After two great weeks of football right around now is where some owners start getting nervous after slow starts from their fantasy teams. Most of you are looking to maybe shake some things up. This list will help determine who to buy now for week 3 of fantasy football. A large contributor to that could be some top-notch guys playing below expectations. This results in the owner wanting to get some of their value back for their underperforming piece. Every owner should be looking to capitalize off of these owners and send over an offer or two to see if they can get that guy at a cheaper price than they really should be able to.
There are numerous guys you should look to add that are currently underperforming. Even more are young pieces that look to have a very bright future but hasn’t yet sold their owner on them yet. Here are 4 guys I think you should go test the waters on and try to acquire in your dynasty or even redraft leagues!
Joe Mixon, Cincinnati Bengals
A 1st or 2nd round talent underperforming early in the season at only the age of 23? Sounds to me like a prime time to try and buy low off an owner who may be nervous. Mixon has a banged-up ankle already which has limited his usage so far. But, for a duel threat RB like Mixon, his upside outweighs the downside on a guy like him. Their Oline is still subpar, to say the least, but with the Bengals finally making moves to improve their offensive lines like drafting Jonah Williams and Michael Jordan the young RB should see brighter years ahead of him if they continue to improve their blocking.
Currently, Mixon has 17 rushing attempts and 27 yards which admittedly looks horrible and only 5 receptions for 17 yards and 0 touchdowns through 2 weeks. They played a good run defense in the Seahawks and played from behind all day against the 49ers. Those games mixed with his ankle clearly resulted in some subpar statistics. With what seems to be a Bengals team that finally looks like they’re able to stretch the field with their passing game that only should get better with Green coming back, Mixon is a prime buy low candidate and reap the benefits for weeks/years to come.
Devonta Freeman, Atlanta Falcons
Could Freeman’s value get any lower than it is right now? He is still one of the more talented dual-threat backs in the NFL. He is in a prime position with a coaching staff confident in him, good chemistry with his QB, and no real pressure behind him in their RB group. Freeman is off to a poor start to the year having 19 rush attempts for 41 yards and 6 receptions for 54 without reaching the endzone yet this year. But, after multiple injuries keeping him off the field for a while, he is just getting back into the groove of things. A point people like to bring up is the falcons RBBC but, this hasn’t shown to affect Freeman much. Ito Smith only has 10 rush attempts and 3 receptions although Freeman hasn’t been too efficient up until this point of the year.
Lastly, after playing two tough defenses this year I believe he’ll start gaining much more traction down the stretch. He has a couple more tough opponents down the line like the Titans but the sooner you can get him the better before he has a huge game and the owner’s personal value of Freeman will instantly jump.
Terry McLaurin, Washington Redskins
Although you may think you are buying him at a high value after 2 big games, I believe he’s a guy that you just want to make sure you have on your team for the future. In his first-ever NFL game he played 93% of snaps for the Redskins. That is unheard of from any rookie WR especially one drafted in the 3rd round. Heading into this season, nobody had any expectations for any Redskins WR besides a little PPR relevance for Trey Quinn. In 2 games he has racked up 10 catches out of 16 targets for 187 yards and two touchdowns. If Keenum didn’t overthrow Terry against the Eagles he would have another 70+ yard touchdown reception. That would make his first two games to be completely unheard of. Against two divisional teams both with good defenses.
For this year alone, past the Patriots game week 5 they have a very easy schedule moving forward. Eventually, he will be reunited with his college QB Dwayne Haskins for many years to come. His value is currently higher than many would want to pay. But, if you wait till after the Bears or Patriots game he may be cheap. But in Dynasty he is huge buy for me currently. Current standard scoring he is ranked at WR8 and is WR12 in PPR leagues.
Mike Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Off to the slowest start of a season since his Sophomore year, where he recorded no stats through 2 games. Evans should have no trouble getting back on track as this year continues. But, many owners may be getting nervous with the change of the offensive scheme and lack of faith in Winston moving forward. That same sophomore season he ended up with 1206 yards. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a similar situation happen this year. He’s been debatably the most consistent WR since entering in the NFL 5 years ago getting over 1,000 yards in every year through many years of playing with subpar QBs throwing him the ball. He’s a young WR and if you get a weary owner to sell for a reasonable price it’s a no-brainer.
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