Best Fantasy Football Trades Week 9: Aaron Jones, Jonathan Taylor, Marquise Brown

There's nothing more fun in fantasy football than making trades. However, it can often be hard to know which players to target, and which of your own you can get good value for. That's where FantasySP's tools come in: We can use the FantasySP Fantasy Assistant to find players that have the most Expected Trade Interest (ETI), and then cross-reference them with the Trade Value Chart to see how much those players are worth. Here are the top players by ETI, let’s take a look at three players from the top of this list that I think are either overvalued or undervalued by the current market:

 

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Best Fantasy Football Trades To Make Week 9

Buy Low On Aaron Jones

Let me get something straight. Where I have sometimes recommended trading for certain players that you were likely going to have to pay more-or-less full value for, this is a true buy low. With how bad the Packers’ offense has been this season, I don’t recommend paying RB1 or high-end RB2 prices for Jones. But I don’t think you’ll have to, given that he has struggled with injuries but also disappointed in his return to the field. Some rust coming off an injury is expected, but just 46 total yards on 11 touches and 51% of snaps in his second week back (without an injury designation) is sure to have managers frustrated. This may be why he ranks atop the ETI leaderboards with trade interest in 28% of leagues.

So why do I still have faith in Jones? For one, Packers Head Coach Matt LaFluer said before their Week 8 game that he didn’t think Jones was “100 percent by any stretch.” If we take his words at face value, we’ve only seen one truly healthy start for Jones, which was Week 1 … in which he played just two and a half quarters but scored 25.7 Half-PPR points. We also saw in that one game that the Jordan-Love-era Packers were planning on leaning on Jones more than in the past, as he accounted for 127 of their 212 yards (60%) before exiting with his injury. Given how ineffective the offense was in his absence, I think the Packers will continue to rely on Jones when he (hopefully as soon as this week) is finally fully healthy. If that happens, he should be at least a solid RB2, a very valuable commodity in the current fantasy landscape. 

Buy Low On Jonathan Taylor

Let’s follow this up with another former superstar RB who hasn’t quite lived up to expectations in 2023, largely thanks to injury. Unlike Jones, I don’t think you’ll be able to get Taylor for true bargain prices, but I still think he’s worth making an offer for. Managers who waited for Taylor to return only to see him out-touched, out-targeted, and out-snapped by Zack Moss over the last four weeks may be ready to move on. This is especially true given that Taylor, who originally was trending positively, seems to have seen his usage plateau, with 53%, 50%, and 52% of the Colts’ carries in each of the last three weeks, including just 12 to Moss’ 11 in Week 8. 

But those numbers don’t tell the whole story. JT was back to a true lead-back role early in Week 8, playing a clear majority of snaps and at one point having 12 touches to just four for Moss. But on his 12th touch, Taylor got up limping. After that, he only touched the ball twice. The Colts deny he was injured, but it seems pretty clear that limp is the reason for his sudden disappearance from the game. With that in mind, this is likely the last chance to acquire Taylor before he truly reestablishes himself as one of the top backs in the league. Our Trade Value Charts, which are based on production and therefore down on Taylor given his lackluster last four weeks, have him as the RB21; if you can get him for that price, absolutely do it.

Buy Low on Marquise Brown

We’re jumping down the ETI ranks a little here, but Brown is the first non-RB listed in a fantasy market absolutely starved for running back production. And while I’m technically listing Brown as a “Buy Low,” this is more of a “Buy Medium Because He’s Only Going Up.” After all, it’s not like Brown has been bad. He ranks as the WR20 in PPR, although that is definitely inflated thanks to the Cardinals not having had their bye. 

The other thing the Cardinals haven’t had is their franchise quarterback. Joshua Dobbs (who is now off to Minnesota) was surprisingly solid in his time in Arizona, but the return of Kyler Murray is sure to help Brown’s output. In six games in 2022 with Murray and without target monster DeAndre Hopkins (who is now in Tennessee), Brown averaged 14.7 Half-PPR points on 10.7 targets a game. Only five players are commanding more targets in 2023, and that fantasy production would make him the WR12. 

Even if Brown’s volume remains the same as it was with Dobbs on Kyler's return, he is already the WR12 in total targets and the WR6 in air yards. Having Murray under center will help his 69% catchable target rate (which was 74% with Kyler in 2022), allowing him to make the most of his elite volume. Especially given his enticing schedule, there is a real chance Brown is a borderline WR1 down the stretch, and that makes him an ideal trade target right now.