Issue #221: Whit…e

By Derrick Ernst

October 23, 2025

Trades by Round

It’s a bit funny how perhaps the most exciting thing about fantasy is trading away and for players. Then again, fantasy is one big gamble and it’s your opinion versus everyone else’s. You draft a team expecting it to be better than everyone else’s. When it isn’t, you trade for players you think will be better served on your squad. Here’s the difference between draft opinions and trade opinions:

• Draft opinions: All opinions have an equal opportunity of coming true

• Trade opinions: Opinion of past performance have an impact on opinions of the here and now

Which brings me to another point, when it comes to trades, most people are often oblivious to future expectations. They evaluate a trade based on prior performance and how those performances made them feel. There’s a lot of correlation between feelings and on the field performance, but for someone who’s play has been more conservative than flashy (think AJ Brown before last week), it can have their manager feeling lukewarm about their contributions.

Anyways, just something I wanted to get out in the open. What I really wanted to talk about today are the players I think you may want to consider trading for. And not just any players, but players as they were ranked heading into this season. I’ll choose one from each of the first eight rounds (ie. One player who had an ADP of 1-12 (R1), one player who had an ADP of 13-24 (R2), etc.). Get it? Got it? Good.

Round 1

• De’Von Achane, MIA (RB)

• Ranked RB6 averaging 17 PPG

There are three RB’s with 30+ receptions. Achane is one with the others being CMC and B. Robinson. There are few players in the league who lead there team in rushes and receptions, but Achane is one of them. Will it last? Time will tell. He has yet to score worse than RB17 which should give you confidence to make him yours.

Round 2

• Trey McBride, ARI (TE)

• Ranked TE2 averaging 13 PPG

No Kyler, no problem. McBride is by and large ARI’s top target with a 29% share. No other player on ARI is higher than 17%. McBride is averaging almost 10 targets/game and is seeing 90%+ of snaps. With four TDs on the year, he has already surpassed his prior season’s best (3).

Round 3

• Garrett Wilson, NYJ (WR)

• Ranked WR17 averaging 14 PPG

There’s only one player in the league (JSN) with a higher target share than Wilson. It’s no secret that things aren’t going well for NYJ. Which is why Wilson may continue outperforming. Playing from behind helps. But also, when the season gets more and more away from you, you quit getting cute and lean into what you know works (ie. Throw to Wilson and run with Hall).

Round 4

• Kenneth Walker III, SEA (RB)

• Ranked RB21 averaging 10 PPG

SEA runs the ball more than any other team (on a % basis) and while Charbonnet does get his fair share of looks, it’s Walker who has been vastly more efficient (4.5 vs. 2.8 YPC). Walker’s TD totals haven’t been to the level of Charbonnet’s, but I suspect that will revert as the season continues.

Round 5

• Zay Flowers, BAL (WR)

• Ranked WR29 averaging 11 PPG

This is more of a consideration towards Lamar returning and when he does, the expectation Flowers benefits. Before Lamar was banged up in week four, Flowers was handily his favorite target — he has been for the past few seasons now. Some things never change and my guess is the patience of Flowers’ owners is stretched thin by now.

Round 6

• Baker Mayfield, TB (QB)

• Ranked QB9 averaging 20 PPG

Tell me another player that has gone from unpopular to popular as quickly and as smoothly as Baker. I’ll wait. Baker has become the quintessential fantasy QB. One who throws the ball a ton, racks up yards with little mistakes, has multiple stud WRs, and commands a game with the best of them. You want your QB to be a position that requires zero to little decision making needs. You get that with Baker.

By the way, this is still one of the best things to have happened to the NFL over the last five years.

Source: Instagram (catchtheblitz)

Round 7

• Chris Olave, NO (WR)

• Ranked WR14 averaging 12 PPG

One man stands in the way of Olave being the league’s target leader YTD (J. Chase). I can’t imagine that was on too many people’s bingo card. I’m as much of a S. Rattler hater as there is, but I got to hand it to him, he has been rather competent. Through seven games he has finished as QB11-23. That’s a tight range. It’s no surprise that having Olave has been a reliable outlet for him to lean on. What’s interesting is that A. Kamara has typically seen a target share in the high-teens to low- to mid-twenties. So far this season, he’s at 13%. This is also a reason for Olave’s resurgence.

Round 8

• Brock Purdy, SF (QB)

• Ranked QB36 averaging 17 PPG

Yes, he has only played in two games, but those two games resulted in 300 passing yards and 2 TDs in both. SF passes the ball the most in the league and I don’t suspect that going away anytime soon. Couple Aiyuk’s return with Jennings and Peasall ramping and you have a trio of WRs that is perhaps the best in the league. Not to mention CMC and his 10 targets/game.

English Is Hard

By now a lot of you probably know my love for Dodgeball just based on the number of cover images I’ve used giving homage to the movie. The dictionary scene is worth a YouTube search if it has been awhile since you’ve last seen it.

This headline came across my feed last week:

Is there anything about this that seems a bit off? “Could care less” means that you could indeed care less than you already are. The proper way of saying what I think C. Williams wanted to say is “couldn’t care less.” This means that your interest in something is at it’s lowest possible level. My English has improved with age and I’m not sure why phrases like these said incorrectly irk me, but they do and there’s something about C. Williams saying it that made me what to say something about it. Maybe he’ll become grammatically better with age too.