This dynasty trade was made in a typical 12-team PPR league with 25 roster spots and unlimited 2-year taxi squad spots for drafted rookies. The league starts 1-1-2-1-3Flexes. I took this team over as an orphan this year and am aggressively rebuilding.
The Approach
2017 1st round rookie picks have been extremely difficult to acquire, so my rebuild has consisted of stacking 2nd round picks in 2017 and 2018 1st round picks. With 6 picks between 1.12 and 2.07 this year and four 2018 1sts, I have the capital to build quickly. With the depth of talent available in the early 2nd round and my team’s lack of veteran players, I need as many shots in this years draft class as I can get.
Since I owned the early 2nd round, most teams in the mid-late 1st were aggressively attempting to trade back with me in order to gain multiple 2nd round picks. I refused all offers as my strategy is focused on building depth this year. At 2.06 I took Jamaal Williams and immediately started getting trade offers.
The Trade
Executed May 6th, 2017
Gave Zay Jones, Jamaal Williams
Received Evan Engram, Josh Malone
Initial offers for Jamaal Williams surrounded later rookie picks and packages of low valued players. Setting my sights on the owner who had expressed the most interest led to the deal. The initial offer did not include Josh Malone, but adding in one additional lottery ticket is important to my team construction. One easy way to critique this trade is to point to the draft spot that each player was selected. Looking at the trade from this perspective, I gave the 2.03 and 2.05 for the 1.08 and 4.09. While this is a major win in value, this is not an accurate way to evaluate the trade. Draft picks can fluctuate in value during a draft based on how the draft unfolds. As soon as you pick a player, the pick you used is no longer relevant to the player’s value.
Post-Trade Roster Highlights
Russell Wilson, Matthew Stafford
Alvin Kamara, D’Onta Foreman, C.J. Prosise, Frank Gore, Jonathan Williams, Corey Clement
Corey Coleman, Jordan Matthews, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Will Fuller, Marqise Lee, Devin Funchess, Curtis Samuel, Ishmael Zamora, Tavon Austin, Eric Decker
Evan Engram, Dennis Pitta, Michael Roberts
2018 picks: 1,1,1,1,2,2,5
Takeaways
I consider Engram as a safer option than both Zay Jones and Jamaal Williams and fits my team construction well. I do not expect him to contribute this year which will help secure an early pick in 2018. When the 1.08 pick was on the clock, I was not interested in trading up. Even if I had traded up to 1.08, my pick would have been Alvin Kamara, not Evan Engram. I expected to get Engram or David Njoku with one of my early 2nd round picks. When both were gone before I had my first pick, this shifted the market. Instead of buying the 1.08 pick which could have been Alvin Kamara, John Ross, Evan Engram, JuJu Smith-Schuster or any number of other players, I was now using defined assets to make a trade based on roster construction. With every pick that is made, remember the marketplace within your league has changed. At the time, I made the correct decision to pass on the deal to trade up for 1.08 based on projections of players who may fall and the value of my draft picks. Making this trade after the fact does not negate that.
