For most people, the fun of dynasty is hitting on prospects and rooting for them for several years, if not their whole careers. Not for me. I like dynasty because of the opportunity to build dominant teams — the kind of teams that make your league mates debate whether this whole fantasy football thing is really for them. And I think I’ve built just such a team this season in the Dynasty Football World Championship. Actually, I can’t take credit for building this squad. Most of the work was done by Ben Kester, the team’s original manager and my brief co-manager. When I took the reins in March, I likely had the best roster in my 12-team league:1
- Aaron Rodgers, Carson Wentz
- Todd Gurley, Ezekiel Elliott, LeSean McCoy, Javorius Allen
- Michael Thomas, Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs, Keenan Allen, Alshon Jeffery, Marvin Jones, Allen Robinson, Sammy Watkins, Randall Cobb
- Jordan Reed, Ben Watson
- Picks: 1.03, 1.11, 2.11, 3.11, 4.11, 5.11, 6.11
But I didn’t want the best roster in my league. I wanted the best roster in the 696-team DFWC field, and that’s what I started to build.
Draft Day Deals
In ordinary dynasty leagues, rookies are (almost) free money. But in leagues like the DFWC, where you can roster only 18 non-kicker-and-defense players, I’m much more interested in immediate production. Boring veterans wouldn’t do me much good, so my goal was to move a few picks for at least one stud.
That said, quarterbacks are gross, and young quarterbacks are generally overvalued, so I started with this:
Give: Carson Wentz
Get: 1.10 + 3.10
And I had enough foresight to predict a roster crunch on cut-down day, so I took advantage of the offseason Randall Cobb hype.
Gave: Cobb
Got: 2019 2nd + 2019 3rd
I couldn’t trade out of the 1.03, and I didn’t want to be “that guy” who uses the whole clock. Instead, I drafted Derrius Guice and then tried to move him as the draft progressed. It didn’t take long for a deal to arise.
Give: Guice + 3.10
Get: 1.05 (Nick Chubb) + 2.05
I wanted to move the 1.10 or 1.11 for a 2019 1st, but I couldn’t get a bite. Instead, I found a stud — or at least a stud light:
Gave: Chubb + Calvin Ridley (drafted 1.10)
Got: Leonard Fournette
Nothing was doing after that deal, so I drafted the rest of the way through.
1.05 Nick Chubb (traded)
1.10 Calvin Ridley (traded)
1.11 Christian Kirk
2.05 Mike Gesicki
2.11 George Kittle
3.11 Antonio Callaway
4.11 John Kelly
5.11 Sam Darnold
6.11 Chase Edmonds
In-Season Moves
As predicted, I faced some tough cut-down decisions. But I managed to create an extra spot by moving another rookie, this time for an IR-eligible option:
Gave: Gesicki + 2019 2nd (from Cobb trade)
Got: Hunter Henry
I figured Henry would replace that extra 2019 1st I failed to acquire. Instead, I quickly flipped him in another splash move:
Gave: Allen Robinson + Christian Kirk + Hunter Henry
Got: Tyreek Hill
Meanwhile, LeSean McCoy hadn’t been arrested for his offseason … whatever happened with him this offseason. So I took advantage of the chance to get something for him.
Gave: McCoy
Got: 2019 3rd + 2019 4th + 2019 5th + 2019 6th
By this point, I was outpacing the competition by a good margin, and I wanted to look toward the future. So I found a contender with bye-week issues and made one more big move.
Gave: Michael Thomas + Alshon Jeffery + Jordan Reed
Got: JuJu Smith-Schuster + Corey Davis + Derrius Guice
The goal was to flip Guice for a running back who could help in 2018. When that didn’t work, I made my last (and most regrettable) move of the season:
Gave: Corey Davis
Got: Marlon Mack
Results (so far)
Despite the ill-advised trade giving up Corey Davis, the season’s — and offseason’s — worth of trades yielded very strong gains:
| Gave | Got |
|---|---|
| Michael Thomas | Tyreek Hill |
| Allen Robinson | JuJu Smith-Schuster |
| Alshon Jeffery | Leonard Fournette |
| Christian Kirk | Marlon Mack |
| Carson Wentz | 2 x 2019 3rds |
| Jordan Reed | 2019 4th |
| Randall Cobb | 2019 5th |
| LeSean McCoy | 2019 6th |
But I haven’t met my goals. To be sure, I’ve been hanging out in the top five of the DFWC’s overall leaderboard for most of the season, but I’ll probably finish with the third-best regular season point total in the field. Third is not first. And, to my knowledge, my league mates haven’t retired from fantasy football out of frustration. Not even one. So I guess we’ll see what next offseason brings.
- The format is vanilla PPR, with 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, and 2 flex starters — plus kicker and defense, but we don’t need to mention them again. (back)
