Fantasy Football Winners and Losers of the Trade Deadline

A 2024 trade deadline that started with a bang ended with a whimper at 4 p.m. ET Tuesday, with only a few minor trades trickling in near the deadline. Teams that pounced early largely got wide receivers, while a few defensive pieces (and a couple more receivers for good measure) moved around Tuesday.

Below, let’s look at the fantasy football winners and losers from a ho-hum trade deadline.

Fantasy Football Trade Deadline Winners

Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City Chiefs

The losses of Hollywood Brown, Isiah Pacheco and Rashee Rice hit Patrick Mahomes hard, but the arrival of DeAndre Hopkins definitely helps. After a week to ease into things in Week 8, Hopkins was unleashed Sunday, getting 9 targets and hauling in 8 for 86 yards and 2 touchdowns, finishing as the WR4 on the week with 28.6 PPR points. That helped Mahomes get to 24.5 fantasy points Monday, his best output since Week 7 of last season. This isn’t the new normal for Mahomes or anything, but it does show he has more of a ceiling than he had displayed so far in 2024.

Chase Brown, RB, Cincinnati Bengals

Zack Moss being listed as out “indefinitely” made it clear that the Bengals would do something with the backfield. Trayveon Williams and Kendall Milton were the only other backs on the roster behind Brown, and neither has so much as a touch yet this season. So they traded for Khalil Herbert, a move that would have raised a lot of eyebrows a year ago. Now? Now, Herbert is a guy who hasn’t really played in a while and only commanded a seventh-round pick in a trade. A guy who has seventh-round trade value isn’t a guy who will threaten the surging Brown for big work. They could have gotten someone who would work alongside Brown, but instead, he is now the bell cow, and Herbert is the handcuff.

Mike Williams, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers

What was your favorite moment of the Mike Williams/Jets era? He had 12 catches on 21 targets for 166 scoreless yards in 9 games for New York, going from “exciting offseason acquisition” to “out of favor in that offense” in a hurry. We aren’t catapulting Williams back into the thick of fantasy starting lineups now that he’s a Steeler or anything, but pairing contest catch maven Williams with “throw it up and see what happens” steward Russell Wilson could make for some very exciting moments.

Jonathan Mingo, WR, Dallas Cowboys

A year and a half into his career, the former second-rounder Mingo is sitting at 539 yards and 0 touchdowns through 24 games. It’s been rough, and the advanced numbers aren’t any better. His value in Carolina was nil. Or at least it was in theory, because now he’s a Dallas Cowboy, and he’s a Dallas Cowboy because the team gave the Panthers a fourth-round pick for him. That’s crazy value for what looks like a failed pick, and while we aren’t going all in on Mingo or anything — especially with Cooper Rush set to start at quarterback for the next few weeks — Jerry Jones isn’t the type of guy to give a fourth-round pick for a guy and not insist on him getting use, especially with CeeDee Lamb banged up and the rest of the receiver room underwhelming.

Fantasy Football Trade Deadline Losers

Davante Adams, WR, New York Jets

He had a good game in Week 9, but that was after 84 scoreless yards combined in his first two Jets games. The Jets aren’t a high-flying offense, and Adams is the B to Garrett Wilson’s A. His days of being a locked-in WR1 are over.

Diontae Johnson, WR, Baltimore Ravens

I’m not reading too much into Johnson’s goose egg in his Ravens debut Sunday, with only a few days on the roster. But the best you can say about him is that he’s the … No. 4 option in this offense? No. 5 if you count Lamar Jackson, which you should? He’s always been his team’s No. 1 or 2 target, and now he’s definitely behind Zay Flowers and maybe Mark Andrews, and that’s if the team doesn’t lean on Jackson and Derrick Henry on the ground. He doesn’t have a lot of upside going forward.

Jameson Williams, WR, Detroit Lions
Sam LaPorta, WR, Detroit Lions

This is a small one, but the problem with using Lions pass-catchers in fantasy is that the team likes to beat opponents up on the ground. And adding Za’Darius Smith to the defense to replace the injured Aidan Hutchinson only strengthens the defense and means the Lions aren’t likely to get into shootouts. There just won’t be enough targets for these guys.

Xavier Worthy, WR, Kansas City Chiefs

DeAndre Hopkins’ arrival helps Patrick Mahomes, to be sure, but it hurts Xavier Worthy, who had found himself as the quasi WR1 in Kansas City simply by attrition. He certainly isn’t that now, and there’s not much upside in using him at this point.

Fantasy Football Trade Deadline Neutrals

Anthony Richardson, QB, Indianapolis Colts
Bryce Young, QB, Carolina Panthers

Two second-year quarterbacks who have been benched. Two sources of big-time trade rumors. And in the end, two guys who stayed on their teams. That seems to say their teams still have faith they could turn it around, but then those are the teams that quasi-gave up on them in the first place. So … little up, little down.