Sell the Hype on these 5 Players in Dynasty

What I’m about to ask you to consider is not easy.  After an off-season of reading positive training camp and preseason praise for your player, I want you to sell the hype and consider trading away a few players in your dynasty fantasy football leagues.

I acknowledge, once again, that it’s easy to say, but incredibly difficult to do. And I know from personal experience.

In the Spring of 2023, I traded for Darren Waller in dynasty. The Giants had just traded a 3^rd-round pick for him, and I thought he’d be their go-to target. That summer, my bet looked like a winner. Waller was unguardable in practice. The training camp reports were glowing. He was targeted on the first three plays of the only preseason game he played in. On that drive, he had 3 catches for 40 yards. Waller looked like the Giants’ clear #1 option on offense and that he would rival Travis Kelce to be the TE1 that season.

I rebuffed a handful of lopsided trade offers for him in August. In my mind, Waller was going to the moon.

But Waller barely got off the launching pad. He played in just 12 games that season. He had just one touchdown and finished as TE21.

I should have sold the hype.

5 Guys You Can Sell in Dynasty Football Right Now

Parker Washington, Jaguars WR

Washington is the captain of the off-season all-hype team. He finished last year strong (13.9 fantasy points per game from Week 9 on) and appears to be the #1 option on a top-10 offense. Jaguars head coach Liam Coen joked that his wife thought it was weird that he made Washington his emergency contact.

Is Washington the next Amon-Ra St. Brown? Maybe. But the odds are that he’s not.

Parker Washington has 106 receptions, 1369 receiving yards, and 10 receiving TDs in his career. His teammate, Brian Thomas Jr., essentially put up those numbers in his rookie season.

Perhaps BTJ was just banged up last year and regains his rookie form? Maybe there’s no clear #1 in Jacksonville and Washington, Thomas Jr. and Jakobi Meyers get an even target share, and none of them finish with 800+ yards? What if Trevor Lawrence regresses to the mean and the Jaguars’ offense isn’t nearly as good?

My point is that the belief that Parker Washington will finish as a Top 20 Fantasy WR is a projection and there is a lot that can go wrong.

If you have the stones to do it, try to sell the hype on Parker Washington for a player that’s more established.

Jonathon Brooks, Panthers RB

I am rooting for Jonathan Brooks. It would be a great story for him to come back from tearing the same ACL in his right knee twice and have a productive NFL career.

Others seem to think that this comeback story is a fait accompli. With Rico Dowdle off to Pittsburgh, Brooks, the former 2nd-round pick, is the presumed lead back in Carolina. He is RB25 on KeepTradeCut.

While I am rooting for Brooks, I am not betting on him. He has not played in an NFL game since 2024 and has just nine total carries in his professional career. The presumption that he’ll be handed a workhorse role and have the same burst coming off two ACL tears is preposterous to me. Chuba Hubbard is still there and will have a large role in that backfield. Best-case scenario is that Brooks can make it a 50-50 split.

Sell the hype on Brooks and cash it in for a more established player like David Montgomery (if you’re a contender) or Kyle Monangai (who was featured as a dynasty buy in this column last week).

De’Zhaun Stribling, 49ers WR

Stribling’s dynasty stock skyrocketed after he had 7 catches for 63 yards in San Francisco’s first preseason game. That, combined with Ricky Pearsall being lost for the season to an ACL tear, seemed to lock Stribling into a startling role in the Niners’ offense.

He’s 6’2, 206, ran a 4.36 40-yard dash, and the 49ers used the 1st pick in the 2nd round to draft him. What’s not to like? He went from WR91 on July 1st  to WR33 on KeepTradeCut on September 1st.

My advice: Take that hype and turn Stribling into someone more likely to produce. I would rather have any of these seven WRs listed behind him: DJ Moore, Michael Wilson, Matthew Golden, Alec Pierce, Davante Adams, Josh Downs, Terry McLaurin.

The case against Stribling is simple. Do you know the last time the 49ers’ WR2 had more than 60 catches? You’ve got to go back to the last year of the Jim Harbaugh-era when Anquan Boldin and Michael Crabtree were there. 2014.

You know who wasn’t there back then? Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle. With those two and Mike Evans in the fold, Stribling will be the #4 option, at best, in San Francisco’s passing game.

ESPN’s Mike Clay has Stribling projected to have 52 catches and finish as the WR48 this season.

Sell. The. Hype.

Tucker Kraft, Packers TE

Kraft only played in 8 games last season before he tore his ACL, but in those games he was a monster. He put up 12.65 points per game (0.5 PPR), which was 2nd best among TEs behind only Trey McBride.

The Kraft believers think he will pick up right where he left off and easily finish as a Top 5 TE in the final year of his rookie contract.

If you look closer at Kraft’s breakout year, you’ll see that he had double-digit fantasy points in four games: against the Commanders, Bengals, Cardinals, and Steelers. Those defenses were all in the bottom 5 in allowing fantasy points to tight ends last season. Kraft had 7+ targets in three of those games. He averaged just 4 targets per game outside of those favorable matchups.

Color me a bit skeptical that Kraft will be a dominant player coming off a major knee surgery. It may be tough to trade him after experiencing those spike weeks last season, but I think it’s the prudent thing to do.

I could see the likes of Sam LaPorta, who is two months younger than Kraft, Dallas Goedert, and even Travis Kelce putting up similar numbers to him this season.  Sell the hype on Kraft.

Make sure to check out all of our Week 1 Fantasy Football Rankings and Analysis!

Caleb Williams, Bears QB

I understand the case for the Caleb Williams breakout season. He’s the former #1 overall pick, now in year 2 under offensive genius Ben Johnson, and he has three young, explosive pass catchers: Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III, and Colston Loveland. Williams is positioned to have sustained success for the foreseeable future. Plus, the Bears’ defense is not the 1985 version, so they may find themselves in some shootouts this season.

The problem is that Williams is already priced like he’s a Top 5 guy in the league. He has never, nor has any Bears quarterback, thrown for 4000 yards in a season.

Last season, the Bears won six games in which they trailed in the final two minutes, and Williams was great late. Only Matthew Stafford had more TD passes in 4th quarters than Williams in 2025. The late-game heroics were incredible, but that kind of success is not sustainable.

Williams’ biggest issue remains accuracy. He finished 38th among qualified QBs in completion percentage (58.1%) last season. He led all QBs in poor throws (109), according to Pro Football Reference.

In dynasty, he’s ranked as QB4. In redraft, he’s going as QB7.

Are we sure Williams will outscore Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, or even Brock Purdy this season? Are we sure he’ll even outscore those quarterbacks in 2027 or 2028?

The stage is set for Caleb Williams to become the generational QB many thought he would be coming out of college. Take all those expectations. Bottle up all that hype. And sell it to someone who wants to pay up for something that hasn’t happened yet and may never happen at all.