Best Fantasy Football Trades Week 7: Amari Cooper, Brandon Aiyuk, Bucky Irving

Ted breaks down what to do with Week 7's three hottest fantasy football trade candidates.

There's nothing more fun than making a fantasy football trade. 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 with the Trade Value Chart to see how much those players are worth. Here are this week’s leaders in ETI:

Yesterday saw two huge NFL trades, as Amari Cooper and Davante Adams both found new homes in the AFC East. Both of these star WRs unsurprisingly land high in ETI today, with Cooper leading the way at a huge 29%. We’ve also got some other players in uncertain situations near the top of the chart, so let’s break down what to do with the three hottest trade pieces.

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Best Fantasy Football Trades To Make Week 7

Buy High On Amari Cooper

I’ve already put my money where my mouth is on this one, trading for Cooper in my longest-running Dynasty league within hours of his real-life trade being announced. With that said, trading for Cooper is not a no-risk prospect. 

As I mentioned in my full breakdown of the fantasy impact of the Amari Cooper trade, Cooper has not performed up to his usual standards so far this season. He ranks dead-last in ESPN’s Receiver Tracking Metrics, leads the league in drops, and has an atrocious 1.15 yards per route run. However, I’m willing to believe that a solid chunk of Cooper’s struggles can be explained by his terrible situation, both directly, with terrible QB play, and indirectly, with Cooper checking out. 

In Buffalo, Cooper should immediately serve as the Bills’ top receiver. This move is also likely the first step in the Bills shifting to a more pass-heavy approach than they have used so far this season. Put those two things together, and we can expect Cooper to see around the 8.8 targets per game he is currently averaging … and targets from Josh Allen are probably worth twice as much as the targets he was getting in Cleveland. Don’t go overboard and pay WR1 prices for Cooper, but he should be a weekly WR2 once he settles into his new home.

Buy Low On Brandon Aiyuk

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time I have recommended moving Aiyuk. My first suggestion initially looked brilliant, as Aiyuk immediately exploded for 147 yards on eight catches against the Cardinals. But, following a two-catch outing in Week 6, that big game is now looking more like an outlier in a season of disappointment than the beginnings of a return to form for the former All-Pro.    

With that said, I’m still trying to trade for Aiyuk if he can be had for a bargain (which he probably can). After all, he’s still seeing a 20.5% target share in this San Francisco offense. That’s barely behind his 2023 number (22.7%), a season in which he was a borderline WR1. To be fair, I don’t expect Aiyuk to return to that level of production. He quite literally set the NFL record in yards per target for a receiver with at least 100 targets last year — that was never sustainable. 

However, his current level of inefficiency isn’t likely to continue either. I still expect Aiyuk to eventually settle as a WR2, albeit an inconsistent one. Given his current production, I imagine he can be had for a price much lower than that. 

Hold Bucky Irving

I wasn’t sure whether to call Irving a buy or a sell, so I’m making him my first “Hold” of the season. However, I want to be clear that Hold doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn't trade Irving, in either direction. It just means I think the overall market for his value is likely to be relatively fair. That doesn’t mean every single manager has an accurate value for him — the overall fantasy football market always contains a wide range of individual manager values.

This is especially true for a player like Irving, who has so many uncertainties. On the one hand, Irving has started the season strong and is coming off his most productive game of the season with Rachaad White sidelined. He has posted elite efficiency numbers and was cutting more into White’s usage each week, even before the veteran was injured. On the other hand, Week 6 also saw Sean Tucker emerge with a massive game. Savvy fantasy managers will have seen Todd Bowles’ comments that Tucker will be more involved going forward. 

Given these facts, there are tons of ways to interpret Irving’s value. Maybe he will entirely steal the Buccaneers’ RB1 job and run away with 60%+ of the work … or maybe he will find himself in a timeshare with Tucker for ground work while White hoards valuable receiving touches.

Personally, I land somewhere in the middle. White, who has been one of the league’s worst rushers over the last few years, is going to get phased out of this rushing game. He will almost certainly retain a solid passing-game role, but Irving will be involved there as well. Tucker will be the odd man out, with a handful of touches per game. With the Buccaneers’ offense firing on all cylinders, this will leave the rookie as a flex play, albeit one with plenty of week-to-week variability. If you have him rostered and can find someone who expects him to be more, move him. If his current manager just views him as a bench piece, go get him. 

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