It’s Week 7 of the 2023 NFL season — time to focus on building a championship roster around your key studs.
With that in mind, here are four fantasy players to buy low and three to sell high.
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BUY LOW
So he is human after all! Puka Nacua had the first bad outing of his NFL career in Week 6, tallying four catches for 26 yards and zero TDs. Cooper Kupp stole all the big plays, but this was an odd game; Matthew Stafford only threw the ball 24 times and had 15 completions, down significantly from his averages heading into the day (40.6 attempts, 24.8 completions). Still, almost all the Rams’ targets went to either Kupp (nine) or Nacua (seven), a reminder that this offense remains a two-man show, which is wonderful for fantasy football — in fact, 26 of Stafford’s 36 completions over the last two weeks have been caught by Kupp or Nacua. A Week 7 matchup against the Steelers should allow Nacua to have a huge bounce-back performance. Pittsburgh’s defense has given up the third-most receiving yards per game and the fifth-most touchdowns per game to the wide receiver position this season. Go trade for Nacua now before he pushes his value back up on Sunday.
The running back position has been brutal for fantasy this season, due to a multitude of injuries and the proliferation among teams of the backfield-by-committee approach. The good news is that Tony Pollard is one of the few true workhorse backs in 2023 — he has the fourth-most touches in the NFL and the second-most carries inside the 10-yard line among all running backs. The bad news is that Pollard has had fewer than 50 rush yards in each of the last three weeks, hasn’t scored a touchdown since Week 1 and has a Week 7 bye. These are all reasons you may be able to trade for Pollard on a discount. Pollard will bounce back; he is too talented, and his workload is too sizable for his struggles to last long. The Cowboys’ schedule features several potentially high-scoring matchups toward the end of the year (vs. Seahawks, vs. Eagles, at Bills, at Dolphins and vs. Lions), which should allow for many more scoring opportunities for Pollard.
No, you likely won’t be able to trade for Bijan Robinson on the cheap. But there appears to be a buying window, which is rare for a running back as talented as him. Robinson has had mediocre fantasy production in three of the last four weeks, and he has yet to score a rushing touchdown this season — the rookie’s fantasy managers might be getting nervous. If the Falcons want to win more games, Arthur Smith should reduce the snaps and touches given to Tyler Allgeier and give more to Robinson, who is averaging nearly 2 yards more per carry than Allgeier. Don’t stress too much about the rushing touchdowns, those will come — Robinson and Alexander Mattison are the only players to have 70-plus carries but zero rushing touchdowns in 2023.
Christian Watson has yet to take off in his sophomore season; he missed the first three weeks of 2023 with a hamstring injury and seems to have been slowly making his way back to a full workload since returning. It was a great sign for Watson’s health that his offensive snaps nearly doubled from Week 4 to Week 5. With the Packers coming off a Week 6 bye, I expect Watson to be 100% ready to roll from here on out. If you need more upside on your fantasy squad, Watson is the perfect wide receiver to target in a trade; his big-play ability offers a high ceiling in any given week. Plus, the Packers’ upcoming schedule is delicious for wide receivers — over the next five weeks, Watson will get to face the Broncos, Vikings, Steelers and Chargers, all of whom struggle mightily to cover the wide receiver position.
SELL HIGH
After scoring just 15.6 fantasy points COMBINED in Weeks 3-5, Rhamondre Stevenson finally came back to life and put up 18 points against a weak Raiders run defense in Week 6. The issue is that Stevenson still only had 10 carries in that game, and he’s continuing to lose a good chunk of snaps to Ezekiel Elliott. The Patriots’ offense has played horrendously this season, and Stevenson’s sporadic usage and inefficiency will lead to very inconsistent fantasy performances. This is a great time to sell Stevenson for more than his real value, as many fantasy managers are desperate for RBs this week, given all the injuries at the position and the number of teams (six) on bye. Here’s a trade idea: Package Stevenson and a low-end WR2 (George Pickens) in a swap for Tony Pollard, who is on a bye.
In the last game before Pittsburgh’s Week 6 bye, George Pickens posted a career-high 130 receiving yards and scored 26.6 fantasy points. There is no doubt that Pickens is extremely talented, and if he were on a more productive offense, he could be one of the best young wide receivers in the league. Unfortunately for him, the Steelers rank 30th in yards and 27th in passing. Another potential complication for Pickens’ managers is that Diontae Johnson is expected to be back on the field this week after missing the last four games. Johnson is the top target in this offense and will steal opportunities away from Pickens moving forward. Pickens will still likely have a big game or two in the second half of the season, but I expect his target share and fantasy production to be highly inconsistent.
Kyle Pitts just did something that he hasn’t done in a very long time — he actually put together back-to-back good fantasy weeks, scoring 15.7 points in Week 5 and 14.3 points in Week 6. He also scored his very first touchdown of the season last Sunday. I know it’s hard to trade away a producing tight end, but if past performances tell us anything, his success is not going to last long.
Pitts has played 16 games since the start of the 2022 season. Over that time, he recorded:
- Five or fewer receptions in 15 games
- Three or fewer receptions in 11 games
- Fewer than 50 receiving yards in 13 games
- Three total touchdowns
I don’t envision Pitts scoring too many more points than any of the other middling tight ends this season. With that being the case, you are better off trading Pitts to upgrade at another position and just streaming the TE position.
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