BUY WR D.J. Moore, CHI
Before you come at me for saying that we should be buying a wide receiver with an undrafted rookie at quarterback, let’s put Moore’s situation into some context, shall we?
It’s true – Fields is out right now, and could be for a little while longer. But it won’t be forever, and when he does come back, you’re gonna be putting Moore back in your lineup again without a second thought. Remember weeks 2-6 when Moore had a 32% target share, 48% air yards share, and two top-5 finishes after a tough game in Week 1? That ceiling is going to be there once Fields is back, and they’ve got some good matchups these next few weeks ahead of their Week 13 bye, including two games against teams inside the top-12 for most fantasy points allowed in the Vikings and Lions.
And let’s also not forget that you’re not completely hung out to dry with Bagent at QB: he was hyper-targeting D.J. Moore in his first start. Moore had a 35% target share, and Bagent delivered 8 catchable targets out of 9 total on the day, including an end zone target that went in and out of his hands. That’s an 89% catchable target rate - but not everybody is going to look at Bagent and think that he’s capable of keeping these numbers up.
All that stuff I just mentioned about D.J. Moore is great, but it hasn’t translated to great fantasy days from him these past two weeks. Whoever’s got him on their roster might not be thrilled at the prospect of Bagent under center for the near future, and I know I mentioned those good matchups coming up on the schedule – but before those two games, there are two tough matchups on the Bears schedule against the Saints and the Panthers. That could set you up with a layup of a trade - backup quarterback, tough matchups on deck, limited production recently, and uncertainty about when Fields will be back. Take a stab at picking him up.
SELL RB Kareem Hunt, CLE
All you need to do is look at the way Hunt has produced in the past two games to get an idea of why he’s a screaming sell this week – and you shouldn’t have any trouble doing that given the situation around him. Over the past two weeks, Hunt has scored three touchdowns and averaged 15.6 points per game. Show someone those game logs, and he looks like an RB2 with newfound RB1 upside because Ford is gone, but dive into the utilization, and you realize quickly not all that glitters is gold.
Not only is he averaging just 3.4 yards per carry in that same time span, but he’s also splitting snaps regardless of who’s in the backfield with him. When Ford was in the lineup, he was the clear lead back and handled 30 of 44 snaps before going down with his injury. Once he was out, Pierre Strong actually out snapped Kareem Hunt 23-19! And it’s not difficult to figure out why Strong was getting more looks – out of 23 running backs since Week 6 with 20 or more carries, Hunt is forcing missed tackles at the third-lowest rate and averaging the 4th-fewest yards after contact per attempt. Not good.
Take advantage of the people who are convinced that Hunt is suddenly in line to be the clear-cut RB1 in Cleveland with Jerome Ford going down and move off of him while he’s got two back-to-back top-15 finishes on the game log. Remember, Hunt is only getting snaps because of injuries to not one, but TWO running backs ahead of them –and even then Pierre Strong still figures to take some work.