Fantasy Football Trades Targets: Ladd McConkey, David Njoku, and More
Week 7 is here and Jonathan Fuller has his favorite fantasy football trade targets whether you're a contender or pretender:
It always amazes me how fast the football season goes. Week 1 feels like just a few days ago but we're already approaching the halfway point of the fantasy football regular season (for most leagues at least).
Regardless of where your team sits in the standings, now is the time to be making moves to give yourself the best chance to win your league.
If you're on the outside looking in, it's time to get aggressive to win now and sneak into the playoffs. If you're solidly in the playoff picture, it's time to start looking ahead and identifying pieces that can help you win in the playoffs.
We have several tools that can help you evaluate what moves are right for your team. My three favorite tools when evaluating trades are our rest of season rankings, fantasy football trade analyzer, and of course the Utilization Report. I've used those tools to identify some of my favorite fantasy football trade targets as well as players to trade away before their value craters. Getting the most out of these resources will keep you ahead of your league mates and one step closer to bringing home a fantasy championship.
Before we get into who I think you should be trading for and trading away, let's take a step back and get a 30,000-foot view of the current fantasy football trade landscape:
Fantasy Football Most Traded Players - Week 7
Let’s start this week over at CBS, where Davante Adams was the most traded player in their leagues. The Top 5 players being traded at CBS this week are:
The one thing missing from their “most traded” page is there’s no “market” function, where we can see who these players were being traded for. You can use Yahoo for that, but with the caveat that we don’t know the formats—a lot of trades that look lopsided on the surface come from dynasty leagues.
Now, let's get into players who I think you should target, or trade away this week in fantasy football.
Fantasy Football Trade Targets Ahead Of Week 7
Ladd McConkey, WR | LAC
With the immediate emergence of rookie superstars like Malik Nabers and Puka Nacua in recent years it can be tough to have patience with rookies who take a little bit longer to break out. However, most rookies do still take some time to get going and generally have more of their production over the second half of the season.
McConkey has only topped 50 receiving yards once this season, but he is playing a major role in the Chargers' offense. He leads the team in target share and air yard share while also tied for the team lead in end zone targets with three through the first five games. He's also passed the eye test and looks like a good bet to be a second-half breakout this season.
McConkey isn't considered an every-week starter for fantasy purposes yet, but I expect that to change over the next few weeks. He hasn't put up any eye-opening performances yet but upcoming matchups with the Cardinals and Saints give him two of the ten worst pass defenses to deliver his best game yet.
Valuing a potential breakout player like McConkey is tricky because you don't want to overpay and kill the value you could get by acquiring him before the breakout, but you aren't going to be able to get him for next to nothing either.
Situations like this are usually where I prefer cross-position trades to address the needs that both teams have. Obviously, this won't work for every league, but if you have RB depth I would be comfortable trading a low-end starting RB (Javonte Williams is the name that comes to mind) to add McConkey to my roster.
David Njoku, TE | CLE
I know what you're thinking, why would anyone want to trade for a player on this version of the Browns offense? Generally, I agree that trading for players on the league's worst offense isn't a recipe for success, but this is a unique situation.
Cleveland just traded away their top pass catcher by dealing Amari Cooper to the Bills, and they are throwing the ball a ton with the second-highest pass rate over expected in the NFL.
Yes, Deshaun Watson is playing historically bad football, but with how bleak the TE position is I'm not super worried about efficiency if the volume is there for a talented player like Njoku. After struggling with injuries to start the year Njoku saw a season high in snaps and targets in Week 6 and the snaps should continue to trend higher as he gets healthier.
With Cooper no longer on the team, this kind of volume should be pretty consistent for Njoku, which makes him an every-week start at the TE position in any kind of PPR format. He should be available for trade too since whichever team rosters him should have another TE that they picked up while he was out.
If you need help at the TE position, Njoku would be my top target and I'd be happy to trade a quality bench RB or WR to get him as my primary TE.
He doesn't rank super highly in our rest-of-season rankings, but any improvement in QB play (either Watson playing better or getting benched) would unlock a ceiling that is not reflected in that ranking. He also has a nice playoff schedule that could make him a league winner in that stretch.
DK Metcalf, WR | SEA
Metcalf is the top target on the NFL's most pass-heavy offense yet he hasn't delivered many huge big fantasy performances so far. After topping 20 PPR points in Weeks 2 and 3, he has been relatively quiet since, despite leading the team in targets and air yards.
Looking forward, Seattle faces Atlanta, Buffalo, and the Los Angeles Rams over their next three games.
Players To Trade Away In Fantasy Football - Week 7
Rachaad White, RB | TB
This may seem like selling low with White battling an injury, but I'm worried he is going to have no value in a matter of weeks.
Both Bucky Irving and Sean Tucker looked excellent in Week 6 while White has continued to be one of the NFL's least efficient rushers this season.
HC Todd Bowles has said they will use all three RBs, but it seems like coaching malpractice to continue handing the ball to White if the other two continue to play well. White could retain a role in the passing game, but I expect that his role will decline over the rest of this season.
Before White missed Week 6 with an injury, he was already starting to lose work with his snap share and rush attempt share declining and his carries inside the 5-yard line completely disappearing.
White won't return much value but don't be surprised if he is a cut candidate in just a few weeks, so I would like to turn him into just about anything else.
My recommendation is to look for your favorite rookie or RB handcuff stashed on somebody else's roster who hasn't played much (think Kimani Vidal or Blake Corum) and see if you can flip White for them. Now that we know he's competing with two other RBs for touches there isn't much of a floor or ceiling to his game so I would prefer to take a swing on a high-upside player who could emerge over the second half of the season.
Sam LaPorta, TE | DET
I didn't want to overreact to the first few weeks but I'm officially worried about Sam LaPorta's role in the Detroit offense. He is averaging under three targets per game this season and has been below 65% route participation in two of his last three games. He also hasn't recorded an end zone target since Week 1.
Detroit's offense is so efficient and spread out that it is difficult for LaPorta to see the necessary volume to be a great start each week. I do still expect him to have big games, but the floor is so low that there are several other TEs I would prefer to roster over him.
With his name value and the long TD he caught last week, I think you can find a buyer on the trade market. Unless you have another solid TE option on your roster, I like the idea of trading LaPorta away for a perceived downgrade at the TE position while picking up another player at a position where you need help.
If you could turn LaPorta into David Njoku (see above) plus another FLEX-level, player I think that would be good business.
Michael Pittman, WR | IND
Pittman did his fantasy managers a huge favor by playing through an injury and scoring a TD last week. Despite the heroic effort, I think Pittman is losing his status as the Colts WR1.
Josh Downs and Adonai Mitchell are very talented players who are commanding targets in this offense and they are cutting into Pittman's workload. He's seen a sub-20% target share in each of the last two games and we know he's battling a back injury which could cause him to miss time. He did get a big contract this offseason so he's not at risk of being totally replaced in the offense, but his fantasy value could take a major hit.
To make matters worse (at least from a fantasy perspective), Anthony Richardson is expected to reclaim the starting QB job this week which will likely decrease the overall passing volume.
This offense is unlikely to support more than one pass catcher most weeks, and I think Downs is the best bet to be that guy on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, both Mitchell and Alec Pierce are better big-play threats than Pittman so the paths to him delivering for fantasy managers are drying up
Thankfully, Pittman has managed to finish as a top-30 fantasy WR in each of the past three weeks, which should make him appealing to the box score watchers in your league (you know who they are).
Find the team that needs some help at WR and try to offload Pittman for a starting quality player before he becomes one of those roster-clogging bench players who you don't want to start but don't want to drop either.
