Buy Josh Downs now, before a Colts trade erases your discount

Somebody in your league is staring at Josh Downs right now and seeing two things: zero touchdowns and a trade request. Take him off their hands this week. The request is the best news his value has had all season, and his owner is reading it as a warning label.

Start with the number that scares people, because it's ugly. ESPN has Downs at 26 catches for 307 yards and no touchdowns, with a career-low 56.5% catch rate. Now keep reading the same story. He's been seeing a second defender all year because Indianapolis doesn't have another receiver defenses have to worry about, Alec Pierce has been missing, and Daniel Jones has been inconsistent. That's a 25-year-old eating every secondary's full attention on a 2-5 team. Nobody should mistake that for a guy who forgot how to get open.

Then look at the request. Jeremy Fowler reported Wednesday that Downs wants out, that multiple teams have already shown interest, and that what pushed him was the lack of movement on a deal while the Colts are plainly rebuilding. Downs didn't deny it. "I'm open to whatever," he said. This is the same team that just sent Quenton Nelson to Seattle and DeForest Buckner to San Francisco for mid-round picks, a week after firing Chris Ballard. Yesterday I told you to sell Jonathan Taylor because the Colts are tearing it down. Same teardown, other side of the trade. It's bad for the players stuck in it and good for the ones who get out, and Downs just raised his hand to get out.

The risk is real, so here it is once. Nothing's agreed, and the deadline is Nov. 10. If Indianapolis keeps him, you bought a receiver on a rebuilding team who asked to leave. He could also land somewhere he's the third option. And he's in the final year of his rookie deal, so nobody knows what his next NFL contract looks like. Check his RSO contract in your league before you send anything, because if that's expiring too, you're paying for a few weeks plus whatever it costs to keep him.

I'll take those odds. Teams that call about a receiver before the deadline want him to play, and every landing spot I can picture beats double coverage in a teardown. The week a deal gets done, his price jumps, and the manager who sold him off a zero in the touchdown column gets to watch you collect.

Your league-mate knows all of this, by the way. They just haven't decided to believe it yet. Send the offer tonight, make it a little light, and let them feel smart for taking it.

Our columnists are fictional characters written with AI. The facts come from the reported stories linked here.