In fantasy football, one of the goals is to gain an edge on your league mates. It starts with your draft prep, which carries over to draft day. But it doesn’t stop there; one of the biggest edges you can have is how you navigate the in-season management of your team.
Weekly matchups, waiver wire/free agency moves, and trades are important parts of the in-season management process. Most managers are only looking at this week, what will help them win right now. Where you can gain an advantage is by looking ahead, more than just this week (or even the following week).
We’re only two weeks into the season, so there isn’t a ton of definitive data to go off of. That means we shouldn’t overreact to anything, but that doesn’t mean we don’t react at all. By taking a deeper look at your leagues and having a little bit of foresight, you can put yourself in a better position to succeed in future weeks, often for free or at least much cheaper than it will be as these advantageous situations get closer.
I have done a little looking ahead myself, and have three under-the-radar moves you could make right now that may benefit your fantasy teams in the near future. These are moves that not many are discussing, evidenced by minimal market movement or ownership levels. Let’s go over those three sneaky moves you should consider in your leagues.
Add Jalen Coker and Stash on IR
(WR, Carolina Panthers)
We have seen this Panthers offense cook a little bit with Bryce Young, whether it was the latter part of last year or last week, where he threw the ball a staggering 55 times. Tetairoa McMillan is the unquestioned number one in this offense, but let’s not forget what Coker did last year, and what he was doing in the preseason before his quad injury.
Coker had four double-digit fantasy games in the 10 games that he played. In his first game (week four), he only ran four routes on an 8.7% snap share. After that, his snap share increased, his route participation rate increased, and he became a more viable part of the offense. Other than Adam Thielen, he was the only thing in the passing game that was working last season.
Thielen is now gone, Xavier Legette is setting records (the bad kind), and nearly 30-year-old Hunter Renfrow is taking advantage of this thin wide receiver room, earning 15 targets over the past two games. But remember, Renfrow was released by the Panthers in August, before the Coker injury.
Once Coker returns, Renfrow will likely get relegated back to the bench, if not released again. Coker can run opposite McMillan as a flanker and should benefit from McMillan drawing the defense’s best cornerback. Matt Harmon’s Reception Perception profile for Coker is strong, and Harmon shared some of his data here just before Coker’s preseason injury.
Another positive, Pete Nova shared a chart showing the top-15 red zone target leaders through two weeks. Renfrow is tied with Chris Olave, Ja’Marr Chase, and Malik Nabers for second with seven red zone targets. Renfrow doesn’t profile as your ideal red zone target earner at only 5’10” tall, though he is quick at the release point. Coker, at 6’3” and 213 pounds, could (should) step into that same type of volume.
I think this Panthers offense will greatly benefit from Coker’s return, which should be in week five after he is eligible to come off of IR. He is widely available, owned in only 8% of Yahoo leagues. If your league has IR spots, I would use one on Coker, as he could be a very valuable WR3 or flex play for you down the stretch.
In the FFPC Big Gorilla format, he is owned in nearly 70% of all leagues. The standard number of bench spots in Yahoo leagues is six, while FFPC is 10. FFPC doesn’t allow IR spots, however, which still makes this move ideal if you have IR spots available.
Most leagues, like Yahoo, have a default setting that prevents adding a player off the waiver wire or free agency directly to your IR spot, so you must roster them first, move them to IR, and now you have that roster spot available again. This would be an ideal move to make after waivers have run; you can make a two-for-one move!
Stash Blake Corum
(RB, Los Angeles Rams)
One player not making it on many stash lists is Corum, who saw his role increase in week two. He carried five times for 44 yards, which included two 15-yard runs. Coach Sean McVay also said after the game that this split is “much more in alignment” with what he wants to see moving forward.
Corum is a better athlete than Kyren Williams. Williams lacks the explosiveness you would like to see from your running back, and Corum is also a bigger body who can get it done at the goal line, which he showed in the fourth quarter last week on a one-yard run.
Going back to his time in Michigan, Corum has had a nose for the end zone. He scored 11, 18, and 27 rushing touchdowns in each of his last three seasons in college.
I think he is a high-upside handcuff, probably most rosterable in deeper leagues. McVay wants to get him about one-third of the work on a week-to-week basis, but he would likely take on the two-thirds role if Williams were to get injured (maybe more, depending on how much they trust rookie Jarquez Hunter). Since this offense doesn’t target running backs in the pass game, Corum's upside is limited to backfield carries, but he can capitalize on any added opportunities he is given.
Only rostered in 15% of Yahoo leagues, he is basically free, especially if you add him after waivers run. His ownership did go up about 7% during the waiver run, but at only 15% ownership, he is still widely available.
Using FFPC again as a reference, he is rostered in 99.9% of all leagues. High-stakes fantasy players have invested draft capital and/or FAAB on him, which should tell us something…
PRO TIP: In leagues with open free agency that allow adds/drops up until a player’s kickoff time, if I have a bench spot I am using to “churn” through stashes, I will drop my lowest value player to add upside handcuffs like this.
If they don’t perform or get hurt during their game that week, I can choose to keep them or churn through them for another upside stash from the next slate of games. The benefit here is that if they underperform, they likely won’t gain steam or be targeted on waivers the following week, allowing you to follow the same process again if you want.
Target Cleveland DST After Week 4
Admittedly, they have not gotten off to the greatest start. They have also faced Cincinnati and Baltimore to start the year. They recorded three sacks in each of those contests, but allowed 17 and 35 points. Their six sacks to start the season put them at sixth in the league in team sack percentage.
Their next two matchups are also not great. This week, they take on Green Bay at home and then travel to Detroit. With their previous matchups and two upcoming matchups, not many fantasy managers are coveting this DST as they are only 5% rostered in Yahoo leagues.
However, starting in week five, they have four great matchups based on fantasy points allowed to DSTs (according to Yahoo). The fantasy points allowed ranking of their next four opponents is as follows: Minnesota (1st), Pittsburgh (8th), Miami (2nd), and New England (7th). Using the FFToday Fantasy Strength of Schedule tool, this stretch of four games is the best of any other team DST over that same span by nearly 2X.
Of course, this could change with two more games (data points) to adjust the points against rankings, but for now, this looks like a nice stretch of matchups. Regardless, their sack rate translates into a strong pressure rate, and against lesser quarterbacks, that can turn into picks and sack-fumble opportunities.
I would keep an eye on them over the next week or two, as well as the evolution of these upcoming opponents. As long as Cleveland doesn’t suffer significant injuries on defense, or these upcoming matchups end up turning into negative ones, Cleveland can be a DST you can get for cheap (even free) ahead of week five.
Stash them now if you have a deep bench, or prioritize them as a pickup heading into week five.