The 2021 NFL season is coming to a close, but the fantasy football season never ends, especially in dynasty. Building a better team begins with making the right moves in the offseason, and there are quite a few players that smart owners should be moving in the coming weeks. This doesn’t meant that these players aren’t good, just that they’re not likely to return value given their current pricing.
Also note that these rankings are based on FantasyPros consensus dynasty rankings. Each and every fantasy league out there is different, so perhaps these prices don’t accurately reflect your league of choice.
Fantasy Football: Five Players You Should Sell in Dynasty Leagues
Alvin Kamara
Rank: RB5
Alvin Kamara is a great talent, but he is going to be fighting an uphill battle to justify his current RB5 ranking. The running back currently does not have a quarterback, and it’s hard to imagine this team scoring too many touchdowns in 2022. Making it worse is that Sean Payton is not going to be the head coach. Payton’s scheme was famous in the fantasy football community for turning any old running back into a superstar, and some of Kamara’s historic efficiency will go down with the scheme change.
Additionally, Kamara is starting to get a little bit older. Running backs fall off a cliff fast, and the former third-round pick is about to enter his age-27 season, and he started to show some signs of slowing down last year. Maybe he has one more top-12 finish in him, but you’d be better off in the long run to sell him now for a massive haul.
Just how bad is the Saints cap?
They stand $74 million OVER the projected cap.
Large contracts are unmovable, Taysom Hill or Alvin Kamara moving before June 1st (or with a June 1st designation) would flood money into 2022.
A Michael Thomas trade is a summer discussion. pic.twitter.com/cNpgmQCw7T
— Jeff Bell (@4WhomJBellTolls) January 26, 2022
Austin Ekeler
Rank: RB6
This one pains me, as Austin Ekeler is one of my favorite players in the NFL and is coming off of a fantastic season. However, I just can’t get behind his current RB6 price tag. The former undrafted free agent finished 2021 as the RB2 overall thanks in large part to his 20 touchdowns. Touchdowns are not very sticky from year to year, and Ekeler historically hasn’t been very good at finding the endzone.
Prior to 2021, Ekeler only had one season with more than six touchdowns. Assuming he regresses somewhere back to his career norm, Ekeler is looking more like a low-end RB1 or high-end RB2 in 2022. This predicted drop combined with his relatively advanced age (27 in September) makes him an easy sell.
CeeDee Lamb
Rank: WR6
CeeDee Lamb is a good football player, but fantasy football enthusiasts might have jumped the gun by declaring him the next great thing. The Cowboys receiver is still the WR6 in dynasty rankings despite finishing the year ranked 36th in target share (20.4%) and 50th in air yard share (24.4%).
Lamb is a good player, he will always be more efficient than his raw usage numbers would suggest. However, a guy getting this type of workload has a very low chance of being a perennial top-six dynasty receiver. Perhaps Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup aren’t long for Dallas, but we know that vacated targets aren’t really a thing for wide receivers. If you can swap Lamb for Tee Higgins (WR12) and a second-round pick, you should do it in a heartbeat.
Tee Higgins has five 100-yard games in his last 9 games.
CeeDee Lamb has five 100-yard games in his career.
— David J. Gautieri (@GuruFantasyWrld) January 30, 2022
Elijah Mitchell
Rank: RB21
Elijah Mitchell is a talented running back in a great offense and could me look very foolish in a years time. However, there are just too many red flags here for me to feel comfortable with his price tag. For one, I’m old enough to remember Alfred Morris.
Back in 2012, the sixth-round rookie burst onto the scene under Washington’s former offensive coordinator, Kyle Shanahan. The rookie finished the season as the RB8 in PPR leagues and never did much of anything ever again. Unfortunately, draft capital is a big deal, and Mitchell’s Day 3 draft capital combined with Shanahan’s history of switching out running backs on a whim doesn’t bode well for the Louisiana product.
Even if Mitchell retains the starting job, Trey Lance is not good for his dynasty fantasy football outlook. Lance is a mobile quarterback that will steal rushing opportunities near the goal line, which puts a clear cap on Mitchell’s touchdown upside. Additionally, the quarterback loves to stretch the field and probably won’t hit his checkdowns as much as Jimmy Garoppolo. Even if a strong offense, there isn’t much upside for any running back that doesn’t score touchdowns or catch passes.
Amon-Ra St Brown
Rank: WR29
Detroit Lions rookie wide receiver Amon-Ra St Brown dominated down the stretch, and good dynasty players will capitalize on other overreacting to small samples. The Lions entered the season with the worst supporting cast in the league, and it only got worse when T.J. Hockenson and D’Andre Swift went down late in the season. This left St. Brown as the only reliable option in the passing game and, to be fair, he answered the call with a few great performances.
However, most of this was due to Jared Goff having literally no other option. We’ve seen players with similar profiles succeed in small doses (2020 Travis Fulgham, for instance), and it’s pretty rare for Day 3 receivers to sustain that high level of play. St. Brown is probably a good NFL player, but he most likely won’t ever develop into a consistent part of your fantasy team. If you can swap him for a late first or early second-round pick, you should do so.
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