Stock Watch - Week 4

Week 3 of the fantasy football season was extremely similar to the first two weeks of the season. It was crazy and unpredictable, and you probably had a poor week just like everyone else.

If there’s one thing that we’ve learned in this young fantasy season is that no one can be trusted. That’s right, not even your sure-fire, first-round pick can be trusted each and every week.

This ultimately causes a problem, especially with bye weeks starting in Week 4. If you can’t trust your best players, then how are you going to know who to play and who to replace in the coming weeks?

Luckily for you, we’ve taken our weekly stock report and come up with a handful of the top buy and sell candidates this week.

SELL

Matt Forte, RB, Chicago Bears

It’s been two straight poor games for Forte. To be honest, it’s hard to see them stopping anytime soon.

In the past two weeks, Forte has carried the ball a total of 25 times for only 54 yards. He’s yet to score a touchdown this season, and only forced one missed tackle in Week 2 and Week 3.

Forte’s thankfully been targeted in the passing game, which has still given him minor value. However, it’s hard to see him continuing to get the amount of targets he has once Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery are fully healthy. More importantly, he’s not getting targets in the red zone.

A matchup with a surprisingly stingy Green Bay Packers defense makes now the perfect time to sell high on Forte.

Randall Cobb, WR, Green Bay Packers

Many expected Cobb to post top-10 wide receiver numbers this year in fantasy football. While his three touchdowns have been nice, things didn’t look good in Week 3 for Cobb.

For starters, Cobb has seen just six targets in both of his last two games. In Week 2, he turned those six targets into two touchdown receptions. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case last week.

Week 3 brought about just three receptions for an extremely pedestrian 29 yards. His average receptions this year has only gone nine yards, a major drop from 13.7 career yards per reception average.

With the Packers offense looking far from being high-powered, Cobb is a player worth selling into Week 4.

Riley Cooper, WR, Philadelphia Eagles

It’s hard to know exactly what’s gone wrong with Cooper this year. Much like Cobb, his struggles are probably rooted in the offensive struggles that the Eagles have had through the first three weeks.

Cooper has posted a negative grade in each of his three starts this year. After seeing eight targets in Week 1, Cooper has only seen nine targets over the past two weeks. Even worse is the fact that he’s only recorded five receptions for 42 yards from those nine targets.

With Jeremy Maclin healthy and looking like a legitimate No. 1 received and rookie Jordan Matthews becoming a red-zone target last week, things simply don’t look good for Cooper. He’ll be a risky start the rest of the season, so if you can get rid of him, it’d definitely be worth it.

BUY

Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay Packers

Despite Rodgers’ slow start to the fantasy football season, he still remains one of the premier passers in the league. In fact, he’s currently graded as the No. 4 quarterback in the league.

The struggles of the Packers offense are truly baffling. The run game hasn’t been able to get going, which has caused more pressure on Rodgers and the offensive line. We also can’t forget about the strange play calling that we’ve seen from head coach Mike McCarthy.

The good news is that Rodgers has a friendly matchup this week against the Bears. He should have a bounce-back game this week to get his season back on track.

If the opportunity comes to buy Rodgers, you absolutely do it this week.

LeSean McCoy, RB, Philadelphia Eagles

Those that drafted McCoy with the first pick in their drafts have probably been a little disappointed this year, especially after Week 3.

McCoy carried the ball 19 times against Washington in Week 3, but only managed 22 yards. Yep, that’s a 1.2 yards per carry average. McCoy has also seen a drop in his targets in the passing game. He had six targets in Week 1, four in Week 2 and only one target last week.

Some of McCoy’s issues involve Darren Sproles being brought into the offense. With that said, it’s only a matter of time before the Eagles offense becomes the high-powered unit that everyone expects it to be.

Don’t give up on McCoy just yet.