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Fantasy Football Trade Tips: Try To Get Off The Omarion Hampton Train As Soon As You Can

Creating realistic trade offers that lead to a deal being accepted is always challenging. Throughout the season, Justin Boone will be publishing his rest-of-season trade value charts, which you can use as a guide to help make moves and manage your roster. Below, he highlights some of the players you should be buying or selling, before their value shifts in the coming weeks.

Justin Boone's Trade Value Charts

Buys

Chase Brown, RB, Bengals

Brown has been solid but unspectacular through three games while finishing as the RB14, RB20 and RB30 in weekly half-PPR fantasy scoring. To make matters worse, he has another tough matchup this week with a Jaguars defense that continues to be a near-shutdown unit versus the run. Jacksonville has held every running back its faced under 40 rushing yards and only allowed one RB to find the end zone so far.

That means expectations for Brown need to be kept in check this week.

However, that's why this might be the perfect time to buy. Managers who spent a second-round pick to draft Brown might be slightly disappointed by his results in the last two games and are staring at a red matchup in Week 4.

But nothing has changed for Brown's preseason outlook. He's playing over 70% of the snaps and is top-10 among RBs in touches with 59. He remains heavily involved as a pass-catcher and his backup, Samaje Perine, is only getting three to four touches per week. Brown's production is going to spike soon; it just might not occur in this game. So, if you want to wait one more week before sending an offer, that's fine. But I'm trying to get Brown before he strings together a few RB1 results.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt, RB, Commanders

Rachaad White injured his shoulder in Week 3, which led to the Commanders signing veteran Austin Ekeler. Now, White is missing practice on Wednesday, meaning we'll need to monitor his status before Sunday's game in London.

Buying Croskey-Merritt isn't only linked to White's health, though. JCM had 63 rushing yards and a touchdown on 17 touches in Week 1, finishing as the RB17. He followed that up with a quieter 48 yards on 13 attempts in Week 2 and 43 yards on 20 touches in Week 3. But his most recent stat line is misleading, since he had a 48-yard touchdown overturned due to an illegal formation penalty. If that play had counted, he would have been the RB12 on the week.

Now, he gets a pair of positive matchups with the Colts and Giants defenses that are both top-10 in terms of fantasy points allowed to running backs this year.

While the addition of Ekeler makes it likely that a committee approach will continue regardless of White's status, Croskey-Merritt is a fantasy RB3 with a clear path to RB2 production if things go his way. It also helps that Jayden Daniels appears to be on the shorter side for his recovery timeline, meaning the star QB will return in the next couple of weeks.

Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Panthers

In Monday's episode of the People's Panic Meter, I was surprised when we received a question on our concern level for McMillan after three weeks. After all, the sophomore wideout posted 75 yards in the opener and 101 yards in Week 2, while earning a combined 18 targets in those contests.

Yes, the Browns game last weekend didn't go as planned and McMillan only came away with a pair of receptions and 17 yards, but most pass-catchers are susceptible to down weeks. The Panthers were battling injuries on both sides of the ball and never got into rhythm as they did in the first two outings.

Fortunately, a primetime date with the banged-up Lions defense awaits in Week 4. Detroit is allowing the fourth-most fantasy points to receivers, including at least 60 yards and/or a TD to five different wideouts so far. With the Panthers also dealing with injuries on their defense, we should expect plenty of points in this game.

If the McMillan manager is worried after Week 3, this might be your last chance to acquire him at a discount.

Tucker Kraft, TE, Packers

A slow start to the season isn't surprising for a player coming off a torn ACL. If anything, we might have been fooled into thinking Kraft was 100% after his 65-yard outing in Week 1.

While we've seen his route share jump from 47% in the opener to 84% and 72% the last two weeks, respectively, it's evident that he's still working his way back to form.

The good news is that the Packers' passing attack is extremely consolidated around Christian Watson, Matthew Golden and Kraft, following Jayden Reed being placed on season-ending IR. While the two wideouts are leading the charge, Kraft is still 12th in targets among tight ends through three games.

That kind of volume will turn into better fantasy days, as we see him become more effective the further we get from the injury.

A matchup with the Buccaneers this week could be a get-right spot for him. Tampa allowed Mike Gesicki 78 yards and a touchdown in Week 1 and 71 combined yards and a score to the duo of Harold Fannin Jr. and Blake Whiteheart in Week 2.

Kraft remains a mid-range TE1 with upside moving forward.

SELLS

Ashton Jeanty, RB, Raiders

Jeanty capitalized on a weak Dolphins defense in the opener, en route to 147 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns. Since then, the production hasn't been as impressive and he's failed to find the end zone again.

Part of the problem might be the ankle injury that sidelined him in August and may have popped up again last week. Jeanty limped off the field and got both ankles taped up before returning to the game. Meanwhile, his backup, Mike Washington Jr., had his best stat line of the season with 54 yards and a touchdown.

The possibility that Jeanty could see his touches reduced slightly in favor of Washington getting slightly more involved still exists. The Raiders also have to deal with the Chiefs' and Patriots' run defenses the next two weeks.

That's enough for me to sell Jeanty, if you can get adequate value in return. Trading Jeanty for Jeremiyah Love-plus is a move I would consider at the moment.

Omarion Hampton, RB, Chargers

The Chargers offense has been one of the biggest disappointments in the first month, and Hampton's two touchdowns are masking a weak fantasy start for the second-year back. Aside from the matchup versus the Raiders, Hampton was held to 43 yards in Week 1 and 56 yards in Week 3, with no catches in either contest.

His teammates Keaton Mitchell and Kimani Vidal have had their usage increase, leading to Hampton only running a route on 16% of the dropbacks in Week 3.

Hampton isn't on track to lose his job, but this is now a committee backfield in a struggling offense that's about to face a murderers' row of matchups the next two months. The Chargers will encounter the Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs, Rams, Texans and Ravens, sandwiched around a bye in Week 7.

Things are going to get worse before they get better for Mike McDaniel's offense, so you should be trying to get off this train as soon as possible.

Cam Skattebo, RB, Giants

When Jaxson Dart was lost for the year, we knew the Giants offense was in trouble in real life and fantasy. Getting to play the Titans in Week 3 helped cover up how bad this could get as the season progresses.

Skattebo was able to reach 100 scrimmage yards (60 rushing, 40 receiving) on 23 touches in the game. That's a number we shouldn't expect him to reach many times the rest of the season.

Whether it's Jameis Winston or J.J. McCarthy starting at quarterback, the ceiling for the Giants offense has shrunk dramatically. We also witnessed an increase in Najee Harris' snaps and volume last week, resulting in nine carries for 52 yards. That could be a sign of things to come as the team tries to take the pressure off their replacement QBs.

Either way, a Jaxson Dart-less offense isn't the place you want to be investing in if you have legitimate aspirations of winning a fantasy championship.

Emeka Egbuka, WR, Buccaneers

I voiced my concerns about Egbuka this summer when he suffered a toe injury that always seemed like it would impact him at the start of the season. Through three games, his stat lines haven't been terrible, but we're not seeing him command the kind of volume you would hope for a second-year player on the verge of a breakout.

Egbuka has totalled 5-63-0, 3-16-1 and 5-62-0 against the Bengals, Browns and Vikings, respectively.

Building on those numbers could be tough, now that the degree of difficulty has been increased with Baker Mayfield sidelined for at least the next few weeks with a thumb injury.

Jalon Daniels is an intriguing rookie backup quarterback, but expecting him to improve a passing attack that's been struggling is a stretch.

This all boils down to Egbuka being a volatile fantasy WR3 moving forward.

Justin Boone's Trade Value Charts

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