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Fantasy Football Trade Targets Week 7: Got the Courage to Make This Move?

Peaking RBs to Sell; Sneakier RBs to Buy

OK, you might read “sneaky” and then the first name listed and think I’m an idiot. (Or maybe you just came into the article already thinking that.)

So I’ll admit that adjective doesn’t apply to that player. But it might actually be a sneaky time to target him. And the two RBs who follow him line up as much sneakier options.

The guys on the sell side, meanwhile … that’s where you’ll need to bring some courage. Why? We’ll get to that.

Week 7 Buys

• Quinshon Judkins
• Breece Hall
• Isiah Pacheco

Week 7 Sells

• Rico Dowdle
• Travis Kelce
• D'Andre Swift

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Buy These Fantasy Trade Targets

We're often selling RBs in this space, but this week presents some names to chase after.

Quinshon Judkins, RB, Cleveland Browns

Judkins might seem like someone who has already broken through, eliminating your chances to buy him. But after a season-worst Week 6, he ranks just 26th among RBs in total PPR points and 20th in points per game.

And that season worst presents the real opportunity. Judkins managed an ugly 12-36 rushing line and no catches in a lopsided loss to the Steelers. But we’ve seen the goods.

The Usage is Already Solid, With Upside

Though five games, Judkins sits … 

• tied for 17th among RBs in expected PPR points per game
• tied for 15th in half-PPR
• 12th in non-PPR

In each case, he’s averaging 1.0 per game under expected. And the receiving usage could easily climb.

Judkins led Cleveland RBs in pass routes in weeks 3 and 4. He slipped to third in Week 5, but then trailed Jerome Ford just 21-15 in routes in Week 6 -- beating Dylan Sampson. That’s a lot better than the target distribution and reception totals made it look:

Perception Could Change in a Hurry

If you don’t pursue Judkins now, you might find him a lot more expensive next week.

Judkins gets a Dolphins defense this Sunday that allowed:

• 124 yards to Kimani Vidal last week
• 206 to Rico Dowdle the week before
• 162 combined to Breece Hall and Justin Fields in Week 4
• 108 to James Cook in Week 3

The schedule gets tougher beyond Miami, with the Patriots and Jets sandwiching a Week 8 bye. But Judkins has already outperformed challenging spots against the Packers and Lions.

Breece Hall, RB, New York Jets

The Jets’ offense didn’t just stink in that London loss to the Broncos. It was the kind of bad you might one day tell your grandkids about … especially as a warning if their parents are trying to raise them as Jets fans.

I remember watching the Jets pass offense literally move backward!

The extent of that stink should help lower the price of just about any Jet you might want to target this week. But this is probably the only guy worth a serious look right now, and it’s about much more than the Week 6 performance.

The Positive for Hall Amid Extreme Negatives

Hall didn’t do much for your fantasy team in Week 6, but he did get the ball. A lot.

Hall carried a season-high 22 times against the Broncos, the first time since the opener that he exceeded 14 attempts. And he has now handled 36 of the team’s 39 RB carries in the two games since Braelon Allen went down. (Allen’s expected to miss at least another six weeks and could be done for the year.)

Hall also drew zero targets against Denver. But that’s an outlier vs. the rest of the season. Through Week 5, his 13.1% target share ranked 11th among RBs -- despite a mere 38% route rate that ranked 28th over that span.

That rate has fluctuated week to week, but Hall caught 4+ passes in three straight games before the Week 6 shutout. And he should get more central to the passing plan now that Garrett Wilson’s expected to miss at least two games with a knee injury.

Matchups Likely to Deliver Instant Boost

Any such work boost would come at a perfect time, as the Jets hit a pair of positive matchups.

This week’s clash actually finds a Panthers D that’s probably playing the run much tougher than you’d believe (third-best in rush DVOA). But they did open the year by allowing a 16-143 rushing line to Travis Etienne. And more importantly, they sit just 19th in total defensive DVOA. 

That’s why the Jets are projected for a decent 20.5 points in Week 7, merely the eighth-lowest number on the slate.

After that comes a Bengals D that isn’t doing anything better than you would assume.

If you wait for Hall to show his value before trying to make a move, you’ll run into his Week 9 bye and then two worse matchups (Cleveland and New England) on the other side.

Hall Can Still Outperform His Situation

We shouldn’t ignore that those two negative RB-scoring matchups sit in the middle of a schedule that our adjusted fantasy points allowed rank seventh-worst for the position the rest of the way.

Is that worrisome? Yes. But Hall remains the type of RB who can outperform matchups and his situation.

That comes via his receiving work, where Hall ranks 11th among RBs in yards despite sitting just 17th in receptions. But it also comes from his rushing.

Hall’s up to 0.57 rush yards over expected per attempt this year, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, compared with 0.01 in that category last season. He has also rebounded in yards after contact per attempt and is working on his best yards-per-carry average since 2022.

Sometimes you just bet on the talent. 

And it doesn’t hurt that the blocking has looked decent ranking 12th in PFF run-blocking grade and helping Hall’s yards before contact per carry to 2.4, vs. 2.1 and 2.2 the previous two seasons.

Isiah Pacheco, RB, Kansas City Chiefs

Here’s an option that should come a lot more cheaply than the first two RBs.

Pacheco heads into Week 7 ranked just 39th among RBs in total PPR points and 49th in points per game.

So why bother with him? Because there are signs of things picking up.

Pacheco’s Usage Has Improved Lately

Let’s start with this table from Jared’s latest Usage Takeaways article …

Pacheco set season highs Sunday in each of those four categories. It marked the second straight week in which he has set highs in snap rate and route rate.

The mere 1 catch for 0 yards in the win over Detroit might not reveal as much. But it was Pacheco’s third straight three-target game. And the meh-looking 12-51 rushing line also marked season highs for carries and yards.

Of course, we’ll need more than that going forward if he’s going to help our lineups. But the Monday night broadcast crew said the Chiefs wanted to get Pacheco more involved. And OC Matt Nagy spoke after the Week 5 game about the coaches working on Pacheco.

Kareem Hunt remains a thorn, of course. But he played far less than Pacheco in Week 6 (29% of snaps; 18% route rate). That included Pacheco getting all three goal-line snaps in the game.

If that alignment continues, the fantasy points should follow.

The Offense is About to Be Whole

The Chiefs already starting rebounding from a fairly sluggish start to the year (at least by their standards).

K.C. averaged 20 points and 315.7 total yards across the first three weeks. That jumped to 31.7 points and 404.3 yards over the past three games. And now WR Rashee Rice is set to return.

Already a top-10 offense in scoring and yardage, these Chiefs could operate as one of the league’s very best units the rest of the way.

That would obviously help the backfield scoring opportunities. And the full allotment of receiving options certainly won’t hurt the available running room. Pacheco has already faced the fifth-lowest rate of stacked boxes (8+ defenders in the box) so far among 41 qualifiers.

Even if you don’t want to start him right away, stashing Pacheco at a bargain price looks like a low-risk move. If he finally delivers his first rushing score against the Raiders thesis week, you can bet on that cost rising.

Recent Buys

Let’s look back at our Trade Target recommendations from the past two weeks and how we’d treat those players now …

Week 6 Report

• Thomas had easily his best outing of the season in Week 6, which will probably make him a lot tougher to buy this week. But we don't expect him to backslide, so feel free to take a run. Maybe his current manager will (mistakenly) view that performance as an outlier.
• Godwin's setback with the repaired leg makes him more of a wait-and-see. It also probably lowers his price even further, though, if you still want to stash. Just make sure it's real cheap.

Week 5 Report

• Williams delivered his most believable fantasy performance last week. That makes this a tough time to buy, and he's not as good a bet as Brian Thomas Jr. to keep drawing good weekly target shares.

Sell These Players

It won't be easy to sell this first guy after the two performances he just had. But that doesn't make it wrong.

Rico Dowdle, RB, Carolina Panthers

Whether Dowdle actually makes for a good “sell” this week will depend highly on the opinion of the manager you’re trying to trade with.

Some marks might think, “Of course you’re trying to sell him after he played out of his mind the past two weeks; no way that continues!”

But others might think, “Dowdle was freakin’ awesome the past two weeks; no way Chuba Hubbard gets the job back!”

So the first thing we’re going to do here is not decide for that person whether the offer’s worth sending. Let’s just send it out and see what they say.

Here’s the case for trying …

It Starts with Simple Logic -- in Two Parts

Part 1: Dowdle Probably Isn’t That Good

Dowdle is 27 and entered the NFL in 2020. His two largest career outputs for both rushing and total yardage came the past two weeks. He had four previous games of 100+ yards rushing, all last season.

Those Cowboys -- who had been the only team to employ him as a pro -- then let him walk so they could turn the backfield over to Javonte Williams, Miles Sanders, and Jaydon Blue.

The rest of the league shrugged, and the Panthers signed him to just a one-year, $2.75 million deal. And then Carolina gave him 33 touches across the first four games, which Dowdle turned into 3.0 yards per carry and 4.0 yards per rush.

Was he hiding supreme talent that whole time? Did prime Jim Brown time-travel into his body at the start of October? Or did Dowdle run incredibly hot the past two weeks against bad defenses -- to a degree he almost certainly won’t match the rest of the way … even if Chuba Hubbard were to miss the rest of the season?

Part 2: If He Is That Good, Then Preserving Him Makes Sense

Now let’s assume Dowdle is just that good. Can he keep going all season on 30 touches per game (his average over the past two weeks)? Probably not.

One player has ever averaged 30 touches per game for a season: Tampa Bay’s James Wilder in 1984.

We’ve seen 44 player seasons of 400+ touches. Of those, 19 came from guys who had just one such season. Five of those 19 seasons came from guys 27 or older.

Putting aside that all five of those guys established their lead-back profiles before that season, the point for this section is that getting the ball as much as Dowdle did the past two games and staying healthy is extremely difficult.

So even if the Panthers do now believe in the talent, they’d be wise to siphon at least some of that work to a healthy Hubbard -- whom they’re paying $8 million a year, by the way.

Hubbard and Resistance About to Return

HC Dave Canales doesn’t want to say yet whether Dowdle will keep the starting gig after Hubbard returns.

Has Rico Dowdle earned the right to be the #Panthers starting RB? Dave Canales: ‘’We’ll see.’’ pic.twitter.com/w6cb3qL3rc

— David Newton (@DNewtonespn) October 13, 2025

I get that. But even if Dowdle maintains the lead spot, I’m gonna bet that Hubbard claims more than the 11% share of RB opportunities that didn’t go to Dowdle over the past two weeks.

And we know that the opponents are about to get tougher.

Dowdle tore up the Dolphins and Cowboys the past two weeks. Those teams rank 28th and 29th in run-defense DVOA; 32nd and 31st in total defensive DVOA.

The rest of Carolina’s schedule? It ranks toughest of any in the league for RB scoring, according to our adjusted fantasy points allowed.

Keep in Mind: You Still Don’t Need to Undersell

I just made the case for unloading Dowdle, but here’s where I warn you against just giving him up for a weak return.

If you drafted (or picked up) Dowdle and played him even one of the past two weeks, then you’ve already won on that investment. The return has been greater than you could’ve hoped, especially if you started him twice.

We’re looking to sell Dowdle now to try to improve our roster for the rest of the season. If the available return doesn’t clearly do that, then hang on to him and see what happens.

Even if he doesn’t give you another double-digit fantasy score the rest of the way, it wouldn’t be a “loss” for your roster to have him around.

Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs

Kelce’s been solid for your team so far, probably at least matching his draft value.

He ranks fifth among TEs in total PPR points and eighth in points per game among TEs who have played more than one game. But there have also been sneaky issues.

Usage Dips at an Odd Time

Kelce’s 37 targets tie for fifth-most among TEs so far. But his target share sits at a career-low 16.9%.

That still ranks 10th among tight ends this season, and it would seem understandable for a 36-year-old to lose a little bit of work. But Kelce’s dip -- also down to 0.20 targets per route -- comes at a time where he should be more involved.

The Chiefs have yet to get WR Rashee Rice on the field this season. And they lost WR Xavier Worthy for basically the first three games. (He left on his third snap of the opener.)

Kelce’s two smallest route rates so far have come within the three games since Worthy returned. That included Sunday night’s low of 58%, and it’s not as though the Chiefs simply pulled him early in a victory. Kelce’s final target came with 5:45 left in the fourth quarter.

TE Noah Gray, meanwhile, saw a season-high snap share last week. And his season snap share is up a few percentage points from last season, which was up 5.4 points vs. 2023.

Gray is also working on a second straight career low in special team snaps.

Biggest Challenge About to Return

Kelce hasn’t had to contend with Rice since Week 3 of last season. The WR went down for the year on his fourth play of Week 4 and has missed the first six contests of this season.

When last we saw Rice on the field, he garnered 29 targets to Kelce’s 12 over those first three 2024 games. And before that, Rice beat Kelce 56-40 in targets over the final six regular-season games of 2023 -- the wideout’s rookie campaign.

Kelce regained the edge (37-33) for that year’s playoffs, but it sure looks like we should bet on the 25-year-old receiver cutting into the 36-year-old TE’s opportunities the rest of this season.

That makes now a great time to try to move Kelce, especially with an upside Raiders matchup in Week 7 plus two more games before the bye likely helping his perceived value.

If trading Kelce would leave you empty at TE, then package the vet with another player to target a lower-profile (but still good) TE plus an upgrade at another position.

D’Andre Swift, RB, Chicago Bears

Here’s one way to read Swift’s big performance at Washington: The Bears used the bye week to fix what was wrong with the run game and put it all together against a Commanders D that had been playing the run tough.

Here’s another: The Bears played well collectively against a defense that’s OK and got the kind of outlier game that we’ve seen at various points throughout Swift’s career.

Which should we believe?

Show Me When Swift Has Sustained Strong Rushing Production

Swift has played 78 NFL games (including one in the playoffs). He has rushed for 100+ yards eight times. Among his six pro seasons, just two have seen him post multiple games of 100+ rushing yards:

• 2023 in Philadelphia (two of them)
• 2021 in Detroit (two)

Swift now has two 100-yard games since joining the Bears ahead of last season. Both have come against the Commanders. Four other games among his 22 in Chicago have seen Swift reach 5.0 yards per rush.

For the season now, he’s averaging fewer carries per game (14.0) than he did either of the past two years. And he’s averaging fewer receptions per game (3.0) than he did in any of his three Detroit seasons.

More Backfield Sharing on the Way?

Week 6 not only featured much stronger production from Swift. It also found him playing his smallest snap share so far this season, along with Kyle Monangai playing his largest share and Roschon Johnson getting his first offensive snaps of the year.

The margins weren’t large, so that all might just be a blip. But if we want to believe that Swift’s Week 6 production signaled the Bears figuring out their running game over the bye, then we have to at least be open to the possibility that Chicago also decided to start incorporating its younger RBs more.

Swift’s second-smallest snap share came in Week 2, also the only game with a lower route rate for Swift than Monday night’s 39.4%. That was a lopsided loss at Detroit, though, rather than a narrow road victory.

You Don’t Need to Decide How Swift Will Stumble

Don’t get too caught up in figuring out exactly how things might decline for Swift. Focus in on the fact that he’s coming off one of the biggest games of his career and now sits higher among RBs in PPR points per game than he has finished in any season since 2021.

Could Swift finish 14th at the position in PPR points per game? Sure. But he went 23rd, 24th, and 17th the past three years. And he hasn’t exceeded 14 carries since Week 1 this season.

Shop Swift now for some more reliable help.

Recent Sells

Let’s look back at our Sell recommendations from the past two weeks and see how we’d treat those players now …

Week 6 Report

Week 5 Report

• Henry could be anything from a sell still, to a hold, to a buy. It depends on what you need, your situations (if you're the current Henry holder), and/or the feeling of the manager who has him rostered. A week ago, Henry was coming off four straight games of 50 yards or less. Last time out, he ran for 122 on a season-high 24 carries. But now Baltimore's on a bye. And we can only assume Lamar Jackson will be ready to save the offense on the other side. So make sure to assess your situation before you make any decisions on Henry. And feel free to just disregard him as any sort of trade target.

Next Up

Top 10 Fantasy Football Takeaways from Week 6 Usage

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Matt Schauf, Editor

Matt has earned two Fantasy Pros accuracy awards for IDP rankings and won thousands of dollars as a player across best ball, dynasty, and high-stakes fantasy formats. He has been creating fantasy football content for more than 20 years, with work featured by Sporting News, Rotoworld, Athlon, Sirius XM, and others. He's been with Draft Sharks since 2011.