Pick Six Podcast: How are NFL trades affecting player projections in fantasy football?

Heath Cummings and Kelly Stewart join Will Brinson to talk fantasy and gambling ahead of Week 8

By Cody Benjamin

Oct 25, 2018 at 1:22 pm ET • 1 min read

With the Oct. 30 NFL trade deadline fast approaching, teams around the league have already been working the phone lines.

In the last few days alone, we've seen the New York Giants unload Eli Apple and Damon Harrison, the Jacksonville Jaguars land Carlos Hyde from the Cleveland Browns and the Dallas Cowboys swap a first-round draft pick for Amari Cooper.

How might these trades -- and future ones -- affect the fantasy football world, however?

CBS Sports senior fantasy sports writer Heath Cummings joined Will Brinson on Thursday's edition of the Pick Six Podcast (a daily, 30-minutes-or-so podcast on the NFL -- subscribe: via iTunes | via Stitcher | via TuneIn | via Google Play) -- to discuss that and more.

Among the questions at hand: Could the Los Angeles Rams' hot start actually hurt fantasy owners down the road if guys like Todd Gurley and Brandin Cooks are resting during fantasy playoffs? Might Eli Manning's fantasy stock actually go up now that his team is arguably even worse off on defense? How much will moves like the Cowboys' trade for Cooper fluctuate fantasy projections?

As for the latter, Cummings thinks Dallas' big deal might actually benefit Raiders receivers more than it does Cooper.

"Dak (Prescott)'s the only one on Dallas that I bumped up in my rankings, and it's not a huge bump," Cummings said. "I think you're going to get the same thing from Amari Cooper, at least this year ... I expect Cooper will have some big games later in the year. I don't expect much early."

As for Oakland? Cummings has Jordy Nelson as a top-25 fantasy receiver for Week 8 following Cooper's move to Texas, while he's also got eyes on Martavis Bryant as a sleeper. The latter, he noted, has gone relatively unnoticed despite putting up more than 200 yards on just 22 targets this season.

Listen to Cummings' full breakdown of all things fantasy, plus Kelly Stewart's analysis from SportsLine regarding best gambling bets for all of this weekend's NFL action: