The unintended fallout of ‘The Alex Smith Experiment’ ending last week was that it led to a new 2-QB fantasy football XN Sports weekly feature, which is a look at trading in 2-QB fantasy football leagues.
It’s not very often that you see a DeSean Jackson for Alex Smith trade go down, and for the most part, that’s only something that would happen in a 2-QB league, such as the one featured in ‘The Alex Smith Experiment’.
There are many different styles one can adopt when managing their fantasy football team.
Some owners are ultra conservative, where they only minimally tinker with their current lineup, week in and week out. Other owners like to put their foot in the waiver wire water occasionally, only when they’re willing to part ways with that third-to-last round drafted waiver wire caliber player they have finally deemed “dead to me.”
Then there are owners constantly working the waiver wire, free agency pool, and working the trade grind tirelessly, trying to improve upon their team, whether they’re 0-7 or 7-0.
Regardless of what type of fantasy football owner you are, trading is an essential part of fantasy football, whether you’re the type of owner looking to make one major impact trade, or you’re always dealing.
Trading in some leagues can be difficult because there are owners unwilling to trade, due to not wanting to be deemed the “loser” of the trade.
If that’s your mentality, you’re looking at it all wrong. You shouldn’t look at “losing” a fantasy trade, but rather how it helps you win. Just because you might not have won the trade, it doesn’t mean you lost.
A lot of owners feel that way though, and it’s understandable, because nobody likes losing. If you can get past who won or lost a trade, you will be able to make more trades happen, and that’s winning.
The purpose of this weekly 2-QB trading series will be to give you trade ideas, and apply them to your league, and team. While most trades discussed are from a 2-QB league perspective, there might still be valuable information for those of you in 1-QB leagues.
Roster construction doesn’t end on draft day, as you always need to tinker with your lineup, whether that’s preparing for bye weeks, or finding a way to improve a certain position.
The value of players on draft day won’t be the same in Week 2, Week 4, Week 6, Week 8, etc. Fantasy football is a weekly game, with weekly value swings, up or down, and you have to stay on top of that, to ensure you field a competitive team every week of the season, not just Week 1.
In one particular 2-QB league, and the focus of this week’s trade, I felt very confident with my team’s chances of winning, just like most owners, but once the season started to unfold, there were chinks in the armor, as they say.
A quarterback depth chart of RG3 (QB1), Michael Vick (QB2), and EJ Manuel (QB3), was solid. However, RG3’s slow start, and injuries to Vick and Manuel put a strain on that.
On top of that, I also lost Julio Jones, my team’s WR1, for the season, and ended up without a viable RB2, as I was riding the Daryl Richardson pre-season hype train. My team was starting to unravel, and I needed to make the bleeding stop.
But, how?
I looked at my team, and knew I needed a bonafide WR1, and with it being a .5PPR, I wanted a top pass catching running back to pair with my team’s RB1, Jamaal Charles.
When finding the right trade partner you need to find not only a willing trade partner, but also one that matches up with your team. If you have depth at quarterback, find a team in need of a quarterback. It’s pretty simple advice, but sometimes gets forgotten.
Through Twitter, I struck up a friendship with a fellow league mate, and we had also tried making a trade work earlier in the season. Knowing that, and knowing he really wanted RG3 from my team, trade talks started from there.
As much as I didn’t want to trade RG3, I felt confident enough with Vick and Foles (who I picked up), to steer my 2-QB league, while I figured out what to do with the QB2 position, in case I traded RG3, and as I waited for Manuel to heal up.
In a 2-QB league, top quarterbacks bring back the most bounty, and I thought I could get more for RG3, if I didn’t ask for a quarterback in the trade.
While going with only one quarterback in a 2-QB league might sound crazy, it was the one solution I thought would fill out the other holes my 2-QB league needed filling.
After various trade scenarios were tossed out, the final arrangement was a win-win for both: my RG3 for his Reggie Bush and Josh Gordon.
His quarterback stable already consisted of Cam Newton, Terrelle Pryor, and Geno Smith, so you might not think he needed RG3. Adding RG3 was something he wanted though, as he already had Pierre Garçon on his team, and wanted that 1-2 Redskins punch.
And since I didn’t ask for a quarterback in return, it would give him enough ammunition to trade one of his other quarterbacks to replenish the loss of Bush and Gordon.
Trading RG3 was not my first decision, but it was the best one for my team, and when you’re willing to trade a valuable commodity, and in 2-QB leagues, that’s top quarterbacks, you’re giving yourself the best chance of improving your team.
Before the RG3 trade my 12-team 2-QB league team looked like this:
QB1-RG3
QB2-Michael Vick
WR1-Julio Jones
WR2-Cecil Shorts
WR3-DeAndre Hopkins
RB1-Jamaal Charles
RB2-Bilal Powell
TE-Jordan Cameron
Flex1-Brian Hartline
Flex2-LeGarrette Blount
Bench: Rob Gronkowski, EJ Manuel, Nick Foles
DST: Carolina
Replacing Julio Jones with Josh Gordon, and replacing Bilal Powell with Reggie Bush made it a stronger team, overall.
With only one true quarterback rostered, being whichever quarterback was starting for Philadelphia that week, the next trade target on my list was a second starting quarterback. Find out next week how a second trade led to rectifying that problem.
