Good morning.

Week 3 is here and you’re probably settling in nicely to your football season routine—submitting way too many waiver claims on Tuesday, finding out your QB is injured by Wednesday, and then talking yourself into blind optimism once the games hit on Thursday.

So if you’re stuck without Burrow, McCarthy, Fields, Purdy, or maybe even Daniels this week, don’t worry—smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. It’s just another excuse to bombard your league mates with way too many trade offers. So without further ado, let’s dive into some buys, sells, and other trends…

SPONSOR

MARKET TRENDS 🧐

Running Back

💰 Buy low on Chase Brown. He’s been the biggest underperformer at the RB position, scoring only 19.6 fantasy points in half-PPR formats, compared to his 32.3 PFF expected points. While it may feel odd buying the Bengals sans Burrow, Joe Mixon was the overall RB5 (RB8 in PPG) from Week 12 through Week 18 of the 2023 season when Jake Browning was the starting QB for the Bengals, per FanDuel’s Skyler Carlin.

📉 Sell high on Travis Etienne. He’s had back-to-back strong outings, but in Week 2 it was Bhayshul Tuten who stole the show. The rookie took just a 25% snap share, but made the most of it, producing 5.3 YPC and racking up 32 receiving yards on just two catches, one of which went for a TD. Tuten’s 33% targets per route run rate is also something to note, per Fantasy Life’s Geoff Ulrich, as the Jaguars clearly wanted to get him involved in that portion of the game.

💰 Buy Quinshon Judkins. Despite touching the ball just 13 times in his debut, the rookie has already forced 5 missed tackles, per Fantasy Points Data—good for 10th in the league behind only Bijan, JT, Jordan Mason, Kamara, Gibbs, Chase Brown, Jeanty, Breece, and Josh Jacobs. Not bad company. He put up 71 yards (6.1 YPC) on just 27% of snaps against the Ravens and is on the fast track to being the lead dawg in Cleveland.

📉 Sell James Conner. He’s now in a near split with Trey Benson (30 and 25 snaps, respectively, in Week 2) and is averaging just 3.2 YPC despite facing two weaker opponents to start the season. Benson is also being used as a receiver more often, playing on 85% of the long down and distance snaps, per Geoff Ulrich, while Conner’s production has been mostly reliant on TDs.

📈 Stock up: Cam Skattebo. In Week 2, the rookie logged 51% of snaps (compared to Tyrone Tracy’s 42%), earning 11 of 17 backfield carries and three of nine RB targets (on a backfield-high 33% route share). He’s also now handled all seven red-zone opportunities for Giants RBs this season, per Fantasy Points’ Scott Barrett. This backfield should remain a split, but Skattebo getting high-value touches in the passing game and at the goal line makes him more desirable.

😬 Stock down: Omarion Hampton. He was replaced on the final couple of drives last week by Najee, and both backs finished with the same amount of carries (eight). But most importantly, the Chargers have been tops in the league thus far in pass rate over expectation, while Hampton is 45th out of 50 graded players in rush yards over expected per attempt (-1.3 per attempt), according to Next Gen Stats. It’s always best to be patient with rookies (see below)—so he isn’t a sell yet—but the early signs are at least slightly concerning.

Wide Receiver