The waiver wire isn't the only place to change the course of your team. The right trade can make or break your season. The key is to buy low on cold players and sell overachieving players whose values have skyrocketed.

While this is a well-known method, some owners still tend to overreact to a small sample size, so it's important to take advantage of those opportunities. The season is officially underway, and following Week 1 is the best time to capitalize on overreactions.

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• 2025 fantasy football rankings
• Running back (RB) fantasy football rankings
• Wide receiver (WR) fantasy football rankings
• Tight end (TE) fantasy football rankings
• Quarterback (QB) fantasy football rankings
• Defense (D/ST) fantasy football rankings
• NFL rookie fantasy football rankings
• Best ball fantasy football rankings
• Superflex fantasy football rankings
• Dynasty fantasy football rankings

Fantasy Football Buy Low Candidates

Jeremy Hill (RB, CIN)

The Jets’ defense yielded the fewest touchdowns and the second fewest yards on the ground a year ago. As a result, the Bengals threw the ball 30 times in Week 1, and Hill saw just nine carries for 31 yards and a touchdown. The 23-year-old didn’t have a single target out of the backfield, but he did out-carry Giovani Bernard, who took just five rushes for 25 yards. Hill should maintain possession of the lion’s share of the carries, with Bernard working mostly on third down and in the passing game.

The Bengals face two more tough run defenses in Pittsburgh and at home against Denver over the next two weeks, but the schedule gets infinitely easier by Week 4. If owners have softened on guys like Todd Gurley or Adrian Peterson at all, it can’t hurt to try to steal them away at their lowest point, but that seems unlikely. Owners were probably never in love with Hill, but he can provide a lot of value as an RB2, and can likely be had for pretty cheap.

Demaryius Thomas (WR, DEN)

Thomas’ stock has dropped over the last two seasons as Denver’s quarterback role has jumped from Peyton Manning to Brock Osweiler to Trevor Siemian. Week 1, in which Siemian completed 18 of 26 passes for 178 yards, a touchdown and two picks, did little to instill confidence in fantasy owners regarding Thomas’ ability to produce on a weekly basis. Thomas caught four of his six targets for just 48 yards in the game.

However, the Manning/Osweiler pairing was far from exciting in 2015, and Thomas still mustered 81.5 yards on 6.6 receptions per game for his fourth consecutive season crossing the 1,000-yard threshold. He’s only 28 years old, and if he is able to build some chemistry with Siemian over the next few games, Thomas can rejoin the WR1 conversation. You won’t be able to get him as easily once he has picked up the pace.

Gary Barnidge (TE, CLE)

Barnidge didn’t catch either of his two targets in Week 1 against the Eagles despite seeing 51 of Cleveland’s 52 offensive snaps. It was his first game without a catch since the 2014 season.

Barnidge finished as a top-five tight end in 2015, totaling 1,043 yards and nine touchdowns with Josh McCown at the helm for a good chunk of the season— he caught six touchdowns with 512 yards over the six-week span during which McCown was the starter. Now, with Robert Griffin III on the IR, McCown is set to take over for the Browns once again.

Many fantasy owners will understandably be down on a Browns offense that managed just two plays of more than 20 yards on Sunday. As a result, the asking price for Barnidge, who should expect an increased role in the offense, could be very low. Barnidge’s value should shoot up dramatically over the next few weeks, so make a push for him before that happens.

Fantasy Football Sell High Candidates

Jameis Winston (QB, TB)

Winston was excellent in Sunday’s 31-24 win over the Falcons, completing 23 of his 33 passing attempts for 281 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. This performance put him among the league’s top quarterbacks in all fantasy formats.

The reason he is on this list is not because his Week 1 showing was a fluke or because he isn’t talented, but he likely won’t be a top-five fantasy QB all year. Also, he certainly won’t get to face Atlanta’s secondary every week. In fact, the Buccaneers’ upcoming schedule shows match-ups with four of the toughest defenses in football— at Arizona, vs. Los Angeles, vs. Denver, at Carolina. Chances are, you’re not starting Winston over the next five weeks (Tampa Bay has a bye in Week 6), so why hold onto him when you can flip him at his highest value?

DeAngelo Williams (RB, PIT)

Williams exploded for 171 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday against a Redskins defense that allowed a whopping 4.8 yards per carry last year. At 33, he is the oldest back in the NFL, and not only is his Week 1 pace unsustainable, but there is certainly the possibility that he loses a step or two over the course of the season. All of this without mentioning Le’Veon Bell’s impending return from a three-game suspension.

Williams managed just 35 yards on 13 carries (2.69 Y/C) over the five games last season in which Bell was fully healthy. Yes, Williams will likely have two more very productive performances against the Bengals and Eagles, but the closer to Bell’s arrival you try to move him, the weaker the return will be.

Larry Fitzgerald (WR, ARI)

Fitzgerald collected eight receptions, 81 yards and two touchdowns in Arizona’s Week 1 loss to the Patriots. His 109 receptions a year ago were a career high, as well as the fifth most in all of football, so his talent hasn’t appeared to fade.

However, Fitzgerald is 33 years old and averaged just 48.2 yards per game over his final six contests last season. Clearly he can still turn it up for a single game — he caught eight passes for 176 yards and a score in the divisional round of the playoffs against the Packers — but there are legitimate concerns regarding his ability to produce over a full, 16-game season. Fitzgerald caught five of his nine touchdowns over the first three weeks of the 2015 campaign. Try to sell high on an aging receiver coming off of what is likely to be his best game of the season, fantasy-wise.