This article is part of our On Target series.
We've arrived at the point of the NFL season where we know whether we have a chance to make the playoffs in our most important leagues. With that idea in mind, here are some receivers I'm trying to buy down the stretch and the players I'm willing to part with to get them.
Playoff Buys
Mike Evans - I would trade anyone but David Johnson for him. It is not going to be easy to pry him away from whoever owns him, but I'm offering any running back you can name, and basically any WR (I would have to really think about Antonio Brown, but I don't own any of him anyway). Evans has simply been so dominant from a target-share perspective that he is the exact type of wide receiver you want on your playoff rosters.
Dez Bryant - Remember this guy? He had 14 targets in his return to the Dallas lineup but only four receptions, which is not a sustainable catch rate for him. We're operating under the assumption that Dak Prescott will start the rest of the season, and in that case, Dez is actually undervalued. The general perception around Dez is that he is reliant on Romo, but the Dallas backups in the past have not been as good as Dak.
Michael Thomas - The best fantasy wide receiver on the Saints this season has not been Brandin Cooks or Willie Snead but rather the rookie from Ohio State, Micheael Thomas. His worst PPR
We've arrived at the point of the NFL season where we know whether we have a chance to make the playoffs in our most important leagues. With that idea in mind, here are some receivers I'm trying to buy down the stretch and the players I'm willing to part with to get them.
Playoff Buys
Mike Evans - I would trade anyone but David Johnson for him. It is not going to be easy to pry him away from whoever owns him, but I'm offering any running back you can name, and basically any WR (I would have to really think about Antonio Brown, but I don't own any of him anyway). Evans has simply been so dominant from a target-share perspective that he is the exact type of wide receiver you want on your playoff rosters.
Dez Bryant - Remember this guy? He had 14 targets in his return to the Dallas lineup but only four receptions, which is not a sustainable catch rate for him. We're operating under the assumption that Dak Prescott will start the rest of the season, and in that case, Dez is actually undervalued. The general perception around Dez is that he is reliant on Romo, but the Dallas backups in the past have not been as good as Dak.
Michael Thomas - The best fantasy wide receiver on the Saints this season has not been Brandin Cooks or Willie Snead but rather the rookie from Ohio State, Micheael Thomas. His worst PPR performance came in Week 2 against the Giants and since then, he has been in the double digits in every game. You can see that the trend is undervalued consistency, which Thomas definitely offers. The role he plays in the Saints' offense is more valuable than the Snead/Cooks role, and I'm investing as much as I can.
Playoff Sells
T.Y. Hilton - Hilton has been absolutely phenomenal and this is not a slight on him nor his abilities, but the largest part of his fantasy value has come from Donte Moncrief not being in the lineup. In Crief's first game back in the lineup, he both got injured and received only six targets. The nature of his game leads him to a higher range of outcomes unless he is seeing more than 10 targets a game and with Moncrief back, that won't happen. Obviously, it hurts to sell on a player like Hilton but if you can package him to get Evans, that's an easy deal to make.
Jarvis Landry -The concept of selling on Jarvis is pretty tough because there are a segment of fantasy players who would never own him and the segment of guys who like him already own him. In the leagues where I have Juice (trust me, it's not many), I have floated him in trades to get Zeke and someone in the Mike Evans/Dez Bryant range because on a weekly basis, you can stream Landry's production. He's obviously going to have a good game against the Jets on Sunday, but the playoff run will be brutal for him because he's Jarvis Landry and Ryan Tannehill is his quarterback.
Jordy Nelson - With Randall Cobb/Adams/Montgomery all healthy and Green Bay eventually deciding that it should try to run the ball instead of a 75/25 pass to run ratio, a not fully healthy Nelson is going to have the biggest ding to his fantasy output. After his production against the Falcons and what should be huge game against the Colts, the general fantasy community is going to be too high on what Nelson can be with Rodgers still at a career-low YPA.
