Miles Sanders Should Be Traded Away
By: Teddy Ricketson
The beauty of dynasty fantasy football is that the season never truly ends. Once the real-life football season ends, dynasty season really kicks off as you start scouting upcoming rookies.
Another interesting aspect of this kick-off is that everyone starts to evaluate their teams and see what needs they may need to meet in their rookie draft or they may even want to explore trade options. Whether you want to take advantage of a player coming off a great season, or if you are gunning for your favorite rookie and need to acquire picks, now is the time to send out trade offers or trade feelers to see if you can make some moves before the NFL Draft on April 29th.
Here are three running backs that you should trade now to get back the best value (or to just get off your team) as the NFL Draft nears.
- David Montgomery- Chicago Bears
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I can understand your hesitation of trading away David Montgomery who finished as the RB4 in PPR scoring, but this is going to be where you take advantage of the hype he finished with. The reason that I want to move him is because you don’t know which version of him you are going to get. From Weeks 1-9, Monty was the RB14, he then missed a few weeks and then from Week 12-17 he was the RB1. With uncertainty with who is going to be under center in Chicago, I think the reward can be worth the risk for moving Montgomery because you should be able to point to his stats with how he finished to show that he will deserve the asking price that you send.
When thinking about Montgomery and his production, it is still a small sample size with two seasons under his belt. But, in his second year, Monty had more than double his targets from his first season and added almost double the receptions, and 250 more yards through the air. I think that you can project him to still have a role in the passing game, but I think he regresses to somewhere in between his two seasons for the future. Sell high.
2. D’Andre Swift- Detroit Lions
https://www.youtube.com/embed/occlMr77X1E“>http://[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=occlMr77X1E&w=560&h=315]
I’m choosing Swift here because I think he has become overhyped through the fantasy football community on social media. Between the hire of OC Anthony Lynn and the trading of Matthew Stafford, everyone has their eyes on Swift to shoulder the Detroit Lions’ offense in the upcoming season. In his rookie season, Swift played in 13 games, had 114 rushes for 521 with eight TDs on the ground. Through the air, Swift added 46 receptions on 57 targets, 357 yards, and two additional TDs. He averaged 14.6 fantasy points per game, which was third for rookies behind James Robinson and Jonathan Taylor.
So what’s the issue? A) it’s the Lions. B) Jared Goff is in town who isn’t expected to spread the ball around to his RBs as much as Matthew Stafford did. Running backs for the Rams in 2020 totaled 71 targets and 50 receptions while the Lions backfield totaled 101 targets and 77 receptions. Swift almost had the same number of receptions alone as the entire Rams backfield had all season. I think that you can confidently re-create the production of Swift other places so trade him at the peak of this hype, get back some draft capital, and set your team up for more success in the seasons to come.
3. Miles Sanders- Philadelphia Eagles
https://www.youtube.com/embed/LUrPN-huM9Q“>http://[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUrPN-huM9Q&w=560&h=315]
As the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive outlook keeps shifting, so does the outlook for the third year back out of Penn State. With a question mark under center and with Zach Ertz now being shopped with Carson Wentz, Sanders is probably going to be involved heavily in whatever is left of the offense for the Eagles in 2021.
But, will Sanders’ production alone be higher than what you could get for him? In his two years in the league, Sanders has rushed 343 times for 1,685 yards and nine TDs with pretty even splits between the two years. The problem though is that he heavily regressed in the receiving game in 2020 bringing in 28 receptions when he had 50 the year prior. Again, as the offense is still fluid with exactly how it would look, take advantage of the uncertainty and unload Miles Sanders.
Honorable Mention: JD McKissic (Washington Football Team). Don’t get me wrong, I think McKissic has found his perfect landing spot, I just think that if you also happen to have Gibson, you can deal McKissic in PPR leagues for a pretty penny as he is one of the, if not the number one, best fantasy backup RB that is expected to be with his same team next season at this point.
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