Buy Low, Sell High: Week 5

Buy Low

Tyreek Hill (WR-MIA) - Teams with Hill will have to wait until at least Week 8 for Tua Tagovailoa to return. Redraft teams who took Hill in the first don’t have enough time to wait out that absence if they are 1-3 or 0-4. This is the time for a lowball offer since no one will be motivated to give a lot for him. In dynasty, Hill’s value has peaked as he’s on the wrong side of 30 now. If his team is trending towards being out of it, they probably would listen to lowball offers. Hill wasn’t playing well in Week 2 before Tagovailoa went out, but the Bills usually get the best of him. He hasn’t exactly transcended his quarterback woes, and other elite fantasy wide receivers have at least had a pulse when they have to rely on bad quarterback play to generate value. Hill also seemed to aggravate his preseason thumb injury. His value is unlikely to grow, and he’s unlikely to help his fantasy teams in the next two weeks, so don’t budge on your lowball offer. The team may come back to you next week and take it.

Mark Andrews (TE-BAL) - Maybe Andrews is in the steep decline phase of his career. Maybe the August car accident was worse than has been let on. Before the accident, all of the camp reports had Andrews looking like his old self. John Harbaugh told us that Andrews would have bigger days ahead in the passing game. In Week 1, the defense focused on him, and Lamar Jackson punished them by finding Isaiah Likely open instead. In Week 2, the Ravens led until the very end and Andrews numbers were modest by his standards (4-51), but serviceable by 2024 fantasy tight end standards. Weeks 3 and 4 were blowout run-heavy games for the Ravens offense. Yes, the Ravens barely used Andrews in a bad sign for his value, but poor fantasy output was understandable given the game script. We’re playing the probabilities by trying to trade for him at a steep discount in redraft and dynasty with his fantasy teams very frustrated with the results to date.

Christian McCaffrey (RB-SF) - This is another situation where we have let the teams with McCaffrey suffer enough that they need to consider selling him at a deep discount or get nothing in redraft leagues. Dynasty leagues are trickier, but it never hurts to ask. McCaffrey’s bilateral tendonitis, along with Jordan Mason’s excellent play, casts a shadow over exactly what his value will be when he does return, and no one should assume he’ll return in Week 10 or that he’ll stay on the field once he tests his injuries in a game. Still, playing the probabilities, McCaffrey could be a valuable stretch-run asset that you can get for a price that won’t comprise the foundational parts of your team.

Austin Ekeler, Jeremy McNichols (RB-WAS) - Lost in the overwhelming buzz that Jayden Daniels has generated and slowed down by a Week 4, Ekeler looked as good as he did during seasons that put him in the first round of fantasy drafts. He will get less work than Brian Robinson Jr when both are healthy, but Robinson has a knee issue that could keep him out of Week 5. The Commanders offense is much, much better than anyone expected, and Ekeler is playing as well as anyone could have expected. Unexpected fantasy value will come, and it could be consequential. Overpaying for him right now could look like an underpay in a few weeks. McNichols is basically free. One of the feel good comeback stories of the season, he looked as good as he has at any point in his career last week. The team is not going to overwork Ekeler in any scenario, and McNichols is closer to being the lead back in this very good offense than his value reflects right now.

Hunter Luepke (RB-DAL) - This one is for very deep leagues, and more a player to monitor than anything else, but Luepke should have your attention. We have seen FB/RB tweeners excel in small windows when situations demand them to, and the Cowboys having only a replacement level back in Rico Dowdle and one-foot-in-the-grave Ezekiel Elliott could be that situation. Luepke ran 4.61 at 230 pounds with a 36.5” vertical. That’s better than Mike Alstott and Peyton Hillis did coming out of college. Luepke is a good receiver and pass blocker, and it’s undeniable that the Cowboys offense looks the best when he’s out there. He fits well in a pass-first approach and could force the Cowboys to rethink his deployment, especially if Dowdle gets hurt.