Week 2 Dynasty Fantasy Football Trade Targets: Brian Thomas, Trey Benson, and More

Football is back. We finally have regular season games to react (and in some cases overreact) to. It wasn't the highest-scoring weekend with 11 of the 13 games on Sunday going under their betting total, but we still got a ton of actionable information. My job is to help you sort through what is signal and what is noise to find the players your leaguemates are not valuing properly. 

For this edition, I am writing up another round of dynasty trade targets, but next week I will be pivoting to redraft trade targets for the rest of the regular season.

Fantasy Football Trade Targets For Dynasty Leagues Ahead Of Week 2

Brian Thomas Jr.

This is the only "elite" player in my dynasty trade target list coming out of Week 1. It is never easy to trade for a great young player, but it is worth checking to see if the BTJ manager is spooked by Trevor Lawrence's poor play and Travis Hunter's role in the offense.

The Jaguars won comfortably, but it was ugly. The passing attack was particularly disappointing, but it is important to remember that this was just the first game under new HC Liam Coen. It may take a few weeks, but I expect things to improve with live game reps in the new system. 

Fantasy managers who are only looking at box scores might be alarmed by BTJ's one catch on the day, although his fantasy value was partially rescued by a rushing TD. Zooming out, Thomas and Hunter each had eight opportunities (rush attempts + targets) in the game. The most actionable takeaway for me is that BTJ was used in more of a downfield role (11.7 aDOT) while Hunter saw more targets underneath (7.3 aDOT). 

This isn't a surprise, but it does confirm that BTJ's production will be more volatile if they stay in these roles, so I'm willing to bet this was just a down week that will look like an outlier when we have a larger sample size.

We also shouldn't lose sight of just how good Brian Thomas was as a rookie, earning 129 targets and posting 2.45 YPRR. He is a certified baller, and there are going to be much better games ahead for the second-year wideout. If you can get any sort of discount on the young superstar, I would take it. It is worth floating a good older receiver (someone in the Tee Higgins tier) plus a 2026 draft pick and see if the BTJ manager in your league is worried.

Trey Benson

There was a lot of talk from the Cardinals this offseason about a larger role for Trey Benson. That came to fruition in Week 1 with Benson handling 9 touches vs 16 for James Conner. For what it's worth, Benson did meaningfully outgain Conner on the day, although that was almost entirely due to his 52-yard rush in the third quarter.

Still, it was encouraging to see Benson have a meaningful role in Week 1. If he continues to look good, I expect this backfield to progressively become a 50/50 split over the course of the season. That should be good enough to give Benson standalone value while retaining his elite contingent value if something happens to James Conner. 

Now is the time to make a deal for a back like Benson. I don't think his Week 1 performance boosted his stock all that much; he is still primarily viewed as a backup, but I think his value could rise a ton later in the year if he takes over as the lead guy and we start to hear mumblings about the team moving on from James Conner in the offseason. I will be sending out some offers with packages of 2026 2nd and 3rd round picks today to see if I can get anyone to bite. 

Harold Fannin Jr.

We heard rumbling all offseason that Harold Fannin would have a role in this Cleveland offense. Most of us assumed that meant eventually, sometime later in the season. Instead, the rookie TE was a featured part of the offense in Week 1, leading the Browns with 9 targets. 

This is significant to me for two reasons. First, it confirms that the offseason reports were not just training camp hype. Cleveland already views Fannin as one of their better offensive weapons and plans to deploy him as such immediately. Second, it suggests that we should buy into Fannin's prospect profile. 

Statistically, Fannin was an elite college TE. He led the nation with 117 targets and 1,555 receiving yards last year. However, there was a question of how much his production should be discounted because he was playing at Bowling Green. Despite the low program quality, he still graded out as the TE3 in the Rookie Super Model. 

Now that we can feel pretty confident that Fannin is an NFL-caliber talent, we should adjust quickly to the fact that his ceiling is just as high as Tyler Warren and Colston Loveland. Those guys were being treated as top-12 TEs for dynasty purposes before they played a game, and I think we should treat Fannin the same after just one game. 

He is going to have to compete with David Njoku for at least a portion of this year, and the QB play could decline when the team decides to give Dillon Gabriel or Shedeur Sanders a chance to start. However, the long-term outlook is extremely bright for Fannin, and I expect his value to continue to rise over the course of the season.

I would be willing to trade any middling TE starter for Fannin right now. Guys like Dalton Kincaid and Dallas Goedert had decent Week 1 performances and are decent starting options in dynasty leagues, but I would be happy to move either of them to acquire Fannin.

Malik Washington 

The Miami Dolphins looked like the worst team in the NFL in Week 1. They were shut out by the Colts for most of the day before scoring a late garbage time TD midway through the fourth quarter. We knew there was implosion risk for this team based on the bad offseason vibes, but I thought there was a chance that they would start the season well before falling off. 

My expectation is that Tyreek Hill is not going to be on the Dolphins for long. He is clearly disgruntled, and the team didn't look very interested in playing football. Mike McDaniel is the overwhelming favorite to be the first coach fired, and Miami could easily choose to tear everything down for a rebuild before the season is over. 

If Hill is no longer on the team, that would open up a large role. De'Von Achane and Jaylen Waddle might see a slight increase to their workload in that scenario, but I actually think Malik Washington would be the biggest beneficiary because he would move into a full-time role. He already had six opportunities (five targets + one rush) in Week 1 with the rest of the skill position players healthy and active. Plus, there were things to like in Malik Washington's prospect profile, and he flashed a little bit late in the 2024 season. If he gets a larger opportunity, I expect him to do something with it. 

The Dolphins might not be a fun team to watch this year, but if they are trailing all season, we can expect a lot of pass attempts. Washington could be a PPR scam artist for 2025 who enters 2026 as one of Miami's starting receivers. I will admit that scenario is far from guaranteed, but the risk is low if you only have to trade a 2026 3rd-round pick for him. He could also be a useful add-on to balance a higher-value trade. Either way, I'm looking for opportunities to add Malik Washington to my dynasty teams before the roster is shaken up in South Beach.

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