Late Fantasy Football Trade Ideas: Sell James Conner, Brian Robinson and Kenneth Walker | Buy Austin Ekeler, Isiah Pacheco and D'Andre Swift

The NFL’s regular season has several weeks left, but the fantasy football playoffs start up soon. 

With that in mind, and with most fantasy league’s trade deadlines approaching, I decided to start a series discussing some of the better fantasy player’s late-season schedules. We’ll discuss three players with tough schedules during the fantasy playoffs, and then three more players with easier matchups. If you are one that loves to play matchups, then this is the perfect series for you.

We already looked at the quarterback position, and will move on to the running backs now. Stories on wide receivers and tight ends are coming, so check back for those.

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Sell James Conner, Brian Robinson and Kenneth Walker

I like Conner as a fantasy back and think he’ll continue to put up decent fantasy numbers in his return from injury, but his schedule is rough to end the season. 

Conner and the Cards have the San Francisco 49ers in week 15, Chicago Bears in week 16 and then the Philadelphia Eagles in week 17. The Bears are the only really favorable matchup of the trio of games, while the Eagles are the best in the league. 

The tough thing is that Conner’s value is a bit lower than usual after his injury. I’d wait as long as you possibly could to trade him, to see if he can increase his value back up a bit. Speaking of trade value, be sure to check out the FantasySP trade value charts before making a trade.

Selling Robinson seems like a dumb idea seeing as he’s around a top-five back right now in all formats. For one, I don’t see his fantasy production continuing, and he’s got a brutal finish to the season. 

Washington has the Los Angeles Rams in week 15, New York Jets in week 16 and 49ers in week 17. The Jets are the most favorable matchup, and they are just below average. Trade Robinson while his value is as high as it can be.

Trading Walker away is also beneficial outside of his tough schedule, as Walker has been splitting snaps with Zach Charbonnet of late.

The Seahawks have the Eagles in week 15, Tennessee Titans in week 16 and Pittsburgh Steelers in week 18. If you can somehow get by without big games from Walker against the elite Eagles and above-average Titans, then a semi-favorable matchup against the Steelers caps his season. I’d still try to sell him now.

If you are trading away one of the workhorse running backs, you probably need at least one running back in return. Maybe you can also get another depth piece at a position you are lacking in, depending on how desperate a fantasy owner is for a workhorse back.

Buy Austin Ekeler, Isiah Pacheco and D'Andre Swift

Ekeler is trending up of late, and should be relatively fresh after missing three games earlier in the season. There’s always some risk involved with a running back on a team with a top-end quarterback, but I like Ekeler’s matchups late in the season.

The Chargers face the Las Vegas Raiders in week 15, Buffalo Bills in week 16 and Denver Broncos in week 18. All three defenses currently are in the bottom 10 against opposing running backs. 

The big problem with Ekeler is that he was a high draft pick and hasn’t given much back to the owners that drafted him. That means you might need to pay a pretty hefty price to acquire him, but I believe he’s worth it.

Pacheco is trending in the other direction after a hot streak of games in the middle portion of the season so far. That might make him quite a bit easier to acquire. Again, it’s a running back with a great quarterback leading the offense, but it’s difficult to not like the back’s matchups in the fantasy playoffs.

Kansas City has the New England Patriots in week 15, Raiders in week 16 and Cincinnati Bengals to cap the playoffs. The Bengals and Patriots are both average against opposing backs, while again, the Raiders are pretty poor. 

Pacheco doesn’t have many other backs to fight for snaps and touches, so I like his late-season odds to go off.

Swift has been a pretty consistent fantasy asset for most of the regular season. He’s got some fantastic late-season matchups scheduled.

The Eagles take on the Seahawks in week 15, New York Giants in week 16 and Cardinals in week 17. The Giants, somehow, are the best defense against backs, and they are below average. The Cardinals and Seahawks are bottom-five defenses against RBs.