Dynasty Fantasy Football Trade Targets and Avoids: Top 4 RBs and WRs to Buy or Sell (2025)

Get ahead of the game in dynasty fantasy football. It's a philosophy you should live by, yet many decide to buy players with clear red flags or hang onto said players for too long, only to see their values plummet. It's important to try to look into the future as much as you can.

Just like when meeting people in real life, the earlier you notice the red flags, the better you can prepare to deal with them. It's no different with players in fantasy. Production is never completely consistent year over year, and some players have one or more great seasons before falling off due to a variety of factors.

The same goes for green flags -- try to notice them early and pounce on a player who shows them. You don't want to be stuck with a player after they fall off, just like you don't want to wait too long for their breakout, or ignore a breakout that already happened but was cut short. It's not possible to accurately predict every time a player is about to see big changes in production, but I'll do my best to help you below. Let's dive in.

• 2025 fantasy football rankings (redraft)
• Dynasty fantasy football rankings
• 2025 NFL rookie fantasy football rankings
• Best ball fantasy football rankings
• Quarterback fantasy football rankings
• Running back fantasy football rankings
• Wide receiver fantasy football rankings
• Tight end fantasy football rankings

Sell: Kyren Williams, RB, Los Angeles Rams

It's better to be a year early than a year late. For running backs who are on good offenses, yet play inefficiently and still rely on gargantuan volume to produce well in fantasy football, you should probably be at least open to selling them off. Such is the case for Williams -- his situation is ideal, yet he averaged just 4.1 yards per carry in 2024, down from a much more impressive 5.0 in 2023.

Williams' dip in efficiency can be attributed partially to the state of the offensive line, but it was not a bad run-blocking unit this season. It was much poorer in pass protection, and that doesn't affect Williams directly at all. In 2023, Williams was so efficient because he averaged 3.5 yards before contact per attempt, second most in the league among all RBs with 100 or more carries.

So, his offensive line was regularly clearing big holes for him to run through. If you don't believe that was a huge factor, just watch his highlight reel from that season -- he was constantly running through wide-open holes, and even when he was contacted at the line, it was often just bad arm-tackle attempts from defenders that were mostly blocked anyway.

Kyren Williams seems overvalued for having an inefficient year

Via playerprofiler:

#25 in yards per route run (1.28)
#37 in true yards per carry (4)
#47 in yards per touch (4.2)
#52 in yards created per touch (2.78)

The touchdown upside is massive but he’s dependent there

— Skrip (@P2WFantasy) February 25, 2025

It's concerning, to say the least. If the volume dries up at all, in the goal-line carry department or with touches in general, his value could slide quickly. He has a ton of TD upside, but if any of that work starts going to backup RB Blake Corum, it could spell trouble for Williams' production and fantasy value.

And you're usually better off selling players with massive volume yet poor efficiency because they can't make up the ground if they start losing touches. Corum was drafted with higher capital than Williams, and while he didn't do much his rookie season, neither did No. 23.

Corum showed flashes of good RB play but needed the time to develop his game. Rams head coach Sean McVay opted to give the more experienced Williams the reins of the backfield. He did fine, but his elite fantasy production was more of a product of his situation. Behind Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley, K.W. had the third-most carries in the league.

Kyren Williams has not rushed for at least 5 yards per carry in a single game this season pic.twitter.com/z44IOheiXy

— kev mahserejian (@RotoSurgeon) November 12, 2024

Even in games where he averaged under 4.0 yards per carry, McVay insisted on giving him the ball a million times. He decided to do the same thing in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, and Williams rewarded him by fumbling the ball away, which ended up being the difference in the game.

Ball security has been an issue, and while McVay will likely lean on Williams plenty next season unless Corum outplays him, the warning signs are there that he could be a depreciating asset in dynasty soon. Better to be early than late. And you can get a nice haul for him.

Buy: Rashid Shaheed, WR, New Orleans Saints

There's a very good chance that New Orleans Saints wide receiver Rashid Shaheed is quarterback Derek Carr's favorite target. He indicated as much to us last season, yet WR Chris Olave, who's shown more red flags, is ranked much higher than Shaheed in dynasty. That doesn't make sense. It should probably be the other way around.

Rashid Shaheed been unreal on bombs through two weeks, as he's always been. But adding more this year:

* 36 routes on 43 Derek Carr dropbacks
* 58 snaps wide, 24 slot, 2 backfield
* Team-high 23% target share
* aDOT 18.0 yards, 6th-longest in NFL. However, Klint Kubiak has also… pic.twitter.com/VPSLsCE15H

— Adam Levitan (@adamlevitan) September 16, 2024

The two played seven games together before Shaheed suffered a knee injury, had to have surgery, and missed the rest of the season. Olave played very little in Week 7 before going down with a concussion, but even if you only count the first six contests, Shaheed had more targets, a higher target share, a higher first-read target share, and just two fewer catches than Olave did.

And most of the deep bombs Carr uncorked were headed in Shaheed's direction rather than to Olave, whose role seemed shaky and unclear to start the season. It wasn't a very big sample size, but if both had played the full season, we'd probably be having a very different conversation right now.

Yet, No. 22 is ranked nearly 60 spots below No. 12 in dynasty rankings right now. That makes very little sense. The best-case scenario for Olave seemed to be that he would be a 1A to Shaheed's very close 1B status, though the worst case was that Shaheed would have developed into the clear WR1 with Olave being the WR2. That's what Carr seemed to want, anyway.

Before getting injured in 2024, Rashid Shaheed was the first player we've ever recorded with more than a 50% air yards share 🤯

Do you think Shaheed can be a star in the NFL? pic.twitter.com/8wkmStfbr4

— PlayerProfiler (@rotounderworld) February 16, 2025

By this time next season, if he doesn't suffer from a ton of injuries, Shaheed will most likely be the WR1. So, you should act like that, and pick him up ASAP. Ironically, you can probably trade Olave for Shaheed and a solid draft pick because you'll be getting away with highway robbery.

Sell: Jayden Reed, WR, Green Bay Packers

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jayden Reed isn't a good option for you to hang onto for much longer. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur's usage of Reed was heavily decried by many in the fantasy football community because surely a head coach who's seen a ton of success in the regular season and been a perennial playoff presence has no idea what he's doing, right?

Then, Reed played against the Detroit Lions in Week 14, a team whose secondary had been decimated by injuries at that point, and dropped a goose egg, failing to catch his only target.

This exposed the biggest weakness of Reed's game -- an inability to beat man coverage. The ugly truth is that it's not his only major flaw, as evidenced by the fact that he only played in 11 personnel, or formations where three wide receivers are on the field.

Jameson Williams ROASTED Jayden Reed on Instagram 💀😂

(h/t @the_det_times) pic.twitter.com/26iJay5bWs

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 6, 2024

Yet, Reed is still highly thought of by the dynasty community, likely because of his meteoric 2023 season. But sophomore slumps are a real thing, and Reed discovered quickly what life is like against defenses that spent the offseason preparing for you and scrutinized every weakness and hole in your game on tape.

Reed isn't a good run-blocker. At least LaFleur seems to think so because he preferred Romeo Doubs, Dontayvion Wicks, and Christian Watson to be on the field in 12 personnel, which is better for disguising whether a given play will be a pass or a run since there are two tight ends on the field, who can block more effectively than WRs.

Packers WRs by personnel

11
Romeo Doubs 41
Jayden Reed 40
Christian Watson 32
Dontayvion Wicks 17
Bo Melton 5

Out of 45 plays

12
Romeo Doubs 10
Dontayvion Wicks 9
Christian Watson 4
Bo Melton 1
Jayden Reed 0

Out of 12 plays

— Nathan Jahnke (@PFF_NateJahnke) September 7, 2024

Digging through snap counts shows the hideous reality of the situation. Only an injury to Watson caused LaFleur to start putting Reed on the field in 12 personnel, and that may have just been because Wicks decided to transform into Droptayvion Bricks for this year. It seems likely that Green Bay will want to acquire a legitimate WR1 option at some point.

Buy: Ricky Pearsall, WR, San Francisco 49ers

We'll keep this one simple. San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall was selected with much higher draft capital and is a much better athlete than his teammate, WR Jauan Jennings. Brandon Aiyuk is recovering from a serious knee injury and probably won't be 100 percent in 2025.

Tight end George Kittle is aging, and has a long and brutal injury history that he typically plays through. And WR Deebo Samuel Sr. was traded to the Commanders on March 1. Pearsall also looked like he was breaking out toward the end of the season, but he missed the first six games of the year due to a gunshot wound to the chest.

San Francisco 49ers rookie WR Ricky Pearsall's debut was delayed, but he made some plays to close out 2024!

He finished with 210 receiving yards and 2 TDs in the final two games of his rookie season! pic.twitter.com/S3lyID4AWt

— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) January 7, 2025

So, if he hadn't gotten shot, which wasn't his fault, his breakout would have probably come earlier. He's on an offense with a great quarterback and an offensive coordinator who has authored some of the most explosive and efficient offenses in his time with his current team. He was chosen in the first round, is a fantastic athlete, and showed signs of massive improvement toward the end of the year.

Dynasty is about predicting future success. We can see a path for Pearsall to dominate in 2025 and moving forward. So, why is he ranked around the same spot as Samuel? He should be much closer to the top 50 players than he is to the 100th spot.

It doesn't make much sense. Make a move for him right now. The Samuel trade will likely push up his value, so you don't want to wait. It shouldn't make a huge difference, anyway. You probably won't have to give up a ton for Pearsall in certain leagues, as he's still in a crowded receiving room. But he's probably about to rise to the top, and he should be much more valuable after the 2025 season.

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