Keep Trade Cut | Dynasty League Football – Week 5
Welcome back to another edition of Keep Trade Cut. In this series, we break down several players for dynasty football purposes. We discuss their current value and give you our Keep Trade Cut of the week. For Week 5, we are breaking down a few wide receivers for dynasty league football purposes.
Using various dynasty rankings throughout the season, we’ll differentiate the value between three assets within that position group. The players will be ranked consecutively and of similar age. Typically, they’re within three years of each other. However, for quarterbacks, we will use roughly five years.
For this exercise, the player who would be deemed most valuable for the near and long term will be the “Keep”, while our player to “Trade” holds a tremendous near-term value. However, it may be prudent to maximize their trade value at this time.
Finally, the “Cut” is the asset that holds the least amount of current value in the trio, and is a player who is seeing a diminished role on his team or shows signs of value regression soon. Let’s get into the Keep Trade Cut picks for Week 5.
Keep Trade Cut | Dynasty League Football – Week 5
For Week 5, we will be taking a look at three young and talented wide receivers. In this edition of Keep Trade Cut, we’re breaking down three WRs who have plenty of dynasty value ahead of them.
Each of these wide receivers has shown WR1 fantasy football upside in the past. However, they now find themselves deep inside the 20s of these particular dynasty rankings from Yards per Fantasy. This week we’ll be discussing WRs Tank Dell, Jaylen Waddle, and Rashee Rice, who find themselves as the WR24, WR25, and WR26 respectively.
Keep: WR26 Rashee Rice, Kansas City Chiefs
When discussing these three assets, the glaring reality quickly becomes about Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice‘s health and fantasy future. First, he’s very likely to be a fantasy football asset again. Unfortunately, he will not likely resume producing for fantasy until this time next year. However, despite the huge short-term negative surrounding Rice’s health, his dynasty valuation should remain high for those holding this asset.
Of these three assets, Rice is the only one to average double-digit points in both half-PPR and full-PPR formats this season. For what it’s worth, Rice averages 16.48 PPG, Waddle 9.72, and Dell 7.47.
Those average points per game and the increase in valuable targets for Rice in this Chiefs offense should give his managers confidence he will resume this role in 2025. More importantly, he will be a favorite in the passing game.
Rice being this low in these dynasty rankings incorporates his most recent injury. However, this is a player who was approaching and reaching top 12 dynasty value at the WR position. Overall, Rice is an ideal target to rebuild receiver rooms around or to buy at this WR26 price as his injury stagnates his value for a short time, offering a buy window.
Trade: WR25 Jaylen Waddle, Miami Dolphins
Jaylen Waddle boasts some of the best skills in this trio, from his exceptional route running and speed. Unfortunately, Waddle has found himself behind Tyreek Hill in the Dolphins passing volume hierarchy during their time together in Miami.
Impressively, Waddle has shown big-play ability in his most recent seasons. He’s averaged 18.08 yards per catch and 14.08 yards per catch in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Now with a hodge podge of backup quarterbacks taking the helm in Miami, the team has naturally focused more on rushing and has further limited Waddle’s upside.
Furthermore, Waddle has yet to score in this currently struggling Dolphins offense. It’s hard to predict that changing anytime soon through the air. While Waddle can produce when Tua Tagovailoa is healthy, we still don’t see Waddle getting a steady and heavy amount of targets with so much emphasis on Hill and the backfield production. He isn’t going to be the top receiver in this offense for at least one more season. However, by 2026 Waddle could have a changing situation around him.
Selling Waddle on his high capital and past big play boons may be the smart move sooner rather than later. His big games are too few and far between even when this team is at full strength. Waddle is a fun asset when he booms, but his consistency with fantasy output is still not quite evident with the presence of Hill. This is evident by his Consistency Score as well.
Cut: WR24 Tank Dell, Houston Texans
Houston Texans wide receiver Tank Dell is the highest-valued player according to these rankings. He’ll want to turn his early season struggles around to live up to that standing for dynasty football purposes.
Dell has found himself on the short end of targets following the Stefon Diggs and Joe Mixon acquisitions this offseason. While a value and production stepback appeared to make sense for Diggs coming in, the player to step back in this offense is the 2023 breakout slot for the Texans. Dell has only caught 9 balls this season and while his managers may be disappointed, expecting Dell’s fireworks to finish the 2023 season may have been too big of an ask right away for a second-year player.
The Texans don’t seem worried about the long-term development here. However, a developmental year isn’t always worth the dynasty football spot for a contender.
Unfortunately, Dell simply isn’t consistently seeing the ball, let alone producing with it. As long as the team is producing with Diggs, Mixon, and Nico Collins at the forefront, a player like Dell will have to wait for an opportunity to present itself once again. That may not come this year and if it again stretches into 2025, Dell may be a player who finds his value cratering before it even really started rising.
In recent years, so many young wide receivers are coming into the league. More importantly, they are providing big box score numbers early in their careers. It’s important to not overinvest or hold too strong when you can get the right deal in the offseason. Players like Dell and Waddle held trade value throughout the offseason. Unfortunately, they find themselves too buried in the offensive game plans to make a mark in fantasy football or dynasty league football purposes, and it’s happened across multiple seasons.
All three of these assets are talents worthy of holds throughout their primes to varying degrees. However, with the current state of these wide receiver cores, a player of Rice’s ability is the clear asset who can rise from these rankings. With his role being the number one wide receiver for the Chiefs going forward, and the offense catering to his skillset before this recent injury, Rice is the best asset to roster from this WR trio for Week 5.
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