By Brandon Funston and Austin Mock
Oct 5, 2023
The Athletic has live fantasy football advice for NFL Week 5.
If you recall in past fantasy football seasons here at The Athletic, the rest-of-season Big Board rankings and trade value chart were separate entities. Well, we’re doing something different this year, combining Brandon Funston’s rankings with Austin Mock’s trade value chart, essentially killing two birds with one stone. And we added a downloadable version of the chart at the bottom of this column.
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This chart (board?) is meant to be used as a general player valuation guide for the basis of fantasy football trade negotiations in 1QB, half-PPR formats. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and certainly readers will find disagreements with some of the valuations here. That’s fine — again, this is just another tool at your disposal as you try to determine a deal that might work for you in your league. That said, before we get to the chart, here are Funston’s explanations for some of the biggest value differences on this board compared to the industry consensus (ECR of experts who updated ranks this week).
Ranked Considerably Higher by Funston
Kyren Williams, RB, LAR — I’m 13 spots higher on Williams than the consensus of the experts who updated ROS rankings this week. I just had to let go of any bias I had for an undersized former fifth-round pick and let the numbers we care about be my guide. He’s the RB4 in our game. He’s leading all running backs in snaps by a wide margin (his 243 snaps are 30 more than Christian McCaffrey, who ranks second). He’s third in rush attempts inside the 5-yard line (5), and tied for first in TDs scored from the same range (4). His advanced metrics are nothing to write home about, but who cares when you’re a straight up bell cow handling every possible backfield duty to the tune of 18.8 touches per game?
Marquise Brown, WR, ARI — I have Brown as my WR21, while the experts have him as their WR40. Huh? He’s a prime-aged (26) former first round pick who has a 91/1008/6 stat line on record for one the NFL’s most barren passing offenses (see Zay Flowers, below) and is currently producing as the WR18 in half-PPR formats through the first month of the season. I get that we all thought Arizona was easily the worst team heading into the season but, you know what? They’re not. Joshua Dobbs has looked the part, and he’s made Brown his go-to guy (32 targets, 17th among WRs).
Jake Ferguson, TE, DAL — I now have Ferguson at TE10 while the experts have him at TE16. Ferguson is one of just five tight ends to have recorded three games with at least 7 targets — Travis Kelce, T.J. Hockenson, Evan Engram and Zach Ertz are the others. And the production is starting to follow, as he’s averaged 6 catches and 62.5 yards the past two games. From Jason Witten to Dalton Schultz, Dak Prescott has always leaned on his tight end — this is a good time to mention that Ferguson leads the NFL with 10 red zone targets. We were slow to the take when Schultz emerged on the scene. We shouldn’t make the same mistake this time around.
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Ranked Considerably Lower by Funston
Jahmyr Gibbs, RB, DET — The experts are also slower to the take on dropping Gibbs, as I’m about a full round lower on him. It’s hard to let go sometimes when a player is picked in the first round. The lesson here is the same as the lesson in business — location, location, location. No doubt De’Von Achane was an excellent mid-round pull for Miami, but had Gibbs somehow landed with the Dolphins we’d probably be talking about him as a Top 10 fantasy entity right now. Like with Kyren Williams (above), or even De’Von Achane, it can be hard to bump up lesser pedigreed talents killing it in great situations, and it can similarly tough to drop down higher pedigreed talents in not-so-great situations — and, yes, for as long as David Montgomery is healthy, Gibbs is not in a good situation. Just ask D’Andre Swift how much greener the grass is outside Detroit for a RB of his ilk.
Zay Flowers, WR, BAL — I’m about 16 spots lower on Flowers, and my explanation is the same as with Gibbs. Again, imagine if the Rams had somehow landed Zay Flowers instead of Puka Nacua. Flowers would probably rival Jaylen Waddle in the rankings if that were the case. Instead, he landed with a team that has not provided fantasy helium for its receivers for years. For all the talk of new OC Todd Monken coming in and revamping the team’s pass attack, the Ravens sit in last place in the NFL in pass attempts per game (26.3) after a month of play. I love Flowers as a talent, but I hate his situation.
Jordan Addison, Min, WR — I’m 15 spots lower on Addison. I have him as a WR4, while the industry is holding on to him as a WR3. The problem is that he’s seeing five targets per game. That’s not enough to sustain the consistency to be considered a WR3. What happens when your team can run the ball, and you’re a distant third in target share behind always-open Justin Jefferson and tight end T.J. Hockenson, is that you end up in having an extreme dud like we saw in Week 4 (1 target, 0 catches).
The Week 5 Chart
(Jenna Watson-USA TODAY Sports)
