This was bound to happen. This is the least prepared for an NFL season that players have ever been. Limited contact practices, no preseason games. Sadly, this is probably just the beginning of a season that will be filled with injuries. And fines for coaches not wearing their masks! Drama, drama, drama.
Injury carnage can also create panic trades, even this early in the season. You can imagine how panicked Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffrey, and Courtland Sutton investors are right now. Even if they are able to get their guys on the waiver wire, you better believe that they will be willing to have some conversations about acquiring some carries and volume in the passing game. Let’s get to the buys and sells of the week.
Stealin’
Stefon Diggs
Stefon Diggs is off to a great start so far and this is just the start with the way that the Bills are operating their offense. Diggs has a combined 22 targets in the first two weeks and his consensus WR ranking going into week 2 against the Dolphins was outside the top 20 (not from me, of course). Diggs will not be as cheap as he was a week ago, but I think that there is still plenty of value to be had because I’m not sure the casual league mate will yet to be willing to adjust to Buffalo now being a pass-first team. Josh Allen has already attempted 81 passes through two games. I would package a couple of good players that you can afford to part with and assume that you are getting back a very solid WR1 in return.
Cooper Kupp
Cooper Kupp is off to a bit of a slow start, which included a fumble on Sunday. Touchdowns have a bit of randomness to them, but he is one of Goff’s favorite targets in plus territory after putting up 10 touchdowns last year. More attention will be focused on Tyler Higbee in the near future in the red zone after a three touchdown performance. Kupp’s weeks are coming very soon. The Rams’ offense is firing on all cylinders and there are plenty of points to go around. If the Kupp investor in your league has running back troubles after last week, you might be able to get away with shipping Mark Ingram, Leonard Fournette or David Johnson for him.
Dealin’
Leonard Fournette
Leonard Fournette is my green eggs and ham. I do not want him on my team, I do not like him in my scheme. I really need to lighten up on Fournette, he looked good on Sunday! 12 carries, over 100 yards, a 50-some yard burst for a touchdown. He plays for my favorite team, for Christ’s sake! I am officially putting my distaste of Leonard Fournette to bed, but not without parting shots.
Common consensus is that Fournette will get get more and more work. I think the increase will be marginal. Ronald Jones is still going to see a chunk of work unless he does some really dumb things which I doubt because he looks more comfortable than in years past. For whatever reason, LeSean McCoy is seeing a bunch of snaps as well in the passing game. We have to keep in mind that this was the 2nd straight game that Carolina got ran all over. I think Fournette’s performance was more of a product of Carolina being bad and getting a big play to make his afternoon that doesn’t happen against other teams. If you are looking for an RB/RB swap, you could try targeting Kareem Hunt. If you’re looking to upgrade at WR, I’d look for CeeDee Lamb, who might already be elite or Cooper Kupp.
David Johnson
David Johnson was more like his 2019 self on Sunday as opposed to last Thursday against the Chiefs. And to be fair, the Chiefs let the Chargers run the ball down their throat as well. With Saquon, CMC, and Raheem Mostert all going down on Sunday, David Johnson simply being healthy makes him more valuable than he should be. David Johnson is probably going to put up good scores in some weeks based on volume alone, but I’m guessing that you can probably get a pretty good wide receiver in return if your trade partner is having injury issues at the running back position.
