Players to Trade Away in Dynasty Leagues This Offseason

With the 2022 NFL season behind us, now is the time to start looking at ways to improve our dynasty fantasy football rosters heading into 2023.

There are only two ways to do so. One is the rookie draft, and the other is via the trade market. I am here to discuss five players who you should be looking to offload this offseason in the trade market. Trade them now before their value drops. 

D’Andre Swift, RB, Detroit Lions

D’Andre Swift started this season as a potential overall RB1 candidate, but the wheels came off this bus quickly. He had a huge game in Week 1, posting 26.5 PPR points and finishing as the RB3, and followed that up with 16.7 PPR points and another top-10 finish in Week 2. However, in Week 3 Swift suffered an injury that caused him to miss the next four weeks, and upon his return the Lions went easy on him—Swift only reached double-digit carries in two of his final 11 games. On the flip side, Swift saw at least five targets in six of these games, helping him produce seven double-digit fantasy point weeks over that 11-game span. By hook or by crook, he did offer a fairly safe floor. 

But the ceiling didn’t show up very often. Swift was only a top-12 weekly option three times after returning from injury, and two of those were in Weeks 17 and 18, too late for most fantasy managers. Lions running backs combined for 27 touchdowns in 2022, but even with over 140 touches, Swift only accounted for 8 of them (running mate Jamaal Williams broke a Lions single-season record with 17). This was the second year in a row Williams vultured a significant amount of touches inside the 20 and touchdowns from Swift. Even though Williams’ contract is up, it is likely that the Lions either re-sign him or bring in another running back to supplement Swift’s role, ultimately limiting his upside. He should continue to be a solid RB2 with high-end upside as long as he’s healthy, but at this point it seems unlikely we will ever see a top-five season from him. 

Dalvin Cook, RB, Minnesota Vikings

Dalvin Cook has been a staple in the running back landscape since returning from his rookie-year torn ACL. Since his first full season after that injury (2019), he’s been a top-12 PPR back in three of four seasons and was RB16 in the other after missing four games. Cook peaked as a fantasy asset in 2020, when he finished as the RB2 with over 24 PPR points per game. Since then, though, we have seen a steady decline in Cook’s play and fantasy production, with his PPG average dropping from 24.1 to 15.9 in 2021 to 14.0 in 2022. His yards per carry have dropped as well, from 5.0 in 2020 to 4.7 to last year’s career-low 4.4. 

Cook did find the end zone 10 times this year, up from 6 in 2021. This was also the healthiest he’s ever been, playing every game in the season for the first time in his six years. This availability helped him in season-long scoring — he finished as the RB11 with 237.8 PPR points. That raw total likely helps Cook among some dynasty managers, because the end result is still strong. That’s why the time is now to unload him—he’ll be 28 by Week 1 of 2023, and it’s unlikely at that age that we ever see him get close to his previous heights.

Marquise Brown, WR, Arizona Cardinals

After being traded to Arizona in the offseason, Marquise Brown carried a fair amount of hype, especially with him linking up with his former college teammate Kyler Murray. This appeared to be the right call when Brown started the season with three top-12 finishes in the first six games, sitting as the WR5 after Week 6 with 109.5 PPR points. But a foot injury forced him to miss Weeks 7-11, and after his return (and with DeAndre Hopkins back in the offense), he only managed one top-24 finish the rest of the way. That meant he finished the season as the WR44 in PPR leagues, with only 156 PPR points, even after the strong start to the season. Now, with the rumors of Hopkins maybe being dealt this offseason, the hype window has begun to re-open on Brown. If other managers think a Hopkins departure could lead to early-season type production from Brown again, that’s an opportunity to get a nice trade return. 

The reason for moving Brown is clear: He will likely be without Murray for a significant amount of 2023 while the quarterback recovers from a late-season ACL injury. Additionally, the Cardinals will have a new coaching staff in place, which always introduces uncertainty. In other words, if anyone is buying the “Hopkins leaving makes Brown a potential WR1,” it seems like a smart move. 

Christian Kirk, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars 

Christian Kirk came to Jacksonville via free agency over the offseason, landing a huge deal after a career-best season in Arizona in 2021. He built on that production, shattering career highs with 84 receptions on 133 targets for 1,108 yards and 8 touchdowns. Kirk finished as a WR1 for the first time in his career, the WR12 with 241.9 PPR points. With that performance and Trevor Lawrence entering his third season, Kirk’s trade value is spiking in many leagues, opening up a perfect window to capitalize. 

The Jaguars likely get Calvin Ridley in the lineup in 2023 after trading for him at the 2022 deadline despite him being suspended for the season. Ridley being on the field makes it likely that Kirk and Zay Jones both see a decrease in targets to make from for the 2020 second-team All-Pro. That means both Jags holdovers should see lower ceilings in 2023, making Kirk more of a fringe WR2/WR3, not the top-flight option he was this year. 2022 is likely to go down as his career year, making this the right time to move on in dynasty.

Stefon Diggs, WR, Buffalo Bills 

This may sound crazy, but stick with me, Stefon Diggs is a player you should be looking to move on from. Diggs is coming off his fifth straight 1,000-yard season and a career-high 11 touchdowns, finishing as the WR4 with 321.2 PPR points, his second-best career finish (he was the WR2 in 2020). That said, we saw Diggs disappear at times this year. In Weeks 14-16, Diggs put up 10 receptions (on 16) targets for 123 scoreless yards across three games combined. In Weeks 3-4, it was 11 receptions on 17 targets for 136 yards. He was outside the top 30 fantasy receivers in all five of those weeks. (He averaged a weekly finish of 8.2 in his other games.) 

In three years with the Bills, Diggs hasn’t finished worse than WR7. On the other hand, he turns 30 next year, which is always a warning sign for a receiver. He might not fall off a cliff in 2023, but the beginning of a decline in production wouldn’t be surprising. In dynasty, being a year early is more than fine, and even being two years early is acceptable. Better to capitalize on elite value. If your contending window is open in 2023, you probably want to hold on to Diggs, but if your dynasty roster is more geared toward the future, moving him for a younger receiver is a savvy play.