Fantasy Football Trade Targets: Jonathan Taylor, Jauan Jennings, and More
Jonathan Fuller runs through players you should be buying or selling ahead of your fantasy football league's trade deadline, which may be this weekend for many of you.
Don't let your league's trade deadline pass without reading Jonathan Fuller's top fantasy football trade targets ahead of Week 11:
The trade deadline in most redraft fantasy leagues is either this week or next, so we are running out of time to meaningfully improve our rosters. Waivers can help, but if you have a glaring hole at one position, a trade is usually the best way to address that need.
With seven weeks left (at most) in the fantasy football season, we have well-established usage trends for most players and the schedule matters now more than ever. We have a good idea of which defenses are strong and weak against which positions so it finally makes some sense to be planning ahead and anticipating which players will be excited to start in the fantasy playoffs.
Let's dive into the trade landscape and our Fantasy Football Trade Analyzer to make some moves.
Most Traded Players In Fantasy Football - Week 11
Let’s start this week over at CBS, where Kareem Hunt was the most traded player in their leagues. The players being traded most often in CBS leagues 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.
Premium
Get $25 Guillotine League Credits When You Join FL+
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc tinciedunt, ex sit amet cursus gravida, dui mauris vulputate felis.
Fantasy Football Trade Targets Ahead Of Week 11
Jonathan Taylor - RB, Colts
It's been an inconsistent year for Jonathan Taylor. He's finished as the RB13 or better in four of seven games played this season, but he has also missed three games due to injury and has only topped 20 PPR points once this season.
His season is a microcosm of what the Colts have been going through as a team, showing moments of promise but ultimately coming up short more often than not. So what makes him worth trading for?
For starters, the Colts are going back to Anthony Richardson at QB (supposedly) for the rest of the season. Taylor has been much more efficient when Richardson plays, averaging 5.2 YPC vs 4.4 YPC when Joe Flacco has been at QB this season. The threat of a rushing QB generally helps with RB efficiency and that has been the case in the Colts backfield in 2024.
Since returning from injury, Taylor has posted very strong usage numbers which makes me confident that he is fairly healthy. With Richardson back, Taylor should benefit and hopefully generate more explosive plays. The two games where he has had the most explosive runs (10+ yards) this season have both come in games that Richardson played which supports this.
His remaining schedule isn't perfect, the Colts face a good Jets run defense in Week 11 and they still have their bye week remaining in Week 14 so keep that in mind if you need to win just to make the playoffs.
For fantasy managers who can afford to weather those weeks, Taylor's schedule in the fantasy playoffs should be great. He will face the Broncos, Titans, and Giants which all feature three average to below-average (Giants) run defenses that are attached to offenses that don't score a ton of points. This should allow the Colts to feed Taylor in those matchups and in the four games where he has gotten at least 20 carries this season he hasn't finished worse than the RB13 in PPR scoring.
Ladd McConkey - WR, Chargers
Several factors are working in McConkey's favor as we enter the home stretch of fantasy football season. He continues to be an every-down player in this offense with a 90+% route participation rate in three of his last four games. Week 10 was the first time McConkey has had fewer than 6 targets in a game since Week 2 and there is no real reason to think he can't bounce back from that performance. For the year, his 2.06 yards per route run on a 9.9 aDOT is really strong and he has been one of the best WRs against man coverage in 2024.
The only problem with his situation is that the Chargers' passing volume can vary widely from week to week. If they can just run the ball on teams they will, and they have three games with fewer than 25 dropbacks this season to prove it.
At the same time, they will throw when they need to and have four games with 34 or more dropbacks, all of which have come since Week 6. In those games where LAC is pushed by the opposing offense or faces a tough run defense, McConkey is a great start.
Fortunately for fantasy managers, the Chargers' next five games all come against teams that should be able to score on them: Bengals, Ravens, Falcons, Chiefs, and Buccaneers.
I expect to feel confident starting McConkey in most, if not all, of those matchups. Things don't look quite as appealing in the final two weeks with matchups against Denver and New England, but he should still offer a solid floor in those games.
For fantasy managers who need a reliable WR3 they can plug into a fantasy lineup each week it's tough to do much better than McConkey. He is the WR30 in Fantasy Life's rest-of-season rankings, ahead of some names that your leaguemates will likely value more highly. I would love to send away a less consistent player like Jordan Addison or Romeo Doubs, in order to get McConkey on my team.
Jauan Jennings - WR, 49ers
I was open to trading Jennings away earlier this season when it looked like San Francisco would have all of their weapons healthy. Now that Brandon Aiyuk is out for the year, Jennings looks entrenched in the WR2 role behind Deebo Samuel. Jennings dealt with injuries of his own but returned to the lineup in Week 10 and posted some incredible usage numbers with a 33% target share and 36% air yard share.
Jennings has been having a very efficient season too, with 2.66 yards per route run so far this season which is double his career average before this year. He doesn't even need to sustain that level of efficiency to have a great rest of the season since he should now be close to a full-time player.
Your leaguemates probably aren't valuing Jennings as highly as they should. He ranks as the WR38 in the Fantasy Life rest-of-season rankings ahead of names like DJ Moore, Amari Cooper, Jordan Addison, and Tyler Lockett. I wouldn't start off trying to trade someone like Moore for Jennings, I think you can get better value than that, but it at least gives you a range of players to be thinking about.
Lastly, Jennings checks all the boxes from a schedule perspective. His Week 12 matchup with the Bengals is a fun one, he's past his bye week, and in the fantasy playoffs, the 49ers will face the Rams, Dolphins, and Lions. All of those games have decent shootout potential and give Jennings a good shot of putting up a stat line fantasy managers will be excited about.
Players To Trade Away In Fantasy Football This Week
Kyle Pitts - TE, Falcons
I expect Kyle Pitts to be a startable fantasy asset for the rest of this season, but it's important to recognize that his role hasn't been great.
His 15% target share and 17% air yard share aren't particularly inspiring and his 6.6 Utilization Score ranks 13th at the TE position. He has served as Atlanta's fourth weapon behind Bijan Robinson, Drake London, and Darnell Mooney but has managed to deliver consistently solid fantasy production with seven finishes as the TE13 or better so far this season.
I have three players in mind that I would try to flip Pitts for. The first is Cade Otton, who has been crushing with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin out. You may have to work to sell this one to your trade partner but with the Bucs on bye this week and Evans expected to return in Week 12, you can make a case to your leaguemate that Otton may not be as valuable moving forward.
If you can't flip Pitts for Otton, the other players I would be looking at are T.J. Hockenson and Dallas Goedert. Both of those guys offer a similar weekly floor to Pitts with a better ceiling and are both past their bye week while the Falcons will be on bye in Week 12.
Looking at the schedule, Pitts does still have some good matchups remaining, but he also has some tough ones. Most importantly, I'm looking at Week 16 against the Giants who are allowing the second-fewest fantasy points to the TE position and I would love to be able to avoid that game. Of the trade targets I mentioned, Hockenson has the best playoff schedule which includes games against the Seahawks and Packers who have given up the 12th and 10th most points to the TE position and also have good offenses that could put the Vikings in a passing game script.
Najee Harris - RB, Steelers
Pittsburgh faces a brutal schedule of run defenses down the stretch and Najee has been putting up solid RB2 production for about a month now so it looks like a prime opportunity to trade him away for a player you will feel better about in the fantasy playoffs.
So just how bad is the Steelers schedule down the stretch? They rank dead last for RBs in our strength of schedule tool, and their playoff matchups are particularly brutal with the Eagles (29th), Ravens (25th), and Chiefs (32nd) all ranking among the eight toughest matchups for RBs in 2024. There's a good chance you may not even want to start him in those games so it is time to be proactive and get a deal done before the trade deadline passes.
My favorite trade target would be Tyrone Tracy, who has taken over the backfield for the Giants. He has had a very strong workload but has been up and down from a fantasy perspective with two of his last four games below 8 PPR fantasy points. I would try to use this volatility to get the manager who has Tracy to trade him for Harris who has had more consistent production.
Another viable trade target is Isiah Pacheco, who has been designated to return from IR but probably won't make his debut for another week or two. You will need some RB depth to get you through the next couple of weeks but I expect to feel much better about starting Pacheco in the fantasy playoffs than I will Najee.
If you can't get a deal done for either of those guys, I would suggest checking out our rest-of-season RB rankings and see if you can trade Harris for anyone we have ranked 29th or higher.
Premium
Get $25 Guillotine League Credits When You Join FL+
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc tinciedunt, ex sit amet cursus gravida, dui mauris vulputate felis.
