Week 2 fantasy football trade value big board

If you recall in past fantasy football seasons here at The Athletic, the rest-of-season big board rankings and trade value chart were separate entities. Well, we’re doing something different this year, combining Brandon Funston’s rankings with Austin Mock’s trade value chart, essentially killing two birds with one stone.

This chart (board?) is meant to be used as a general player valuation guide for the basis of fantasy football trade negotiations in 1QB, half-PPR formats. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and certainly readers will find disagreements with some of the valuations here. That’s fine — again, this is just another tool at your disposal as you try to determine a deal that might work for you in your league. That said, before we get to the chart, here’s Funston’s explanation for some of the biggest value differences on this board compared to the industry consensus (ECR).

Ranked Considerably Higher by Funston

Miles Sanders, RB, CAR — 22 touches, 4 catches, 98 yards out of the gate. They said he was going to be featured, and he was.

David Montgomery, RB, DET — Jamaal Williams was RB9 in this role last season. Montgomery had 21 carries and a TD filling his spot in Week 1. Ranking him RB18 here factors in regression and the potential for rookie Gibbs to build on his workload — the DET backfield is just a really ripe piece of real estate.

DeAndre Hopkins, WR, TEN — For many of my rankings discrepancies here, I’m leaning into the “volume is king” argument, and D-Hop is no exception. He’s always been a target magnet and, sure enough, Week 1 showed that nothing has changed — third in targets (13). I’ll take the volume now and plan on the QB chemistry and play-action goodness to follow.

Alexander Mattison, RB MIN; James Conner, RB, ARI — Again, volume. There are no objects in their rear-view mirrors who are closer than they appear.

Michael Pittman Jr., WR, IND — He’s been a Top 23 WR in each of the past two seasons with geriatrics Philip Rivers and Matt Ryan throwing him the ball. Anthony Richardson may be raw, but he’s already looking like an upgrade over what Pittman has had to work with in recent seasons. Is Pittman the most underrated receiver in fantasy? Considering his ECR is WR31, I’d say he’s at least in the conversation.

Cooper Kupp , WR, LAR — Kupp was WR24 last season despite playing in just nine games. I have him at WR27 on my board, which allows for Kupp to miss another couple games beyond the four to start the season and factors in some production regression as well.

Jerry Jeudy, WR, DEN —  As WR20 last season, Jeudy was the only player to make lemonade from the lemon that was the Broncos offense. He’s Denver’s most talented receiver, and he has a good chance to return from a hamstring injury in Week 2.

Ranked Considerably Lower by Funston

Christian Watson, WR, GB — I like the talent, but I fear the likely week-to-week roller-coaster ride given his style of play. He had the fifth-highest aDOT (13.8) among receivers with as many targets as Watson last season — Gabe Davis, George Pickens, Chis Olave and Marquez Valdes-Scantling were the others. Most of the true alphas live in the 9.0-12.0 range, a point my colleague Michael Salfino has made on more than a few occasions. To have consistency, you have to be able to be have some chain-moving intermediate skills, and Watson is still a work in progress in that regard.

T.J. Hockenson, MIN, TE — While I have preached volume for some of the above players who I have ranked higher than the industry consensus, here is where I caution to not get drunk on volume alone. Hockenson’s volume has been terribly empty of late — he has just four half-PPR tallies of 10+ in his past 18 regular-season games. Yes, he has difference-making volume at the tight end position, but not difference-making production. The industry has him at No. 36 overall, and if you think he’s worth the bell-cow running backs, alpha receivers and three elite quarterbacks I have ranked in that range, you’re kidding yourself. At tight end, it’s still Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews and then a hope and a prayer.

Chris Godwin, WR, TB — The industry has him at No. 39 overall, while I have him at No. 55. In a vacuum, I like Godwin an awful lot, but the industry has a much rosier view of the Tampa Bay offense and the QB leading it than I do.

DJ Moore, WR, CHI; Drake London, WR, ATL — It was Maya Angelou who said, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” When Atlanta throws the ball 18 times in Week 1, and targets their running backs nine times compared to eight combined for the wide receiver and tight end groups, believe that Drake London (1 target) is not going to be consistent enough to be the WR23 (ahead of DeAndre Hopkins) the industry would have you believe.

Same goes for DJ Moore. I’m rooting for him, but there’s only so much a wide receiver can do to elevate a subpar passing quarterback. Come at me all you want, but “subpar” is a nice way of describing Justin Fields’ passing acumen at the moment. Moore is ranked by the industry as WR22, which is what he was last season, but that value was bolstered by seven touchdowns. If he reverts back to four touchdowns, like his previous three seasons, I think he’ll have a very hard time cracking the WR Top 30.

(Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports)