Football is just weird this year, man. It’s been two weeks, so it’s the smallest of sample sizes, of course.

But your top three fantasy quarterbacks are Alex Smith, Trevor Siemian, and Carson Wentz. They’re getting together for dinner tonight with the top two fantasy wide receivers, Michael Crabtree and J.J. Nelson. Then they’ll grab a movie with the top-ranked tight end, Jason Witten. But their car is a little too full to pick up the 22nd- and 26th-ranked running backs, Ezekiel Elliott and Le’Veon Bell.

Seriously, there’s been little rhyme or reason to the first two weeks of the season. But while the current rankings may vary wildly from what we expected, our trade values remain largely intact. Sure, Kareem Hunt and Ty Montgomery may have seen their values rise significantly, but we’re not about to trade Alex Smith for Tom Brady (unless you’re my buddy who tricked his wife into doing so. There’s like a 90 percent chance they get divorced now, but championship flags fly forever, am I right?).

So let’s dive in and check out the landscape of the trade universe. Here are your trade value charts for Week 3.

*Note: I mentioned this in the first iteration of the article, but these values are based on standard leagues.

Analyze any potential deal with our Trade Analyzer >>

Quarterbacks

There’s not much movement in quarterback values, after a relatively uneventful week. Yes, I’m mildly concerned about Russell Wilson’s poor offensive performance and his ability to stay healthy behind that offensive line, and yes, Derek Carr has been great but it doesn’t change his future schedule. Quarterbacks are fairly difficult to trade absent the top few anyway, so let’s not overreact to a couple of weird games.

If there’s one quarterback whose performance we probably should take note of, it’s Cam Newton. Newton has averaged the following stat line in his first two games against the 49ers and the Bills: 199.5 yards passing, one touchdown, 1/2 interception, and 15 yards rushing. That is, how you say, not good. He also took a pounding against the Bills, getting brought down by a defender six times, and twisting his ankle. Oh, right, and his most reliable receiver, Greg Olsen, has been placed on IR. And he’s still got a bad shoulder. These are all bad signs. But the good news for Newton is that he gets the Saints this week. If he rebounds, fantastic. But if not, we’ll need to reconsider his trade value.

Running Backs

Ok, now this is where things start to get a little interesting.

First, let’s touch upon those who have lost some trade value in the last week. No, I don’t much care about Ezekiel Elliott’s poor game against the Broncos or the fact that his coach called him out for lack of effort. His dip in value (and it’s really just a minor dip), is solely due to murmurings that it’s possible that his court case could get resolved this season. It sounds like a remote possibility, but it’s enough to put some distance in value between him and Le’Veon Bell.

As of this writing, there are few details on DeMarco Murray’s hamstring injury, other than Mike Mularkey stating that Murray is “day-to-day.” But here’s the thing – Murray was bothered by a hamstring injury ALL August, he looked bad in his first two games, and now he’s aggravated the injury (fine, that was three things – don’t be such a stickler). And really, fantasy owners were already worried about Murray’s age and workload even before the injury. As of this moment, we have no idea how much time Murray will miss, or even if he’ll play this week. Knowing what we know now, Murray’s trade value has to take a serious dip, but not so much that you’d give him away.

That goes ditto for Jordan Howard, who gave fantasy owners the triple whammy of a terrible game, having his arm in a sling post-game, and then refusing to speak to reporters. Howard scored a touchdown and looked fine in Week 1, but was awful in Week 2 against the Bucs, rushing for just seven yards on nine carries. Howard’s already been on the right end of the old “backup running back for the Bears overtaking the starter” situation, and now he looks like he may be on the wrong end of it. Like with Murray, Howard may be fine. He may miss a week and be fine for the remainder of the season. Or he may give you next to nothing for the rest of the season. And as with Murray, at this moment, Howard’s trade value splits the baby, but it’s unlikely that he’ll be a major part of many trades until we know more.

But enough with the negativity, let’s talk about some risers. Kareem Hunt continues his rapid ascension into fantasy super-stardom, and vaults in value for the second straight week. There’s little separating him from the upper echelon of fantasy running backs at this point, but there are still minor reservations (i.e., he averaged 2.33 yards per carry if you take out his 53-yard touchdown run – no, that’s not fair to do and no, I’m not doing it, but you can’t deny that he was pretty bottled up for most of the game). But still, he’s flying up this chart in value. Cut me some slack!

Rising right along with Hunt is Ty Montgomery, who apparently plans to play every snap this season (that sound you hear is fantasy owners collectively standing and applauding with approval). I am highly dubious of Montgomery’s ability to keep up with his current snap count and not pull, strain, or tear some important muscle, but that’s really not my problem, is it? Montgomery is currently the definition of a workhorse back, and with the receiving options in Green Bay dropping like flies, Montgomery’s touches should only continue to rise.

You guys remember that time that you bid a ton of FAAB on both Tarik Cohen and Kerwynn Williams only to narrowly get outbid on both and have to settle for Javorius Allen? And then Sunday you were all like:

Terrance West is dealing with an unspecified soft-tissue injury, but his health does not affect Allen’s value all that much. Allen’s usage seems to be both game-script proof and significant, regardless of whether West is there. He’s an every-week RB3 with West, and maybe an every-week RB2 without him. But really, fantasy owners just need two things. 1) For him to continue to see roughly 20 touches per game, and 2) For him to tell us if he wants us to call him Javorius or Buck. Seriously. Can we all agree on Buck? I hate when my iPhone keeps trying to spell-correct Javorius. Anyway, Allen remains slightly behind West in value as of this moment, but that may change pretty quickly.

Wide Receivers

Alright, after the excitement of the running backs, we return to boring-ville, with little change going on in values. With the uncertainty surrounding Jordy Nelson’s quad injury, his value sort of enters a holding pattern. The injury doesn’t sound overly ominous, but it’s enough to be a tiebreaker with some of the top receivers. If you own Nelson, you probably want to hold him and if you don’t own him, you probably don’t want to trade for him. You know what? Forget it. Editors, change Jordy Nelson’s, DeMarco Murray’s, and Jordan Howard’s trade values to N/A and prevent any reader from making any trade involving those players until we get more clarity on their injuries . . .

No? We don’t have the power to do that? Fine, whatever. Just be careful trading for those players, you guys. For serious.

I was all in with Mike Tagliere on the Amari Cooper breakout story, but you cannot get away from how good Michael Crabtree is in the red zone or how much Derek Carr trusts him. Both will be great. But they deservedly are a bit closer in trade value than they had been before.

Do you know that J.J. Nelson has scored seven touchdowns in his last seven games played? Look, I’m a bit wary of Nelson, who flopped in his chance to be the No. 2 receiver behind Larry Fitzgerald in the middle of the 2016 season. But as someone who had more shares of John Brown this year than I’d like to admit (fine, it was all of the shares. All of them. If you played in a league with me, you do not own John Brown. You’re welcome), I’ve scooped up Nelson anywhere I could. Brown has basically been declared out already this week, and the poor dude just cannot stay healthy. Nelson thrived last week in Brown’s absence, and will likely continue to do so, as Carson Palmer and Bruce Arians look for ways to make the Arizona offense work without David Johnson. Given Brown’s sickle-cell trait and his difficulties staying healthy, Nelson could easily wind up being a viable second receiver in fantasy. Wary, yes. Scared, no.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the values of Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielen, Kelvin Benjamin, and Devin Funchess move little or not at all. Sam Bradford’s status seems pretty clear, with Mike Zimmer telling us that he’s fine and that he could miss one week or six weeks. Well, neat. I bet Zimmer has an interesting family dynamic at home. “Ok, son, I’ll pick you up from school. I’ll be there at the usual time. Between noon and 4:00 a.m.” I can’t see how that works in any scenario in life, but whatever. If Bradford is out for a significant period of time, Diggs and Thielen will see a drop in value, but don’t draw any conclusions from a game against the Steelers in their home opener.

As for Benjamin and Funchess, both should see a rise in target share with Greg Olsen out, but let’s wait and see how it goes before getting too excited. Christian McCaffrey could be the beneficiary. Ed Dickson could be the beneficiary. We’ll find out soon. But there’s no reason to target those receivers just yet.

Tight Ends

Holy cannoli, we’ve got some injuries. Well, as of right now, the injuries to Rob Gronkowski (groin), Jimmy Graham (knee), and Jordan Reed (chest) all sound minor, so they lose some, but not a significant amount of value. Tyler Eifert (back, knee), however, sounds a bit more banged up, so his value takes a more significant move. And then, of course, there’s Greg Olsen, whose broken foot lands him on IR. Olsen should return this season, so he still has some minor value, but owners will likely need to go looking on the waiver wire.

Zach Ertz is clearly Carson Wentz’s favorite target and with good reason. He already has 13 receptions and 190 yards receiving and has continued his strong play from the end of last season. There’s absolutely no reason to expect the good times to end anytime soon, so trade for Ertz with confidence.

True or false – Jason Witten specifically requested that Jerry Jones leave the Dallas receiving group in shambles so that he could have one last great season. I’m going true. And it’s working! With tons of attention being paid to Dez Bryant, Witten has amassed 17 receptions and two touchdowns in these first two games. I’m not sure he can keep it going, but I’d be willing to pay a bit more now to find out.

And finally, can Evan Engram break the rookie tight end curse? Engram already has eight receptions and 12 targets with a touchdown. With the Giants offense in shambles, Engram has been perhaps the only bright spot. Let’s temper expectations, but he certainly rises in value.

Until next week, friends!



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Dan Harris is a featured writer for FantasyPros. For more from Dan, check out his archive or follow him on Twitter at @danharris80.