Week 3 Buy Low, Sell High: Redraft Edition

First off, I’d like to say congrats to the following groups of people:

• Owners who are 2-0 in their redraft leagues
• Owners who believed Pete Carroll would “Let Russ Cook” and drafted Wilson at his 7th round ADP
• Passengers of the Jonnu Smith hype train
• Those who pushed the offseason Calvin Ridley narrative
• Last but not least…… OWNERS WHO MANAGED TO COME OUT OF WEEK TWO INJURY-FREE

 

Week two was nothing short of a murderer’s row for fantasy stars. I’m sure just about everyone reading this knows very well what I’m talking about, I mean who doesn’t? I am positive that most people, along with myself, have never seen anything like this in our lifetime watching football. I mean this all happened on one day within a six-hour span. Non-stop alerts every minute with a new name hurting their knee, ankle, and everything else under the sun. Just pure carnage on the fantasy landscape.

However, not all of them were season-ending injuries, so there’s still some light at the end of the tunnel for a select group. This is yet another reminder of how important it is to draft and trade for depth. Not every trade you send needs to be for a high profile target because it takes one snap for your draft capital to disappear into thin air.

With that said, some of the names below might be players who got hurt. Some might be replacements for our fallen heroes. Others just might be balling out or disappointing through two weeks. Nonetheless, I’m here to help you win your league, so here’s the Buy Low, Sell High’s for week three.

 

Quarterback

Buy Low: Gardner Minshew, JAX

Although Minshew finds himself as the QB9 after two weeks, Minshew still qualifies as a buy-low candidate for me. As juvenile as it may sounds, Minshew doesn’t have an ounce of strong name recognition to qualify him as a QB you can trade for high value, even though Minshew carries an ever-growing positive reputation in fantasy. Through the first two games, Minshew has the second-lowest passing yardage out of the top-10, as his six touchdowns are assisting him in elevating into QB1 territory so far. Some TD regression is likely to come in the near future. Minshew’s next two contests come against two of the bottom tier teams in football, Miami and Cincinnati. If you are a Minshew owner, hold onto him. If you’re on the other side of the coin, now is a great time to throw in an offer for Minshew if you need help at the QB position.

Honorable Mention: Joe Burrow (CIN), Jared Goff (LAR), Matthew Stafford (DET)

 

Sell High: Ryan Tannehill, TEN

What a complete 180-degree turn in Tannehill’s career. Seriously, he is playing a man reborn and it’s amazing to witness. Tannehill has thrown for 488 yards and six touchdowns without a pick through the first two games. An even better matchup awaits him in Minnesota this week, but it gets a little rough following when he sees Pittsburgh and Buffalo in weeks four and five. Selling Tannehill during a week with a great matchup could be his peak over the course of the next month. Although you don’t typically find sell-high candidates that are only owned in 40.3% of leagues, Tannehill is someone who should be owned in all formats at this point.

Honorable Mention: Cam Newton (NE), Aaron Rodgers (GB), Ben Roethlisberger (PIT)

 

Running Back

Buy Low: David Montgomery, CHI

After being questionable to return within the first couple weeks of the season, Montgomery gifted us with a great performance this past week against the Giants. Based on SOS data from the first two weeks, the Chicago backfield has the easiest SOS from here on out. Yes, it’s only two weeks, but it’s not 2019 data. Montogomery’s work in the receiving game last week is promising for his output in 2020, also. Sitting at RB16 so far, only five other running backs have averaged more than Montogomery’s 5.0 YPC (Jones, Hunt, Mostert, Chubb, and Robinson). If Montgomery’s workload holds, he could very well be an RB1 for the rest of the fantasy season. Pull the trigger on Monty.

Honorable Mention: James Robinson (JAX), Jerick McKinnon (SF), Antonio Gibson (WAS)

 

Sell High: Josh Jacobs, LAV

Jacobs waltzes into week three owning a 16.64% target share and is second in the entire rush attempts (52). There was a lot of noise in the offseason about Jacob’s utilization being increased, and that seems to have been true thus far. However, will it stay that way? We’ll see after he faces New England this week and Buffalo after that, two games that shouldn’t see Jacobs in the green on paper. The fantasy community is probably very split on this, more on the hold side, but this would be a safe time to swap Jacobs for a Dalvin Cook/Derrick Henry type of player.

Honorable Mention: Aaron Jones (GB), Nick Chubb (CLE), Melvin Gordon (DEN)

 

Wide Receiver

Buy Low: Jerry Jeudy, DEN

With Courtland Sutton out for the rest of the season, Jeudy finds himself in the WR1 role already in just his third game in the NFL. Although Jeudy won’t have his QB for a period of time, it’s still the pure value of being a WR1 in a decent offense. Fant might be the number one target in Denver’s offense, however, but could also see most of the attention drawn his way. Jeudy has yet to record a touchdown in his rookie season, but should soon change if the Broncos look to keep pace with Tampa Bay’s offense in week three.

Honorable Mention: Keenan Allen (LAC), N’Keal Harry (NE), CeeDee Lamb (DAL)

 

Sell High: Mike Evans, TB

Mr. Inconsistency strikes again, this time in the absence of Chris Godwin, who was out with a concussion in week two. Every year, Evans has a roller-coaster of a fantasy season and people continue to buy-in to the hype. There’s no better time to offload Evans than after a high, which looks like seven catches for 104 yards and a touchdown. My personal bias is definitely overstepping its’ boundaries and is spewing into my fingers as I type this, but it’s the best advice I can give. By the end of the year, Evans will still be around 1,100 yards and seven touchdowns, but it’s way too inconsistent to be successful from week-to-week in fantasy.

Honorable Mention: Julian Edelman (NE), Stefon Diggs (BUF), Adam Theilen (MIN)

 

Tight End

Buy Low: Jared Cook, NO

In the Saints first game without star receiver, Michael Thomas, Cook was primed for a strong performance. However, Cook finished the game with two receptions for a measly 15 yards. The bad news for Cook is that week two proved that Alvin Kamara and Tre’Quan Smith were Brees’ go-to targets in the absence of Thomas. The good news is that the Saints might be without the receiver for a couple more games against two average opponents against the TE position in Green Bay and Detroit. It wouldn’t be surprising at all to see Cook post back-to-back top-10 weeks at the position, which he can build off of going forwards once Thomas returns.

Honorable Mention: Zach Ertz (PHI), Evan Engram (NYG), Logan Thomas (WAS)

 

Sell High: Noah Fant, DEN

As alluded to in Jeudy’s section above, Fant should be the number one target for Driskel moving forward, and for Lock once he returns to full health. On one hand, this could lead to inflated numbers if the Broncos ever find themselves in a negative game script. On the other, Fant is going to be the main recipient of opposing defenses’ attention without Sutton. Fant is an athletic TE who loves to stretch the field, which is something Denver will probably reduce going forward with Driskel under center. In one league I own Fant in, I’ve received an offer that went as followed: Fant + Lamb for Kittle. There’s some perspective about how some view Fant, so selling high now wouldn’t be a bad option.

Honorable Mention: Jonnu Smith, Mike Gesicki, Dallas Goedert

 

 

For more content, follow me on Twitter @TB24FF

ATTN Dynasty Commissioners: Do you want to do something cool for your league? How about a 1-hour live show dedicated to YOUR league? Team-by-team breakdowns, rankings, and more. For details and to book a show, visit: GoingFor2.com/plp.