Dynasty Fantasy Football Mailbag For Week 5: Time To Trade Saquon Barkley?

It's Week 5, and the contenders and pretenders are starting to separate themselves. We've all heard stories of teams starting 0-6 and then winning out on the way to the title, but that may not happen as often in dynasty as it does in redraft. In fact, we got a question in our weekly dynasty fantasy football mailbag from an 0-4 team. Hopefully they get get on a winning streak soon. Let's dive into the mailbag.

Week 5 Mailbag for Dynasty Fantasy Football

Who is the worst player you are swapping Saquon Barkley for?

A great place to start with a question like this is our Rest of Season (ROS) Fantasy Football Rankings for 2026.

Here, we can see just how far Saquon Barkley has fallen and where he stacks up against players from each offensive skill position.

It's … not great. We're talking about Barkley being valued in the same tier as guys like Omarion Hampton, Kyle Monangai, and Carnell Tate. This isn't meant to be a knock on this trio of players, but more so highlighting the fall from grace Barkley has experienced.

Monangai is perhaps the most interesting at the RB position. We've seen how explosive this Bears offense can be and D'Andre Swift has lost two fumbles over the last three weeks. Monangai had 10, 10, and 10 rushing attempts in Weeks 1-3, and then he erupted for 30 rushing attempts, 146 yards, and 2 TDs in Week 4.

That's a situation to keep an eye on. Otherwise, Tate finally had a strong showing last weekend and could quickly become a viable weekly starter.

In a recent column, our own Joe Metz had this to say about Barkley:

His yards per carry (over 5.0) looks great, but the offense is in disarray; he's dealing with a week-to-week hamstring injury, and the offensive line just lost its engine (Lane Johnson) to retirement. All of the signals around Barkley and the Eagles' offense are extremely bearish right now. If you're a Barkley owner, I wouldn't be looking to sell low; I would be holding. But if you're not a Barkley owner, I wouldn't go out of my way to make an attempt to acquire him.

So, the "worst" players I would be looking to move Barkley for would likely be guys like Monangai and Tate.

Who's the best to stash for a possible flex play this week? Keon Coleman or Dohnte Meyers?

I'm going to take this opportunity to highlight one of my favorite tools here at Fantasy Life. The player comparison feature in our Weekly Rankings does a great job of capturing key insights in an easy-to-navigate, side-by-side format.

Here is how Keon Coleman and Dohnte Meyers compare as of Oct. 7.

The lean is certainly Coleman, but it's honestly a bit closer than I thought it would be. That just illustrates the importance of using these next-level tools before finalizing any waiver or lineup decisions. Ja'Marr Chase remains in the concussion protocol and Tee Higgins (adductor) is listed as day-to-day.

If both Chase and Higgins are out, Meyers becomes a lot more intriguing. I will say this: Meyers could have a pretty low floor. Coleman likely offers a bit more stability.

If a manager is Top-3 in scoring but has the highest "Points Against" and is 0-4, would you keep the roster or make a trade to shake it up?

Honestly, this is one that can be super frustrating for fantasy managers. Your team is scoring points at an elite clip, but you keep running into a buzzsaw each and every week.

My general feedback on this is to stay the course. Candidly, you need to win Week 5 (and Week 6, 7, etc) because you're running out of time to stack enough wins to make the playoffs. If you do need to make a subtle tweak, that's fine, but I would not overhaul the roster simply for the sake of making a change.

Remember, this isn't a real locker room (even if it feels like it sometimes). Shaking it up only impacts you and your mental sanity. Circle back after you (hopefully) win this weekend.

Do you think J.J. McCarthy starts any games later this season?

It does sound like J.J. McCarthy will assume QB2 duties in New York before too long. With that in mind, I think there's a decent chance he starts at some point this season, especially if the 2026 season for the New York Giants goes entirely off the rails.

From the Giants' perspective, starting McCarthy likely signals waving the white flag on this year and looking ahead to 2027 and beyond.

Given the state of the Vikings offense, would you trade away Justin Jefferson? What is his realistic trade value?

I would be holding him. Yes, his value with Kyler Murray at the helm has not been great. However, it's still Justin Jefferson and I believe there will be times this season when the Vikings will need their star wide receiver to be a star.

I do believe Murray is more than capable of supporting a top-end wideout like Jefferson, but for other reasons it's been the defense that's been carrying this team through four weeks.

If anything, Jefferson could be a buy-low trade target if the current manager is fully out on him as a top-end fantasy football asset.

I just lost Saquon Barkley and Tank Bigsby. Do I grab Will Shipley?

Yes. This one is pretty easy. The opportunities have to go somewhere and it's looking like it'll be Will Shipley, as least in the short term. While the production likely won't be the same with Shipley as it would have been with Barkley (although Barkley hasn't been as great as he's been in previous years), locking down the starting RB for any team is going to offer some level of fantasy value.