As Keenan Allen's injury implications went from bad to worse yesterday, the most common question I got was, "Who's better ROS ('rest of season'): Stevie Johnson or Malcom Floyd?"
This is a question I wrestled with, too. Allen's injury was the latest misfortune in a (in hindsight) very underwhelming 20-team draft. The Fantasy Sports Writers Association-sponsored competition started out well (I thought). Keeping in mind that it's obviously difficult to field a good team when 19 other people are drafting, too, my first six picks were:
(1) Matt Forte (packaged in a trade in Week 3 for Justin Forsett, A.J. Green, and Kirk Cousins)
(2) Lamar Miller
(3) Tony Romo
(4) Keenan Allen
(5) Seahawks DST
(6) Kendall Wright (packaged in the Forte trade for Justin Forsett, A.J. Green, and Kirk Cousins)
When Romo went down early, and with zero starting QBs on waivers, I started the slow process of rebuilding my team, selling high and buying low to any willing trading partner. That meant trading Forte and a slightly overperforming receiver for A.J. Green and a wildly underperforming RB (Justin Forsett). It then meant selling high on Forsett after his bust-out performance for a slightly better (so far) LeGarrette Blount. It meant trading James Starks (when it appeared he was the co-lead in Green Bay) for Willie Snead after Snead produced two straight clunkers.
And it meant capitalizing on the uncertainty of Allen's injury early yesterday, when I gave an RB-needy team Cincy's D and high-end RB handcuff Jerick McKinnon in exchange for Stevie Johnson.
I missed out on a lot of great free agent pickups because, frankly, I was slow to catch on to some trends (Barnidge, Diggs, etc.). My team is a league-leading 6-2 almost entirely because of these four trades. Even though four of my first six picks have led to one misfortune or another (injuries or relatively bad play), the sell-high / buy-low approach has kept me in contention.
Some of you have pointed out this year and in past seasons, "No one trades in my league, so this strategy doesn't work." No offense, but nonsense. A hands-on approach to communicating with other team members and "making a deal they can't refuse" is possible in any league, provided the owners know how to operate a computer or hand-held device.
If we make offers that are overtly unfair, we shouldn't expect any response, much less an "accept." But if we make offers that *seem* to benefit them--that capitalize on probabilities that only we understand--then we're taking another small step toward a title.
This is a question I wrestled with, too. Allen's injury was the latest misfortune in a (in hindsight) very underwhelming 20-team draft. The Fantasy Sports Writers Association-sponsored competition started out well (I thought). Keeping in mind that it's obviously difficult to field a good team when 19 other people are drafting, too, my first six picks were:
(1) Matt Forte (packaged in a trade in Week 3 for Justin Forsett, A.J. Green, and Kirk Cousins)
(2) Lamar Miller
(3) Tony Romo
(4) Keenan Allen
(5) Seahawks DST
(6) Kendall Wright (packaged in the Forte trade for Justin Forsett, A.J. Green, and Kirk Cousins)
When Romo went down early, and with zero starting QBs on waivers, I started the slow process of rebuilding my team, selling high and buying low to any willing trading partner. That meant trading Forte and a slightly overperforming receiver for A.J. Green and a wildly underperforming RB (Justin Forsett). It then meant selling high on Forsett after his bust-out performance for a slightly better (so far) LeGarrette Blount. It meant trading James Starks (when it appeared he was the co-lead in Green Bay) for Willie Snead after Snead produced two straight clunkers.
And it meant capitalizing on the uncertainty of Allen's injury early yesterday, when I gave an RB-needy team Cincy's D and high-end RB handcuff Jerick McKinnon in exchange for Stevie Johnson.
I missed out on a lot of great free agent pickups because, frankly, I was slow to catch on to some trends (Barnidge, Diggs, etc.). My team is a league-leading 6-2 almost entirely because of these four trades. Even though four of my first six picks have led to one misfortune or another (injuries or relatively bad play), the sell-high / buy-low approach has kept me in contention.
Some of you have pointed out this year and in past seasons, "No one trades in my league, so this strategy doesn't work." No offense, but nonsense. A hands-on approach to communicating with other team members and "making a deal they can't refuse" is possible in any league, provided the owners know how to operate a computer or hand-held device.
If we make offers that are overtly unfair, we shouldn't expect any response, much less an "accept." But if we make offers that *seem* to benefit them--that capitalize on probabilities that only we understand--then we're taking another small step toward a title.