5 Players to Sell in Dynasty This Offseason

It’s that tough time of year for dynasty fantasy football managers. Whether you’re still in the playoffs or fighting for your life in the loser bracket, every dynasty player has one eye on the future. Changes need to be made to get your team to the next level. But sometimes those changes involve moving a once invaluable foundational piece of your dynasty football roster. Everything good comes to an end, so why not cash in on a player before it’s too late?

Now some of the names below may shock and frighten you – and that’s ok. Trading away players isn’t always easy, but neither is winning a championship. Let’s try and get some value from those players who might be on the edge of fantasy irrelevance. Let’s get right into the top players to sell in dynasty fantasy football leagues this off-season.

5 Players to Sell in Dynasty Leagues

Austin Ekeler, RB, Los Angeles Chargers

Austin Ekeler is one of those players who has been incredibly great for a while now, and it almost feels like the ride won’t ever end. Regardless of the game script, Ekeler has always found a way to provide for fantasy football managers in every format. For dynasty football leagues, he’s been a team’s most valuable asset for years. However, now after a rough 2023 campaign, the aging running back may be better off your team than on it. 

It’s been quite the run for Ekeler these past few years. Recently we have seen elite fantasy running backs have two or three great seasons before fading into obscurity. Todd Gurley was an elite option until he turned 24. Le’Veon Bell was great until he sat out the 2018 season and returned with the Jets at 26. Running backs don’t have the best shelf life (which is the crux of the contract discussions at the beginning of this year) and the fact that Ekeler is still great at 28 is quite the outlier. 

That brings us to the issue at hand –  Austin Ekeler is going to be 29 years old in 2024. At 28 he’s surpassed 60 yards on the ground three times this year – the same amount of times he’s fumbled the ball. Ekeler is still very active in the passing game, but the explosiveness isn’t quite there (we can also blame the ankle injury from Week 2). He may still have some ceiling games left in the tank, but it’s not the gamble managers should be taking. 

He hasn’t done quite enough to earn a new contract after this season, making him an interesting free agent for teams across the NFL. Depending on where he ends up, you could sell Ekeler for a haul. Sadly the best time to sell Ekeler was at the start of the season. But that shouldn’t stop you from convincing another manager that Ekeler has at least one more good season left. Maybe that’ll be enough for a pick or two.

Aaron Jones, RB, Green Bay Packers

2023 was supposed to be a great year for Aaron Jones. Coming off an 1100+ rushing effort in 2022, Jones would be primed to see a similar workload to relieve some pressure off of a new quarterback in Jordan Love. However, after a stellar first week, Jones became a regular on the Packers’ injury report. He simply couldn’t stay on the field long enough to produce for fantasy managers. Because of this, Jones is sitting at RB 44 on the year – behind guys like Tyjae Spears, Antonio Gibson, and D’Onta Foreman. He still can serve as a weekly RB2 but that isn’t a guarantee come next season.

Jones still has plenty of name-value that you can swing for some younger prospects in your dynasty league. It’s equally important to throw in how he has another year left on his contract with Green Bay, at least locking him in for another year. 

Why should you move on from Jones? Well not to sound like a broken record, but has the same problem as Ekeler. He’s hitting that age cliff. Jones is 29 and will end the 2024 season at 30. Even if he has a bounce-back season next year, his future is immediately cast into doubt. A 30-year-old running back without a contract will most likely sign with a team for a one-year prove-it deal – this is known as the Latavius Murray maneuver. One bad landing spot could mean someone is left holding onto a worthless dynasty RB. Let that be someone else’s issue to handle.

Davante Adams, WR, Las Vegas Raiders

Seeing this name on a “sell” list could be a tough pill to swallow, but now is a good time to start thinking about getting value from Davante Adams. His tenure on the Raiders has left a lot to be desired, and now at 30 years old, he may be looking to take his talents elsewhere. Rumors say he may want to reunite with his best bud Aaron Rodgers on the Jets. If that does end up happening, you now have the perfect window to move on from Adams for the right price. 

The game that dynasty fantasy managers start playing with aging receivers is a dangerous game of hot potato. Julio Jones is a prime example of a player who tricked managers into hanging on for just a little too long. One moment you have an elite option going for 1000+ yards and 6+ TDs a year, the next they are missing games and barely finishing the year eclipsing 400 yards.

Sadly Jones isn’t the only example. Larry Fitzgerald saw a sharp decline from his year 34 season to year 35 season (1156 yards, 734 yards). Adam Thielen (33) had a resurgence at the start of the year but has since fallen drastically from an every-week starter to a desperation play at best. 

However, there is a chance that Adams will stick around in Vegas. That’s what we would like to call “the worst-case scenario” situation. When looking at the potential highs (playing with Rodgers) against the potential lows (playing with Aiden O’Connell, and probably a new head coach) managers need to look at their roster and decide what they are willing to risk.  Adams could very well have a few more years of solid production. The value you can get for a player like Adams could set you up for success for years to come.

Marquise Brown, WR, Arizona Cardinals

It’s been an odd year for Marquise “Hollywood” Brown. He’s continued to serve as the Cardinals’ first option through the air but hasn’t had the fantasy production to show for it. Thanks to the combination of a new coach, a second (and third) string QB, and nagging injuries, the once explosive playmaker has lost a step. Kyler Murray’s return couldn’t save Brown’s fantasy season, and now managers are put in a tough spot – wait out the tough sledding ahead, or hold on and see if he can rebound. 

The trouble at hand is the uncertainty that surrounds the Cardinals’ draft picks. Currently, they sit firmly at pick number three overall, behind both the Bears and the Patriots. Each team ahead of Arizona is likely to take a QB with their early draft position. That is, assuming the Bears don’t change their tune on Justin Fields and opt to take Marvin Harrison Jr. with the number one pick instead. This would leave Arizona with the choice of picking the top WR in the class or one of the remaining signal callers.

Furthermore, there are a bunch of scenarios that fantasy managers need to run through to get a sense of what the Cardinals will look like in 2024. It could still be Murray at QB, they could end up trading up for Harrison Jr, they could even wait it out and see what QB falls to them and take them. Each outcome affects Brown’s value drastically.

There are so many variables to account for when determining if Brown is worth the trouble. Maybe I’m just lazy, but I would rather get something a bit more predictable in favor of all this uncertainty. 

The advantage of selling a player like Brown is that he is in the prime window for wide receiver excellence. His past body of work shows that he can be great in a system that can throw the deep ball. If a fellow team out there needs a big-play type of player, Brown is the perfect option to send away. Shop around Brown to see what other people are feeling about him. You never know if teams are willing to overpay for a younger wide receiver who might be catching balls from Jayden Daniels.

Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs

I’m early on this train but I think it might be time to have the tough conversation around Taylor Swift’s boyfriend. Travis Kelce, a tight end who has surpassed 1,000 yards receiving in the past seven seasons, is having another great season. Despite scoring only five touchdowns this season, he’s on pace to crack the 1,000 mark once again.  He needs just 15 catches to reach 100 receptions on the season. He’s still the number two fantasy tight end for the year. It doesn’t look like he’s about to slow down any time soon.

For that reason, he becomes one of the most interesting sell candidates this offseason.

While he is signed until 2026, Kelce turns 35 in 2024. Tight ends don’t typically face the same steep decline due to age like running backs or wide receivers, but it is something to monitor as that number continues to tick up.  It almost feels as though tracking the age of elite tight ends tends to be a bit of a crap shoot.

Antonio Gates played until he was 38, and Tony Gonzalez played until he was 37. The former stopped being fantasy-relevant after his year 34 season (uh oh!) while the latter remained great up until his final season. Zach Ertz was great until he suddenly wasn’t after his 2019 season at 29 years old. Rob Gronkowski retired at 29, and then again at 32. We just don’t know what to expect from the TE position.

Why are we talking about this? It’s all about trying to make sense of an aging elite offensive weapon. Kelce has proved to be one of two reliable options for Mahomes for the past six seasons. But as I mentioned at the top of the article, great things don’t last forever. There is going to be a time when Kelce can’t produce like he used to. For your dynasty roster, it might be time to cash in on all of the great times you and Kelce have had together before it all comes tumbling down.

All in all, there are plenty of teams that are a TE away from greatness in your league. Personally, I am confident that they are willing to pay an inflated price to snag a name like Kelce onto their team.

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