Fantasy Football Trade Value Chart Week 6: Wide Receivers

RSJ’s Jackson Barrett created a value-based drafting Excel tool to create the preseason values for this Fantasy Football Trade Value Chart. The tool uses the FantasyPros consensus projections to assign values based on a 12-team, full PPR league.

Each week throughout the season, these values will be altered to reflect the player’s value for the rest of the season. Changes made to player’s value will be based on FantasyPros Rest of Season ECR, results from the season thus far, and The Wolf’s Rest of Season Rankings. But for the most part, the below values should generally reflect consensus rankings. The values provided also allow for comparing player values across positions, not just within one positional group.

For more information on how to make successful deals, check out our strategies for negotiating trades.

Be sure to tune back each week throughout the season. We’ll be adjusting the chart, discussing risers & fallers, and pinpointing trade targets.

The trade value chart for each position is linked below.

Fantasy Football Week 6 Trade Value Chart: Wide Receivers

Wide Receiver Riser

Yeah, Brian Thomas Jr. is very much the real deal. He was climbing our rankings last week and saw another significant jump after decimating the Indianapolis secondary last Sunday. Everything about Thomas screams alpha WR in the making.

There are few wide receivers who are able to combine elite physical traits with high-end target earning capabilities. Thomas is one of them. First looking at his athletic profile, we knew pre-draft that Thomas was a special talent. He’s 6’3”, 210 pounds, and ran a 4.3 40-yard dash. After his 85-yard touchdown in Week 5, he is now this season’s fastest ball carrier, clocking a speed of 22.15 MPH.

Thomas isn’t only limited by his ability to win deep, he’s seeing targets all over the field. He’s drawn eight-plus targets in three straight games and is now up to a 21-percent target share on the year.

The combination of his role and big-play ability makes Thomas a very solid WR2 option moving forward this season.

Wide Receiver Faller

Those who drafted George Pickens knew that he had a rather wide range of outcomes. So far this season, we’ve mostly seen the bottom end of that range. Through five games, Pickens is averaging 9.8 PPG and has failed to score five PPR points twice.

The most concerning trend with Pickens has nothing to do with his fantasy output, it pertains to his usage. In Week 5, Pickens had a route participation of just 61 percent and did not play a single snap in 12 personnel. Some have speculated that he’s in the dog house because of effort like this.

Regardless of the reasoning behind his reduced role, this is incredibly troubling for his fantasy outlook. In a low-volume passing attack, Pickens will struggle to be fantasy-relevant with this sort of usage. This will have to be monitored in the coming weeks.

Wide Receiver Trade Target

A slight buy-low window is now open for DK Metcalf after he scored just 7.5 PPR points in Week 5. The 21.5 points per game he averaged in Weeks 2-4 will be far closer to what we should see from Metcalf moving forward.

Arguably the biggest driving factor behind Metcalf’s success and fantasy value is Seattle’s offensive mindset. The expectation was that Ryan Grubb would carry over his Air Raid offense from his days in Washington. He’s done just that. The Seahawks lead the league in pass rate over expectation and have passed the ball on a ridiculous 71 percent of plays.

Metcalf has held a steady role in the offense, accounting for 21 percent of the targets and 40 percent of the air yards. This usage in an offense that will likely lead the league in pass attempts places Metcalf into the WR1 conversation.

Tier 1: The Alphas

Tier 2: High-End Starters

Tier 3: Quality Options

Tier 4: Emergency Starters and Bench Assets