Week 5 Trade Targets For Fantasy Football: Time To Buy Low On Brock Bowers

This last weekend was another fun slate with plenty of huge fantasy performances. Unfortunately, we also had another major injury with Malik Nabers lost for the season. At this point in the season, it should start to be clear where your team stacks up in the emerging playoff picture and what your strengths and weaknesses are. As I mentioned last week, this middle stretch of the fantasy season is the ideal time to make a trade because all of your leaguemates are still interested and there is still time for underperforming players to turn it around.

As usual, I'm looking for players who are either positive regression candidates or breakout candidates. These are players I believe are undervalued relative to their rest-of-season outlook. Of course, the hardest part of these trade target articles is recommending what to give up to acquire the player. I'll do my best to outline the player archetypes that I want to trade away and give examples of trades I think are good value, but ultimately, you can only trade the players who are on your roster. To help with crafting your trade offer, I recommend using our Rest-of-Season fantasy football rankings and Fantasy Football Trade Analyzer to come up with a reasonable deal (but still a win for your team).

Top Three Fantasy Football Trade Targets For Week 5

Tetairoa McMillan Headlines WR Trade Targets

The Carolina Panthers appear to be one of the worst teams in the NFL yet again, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing for Tetairoa McMillan's fantasy value. Other than their surprise shutout of Atlanta in Week 3, Carolina has been in a trailing game script every week. In their three losses, Bryce Young has averaged 40 pass attempts, translating to plenty of opportunities for his top target.

McMillan is on pace for 149 targets and 1,180 yards but has yet to record a TD this season. With that kind of volume, he should easily score five or six times, even on a bad offense. McMillan also passes the eye test for me, which is important given the limited sample size. 

Lastly, if Carolina does decide to bench Young again at some point this season, they have a solid backup in Andy Dalton. Dalton's presence insulates McMillan's fantasy value because the Carolina offense can't really get worse than it has been so far. While that may not sound like a ringing endorsement, it is important to recognize that the rookie WR has been performing closer to his floor than his ceiling.

Ideally, I would try to flip someone coming off a good game who profiles as more of a WR3 for fantasy for McMillan. Players like Jordan Addison or Deebo Samuel could be good trade-away targets to add McMillan before his true breakout arrives.

Acquire Jameson Williams Before The Boom

It's been a painfully slow start to the year for Jameson Williams, considering how much offseason hype there was for him. He's only delivered one usable fantasy performance through four games.

What I'm hanging my hat on for Williams is the fact that this still looks like a really good Detroit offense. There were questions about how good they would be in the post-Ben Johnson era, but they have now scored 124 points over their last three games. It's not ideal that they haven't needed Williams to make that happen, but if this is going to be one of the highest scoring offenses in the NFL again, then I am confident Williams will get his over the course of the season.

Detroit tried to get Williams involved in Week 4 and he actually led the team with eight targets. Unfortunately, he only managed to haul in two of those targets for 40 yards. Williams may be a disappointment for the WR2 capital he cost in fantasy drafts, but he can still be a great FLEX option with the upside to win you a matchup in any given week. Detroit has plenty of weapons, so I do think Williams will continue to have a boom-or-bust profile, but we should see more of a concerted effort to get him involved as the season progresses. I would try to swap a WR with lesser talent who has run hot on TDs, like Michael Pittman, to acquire Williams.

The Buy-Low Window On Brock Bowers Is Open

I'll be honest, this one makes me a little bit nervous because Bowers is not fully healthy right now. However, I firmly believe that Brock Bowers is the best TE in the NFL, and you won't have to pay overall TE1 prices to acquire him. More often than not, buying low on a player of Bower's caliber is a winning move. It's also not like you have to trade for him and then wait for him to return to play; he is out there and contributing right now. He has five catches in three of four games and topped 100 receiving yards back in Week 1. The question for fantasy is just how long until he is close to 100% healthy.

Last week was the first time Bowers wasn't limited in practice at all. Maybe I'm reading into that too much, but it seems to me like he is getting healthier. The key indicator I am looking for is for Bowers to shed the brace that he has been wearing, which seems to limit his mobility.

Another thing that makes me nervous is that the Raiders are not as competitive as I thought they had a chance to be. Geno Smith has thrown seven interceptions in four games, and the Raiders are in danger of being out of the playoff picture by the middle of the season. If that happens, there is a risk that Bowers doesn't play down the stretch if the injury lingers. 

You have to go into this type of trade acknowledging the risks, but these are the types of deals that can turn a good fantasy team into a juggernaut. I would try to send a low-end TE1 (think the Jake Ferguson or Kyle Pitts tier) plus a startable RB or WR in order to add Bowers.

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