Every week, I’m picking one question from our Fantasy Football Q&A and posting it on Sunday morning. This week’s question comes from Indy, who is trying to decide amongst a couple of trades:
“I’ve been offered two trades: Steve Jackson for Rashard Mendenhall + Miles Austin or Brandon Jacobs for Kevin Smith + Miles Austin. my starting WRs are Fitzgerald, Colston, & Jennings (with Austin and Garcon on the bench.) my RBs are P. Thomas, Mendenhall, Smith, and Maroney. which one looks better to you? or do i just stand pat?”
My answer: I’d do the first deal for Jackson. Mendenhall is nice, but Jackson is having a top 10 or top 12 season and is an upgrade. I would NOT trade for Jacobs right now. I wouldn’t trade Smith for Jacobs straight up much less give up Austin in the deal as well.
It’s a little risky to trade Mendenhall away, because he could go on to have a great season, but Steven Jackson is a proven, every-week fantasy RB. He hasn’t scored a TD yet, but that won’t last with some nice matchups coming up. He’s on pace for 1789 total yards and is still having a top 10 or 12 season in PPR leagues. The downside is that the Rams are going to struggle to score on a weekly basis, but they have moved the ball a little better the last couple of weeks, so they should be able to give Jackson a few scoring opportunities in the near future. Since Indy is set at WR with Fitz, Colston and Jennings, Austin is expendable, so he might as well use him to upgrade at RB.
