Have you ever had that truly disastrous fantasy team? You know the one I’m talking about, right? Whenever you put up a big score, your opponent goes off. Whenever you’re deciding between two similarly-ranked players, you make the wrong choice. It’s a disaster.

I’ve got a team like that this year. Just nothing has gone right. Le’Veon Bell held out. Larry Fitzgerald, Amari Cooper, and Chris Hogan were all duds. And even Josh Allen got injured in the week before I needed him to fill in on a bye week (Relax, guys. It’s a two-QB league. If you even have a bye-week filler on your roster, you’re ahead of the game).

In a league where you have two matchups each week, I started 3-1. I’m now 3-9. Half my team is on bye heading into Week 7. Things could not look bleaker, and the easy thing to do would be to just go on auto-pilot and focus on only my eight other leagues.

But that’s not how we roll, is it? We don’t give up. We get on the phone and see what we can do to make things work.

I’ve made six trades in the last eight hours. Rather than sitting without a quarterback this week, I have the pleasure of rolling with a little Brock Osweiler. Le’Veon Bell can hold out for some other team. Amari Cooper and Larry Fitzgerald have been replaced with Taylor Gabriel and Dede stinkin’ Westbrook.

There are always options. Send some texts. Update your trade block. Make a fake press conference from your GM about how you need to shake up the team.

And to help you work your magic, we provide our handy trade chart. Reminder that it’s based on 12-team, 0.5 PPR leagues. Any other formats require a little variation on your part.

Find and analyze trades for your team with My Playbook >>

Quarterbacks



In light of the Falcons’ injuries on defense and Matt Ryan’s continued demonstrated familiarity with the offense, I’m comfortable considering him just outside the top-5 QBs. Conversely, Deshaun Watson is clearly playing through injury and behind a terrible offensive line. They gain and lose value accordingly. Also, don’t trade for a quarterback unless you’re desperate, as I say every week.

Running Backs



Sony Michel has three catches on the year. That’s the only thing holding his value remotely in check in 0.5 PPR formats. Michel has played in five games so far this season and has 91 carries and 400 yards rushing. If you gave him his average stats and an extra game, he would rank fourth in the league with 109 carries and third in the league with 480 yards rushing. He’s a beast, has little competition for carries, and plays in perhaps the best offensive system in the league. Half PPR, Schmaff PPR, am I right?

This is the last time I am going to discuss James Conner and Le’Veon Bell until the latter returns. As Mike Tagliere and I discussed on Sunday night on the FantasyPros Football Podcast, we’re all just making educated guesses. So, here’s how I would approach both Bell and Conner if considering them in trades. I think Conner has earned enough of a role that he will be startable even when Bell returns, which I now don’t expect to be until at least Week 10, at the earliest. Although he essentially must report by Week 10, I have no confidence that the Steelers will play him immediately, at least not to a significant extent, given how well Conner is running and the animosity between him and the team. With that said, I think it’s highly likely that come playoff time, Bell is giving his owners the performance of an RB1 in 0.5 PPR formats, even splitting work with Conner.

In other words, I’d feel fine trading for Conner as a borderline RB1 at this moment, though his value will likely decrease every week from this point on as we approach Bell’s return. If I felt comfortable that I was going to make the playoffs, I’d trade for Bell, with the belief that he will be a reliable contributor come crunch time.

And with that, my feelings on Bell and Conner for the foreseeable future can be described thusly:

As for other movers, Matt Breida is a straight-up beast, Tarik Cohen is the most valuable Bears running back in 0.5 PPR formats going forward, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Marshawn Lynch straight up rode away on a rainbow horse named Skittles never to play football again at some point soon (Ok, fine, I’d be a little surprised at that). Also, stop trying to make Aaron Jones happen, Gretchen. It’s never going to happen. He’s still being out-snapped by Jamaal Williams.

Wide Receivers



Josh Gordon, man. 63 out of 78 snaps on Sunday night. This is happening. So long as he remains on his current trajectory, he should blast into reliable WR2 status in 0.5 PPR formats pretty soon. Good for him.

And . . . that’s pretty much it. The rest of the movers can largely be summed up as follows:

If you’re a pass-catcher on the Texans, you moved down a little in light of Watson battling injury and the porous offensive line

Marquise Goodwin is alive!

Taylor Gabriel may have legit staying power

Cooper Kupp and Quincy Enunwa are injured

Not exciting, but what do you want? The values didn’t change drastically. Sue me!

Tight Ends



Little to discuss here, as per usual. O.J. Howard returned early from his injury, and Greg Olsen looked pretty decent in his first game back. And Austin Hooper might be a thing, and by that I mean a guy who you just hold all year and think, “Eh, at least I don’t have to put in a claim for a tight end.”

Find and analyze trades for your team with My Playbook >>



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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 @danharris80.