Welcome back for another edition of Dynasty Trade Advice, where I look at the current dynasty market to find my favorite buy-low and sell-high candidates each week. As we head into the middle of the season, knowing your team’s identity is essential. Are you contending for a championship or rebuilding for future success?
You don’t want to get caught in the middle, finishing just outside the playoffs and without a top-three pick in your upcoming rookie draft. Taking advantage of market inefficiencies can help to maximize value in your trades and set your team up for more sustained success. Let’s take a look at some of those market inefficiencies below.
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Dynasty Fantasy Football Trade Advice
Players to Buy
Rashee Rice (WR – KC)
Just like that, we are only two weeks away from a Rashee Rice return. Rice was subjected to a six-game suspension for the high-speed crash he caused in March last year. As we inch closer to Rice’s return, the buy window for Rice is closing quickly. However, he may still be acquirable if the Rice owner has a middling team and is looking to push for some wins immediately.
Though a small sample size, Rice was on pace to be a league-winner last season, averaging 21.6 PPR points per game through the first three games of the year. We also saw Rice post three games of 24+ PPR points between Week 12 and the playoffs in 2023.
Rice is a player with top-three overall upside at his position and is still incredibly young at 25. Rice is currently valued as the dynasty WR16 overall on KeepTradeCut, a community-sourced dynasty rankings site. He’s in line with players like Christian McCaffrey, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Tucker Kraft. While I don’t dislike these players, they don’t compare to Rice from a dynasty perspective.
I would be looking to acquire Rice on my strong contending teams as well as my rebuilding teams. He’s the perfect win-now and win-later player.
Mason Taylor (TE – NYJ)
Mason Taylor is coming off a 12-target, nine-reception game in Week 5, which is nearly unheard of from a rookie tight end, yet nobody is talking about him. Taylor is not generally considered a high-upside fantasy option, but I believe there are many reasons to be bullish on Taylor from a dynasty perspective.
Taylor’s numbers at LSU didn’t pop off the page, but he was competing for targets alongside the likes of Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas Jr., Kayshon Boutte, Jack Bech, Aaron Anderson and Kyren Lacy. Taylor was still talented enough to declare early for the NFL. He earned second-round draft capital and was a Week 1 starter for the Jets.
Looking at the numbers, Taylor is the TE8 overall in target share (19.2%) and the TE6 in total targets (28). The most important number, however, is Taylor’s 90.2% route participation. He’s running nearly every route for New York, which is half the battle when it comes to scoring fantasy points.
On KeepTradeCut, Taylor is currently valued as the TE16 overall, after Isaiah Likely and David Njoku. If you can flip either for Taylor, I would do that in a heartbeat. Given the early production and opportunity share we’ve seen, there’s an argument that Taylor should be ranked as a TE1 (top-12) in the dynasty.
Players to Sell
T.J. Hockenson (TE – MIN)
This is T.J. Hockenson’s second appearance in my “dynasty sells” list this season. He’s dropped a couple of spots in the positional ranks since I last covered him, but he’s still valued as the TE12 overall on KeepTradeCut. Frankly, I don’t see the appeal with Hockenson anymore. He seems to be the most expensive tight end who doesn’t provide difference-making production in fantasy.
Hockenson is averaging just 8.1 PPR points per game this year, is the third option in this offense and is already 28 years old. He’s producing at the same level as Mason Taylor, but he’s seven years older. Yet, somehow, he’s valued considerably higher in dynasty.
I would be willing to trade Hockenson for Taylor straight up, but you can likely get a late-second-round or early-third-round rookie pick added on top in that deal. If we’re talking just rookie picks, you can likely still sell Hockensons for a couple of second-round picks, especially in TE-premium formats. I would look at getting this done before it’s too late.
DK Metcalf (WR – PIT)
DK Metcalf has been slowly climbing up the dynasty community ranks this season, given his 14.8 PPR points per game average. This is the highest per-game average Metcalf has posted since 2020, when he averaged 17 points per game.
However, there’s reason to believe this production could regress as we progress through the year. Despite Metcalf sitting as the WR18 overall in points per game, he’s seen just a 21.2% target share (WR32) and is averaging 9.2 expected fantasy points per game. The discrepancy between his expected and actual fantasy points thus far has been due to Metcalf breaking off a couple of massive plays. In Week 4, he had an 80-yard touchdown reception on a crosser route, with about 65 yards coming after the catch.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: Don’t we like big plays for fantasy? Of course, but we don’t want to rely solely on those big plays to get us there each week. Ideally, we’d like a player with a safe floor, and the floor is established by demanding a large target share.
Metcalf has not earned more than seven targets in a single game this season. On top of this, Aaron Rodgers is likely gone after this season. I’m not optimistic Metcalf can keep this pace in the short term, and I’m even less optimistic about his long-term prospects. Take advantage of his hot start to the 2025 season and see if you can flip Metcalf for a late 2026 first, or a more promising player like Travis Hunter, Jaylen Waddle or Chris Olave.
Thanks for checking out this edition of Dynasty Trade Advice. If you have any dynasty, devy or C2C questions, feel free to send me a DM on X @jim_DFF. I’m happy to talk football at any time.
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