NFL Trade Deadline: Fantasy Football Fallout

The 2022 NFL trade deadline was enough to make your head spin, as a record 10 trades went down on Tuesday. We’ll go through the fantasy football impact of these trades for season-long formats. 

Of note, in the majority of these trades, the primary player traded was an offensive player. 

Chase Claypool traded to the Bears – fantasy impact for Justin Fields

Chicago had the weakest wide receiver room in the league and acquired Chase Claypool, who is very athletic and is 6-foot-4. Claypool notably had at least 860 receiving yards in each of his first two seasons with the Steelers, but his production fell off a bit since then. After scoring 11 touchdowns as a rookie, Claypool scored just two touchdowns last year. He had 311 receiving yards and one touchdown in eight games with Pittsburgh this season. This is the type of trade that Claypool managers love to see, as he’ll finally be on a team where he’s the clear No. 1 wide receiver and should see increased volume because of it. Darnell Mooney should see more snaps from the slot, which is always a good thing, and Justin Fields gets potentially a big-time receiver to throw to. 

Back in Pittsburgh, both Diontae Johnson and George Pickens will see a positive bump in value, as both are in line for increased target volume for the rest of the season. 

T.J. Hockenson traded to the Vikings – fantasy impact

We’ll start with the first trade that sent now former Lions tight end and 2019 eighth-overall pick T.J. Hockenson to the division rival Vikings for draft pick compensation. With Irv Smith set to be sidelined for the next 8-10 weeks with an ankle injury, this was a necessary move for Minnesota. While Hockenson is obviously the clear winner in this trade, he’s still going to be in an offense where he’s probably third in the pecking order for targets. Hockenson had 395 yards and three touchdowns in seven games this season, but 179 of those yards and two of those touchdowns came in a single game (Week 4 against Seattle). I view this trade as having minimal to slightly positive impact for Hockenson for the rest of this season. 

Meanwhile, back in Detroit, Brock Wright could almost completely assume Hockenson’s role, as the only other tight end on the roster, James Mitchell, is a rookie with one career catch. 

Calvin Ridley traded to the Jaguars – fantasy impact

Not a lot to say here, as Calvin Ridley remains suspended for the rest of this season, but the Jaguars’ biggest need is outside wide receiver, as Marvin Jones and Zay Jones aren’t true No. 1 options. Ridley fits that role, so in dynasty and looking ahead to next year, this trade should have a positive impact on Trevor Lawrence, Christian Kirk and Ridley. 

Nyheim Hines to the Bills for Zack Moss – fantasy impact

Hines goes to Buffalo to be their pass-catching back, ruining the standalone value of rookie running back James Cook. With Moss out of the way now, though, and Hines not being much of a rushing threat, Cook is still the handcuff to roster for the Bills, as he would be the main beneficiary if anything happened to Devin Singletary. The Bills tried to sign J.D. McKissic for this role in the offseason, but the deal fell through, so it’s something they’ve prioritized. Still, Josh Allen isn’t going to start checking the ball down to Hines all of a sudden. Not much has changed with Hines’ value, maybe a slightly positive bump. 

Back in Indianapolis, Deon Jackson essentially becomes the new Hines with a little more handcuff upside if Jonathan Taylor were to miss time again.

Jeff Wilson to the Dolphins, Chase Edmonds to the Broncos – fantasy impact

Jeff Wilson is an even better handcuff to roster now, as he went from being behind Christian McCaffrey in San Francisco to being behind Raheem Mostert in Miami. Mostert is still the clear starter for the Dolphins given the season he’s having and the fact they jettisoned Chase Edmonds already despite the contract he received in the offseason. 

Edmonds now goes to a Denver team that’s looking for answers at running back. The Broncos’ only other options are Latavius Murray and Melvin Gordon with Mike Boone on injured reserve. Given his contract, I assume Edmonds will start for Denver in Week 10 after the bye week. Even if he’s relegated to splitting the work, he should have a receiving role. Even if you’re more pessimistic about Edmonds’ prospects, he was almost completely phased out of the offense in Miami already. There’s nowhere for his fantasy stock to go but up. 

Hit us up in the FTN Daily NFL DFS Discord with any additional questions and continue the discussion on the trade deadline fallout.