This week, I will highlight six players (quarterbacks and running backs) who I believe are not being valued correctly. After I discuss my stance on the player and some of the numbers that support my stance, I will use the last paragraph to give readers an idea of who and/or what they should expect in return.

Trade For: Lamar Jackson

This recommendation is more circumstantial than anything else. There is a decent chance that the Jackson manager is closer to the basement in your league than at the top of the standings. That may especially be the case if Jackson has to sit again in Week 8, which would suggest that he suffered more of a Grade 2 hamstring strain than a Grade 1. Either way, it seems likely he will be back no later than Week 9.

The whole point of leading off with him is this: take advantage of the uncertainty (and potential desperation) while you still can. Yes, it might be difficult to pry Jackson away from his manager at this point given he has been without him for three full weeks, but most managers sitting at 1-6 or 2-5 cannot rely on the hope that he will be back, especially if you can send him/her a trade offer that helps him/her win this week. The beautiful thing about acquiring Jackson (assuming you can) is that the Ravens have little choice but to put the pedal to the medal once he returns if they hope to make a playoff run.

Each league is obviously different, and I may not be the greatest person to advise on this particular subject since I drafted so much Jackson this summer. (Yes, you can thank me for his injury and your current predicament if you drafted him as well.) The only real offer I have received for Jackson during his absence is for Quinshon Judkins, which is probably a good barometer for where talks should begin. It is easy to forget that Jackson was easily the QB1 through three weeks - a full three points per game higher than Josh Allen and Caleb Williams. Much like Christian McCaffrey at running back, Jackson is the ultimate cheat code, so he is worth paying up for anytime his value is lower than normal.

Trade For: Caleb Williams

Especially at quarterback, it is never a bad idea to do a price check on a player who the public or media seems to be bashing that particular week. Or maybe a player who failed to live up to the hype. Williams is coming off a down Week 7 - his first game of the season without a passing or rushing touchdown. In fact, it was only the second time all season he had failed to account for at least two scores. His completion percentage has fallen short of 60 percent in three straight games as well. After rushing for 85 yards on 11 carries in his first two games, Williams has mustered 21 yards on as many rush attempts over his last four.

Needless to say, it has been frustrating to watch last year's No. 1 overall pick generate such enthusiasm in his first three games only to regress statistically under the watchful eye of HC Ben Johnson. However, there have been some positive developments recently that bode well for his success over the rest of the season. First and foremost, Chicago has run the ball with much more success since its Week 5 bye than it did at any point before or even during Williams' rookie season. While the team's rushing success may lead to a down game for him from time to time, it will slow down the rush and make his job easier as a whole.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Williams is the upcoming schedule. With his supporting cast (most notably, Rome Odunze, D.J. Moore, Olamide Zaccheaus, Luther Burden III and Colston Loveland), it is reasonable to believe he will bounce back in a big way against the Ravens (Week 8), Bengals (Week 9) and Giants (Week 10). Each of those three defenses ranks inside the top quarter of the league in terms of being the most accommodating to quarterbacks. Regarding Chicago's upcoming games against Baltimore and Cincinnati, both of those games should be high-scoring. For the first time since they embarked on their current four-game winning streak, the Bears may need to throw to keep up (or stay ahead). Maybe Williams proves to be nothing more than a matchup quarterback in 2025, but I would argue that he is worth acquiring now because he could easily be a sell-high candidate soon - if he can simply take advantage of his schedule over the next three weeks.

While none of these is an easy call per se, I would rather roll with Williams (QB14 in fantasy points per game) over players ranked around him, such as Bo Nix (QB11), Jayden Daniels (QB12) or Jared Goff (QB15). Especially in the case of Daniels, however, use good sense. In no way am I suggesting you should trade Daniels for Williams straight up. All I am suggesting in this case is that I wonder if we will see Daniels healthy again at any point this season.

Trade For: Saquon Barkley

In most competitive leagues (and definitely in high-stakes leagues), managers must be able to embrace a certain amount of uncertainty when completing trades. Does anyone want Barkley's combined 13.9 PPR fantasy points over the last two weeks combined in their starting lineup? Probably not. Is there a chance the 3.3 yards per carry and sub-100 total-yard games with little chance of multiple-touchdown upside continues for the remainder of the season? Absolutely.

While it would be convenient to suggest Barkley is suffering from the "Madden Curse" or the "Curse of 370," explanations for football players taking a turn for the worse - especially those performing so far below their career norms - are usually much more nuanced than that. Barkley may not be as explosive as he was last season (and the advanced analytics would seem to support that), but a much bigger problem has been the health of the offensive line (which I will get into shortly). We need not look any further than the difference between Barkley's yards before contact per attempt from 2024 (3.8) and 2025 (1.8) to see why I feel confident in saying that.

Brett Toth, who has bounced back and forth between the practice squad and the active roster for most of the last two seasons, is likely the starting center for now after Cam Jurgens (knee) was injured in Week 7. LG Landon Dickerson (ankle, back) has been hurting for most of the season. RG Tyler Steen, who was the expected starter at right guard last season before Mekhi Becton took the job from him, is performing slightly below league-average as a blocker. RT Lane Johnson has been dealing with injuries for most of the season.

So why trade for a player stuck behind this M*A*S*H unit on an offensive line? First and foremost, the Week 9 bye is coming at a good time for the Eagles. Perhaps just as importantly, I have a hard time looking at Philadelphia's schedule beginning around Week 12 and believing the Eagles' running game fails to get going against the likes of the Cowboys, Bears, Chargers, Raiders, Commanders and Bills. I also have to believe the best offensive line coach in the game (Jeff Stoutland) will be able to get more out of his pupils as the season progresses. Truth be told, I am betting on the healing powers of the bye week to help this recommendation come true.

You will likely have to pay a bit more for Barkley given his recent history, but I could easily envision a scenario in which his current manager would be happy to unload him for Travis Etienne, a low-end WR2 or maybe even Jacory Croskey-Merritt. I refuse to believe Barkley will end the season with 250 carries for 800 yards and 7-8 rushing touchdowns. As bad as things got for him with the Giants, he never performed that poorly over a full (healthy) season in New York. Last but not least, Barkley is not losing his job. Finding three-down backs with a locked-in workload is not an easy thing to do. Maybe RB2 is his ceiling this year. Well, I suppose it is a good thing you are not selling the farm to get him, right?

Trade For: Chase Brown

If you thought the "yuck" factor was strong with Barkley, allow me to introduce you to Brown. The offensive line is guaranteed to be bad, the all-world quarterback is likely out another two months and the Bengals are much more of a pass-happy team. Heck, Brown is losing work to Samaje Perine! Why is Brown someone you should target then?

This recommendation boils down to what you have available to you at RB2 each week. If you are rolling with Javonte Williams or James Cook or Quinshon Judkins behind Jonathan Taylor or Christian McCaffrey, you can probably skip the rest of this article. I could argue that you can stop reading if Rico Dowdle or J.K. Dobbins is your RB2. Most fantasy managers are not that fortunate. There are plenty of managers who are stuck with Kenneth Walker, Isiah Pacheco, David Montgomery, Tony Pollard or maybe even R.J. Harvey as their RB2. I am speaking to those people.

Unlike Barkley, Brown's current managers cannot justify asking for a lot in return for him. Yes, he is coming off a 100-yard rushing game. That's great, until you consider his 12-point performance in PPR leagues was the second-best mark of the season for him. Each of the running backs I mentioned at the end of the last paragraph is stuck in a committee - some in high-end offenses and some not. I would argue that some of them might see more work moving forward than Brown (Walker and Pacheco), but neither one of those players appears to be getting the high-value touches (third-down and goal-line) in their offenses. Cincinnati has not exactly given its running backs a ton of scoring chances, but there is little question in my mind that those opportunities will be coming soon. When they do, Brown should be getting them. The trade for Joe Flacco has reenergized the passing attack, which will undoubtedly trickle down to the running game as defenses begin to devote more attention to Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins again.

As it usually does with me, the matchups are what intrigued me the most when discussing Brown's rest-of-season outlook. I don't think there is any chance managers are going to get second-round value from him without Joe Burrow around, but I see only one matchup (New England in Week 12) that I think is an absolute buzzkill for Brown. From Weeks 13-16, the Bengals play every game against a defense ranked among the top six most favorable matchups for running backs. It is not all that bad leading up to Week 12 either, as the Jets (Week 8) are unlikely to mount enough offense to keep the Bengals from running as often as they want to in the second half. The Bears (Week 9) rank eighth among the most favorable matchups for running backs, while Brown just ran for 108 yards on the Steelers (Week 11) last week.

Trade For: Bucky Irving

Depending on where my team is in the standings, I don't mind taking chances on injured players in trades. Irving (foot, shoulder) has already been ruled out for this week and the Bucs are off next week, which means his current managers - many of whom are likely struggling to stay above .500 without their RB1 - are desperate for a win.

It would be a waste of time for me to go in-depth about how impactful Irving was when he was healthy, so allow me to sum it up like this: Irving has missed three full games already and is still the RB29. Over the first four weeks of the season, he was the RB8. During that same time, Irving handled 75 percent of the backfield rush attempts and commanded 68 percent of the backfield targets. Tampa Bay running backs only scored two touchdowns over that span, but most fantasy managers realize the Bucs are more than capable of setting their running backs up for multiple scoring opportunities in just about any game. The extra cherry on top for Irving investors is a Week 17 date against the Dolphins.

As far as what managers should give up for Irving, it depends a lot on the desperation of his current manager. J.K. Dobbins might be acceptable for a manager who does not have Rachaad White handcuffed to Irving and needs a win. Jaylen Warren might be more than enough. I pulled off a recent trade in which I sent David Montgomery and A.J. Brown away for James Cook. I think that 2-for-1 deal would be more than enough next week to get Irving.

Trade For: Trey Benson

Let's do a simple comparison to help me explain this one:

James Conner: 3.0 yards per carry (30 attempts)
Trey Benson 5.5 YPC (29)
Zonovan Knight: 3.5 (29)
Michael Carter: 2.8 (35)

Which one of these is not like the other? You guessed it. While I appreciate the small-sample nature of this exercise and the likelihood of making bad judgments based on it, numerous "hot-hand" decisions have been made by coaches over the years using much smaller samples.

Who cares if this little experiment says that Benson is the best (or most productive) back in Arizona this year? Great question. While I think there is a real chance that either Emari Demercado or Carter holds onto some passing-down duties once Benson is ready to return in Week 10, I don't think that is a lock. (I have a hard time seeing Demercado escaping the doghouse. Carter may not be on the active roster if the team goes with Benson-Demercado-Knight on game day.) I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that the replacement backs in Arizona have done almost nothing to warrant bigger roles once Benson returns.

In case you haven't noticed, there is a common theme to the four running backs I am discussing this week: each one either has a strong hold on three-down duties in their offense or stands a very good chance of having those duties once they return. At the very least, Arizona needs to find out if Benson is going to be its lead back in 2026. As more time passes, I am less convinced Demercado replaced Benson on known passing downs in Week 4 so much as he was giving Benson an occasional rest in aspects of the game the Cardinals were confident he could handle. I think it is a long shot that Demercado plays any kind of meaningful role for the remainder of the season. We already know what Carter is, and he has repeatedly failed to hold onto even a part-time role in recent years.

I suppose the best possibility of Benson losing touches upon his return is if Knight takes some of the work on first and second down, but I would suggest it is difficult for a player to move from fifth-string to taking work from the handpicked successor of Conner in two months. That should be especially true in this case, as the team has something invested in Benson and Knight is on his third team in as many seasons. Benson offers explosiveness that no other back on the roster does, which is important when we consider that Arizona's offensive line is not one of the better ones in the NFL. Benson is more than capable as a receiver as well.

As luck would have it, I am very invested in Benson. The only trade I considered was one I proposed in which I sent him away a few days before his injury (and subsequent IR stint). That trade was Benson and Drake London for Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Jauan Jennings. It is highly unlikely that trade could or would happen now. As for what I think it would take now, I would gladly trade Isiah Pacheco, Rhamondre Stevenson or Tony Pollard for him if I could. I also prefer Benson to Chuba Hubbard and maybe even Jordan Mason.