Fantasy Football Trade Targets Week 8
Elijah Southwick
@ecsouthwick
Breece Hall - RB, New York Jets
The Jets will be coming off a bye in Week 8. Before their off week, the Jets took the training wheels off Breece Hall and let him loose, giving him 34 carries and 8 targets between Weeks 5 and 6. Hall smashed with his opportunity, producing nearly 300 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns. Veteran RB Dalvin Cook has been a disaster in New York, and any worry from the preseason about Cook blocking Hall’s ascendance is a thing of the past.
Hall may already be an RB1 in the eyes of most managers, so acquiring him won’t come cheap. But he’s worth the price if you can get him in a deal that doesn’t ship off an elite fantasy asset like Tyreek Hill or Christian McCaffrey. Players like D’Andre Swift, Keenan Allen, Adam Thielen, and Sam LaPorta come to mind as players you can build a package around to make a legitimate offer for Hall.
Joe Burrow - QB, Cincinnati Bengals
The “anchoring effect” is a psychological tendency to rely on or remember more clearly the first piece of information you receive on a topic. Every season, the anchoring effect destroys fantasy football hopes and dreams as managers are too slow to adjust off their early season biases.
Joe Burrow is back in full force as a QB1 after a significant calf strain held him back early in the year. On top of that, the Bengals are coming off their bye in Week 8. Burrow and his receiving weapons should come back even more healthy, and managers may be itching to get something significant out of Burrow now that there is even less time to be patient with their rosters.
Bijan Robinson - RB, Atlanta Falcons
Bijan Robinson was probably the most frustrating player in all of fantasy football in Week 7, virtually missing the game due to illness. The problem was that Robinson was active for the game, and managers likely started him in 95% or more of all fantasy leagues. His 0.3 fantasy points burned his managers. But more than that, Robinson’s numbers haven’t taken off the way many were hoping they would.
Despite receiving workhorse level volume, Robinson has failed to record 20 PPR points or more since Week 2. This is another situation where patience could be running thin, and Robinson could be acquired following his dud in Week 7. Robinson has a top-five type of profile at the running back position, and an argument could be made for him being the potential overall RB1 rest of season if it weren’t for Christian McCaffrey being on an all-time fantasy football tear with the 49ers.
Zay Flowers - WR, Baltimore Ravens
Zay Flowers is a player who’s benefiting from the anchoring effect in the opposite direction. Flowers is a rookie who hit the ground running, shooting up to the top of the league leaders in target share early in the season. But his numbers have been relatively modest since his hot start, opening a buy window.
The difficulty with acquiring Flowers is the early production on his profile. However, the reason why I’m touting Flowers as a buy is due to his early production. Players like Flowers - rookie wide receivers drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft - who step on the field and immediately produce in their first few games have so much potential. If Flowers continues an upward trajectory in the back half of the fantasy football season, he could be in for a league-winning type of breakout.