a keep candidate is that he has even broken 60 yards or caught over 4 passes in any game this season. He is just not getting open and the ball is not finding it’s way to his side of the field. Yes, he is number two in targets, but he 5th on his team in receptions because he is not catching the ball. Out of 34 targets, he’s only caught 15, which means is missing over 50% of the balls coming to him. I would get anything you can now. Sell high!
Andre Johnson is coming off his best game of the season. What the concern here is that it took till week 7 to get his first touchdown. He hasn’t broken 100 yards in a game yet this year, although he nearly did it last week. Hopkins is getting more open coverage as teams continue to double Johnson, which is good for the Texans since Fitzpatrick isn’t well known for being a gunslinger in the pocket. The lack of a quality arm and a stout defense, means the games will be low scoring, putting Johnson at risk for more weeks like he’s been having in the first half. After a huge game like the one he had, now would be the time to get something you need for this aging receiver.
Darren McFadden had the best game of his season so far. He rushed for 80 yards on 14 carries. He’s been getting good work in the backfield and has been putting up regular points, but that’s going to be changing as he’s facing some tough run defenses coming up and in those games it might be hard to get the run game going when they are down. Coming off this performance, and with his name, he could probably fetch some decent fantasy value right now and would be a good sell high candidate.
Matthew Stafford didn’t have a good game, but he is worth selling high now on his name alone. Over the next 6 weeks, he’s got a bye, plus match-ups on the road vs two of the top passing defenses. Calvin may also be resting for the next week or two, and there is speculation that he could be out until after their bye. With that in mind, it will be harder for Matt to get going and would be a god sell high candidate now before he piles up more bad weeks like the last 2 have been. With Johnson out, Stafford has a hard time throwing the ball and Calvin may not be ready to play till week 10, followed by two tough road meetings to finish the fantasy season. After these weeks many teams might not be in the playoffs to even take advantage of some good match-ups to follow. Get what you can now for him and save the headaches.
