Should You Trade for RB Cam Akers in Fantasy Football This Week?

Everyone was startled when the news broke 10 minutes before the Week 2 kickoff that Los Angeles Rams RB Cam Akers was a healthy scratch, was not going to play, and was going to be shopped to other teams in a potential trade. Even Akers himself was surprised. Pushing all their chips in on Kyren Williams, Sean McVay and Co. have decided to move on from Akers, but should you? Is Akers a potential trade-for candidate?

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Cam Akers Rest-of-Season Fantasy Outlook

The pre-season hype on RB Cam Akers was real, with many analysts drafting him on the basis of pure volume. He finished 2022 as the RB33 but went out with a bang, scoring over 14 fantasy points (.5 PPR) in four out of the last six weeks, including a monster Week 16, catapulting many managers into their league finals.

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However, we quickly realized that, for some reason, he was back in the doghouse in L.A. In Week 1, he had 22 attempts, the majority coming once the Rams already had the game in hand. Akers has the capacity to be the RB1 for a team, and he might get the chance now, especially with the number of lead backs recently injured.

Nick Chubb is now out for the season, Saquon Barkley will be out for a few weeks, and there is no timeline currently for Austin Ekeler’s return — not to mention J.K. Dobbins, Jonathan Taylor, and recently, Jamaal Williams. Head coach Sean McVay has said the Rams have been receiving interest in Akers. It’s also been reported the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, and Las Vegas Raiders have all inquired.

Should I Trade for Akers?

If you have Akers on your fantasy team, it is worth holding onto him, at least long enough to see the dust settle on some of these RB injuries. However, if you want to trade for Akers in the hopes of him landing in a good situation and giving you fantasy goodness, you might get the trade done pretty easily.

There are many managers who are ready to cut bait on Akers immediately, especially if they have a high waiver priority or a lot of FAAB and can see themselves acquiring a solid, hot RB pickup off waivers.

With Akers’ performance at the end of 2022, we know he can put up solid fantasy numbers, and most of the teams that seem interested in him would actually use him.

Update: Akers has now been traded to the Minnesota Vikings from the Los Angeles Rams to be the backup RB behind Alexander Mattison.

Trade! The #Rams are sending RB Cam Akers to the #Vikings, per sources. pic.twitter.com/tNtECO2P9E

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 20, 2023

Akers is a good trade-for candidate on his upside alone, not to mention the propensity of RBs getting injured this season. If there is a potential RB1 for a team out there, you need to at least put out feelers. Just make sure that if you put out an offer, you have enough RBs on your bench to play in case it takes multiple weeks for him to find a landing spot.