Buy Low Sell High

Fantasy Football Buy Low Sell High Week 8

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Keenan Allen

BUY LOW SELL HIGH Week 8

At this point in the season, we’re beginning to forget who was viewed highly before the season began and why. We have a pretty good sample size with most players, and it’s a little bit easier for us to make educated decisions and form opinions on where everyone’s value truly stands. Still, fantasy managers need to make some moves if they want to put their team in position to bring home the title, so today, we’re going to be looking at three players that are still undervalued that you should be looking to buy and three that are priced too high that you should be looking to sell on your fantasy football rosters.

 

Buy

Keenan Allen, WR

Fantasy managers of Keenan Allen aren’t as confident in him right now as they were at the beginning of the season. He’s coming off of his first game of the season with fewer than 10 PPR points, and he has finished as the WR30 or worse in two out of the last three weeks. People know he’s still a great option, but I think the consensus mentality about his value has shifted from ‘untradeable’ to more of a ‘for the right price’.

Even though his production has dipped a bit, Allen’s usage remains elite. He has gotten under nine targets just once so far this year, and with Mike Williams out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL, that doesn’t project to change. Los Angeles’ offense has struggled as a whole over the past couple of weeks, so when they inevitably bounce back, he should feel the positive effects of that and return to being an elite fantasy option. To put the cherry on top, he’s already had his bye week, which means that if you can acquire him now, you’ll be getting a high-end WR1 at a discounted cost who will have another week of availability compared to most other players.

Austin Ekeler, RB

Speaking of the Chargers, I’m including Austin Ekeler on this list. It seems pretty obvious to most, but I’ve seen a fair share of people freaking out about his rough first two weeks back from injury. He has finished as the RB25 and the RB39 respectively in those games, and people are struggling with what to make of his value. For me personally, I’m buying into his season-long value, which is pretty easy given the elite talent and proven track record of fantasy stardom that he has.

He’s been on the field for the past couple of weeks, but he clearly hasn’t been himself. He’s averaging just 2.5 yards per carry in those games, and he had a game where he got just two targets, which we’ve only seen him do one other time since the beginning of last season. It’s clear that he’s still limited by the injury he suffered early in the season or still working on ramping up, but considering the typical timeline for recovery for this type of injury, it’s fair to assume that he’ll be back to full health sooner rather than later. Ekeler also always gets a major increase in work and fantasy production when the Chargers are missing one of their top receivers, and now Mike Williams is set to miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Ekeler’s efficiency, targets, and touchdowns should go up over the next few weeks as he gets healthier, and now might be the only buy-low window available for him for the rest of the season.

 

 

Cooper Kupp, WR

Any fantasy manager that has Cooper Kupp or Puka Nacua is struggling to make heads or tails of the situation in Los Angeles. Kupp dominated and looked like he fully re-established himself as the alpha back in Week 6, but the rookie Nacua fired back with a 150+ yard game in Week 7. It’s tough to say for sure what this is going to look like for the rest of the season, but I’m pretty confident in saying that Kupp is a good value right now coming off of the down week.

 

 

For whatever reason, he just wasn’t on the same page as QB Matthew Stafford in Week 7. He got a solid seven targets over the course of the day, but he was only able to bring in two of them. That’s not normal for him, and it seems like that part could’ve just been an anomaly. We know that Kupp is one of the most talented wideouts in all of football, and that’s going to ultimately shine through above everything else. I think he and Nacua can co-exist with how much Stafford likes to pepper his receivers with targets, and there’ll be even more of that going on in this offense over the next few weeks with the Rams’ running game not as potent as usual with all of the injuries that they’re battling. It’s not often that an elite WR1 will have an affordable trade price, so fantasy managers should be looking to buy now before the inevitable bounce-back from the veteran happens in the coming weeks.

Other good buy-low options:

  1. Bijan Robinson, RB
  2. Breece Hall, RB
  3. Josh Jacobs, RB

 

Sell

 

D’Andre Swift, RB

I need to make this clear right off the rip: don’t sell Swift low. I think it’s a good idea to explore trading him, but only if you’re getting fair and generous compensation in return. He’s currently the RB6 on the season, and if you would’ve told someone before the season started that he would be this good, it’s unlikely that they would’ve believed you. Still, I think there’s a couple of reasons to sell him while his value is high.

He’s been incredibly consistent since his breakout in Week 2, but I’m not so sure that the upside is there for him. His main problem is with touchdowns. He has just two of them on the year, and while we would normally think that means that there’s room for positive regression in that area, I’m not sure that’s the case for Swift. When the Eagles get down inside the ten yard line, they bring in Kenneth Gainwell to get that work. We’ve seen it over the past few weeks. Swift comes out of the game when they’re in scoring range and someone else usually gets it. This is a big issue for him, especially with QB Jalen Hurts already taking work away from this backfield as a whole. Swift has been good so far this year and should remain consistent, but if you can flip him for someone with more upside, I think that would be a wise move at this point in the season.

 

Rachaad White, RB

White finally had a bounce-back game. He finished as the RB12 in Week 7, which is good for his second RB1 finish on the year. He had three-straight games with less than 11 points before that, but he was able to finish well this week thanks to his involvement in the passing game. The problem is, that was an anomaly.

Prior to Week 7, White had just one other game this year where he eclipsed 4 targets. He never had over 30 receiving yards in a game until last week, where he more than doubled his previous season high with 65. That’s great and all, but we’re not going to be able to rely on him to do that every week. He’s averaging a measly 3.2 yards per carry on the year so far, so when you combine that with his limited usage in the passing game, you get at best an unreliable, touchdown-dependent RB who will bust more often than he booms. Coming off of a solid week, now’s the time to sell.

Travis Etienne, RB

Similarly to D’Andre Swift, I don’t think you should be selling Etienne for crumbs. Quite on the contrary actually. He’s been the RB1 over the last three weeks by a large margin and is averaging 27.5 PPR points in that stretch, so I think fantasy managers could get an absolute HAUL if they were to trade him away. But if he’s been so good, why would anyone want to sell him?

The answer to that is simple: negative touchdown regression. Etienne has been great over the past few weeks, but he’s had two touchdowns in every one of those games. That’s obviously a good thing, but touchdowns are unpredictable, and with him scoring at this high of a rate, that’s bound to negatively regress. He was the RB15 through the first four weeks of the season when his touchdown numbers were a bit more modest, so I think we see him regress between those two and settle in the RB5 – RB10 range for the rest of the year. If you’re trading him away now, you would likely get a package that’s based on his rest-of-season ceiling, which makes dealing him a good idea for most fantasy managers.

Other good sell-high options:

  • D’Onta Foreman
  • Derrick Henry, RB
  • George Pickens, WR
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