Dynasty Fantasy Football Trading Post: Tyjae Spears
When trying to plan your next move for your roster, it is important to remember that not every trade needs to be a blockbuster. Not every trade even needs to be a high-budget action movie. There is always a market for low-budget, indie rom-coms. And if you are an aspiring actor, a good way to get noticed to make your way into one of those billion-dollar, CGI-filled battle royales is to crush it in a few lesser-known, smaller-market movies.
The goal of the non-point-scoring season is to raise the overall dynasty value of your roster whenever and however you can. This means scrolling through your roster and the rest of the rosters in your leagues. Sometimes you need to scroll past Justin Jefferson and Josh Allen and move your way down to much lower-level players. This way when it is time to put that blockbuster deal together, you have more value on your roster to work on getting that deal done. One player who has a strong chance to gain value before the point-scoring season rolls around is…
Tyjae Spears, RB TEN
Derrick Henry is a beast of a human being. Year after year, he handled over 250 touches and came back the next season for more and always played well with them.
Henry is an unrestricted free agent this summer with links to the Baltimore Ravens in free agency. With King Henry off the roster, Spears remains as the only other player on Tennessee’s roster to rush the ball more than 25 times (the player to rush 25 times was quarterback Will Levis).
More importantly to the upside of Spears, he was targeted 70 times and made 52 receptions. From a body count standpoint, it is clear that the Titans will need to bring in a running back but I think the front office has shown that they want to give Spears a chance. This is enough information for me to look into his trade value and see if his value can increase by the time points start being scored. So let’s go to the DLF Trade Finder and Trade Analyzer and see what we can come up with.
12 team, superflex, PPR, TE premium, start 10.
In my mind, I am immediately crossing out the 24 fourth and Andre Iosivas (sorry Andrei), leaving this trade as 2.06 and Tank Bigsby for Spears. I would do this move all day to grab our subject. Yes, this is a deep class and in a superflex rookie draft and there will be some good talent in the second round. But here we have a player we have seen show relative success in the league and who is already in a good situation. This seems like a risk-free move that could easily gain some value for your team with every passing day that Tennessee doesn’t do something drastic at running back – which by all accounts they shouldn’t do at all.
12 team, superflex, PPR, start 10.
I need to be honest with all of you, I was not ready for this. It also looks like the Analyzer wasn’t ready for this one either. Acquiring Spears isn’t exactly a tight-lipped secret. We have known of Henry’s impending free agency and have seen Spears getting an increased workload as the season went along. I know that Jaylen Waddle had a less-than-ideal season. But if the hype is already at this level and the Waddle distaste is already at this level, then I would run to the closest internet-ready device to accept this trade to go and acquire Waddle. One of the most important parts of a trade is timing and if the timing is already there in your league to cash out on Spears’ hype then go and do it and get a player who has shown top-12 wide receiver ability.
12 team, superflex, PPR.
I couldn’t decide which of these to talk about so we are going to talk about them both! And there are two sides to both of them. Holding onto Spears for the next six months is probably the best way to maximize the overall obtainable trade value but if you are anything like me, then patience isn’t your strong suit.
Moving away from any running back and into a young and productive wide receiver is a move I am always looking to make in the non-point-scoring season. I believe both Rashee Rice and Jayden Reed have shown more than enough production in their rookie seasons that they will be steady fantasy producers for a few years to come. If you follow the same thinking as I do, then moving Spears for either wide receiver is a smart move. But what if you believe that the Chiefs are going to spend big at wide receiver in free agency or maybe you think the receiving room in Green Bay is too overcrowded and could find itself more cramped once the draft rolls around? While I feel you should definitely get something added to Spears, like in the Rice deal, making this move also feels like a safe play.
When planning to talk about Tyjae Spears, I didn’t expect every trade to look like the first trade where he was being valued as that mid RB2 but I definitely didn’t see that second trade coming where it looks like he is being valued as a solid RB1. Then the third group of trades brought us back down to earth a bit for sure.
This shows exactly why I love the non-point-scoring season. Values are all in the eyes of the beholder. If there is a player you have who you think has hype building, then send offers to see just how highly you can sell. If there is a manager in your league who may not quite know what they have in their players, then go see just how low you can get them. There are no wrong answers right now, only more moves to make.
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