The NFL Trade Deadline dominated headlines this week, especially surrounding the New York Jets. They made some huge moves, getting rid of two of their best players for extremely high draft capital, but it wasn’t the players that fantasy managers were hoping for. The trades came on the defensive side of the ball, with Sauce Gardner moving on to Indianapolis, and Quinnen Williams will provide some power to the Cowboys’ defensive line. Meanwhile, Garrett Wilson and (begrudgingly) Breece Hall remain with Gang Green. Adonai Mitchell joins the Jets, as part of the Gardner trade, where he’ll try to restart his career after a disappointing year and a half in Indy. A second-round pick in 2024, Mitchell was on the rise until he pulled the classic flub of fumbling the ball while crossing the goal line. He was essentially benched after that mistake, but he’ll have a chance to earn plenty of snaps in New York’s depleted wide receiver room. 

Mitchell wasn’t the fantasy football headliner of the day, as both Jakobi Meyers and Rashid Shaheed found new teams on Tuesday as well. Meyers will now join injured receivers Brian Thomas and Travis Hunter in the Jaguars’ deep rotation of wide receivers. It isn’t a great landing spot for his dynasty value, but he is on an expiring contract, so he may still be able to find a better spot for next season. Shaheed will rejoin former Saints OC Klint Kubiak in Seattle, where he’ll provide a solid deep threat for Sam Darnold and the Seahawks. Darnold has been dominant on deep balls this season, leading the league in air yards per attempt. Shaheed should fit right in on the outside, opposite of Jaxson Smith-Njigba. Unfortunately, this should significantly reduce Tory Horton’s dynasty value. 

It wouldn’t be a week in the NFL without some devastating injuries to discuss, and week nine was certainly no different. Headlining the injuries is last year’s rookie of the year, Jayden Daniels, who suffered a dislocated left elbow in garbage time of a 38-14 blowout loss. It’s been a disaster sophomore season for Daniels and the Commanders, as veteran Marcus Mariota will be forced to make his fourth start of the season on Sunday against the Lions. This will go down as a lost season for the Commanders, one year after making it to the NFC Championship Game. 

The other massive fantasy football injury was suffered by Packers tight end Tucker Kraft, who suffered a season-ending torn ACL. In the midst of a breakout season, Kraft will be sidelined for at least the rest of 2025. The Packers have leaned on Kraft as their most consistent pass-catcher this year, and now will be looking for someone else to step up in that role. Luke Musgrave should be the next man up at tight end, and I’m excited to see what he can do with the starter’s reps. I loved Musgrave coming out of Oregon State, but injuries have held him back thus far. This could provide an opportunity for one of their wide receivers to step up as well. Dynasty managers are clamoring for more touches for Matthew Golden, but Christian Watson has looked solid since returning to the lineup. 

With all the moving, shaking, and injuries occurring around the NFL, be sure to check out the DLF Expert Rankings to see where your players rank in this new NFL landscape. See if your wide receivers are rising or falling after being moved, and find the hidden gems to target in trades using the DLF Trade Analyzer Tool. If your league has a trade deadline coming up, now is a critical time for team building. Go for the win-now move to win a championship this season, or build for a future championship, but do it with the tools and analysis offered at DLF!

Brock Bowers made his triumphant return to fantasy football lineups this weekend, and he did not disappoint at all. After three dud games, followed by three missed games, Bowers’ managers were starting to panic about a sophomore slump. It’s understandable, Bowers had the best rookie season for a tight end ever; those expectations are nearly impossible to live up to. Despite that, he returned this week to the tune of 43.3 PPR points, catching 12 of 13 targets for 127 yards and THREE touchdowns (his first three of the season). If there was a buy-low window for Bowers, it’s likely closed now, but if he keeps putting up numbers like that, he could still be a bargain buy in dynasty leagues!

The ADP for Bowers topped out at 9.5 overall in August, but dipped all the way down to 18.25 in the month of October. He never dipped below the TE1, but it got very close with Trey McBride and Tyler Warren nipping at his heels. The DLF Expert Rankings saw a minor dip in value, but only from 12 overall to 14 overall, and still the TE1. After his huge week nine performance, he’s jumped back up a spot to 13 overall. 

While Sunday’s performance will be tough to match week-to-week, there is hope that he can keep up elite production on this team. The team just traded Jakobi Meyers away to the Jaguars. Meyers led the team in targets this season with 49 of them, and you have to assume that a bulk of those abandoned targets will go to the team’s superstar tight end, Brock Bowers. He’s an expensive asset, but in this tight end landscape, he could be a league-winning acquisition as you approach your league’s fantasy trade deadline. 

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WEEKLY MATCHUPS: FOUR ROOKIES TO FADE FOR WEEK TEN

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed a series of tweets I share on a weekly basis regarding player and team defensive performances, all from a fantasy lens. I’m going to be sharing some of that same information with you here. I use this each week as I am making my own lineup and waiver wire decisions, and I thought you might find this valuable as well.

In fact, the weekly matchup numbers may be the most relevant, actionable data we look at each week. Examining how teams have performed against certain positions and then targeting or avoiding those players each week has been a huge game-changer in my weekly lineup decisions. With that in mind, this year, I’ll focus most of my attention on that weekly matchup info, giving you a few must-start or must-sit players each week, based on the trends and numbers.

The 2025 rookie class has performed at a much higher level than anyone would have expected, but several key rookies face very difficult matchups this week, which places them squarely on the fade list for Week Ten.

Ashton Jeanty, RB LV

Last week, Raiders rookie Ashton Jeanty was part of a balanced attack against the Jaguars, totaling 89 yards on 18 touches, along with a touchdown. That was good for an RB5 rank for the week. It will be difficult for Jeanty to repeat that performance this week as his Raiders face off with division rival Denver. The Broncos are allowing just 18.3 fantasy points per game to opposing backfields, fifth-lowest in the league. Denver has been hit by some elite running backs this year, allowing RB1 games to Jonathon Taylor (RB1, Week Two), Omarion Hampton (RB4, Week Three) and Saquon Barkley (RB11, Week Five). These results, along with some recent injuries to key Denver defenders, keep Jeanty in fantasy lineups, but with slightly lower expectations.

Tyler Warren, TE IND

Only one team in the league has yet to allow a TE1 performance on the season, the Falcons. This week, Atlanta will be faced with stopping Colts rookie Tyler Warren. The Falcons have allowed a total of just 40.6 fantasy points to the tight end position all season, an average of only 5.1 per game. This matchup comes when Warren is showing signs of a rookie wall. While Warren has continued to stack up TE1 performances, he hasn’t shown a massive fantasy ceiling. The rookie hasn’t exceeded 70 receiving yards since Week Two; his Week One seven-reception performance remains his season-high.