Fantasy Football Week 2 Running Back Preview: You should sit Saquon Barkley, should you also trade him?

Fantasy Football Week 2 Running Back Preview: You should sit Saquon Barkley, should you also trade him?

For the most part, there’s a strong consensus at CBS that you should not start Saquon Barkley in Week 2. He had a terrible Week 1 matchup, he only played 48% of the snaps four days ago, and his team has one of the lowest implied point totals of Week 2.

More Week 2
  • Tight End Preview
  • Wide Receiver Preview
  • Quarterback Preview

I’m sitting Barkley on Thursday night for Melvin Gordon, Javonte Williams, Devin Singletary, Kareem Hunt, and a host of other running backs. And there’s really very little debate about that from anyone.

No, the debate around Barkley is whether he’s currently a buy low or a sell high. And it’s easy to make the case for both sides.

Barkley is a buy low if you believe he still has top-five upside and you can trade a player who was drafted outside of the top 30 for him. A Twitter poll I ran on Wednesday suggests a majority of people prefer D’Andre Swift rest of season to Barkley. That qualifies as a buy low, at least for now.

My only problem with buying low this week is that I would expect the price will drop if he struggles as we all expect on Thursday night against Washington. And that’s where the thought of a sell-high comes in.

In Week 1 the Giants offense looked every bit as miserable as we projected. I saw no signs that Barkley has regained 100% of his athleticism. I saw no signs that Jason Garrett has evolved as a playcaller. I saw no signs that Daniel Jones has improved as a quarterback. If, like me, you believe Barkley’s upside this year is more like top 10 than top five, this may be the last time you could get someone like Swift for him.

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This is the point where I’d normally tell you what I’m doing. I can only speak to one side of the equation, because I didn’t draft Barkley in any of my 25 leagues. I’m also not making any buy-low offers for him before Week 3. And assuming Thursday night goes as poorly as we expect, I won’t be offering anyone as good as Swift next week.

Now let’s get to the rest of the Week 2 RB Preview:

Week 2 RB Preview

The following players are not being projected to play Week 2 at this time. Here’s what it means:

  • 29 – Carries for Joe Mixon in Week 1. That was the second highest mark of his career. If he stays healthy, he’s going to be a top six running back in Fantasy this year.
  • 25 – Touches for Damien Harris in Week 1. He looks like a must-start running back in all formats, especially if he can catch a couple of passes each week.
  • 36 – Combined touches for D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams in Week 1. Everything we’d hoped for with their usage was true for at least one week.
  • 22.9% – Target share for Nyheim Hines, which led the Colts in Week 1. Jonathan Taylor was second on the team at 20%.
  • 0 – Targets for Austin Ekeler in Week 1. It’s nothing to panic about now, but it’s definitely worth watching in Week 2.
  • 100% – Najee Harris played all of the snaps for the Steelers offense. Now we just need to work on that efficiency.
  • 48% – Snap share for Saquon Barkley in Week 1. That makes him tough to trust in a short week against a good Washington defense.
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So who should you start and sit this week? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 2 rankings for every position, plus see which QB is going to come out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that has out-performed experts big-time.