Fantasy Football Week 3 Dynasty Stashes: 4 Players to Add Before Their Value Soars

Before we dive into the dynasty stashes, it’s a good time to remind everyone of the difference between a dynasty “stash candidate” and a “buy-low candidate.”

A dynasty stash candidate is a player with no serviceable value right now who needs a series of events to occur to gain value. These are not players you want to spend premium draft capital on, nor do you want to target in one-for-one trades. These are value dice-roll plays. We want to make calculated gambles on these players, betting they could see a value gain where we can either use them or move them for more than we paid. These aren’t players to acquire on the waiver wire, since you can likely get most (if not all) of them as throw-ins on top of current trades.

A dynasty buy-low candidate is a player we know is good and already has real dynasty value, insulated by either NFL draft capital or their contract. We typically target players who are underperforming or injured, which causes their perceived value to take a hit. This isn’t a dice roll like a stash candidate; it is calculated market arbitrage.

This week, we don’t have many shiny toys to present, but some players seem to be flying under the radar in certain leagues. Here are four players who could see their value shift sooner rather than later:

Week 3 Dynasty Stashes

Dynasty Stash: Ryan Flournoy (DAL)

Flournoy was my preseason hot take as having the best chance of a Parker Washington-esque breakout this year. Like Washington in 2025, Flournoy has shown flashes of success whenever called upon, but has never dominated a target share because of the wide receiver room he finds himself in. With both George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb commanding the lion’s share of the target volume, Flournoy is unreliable to plug into your weekly lineup until one or both miss time. Then we could see an unexpected breakout, thus my hot take. With points being every contender’s focus right now, this presents a great time to stash Flournoy as a throw-in for your next trade.

First, let’s look at the production. When CeeDee Lamb missed time last year, Flournoy was more than a warm body; he contributed to both the Cowboys and fantasy. This is evident in his Week 5, Week 6, and Week 14 performances. In this admittedly small sample size, Flournoy caught 18 of 25 targets for 259 yards and a touchdown. That’s 54% of his season yardage production coming from three games.

His efficiency stood out in those games, averaging 3.12 yards per route run (YPRR). Anything above a 2.0 YPRR is considered good at the NFL level. Again, this is a small sample size, so temper expectations, especially when Lamb and Pickens are both on the field, but there could be something here that makes him worth the dice roll.

While CeeDee Lamb is signed through the 2028 season, George Pickens is currently playing on the franchise tag and will be eligible for free agency after this year. This makes the long-term play interesting, even if both Lamb and Pickens stay healthy all season.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is an interesting character, to say the least. He’s very unpredictable with the way he operates his team, as he likes to be the one calling the shots – even if they aren’t always the best decisions. He’s also been reluctant to open the checkbook for his players, so there’s still a good chance Pickens moves on after this year. With murky financial situations clouding the future of this wide receiver room, Flournoy could move up to WR2 if Pickens leaves Dallas. This makes him a worthwhile short- and long-term dynasty stash.

Dynasty Stash: Malik Davis (DAL)

While we haven’t had many big-name running backs miss time due to injury, quite a few have already missed time and/or are currently battling injuries. Malik Davis is a sneaky stash because he’s less than 50% rostered on Sleeper, as he’s currently on the Cowboys’ injured reserve (IR) list, so not many people are paying attention to him.

Before he moved to the IR, Davis reportedly won the RB2 role with the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys’ moving on from Jaydon Blue, now with the Eagles, along with statements from the coaching staff, supported this. Javonte Williams is the RB1 in Dallas’s offense and is getting bell-cow treatment, but as we’ve seen, running backs are at high risk of injury throughout the season. Davis is eligible to return from IR within a couple of weeks. There’s a long season left, so acquiring the RB2 on a potent offense is a savvy, forward-thinking move that many of your league mates probably aren’t even considering.

Like all RB2s, all roster builds can benefit from stashing players like Davis. Contenders can benefit if he earns a significant role because Javonte misses time, while rebuilders can move on and gain value in a trade. The nice thing is that he’s a dynasty stash you can put in IR either way, so you can take a wait-and-see approach. If nothing comes from him, it was a dice roll that cost you nothing. Remember, as I say in all of my articles, dynasty is a value game.

Dynasty Stash: AJ Dillon (CAR)

Jonathon Brooks cannot catch a break. It’s absolutely devastating for many who invested heavily in him this year. While Chuba Hubbard has exceeded expectations thus far, he’s the next man up for the wide-open RB2 role. Currently, that man is AJ Dillon. The massive, quad-yielding running back has done little for fantasy football since he entered the league. That will be the main retort I get for this dynasty stash take.

Truly, I agree; he’s not a good running back. The stats back that argument up completely. His career averages for yards after contact per attempt (2.96), YPRR (1.07), and missed tackles forced rate (15.2%) are nothing to gawk at. However, the process is still sound. Just like when I said that George Holani was a solid short-term dynasty stash last week because he could benefit from a Jadarian Price injury. This isn’t sexy or league-winning; it’s just trying to take advantage of a murky situation if something happens in this Carolina backfield.

If Chuba misses time, someone will have to come in and command touches out of the Carolina backfield. The Panthers recently brought in Austin Ekeler for a workout to see how he’s recovering from an Achilles injury, but as of this writing, they haven’t made a move on him. Like Holani, Dillon can feel like a gross dynasty stash, but it could pay off. Even if you move him for a 4th-round rookie pick, he would instantly gain value later if Chuba misses any time. Right now, Dillon is only owned in ~16% of Sleeper leagues, so he’s absolutely free.

Dynasty Stash: Mac Jones (SF)

As much of a pun as it is, the San Francisco 49ers truly struck gold when they drafted quarterback Brock Purdy. He’s been phenomenal for them and has truly blossomed into a franchise quarterback. He continues to ball out even when seemingly everyone around him gets hurt. As the substation conspiracy theory gains credibility with each injury, Mac Jones can benefit both in the short term and the long term for dynasty managers who stash him on their rosters.

Brock Purdy is a quarterback with a history of injuries. While I wouldn’t call him injury-prone, that does make a short-term case for stashing Mac Jones on your roster, especially in Superflex formats where rostering multiple quarterbacks to overcome bye weeks and injuries matters more than in single-QB leagues. If Brock Purdy misses time, Mac Jones has proven to be a more-than-capable starter. Whenever he’s been called upon to produce after the rough start to his career in New England, he has.

Last year, Jones was called upon to man the helm when Purdy missed time and proved himself an efficient quarterback. He was solid at pushing the ball downfield by producing a league-average 7.7 average depth of target (aDOT), threw for 13 touchdowns and just 6 interceptions, and posted an adjusted completion percentage of 79.6%. The year before that, he took over for an injured Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville and proved he could lead an offense.

Some dynasty managers may not realize that Mac Jones could become another franchise’s starting quarterback next year, as he’s set to enter unrestricted free agency. The NFL is desperate for quality quarterback play, and while Mac Jones probably isn’t the next Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold story, he’ll gain dynasty value if he gets a shot at the starting job next year. He’s the most expensive dynasty stash on this week’s list, but I’ve still been able to get him in as a throw-in in trades.