Time. The great equalizer. An enigma wrapped in a riddle, smothered in Taco Bell mild sauce. At this time last week I was in Vegas making my 8th trip to the ATM in 24 hours. This week I’m in Death Valley, making my 8th trip to the ATM in 24 hours. Two weeks ago I was saying to sell D’Andre Swift and buy Miles Sanders. This week Colonel Miles Sanders is on crutches, frying up chicken and I’m about to tell you D’Andre Swift is a great buy. What a difference a couple weeks time can make. As for Swift, I’d look to take advantage of possible recency bias and bye-week desperation. He’s coming off a game where he totaled just 51 yards on 17 touches and now the Lions head into their bye This is the time of season where fantasy teams with losing records can’t afford to be patient through bye weeks, meaning bargains can be had by fantasy teams with winning records. Hopefully that’s you! Swift likely isn’t going to handle 15+ carries often, but his volume in the Detroit passing game gives him a solid floor in any type of PPR league and he’s already shown RB1 upside. If you can weather his upcoming bye week, toss an offer out there and see what happens. Anyway, here’s some more players to buy or sell this week in fantasy football:
BUY
Antonio Gibson – Anime Donkey is in Hollywood this week producing the next episode of Buy, Sell, Hold. Spoiler Alert: Gibson will be making an appearance in the “Hold” segment. The buy case for Gibson is similar to Swift above. The Football Team is headed into their bye week and Gibson has disappointed, not only recently but for most of the season. He’s a much riskier acquisition than Swift due to his lingering shin injury, but I’d guess that injury is also a big part of Gibson’s lackluster performances the past couple of weeks. Because of that, the cost to acquire should be very low. Just don’t pay more than low-end RB2/high-end flex value in exchange for him.
Jaret Patterson – Washington said that Gibson was good to go this week before they proceeded to give the backup RB, Patterson, a career-high 11 carries. Liars! With the Football Team headed into their bye, I’m not looking at Patterson as anything more than an upside-handcuff. But if you do acquire Gibson, it makes sense to roster the youngster just in case.
Jeremy McNichols – The unthinkable finally happened: Derrick Henry is hurt and likely done for the year. Actually, it’s not a huge shock when any running back gets hurt and I pondered 19 months ago whether the massive workload might eventually wear down Henry’s body. Whether that was actually the case or this was just a fluke injury, matters not. It’s next man up in the Music City and that man is Jeremy McNichols, for now. Rumor is the Titans will bring in another RB to contribute which makes sense, but my money (what little I have left) is on McNichols to be the most valuable back in Tennessee for the rest of the 2021 season. He’s been there since day one, knows the offseason and has played around 25% of the Titans’ offensive snaps this season, showing the coaching staff already has a reasonable level of trust in the young man.
Adrian Peterson – It’s the year 2079, the earth is a vast wasteland ruled by robots. All humans are enslaved and trained to play football for the robotic overlord’s entertainment and Adrian Peterson has just run for his 58th consecutive 1,000-yard season. You may have heard that AD is visiting with the Titans today in the wake of the Henry injury, and you may have also gathered from the above blurb that I’m more interested in McNichols regardless of who else the Titans bring in. Still, Peterson should be added if he’s cheap/free because I’ve been wrong before, and I have no doubt that he can still run for 1,000-yards even in his old age.
UPDATE: The word is Peterson is signing with the Titans. My interest level is still very tepid but the future Hall of Famer is certainly worth a roster spot.
Marlon Mack – The rumors of a Marlon Mack trade out of Indy at the deadline are logical. Maybe he heads to Tennessee (unlikely after the Peterson signing), maybe heads elsewhere, or maybe he stays put. My expectations for Mack are low in any case, but he’s worth a roster spot in deeper leagues just to see what happens.
Carlos Hyde – It sounds like James Robinson’s foot injury isn’t serious, but you never know with these things. Hyde should see heavy usage if JRob does happen to miss time.
Russell Gage – News came out on Sunday that Calvin Ridley will be taking a step away from football due to personal issues. I wouldn’t expect to see him on the field again this year which opens up a boatload of targets in Atlanta. Tajae Sharpe caught 5 of 6 targets in Ridley’s absence this week while Gage posted a goose egg with no targets. It’s a real head scratcher after Gage saw six targets last week, but I’m guessing this week ends up being an outlier and I’d still rather own Gage than Sharpe moving forward.
Van Jefferson – Over the past two weeks, Jefferson has played 94% and 84% of the Rams’ offensive snaps, solidifying himself ahead of DeSean Jackson as the #3 option in the high-powered L.A. offense. He could be a nice bye week fill-in even in 12-team leagues and if something were to happen to either of Kupp or Woods, there would be huge upside with Van Jeff.
Jamal Agnew – Commenter Montezuma’s Revenge pointed out that I snubbed Swagnew in my rest of season rankings last week. Montezuma was right and now I feel silly for dropping Trevor Lawrence’s new favorite target in one of my deep leagues. Agnew saw 12 targets in week 8 while catching his first touchdown, and he now has 25 targets over the past three weeks. Give him a look.
Will Fuller – The Bubble Boy had a better health track record than Will Fuller. It sounds like the Dolphins receiver is still a couple weeks from returning and I’m not holding my breath for him to remain healthy once that return happens. But the couple weeks he’s on the field he’ll likely produce some fantasy numbers, so if you have a big bench it’s maybe worth stashing Fuller. Not exactly a screaming endorsement.
Darren Waller – Another spoiler alert: Anime Donkey loves buying Darren Waller coming out of the Raiders’ bye week. He’s now had two full weeks to get healthy after missing week 7 and disappointing in four of the five previous games. Odds are we’ve seen rock bottom for Waller’s fantasy value. Hopefully he and I hit rock bottom in Vegas around the same time.
Taysom Hill – Jameis Winston suffered a torn ACL in week 8 and will miss the remainder of the season. Hill is recovering from a concussion himself, but if you need an upside QB he should be added immediately. I love his ability to rack up fantasy points on the ground which is why I had him ranked as my #10 QB early in the fantasy season when I expected him to be the week one starter in New Orleans.
Pat Freiermuth – The Steelers rookie tight end seems to be coming into his own with Juju Smith-Schuster done for the season. Freiermuth has seen 14 targets over the past two weeks and is quickly becoming one of Ben’s favorite targets.
SELL
Joe Mixon – People probably think I have some sort of personal vendetta against Mixon. It’s never personal. Except for that time he kicked my dog. But listen, when I suggest to sell a high-powered fantasy asset like Mixon, Swift or Mike Evans, it’s all relative. The key is always perceived value vs. actual value. Or at least actual value in my simple mind. I’d be surprised if Mixon doesn’t produce high-end RB2 numbers when healthy, but there’s a chance he could return RB1 value in a trade and I DO NOT trust him to stay healthy. Plus, even though Samaje Perine was a ghost in week 8 against the Jets, he’s been more of a factor in the Bengals offense than anyone would have guessed through three weeks. Just another small mark against Mixon in my Donkey-brain.
Calvin Ridley – Is there a chance Ridley will work through whatever personal issues he’s dealing with and find the field again this year? Sure. But I’m a degenerate gambler and even I wouldn’t wager a roster spot on it unless my 12-team league had 7+ bench spots. Anything shallower than that I’d say it’s safe to drop him, and in any league deeper than that I’d still be on the fence.
Robby Anderson – Anderson saw 20 targets across week 6 and 7, unfortunately he did nothing with those targets. Now in week 8 he got just one look from Darnold. He might wake up in the coming weeks, but it’s really tough to hold onto him any longer. Click that drop button and don’t look back.
Kenneth Gainwell – I don’t want to bray too loud, but I did say last week that I thought Boston Scott was the smart pick up in the wake of Miles Sanders’ injury. Not only did Scott outperform the rookie, so did new comer Jordan Howard. And Gainwell still only played 31% of the offensive snaps. At this point, it’s safe to lose the kid in all the the deepest of leagues.
