Trade Targets for Week 16 (Fantasy Football)
We are officially in the thick of the fantasy playoffs in nearly every format, and we are once again reminded of how random this time of the season can get! I didn’t have Kyle Pitts’ record-setting TE day, Trevor Lawrence’s six TDs, Jalen Nailor’s WR8 week, or Tony Pollard’s sudden return to relevance on my Bingo card. But as the Ballers pointed out in Monday’s podcast, “getting to the fantasy playoffs takes skill; winning a championship takes luck.”
Luck is a huge part of this game, regardless of the time of year. However, two key factors to consider during this part of the season are matchups and motivation. As I pointed out last week, the Ballers’ Strength of Schedule tool is a potential league winner for you when it comes to matchups. With regards to motivation, I’m talking about both the player incentives that can lead to force-feed situations and the real football playoff standings.
Things happen that change everything we’ve taken for granted in a fantasy season. For instance, Joe Burrow looks absolutely defeated, and the Bengals are essentially done for the year. We just found out that the Commanders will be sitting Jayden Daniels for the remainder of the season. Patrick Mahomes just suffered a torn ACL. 12+ teams have officially been eliminated from playoff contention. Some of these teams will be sitting vets and trying out their younger players; they will be more conservative with injury recovery; they will let their young QBs get as many passing reps as possible to see if they have their QB of the future (Vikings, Saints, Browns). There are major fantasy players that you just won’t be able to count on in your fantasy playoffs (thanks for nothing, Ladd McConkey and Justin Jefferson…). And there are names that will appear from the abyss to win people fantasy championships.
It’s a great time to be alive!
Players to Trade For
Kenneth Gainwell (Contender)
Gainwell is such an underrated player, at least among the fantasy community. I’m sure he gets his due credit in NFL circles, as he is a dynamic rusher, smooth pass-catcher (remember, he was a converted WR in college), and excellent in pass protection. But in the fantasy world, all we really care about are stats. Well, Gainwell is finally starting to accumulate some of those as well.
Had I not had shares of Gainwell on my dynasty teams, I may not have noticed his production of late. We all probably remember his explosion in Week 4 when Jaylen Warren was out with an injury. But the team had a Week 5 bye, and Warren was reinstated as the lead back afterwards. However, over the last five weeks, Gainwell has quietly been RB8 overall, and it is largely due to his passing game involvement. In that span, Gainwell has 31 targets for a stat line of 28/209/2 TDs in the receiving game alone. He has 6+ targets in four of those five games! Pittsburgh trails only San Francisco in target share to the RB position this season (26%), and Gainwell is soaking them up.
Anecdotally, I can say that Gainwell is also used interchangeably with Warren in the red zone / at the goal line; he is the 2-minute drill and third-down back of choice; and Aaron Rodgers clearly trusts him (we know how important this has been on Rodgers-led teams, historically). All these situations create opportunities, and Gainwell has shown that he can deliver when given the chance. He is averaging 5.6 YPC in the rushing department over the last five games as well, 0.1 YPC more than fantasy darling TreVeyon Henderson. We don’t know what the future holds for Gainwell, as he has traditionally been relegated to passing down duties in his career, but for the remainder of this season, I want him on my squad.
Wild but true: "Backup" RB Kenneth Gainwell leads all Steelers pass-catchers in receptions this season (57).
RB1 SZN 📈 pic.twitter.com/VGIsgOy1Vo
— SleeperNFL (@SleeperNFL) December 16, 2025
Michael Wilson (Rebuilder & Contender)
Wilson has been absolutely on fire over the last five weeks, when Marvin Harrison Jr. first missed time with appendicitis and later a heel injury. In that span, Wilson has been WR1 overall. Read that again. He has amassed 67 targets and a stat line of 44/535/3 TDs in those five games. These were mostly great matchups for WRs, but he put up a respectable 5/54/1 TD against the otherworldly Houston Texans defense last week as well.
It’s easy to correlate this production with Harrison Jr.’s injuries. When Harrison returned from his appendectomy in Week 13, Wilson’s numbers dipped (seven targets, 3/36 @TB). But I’m of the mindset that we cannot put this genie totally back in the bottle. Not only are we uncertain if Harrison will return again this season (he could fall into the category of teams being overly conservative with injury recovery once they are eliminated from playoff contention), but even if he does, I believe Wilson has carved out a role for himself in the future. The real question we have to grapple with is whether Wilson’s slow development is due to his skillset or the wrong fit at QB during his first two seasons. Now that we are seeing a pocket passer who stays mostly on script, we are seeing what this offense is really capable of achieving. And if the Cardinals stick with Brissett next year, or find a different but similar replacement, I think there is plenty of work available for Wilson. And I think Wilson has shown that he’s got what it takes to be at least a WR2 in this league.
Michael Wilson keeping the DB guessing on back to back plays.
Same release, different outcome. pic.twitter.com/Y6Xm84hA5h
— Receiver School (@ReceiverSchool) December 15, 2025
Michael Carter (Contender)
No one better illustrates all the points in this article’s introduction than Michael Carter. This guy was on the Cardinals’ practice squad to start the season (and multiple weeks during the season), and now there is a chance he helps you win a championship. En route to the starting job, Carter saw James Conner, Trey Benson, Emari Demercado, and Bam Knight all go down with injuries. This may be as much a “last man standing” situation as anything else, but Carter is healthy and should dominate touches down the stretch for the Cardinals. That includes the ever-valuable passing down work as well. With Bam Knight being carted off with an ankle injury, Carter saw 80% of the team’s RB snaps in Week 15. He totaled 67% of the RB carries and received four targets (4/38) in the receiving game.
Carter looks to be locked into a workhorse role against the Falcons (18th in RB PAE) and Bengals (32nd in RB PAE), the second-best RB schedule over the final two weeks. With a true pocket passer at the helm, Carter has averaged 4.2 YPC over the last four weeks against some tough competition. I expect him to deliver against these softer upcoming opponents, and you should be able to secure his services for a future 4th-round pick. That’s a complete dart throw in a rookie draft; I’d much rather have the shot at fantasy glory right now.
Michael Carter: Likely to lead backfield in Week 16 https://t.co/MpsX1MyDS7
— RotoWire🏈 (@RotoWireNFL) December 16, 2025
Players to Trade Away
Jacoby Brissett (Rebuilder)
It seems almost unfathomable, but Jacoby Brissett has been a top-12 QB every single week he has started this season. This isn’t some three-week fluke; this is nine games in a row! He’s a top-20 QB on the season, and he didn’t even play in the first five games. And now he gets matchups against the Falcons (19th in QB PAE) and Bengals (30th in QB PAE) in the final two weeks of the fantasy playoffs? If you see a manager in your league who is nervous about starting Sam Darnold, Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott, or Jaxson Dart in tough matchups this week, now is the time to offer them a (very expensive) lifeline. I think you should be able to command as high as a second-round pick, depending on how desperate the other teams are. Brissett is a lock for 20+ points both weeks, and that level of security is hard to come by this time of year.
Tyrone Tracy (Rebuilder)
Tracy has quietly been putting up some nice numbers over the last four weeks, as he has three top-15 RB finishes in that span. He’s handling a full rushing workload for the Giants (14+ carries in four of his last five games), and he’s good for a few targets per game as well. The Giants have the 13th-easiest RB schedule over the next two weeks, with games against Minnesota (13th in RB PAE) and Las Vegas (25th in RB PAE) to close out the fantasy season. This is how you sell Tracy.
However, the expectation is that rookie phenom Cam Skattebo returns to full health and takes back full RB1 duties for the Giants next season, which would relegate Tracy to some third-down work (remember, Skattebo has an incredible receiving pedigree as well) and a handcuff stash in fantasy. And you may not have remembered this (because I certainly did not), but Tyrone Tracy is already 26 years old. I’m not saying his career is over, but that’s RJ Harvey-level old for a second-year RB. The future is Skattebo, in every regard.
Cam celebrated 10,000 subs on Twitch by drinking an energy drink out of his worn cleat 😭
🎥: @camskattebo5 / @NFL_DovKleiman pic.twitter.com/UiO0jDBJk0
— Complex Sneakers (@ComplexSneakers) November 20, 2025
Drake London (Contender)
This one is a bit odd, but there is a path for it to make sense if the circumstances are right. In fact, that’s one thing I love about dynasty fantasy football: there is a deal to be made for nearly every player in the game. For starters, we still don’t know if London will play this week, or at all for the rest of the season (remember what we said about teams being conservative with injuries). He can’t help you win a championship if he’s not on the field. Even if he does return to action, these PCL injuries are tricky, and we’ve seen too many cases where players came back a bit too early and just weren’t themselves. Per Ballers injury expert, Matthew Betz, Brock Bowers and Ricky Pearsall are the most notable examples from this season. Depending on the severity of the sprain, this injury can carry a 6-week+ recovery, and this is only five weeks for London.
London really broke out in a more consistent way this season, leading to his WR8 dynasty ranking on KeepTradeCut. The obvious question surrounding his future is QB play in Atlanta. Kirko Chainz has been hot lately, showing there may still be some gas left in the tank. Michael Penix Jr. suffered the third torn ACL injury of his career, bringing his playing future squarely into question. If either QB starts next season, London should be able to pick up where he left off. He should be easy to move in dynasty; the question is, “What can you demand in return?” I think it could make sense to move London for a slight downgrade at WR and another strong veteran piece. For instance, if I could get Jameson Williams + George Kittle for London, I’d feel a lot better about my chances of winning a championship right now. While we’re not sure how many great years Kittle has remaining, Jameson is the same age as London (24.5), so we’re not totally taking a bath on that side of the equation anyway. And wouldn’t you know it, the KTC trade calculator likes the deal as well!
Hit Me Up!
We’re coming down to the wire on this fantasy season! Don’t hesitate to reach out with any and all questions on X @kempertrull. I’ll do my best to steer you in the right direction!