Dynasty Fantasy Football Strategy: Trading

In our first installment of this series, we covered when and how to properly execute a rebuild. One of the most important skills required in rebuilding, or building any championship roster, is the ability to make trades.

Trading is an art form that very few have perfected, but it is something you can increasingly improve on with the right skills and mindset. In this article, I want to tackle the approach I take to not only complete individual trades but also to do so in a manner to build long-term business partners for future deals. After all, dynasty requires both a short and long-term view so completely destroying someone in an individual trade may have a short-term gain but it will also have long-term repercussions that could preclude you from the future championships we all desire.

So let’s dive right in on how to lay the groundwork for trading success and ultimately land on what will become the easiest part: actually making the offer.

Make sure you know your league-mates

I know, you are going to get sick of hearing this, but it is incredibly important in maximizing trade value. When you are looking to move a player, the goal is to get the best return possible, and finding the person in your league willing to pay that is the most important part of the trade process.

Every single league has a player who overvalues (or undervalues) future draft picks in their transactions. Looking back at previous year’s transactions, you will see second-round picks going for bye week fill-ins or a single first going for a superstar who had the audacity to turn 26 years old. Make a note of this somewhere because I can promise this will come in handy in future dealings.

The beauty of fantasy football is that everyone’s valuations vary greatly and the beauty of dynasty is that a league-mate's valuation may change based on the current state of their roster. The more you have your finger on the pulse of the league, the more likely you are to send over a trade offer that will seem like a win-win to both trade partners.

And this segues really nicely to our next important point when it comes to trading in dynasty...