The dynasty trade market heats up in the middle of the season as owners point towards a contending or building mindset according to their 2018 results thus far. With sample size growing for the current season, owners are more comfortable projecting roles, usage, and performance than entering Week 1 or in the early weeks. As a result, becoming more active with bolstering a playoff-caliber roster or shifting to 2018 viable options is critical. This week's edition will look at rosters building towards 2019, with next week covering contending trades.
BUILDING ROSTER TRADE IDEAS
The general idea behind trading as a non-contending dynasty team is two-fold - shift production from the current year to the following (or future) season and in the process aid rookie draft position. For the record, I am not an advocate (nor is any dynasty league) of 'tanking' which is purposefully setting sub-optimal lineups and the like to improve draft position. As a result, I advocate using potential points instead of raw win-loss and/or points scored to order non-playoff teams for the annual rookie draft. Potential points use the optimized lineup each week a la best ball scoring to better gauge the strength of a dynasty team.
INJURED PLAYERS, shifting production
One of the easiest ways to shift production into the future is by acquiring injured players and selling current producers in the deal. Here is a list of notable injured (for the rest of the season or chunk of the season-to-date) players, who may be available from contenders looking to swap for rest-of-season production:
*All listed trades have been executed in dynasty trades in the past week and are the type of construction I would recommend to non-contending dynasty teams*
QUARTERBACKS
Garoppolo is the only injured option on this short list. Garoppolo has shown flashes of brilliance but remains a projection in terms of realizing his hype's commensurate production. The good news is the 49ers infrastructure with Kyle Shanahan is a quality one for next season and the 49ers are bound to improve their sagging wide receiver corps on the top end. Rosen and Mayfield have both looked like franchise options in their opening games with Rosen fitting the Garoppolo category of likely to see a weapons upgrade in the offseason. Here are some recent trades involving these targets:
- Garoppolo, Hunter Henry, 1st for Marcus Mariota, Travis Kelce (2QB)
- Garoppolo, C.J. Beathard for Alshon Jeffery, Antonio Callaway, D'Onta Foreman (2QB)
- Garoppolo for Alex Smith, 3rd
- Mayfield, Chris Godwin, 1st for Josh Gordon, 2nd
- Mayfield, 1st for Geronimo Allison, Tyler Boyd
- Rosen for C.J. Beathard
- Rosen for Marquez Valdes-Scantling
- Rosen, 2nd for Philip Rivers
RUNNING BACKS
This target list is a combination of injured options (Jerick McKinnon, Derrius Guice), slow-start rookies with high upside (Nick Chubb, Rashaad Penny), and Leonard Fournette, who the market is souring on with a non-existent 2018 season-to-date and set to miss more time ahead.
- McKinnon, 2nd, 2nd for Tyler Boyd, 3rd, 4th
- Guice for Jordy Nelson, Sterling Shepard, 1st
- Guice for Adrian Peterson, 1st, 2nd, 2nd
- Guice for Kenyan Drake, Taywan Taylor
- Guice, O.J. Howard for Travis Kelce
- Fournette for Kareem Hunt
- Fournette, Corey Davis for Melvin Gordon
- Chubb, Derrius Guice for Ezekiel Elliott
- Chubb, 1st for Kareem Hunt
- Chubb for Allen Robinson
- Penny for Dede Westbrook, Marlon Mack
- Penny, James Washington for Aaron Jones, John Ross
WIDE RECEIVERS
- Amari Cooper
- Courtland Sutton
- D.J. Moore
- James Washington
Cooper is one of the bigger players in dynasty to have a take on with his on-again, off-again production and GMs growing restless to see a full-on breakout. If we have seen Cooper's best, he will go down as one of the biggest metric disappointments in recent memory. Bet on the profile and historical odds. Sutton, Moore, and Washington are all promising rookies who should be obtainable from contenders looking to add to their title-bound squads.
- Cooper, Jordan Reed, 1st for Keenan Allen
- Cooper for Jordan Howard
- Cooper for Emmanuel Sanders
- Sutton, 1st for Adam Thielen
- Sutton, Hilton, 2nd for Keenan Allen
- Moore for Geronimo Allison
- Washington, 3rd for Jamison Crowder
- Washington, 2nd for Jimmy Graham
- Washington, 2nd for TaywanTaylor, 3rd
- Washington, Rashaad Penny for Aaron Jones, John Ross
TIGHT ENDS
The tight end list is limited with Walker out for the year and Jonnu Smith invisible in his absence. Hayden Hurst has a near-bulletproof Round 1 pedigree and his NFL playing time just getting started.
- Walker, Dalvin Cook for Jordan Howard, Trey Burton, 4th
- Walker for Nelson Agholor
- Hurst, Will Fuller for Zach Ertz
- Hurst, 3rd for Ricky Seals-Jones
