Fantasy Football Trade: The Art Of The Deal

Making fantasy football trades happen can be a struggle.  If you’ve played fantasy football for an extended period of time, you’ve had a trade offer from that guy.  You know the one.  He’ll take Tom Brady off your hands, and you will get three brand new players!  Sure, those players are Mike Glennon, Robert Woods and Paul Perkins.  But that’s ok, it’s a three for one deal!  It might look like a good deal if you have glaucoma and have been smoking copious amounts of medicinal marijuana to treat yourself.  (Also, for the glaucoma)

Don’t be that guy.  If you want to trade with people, and more importantly, if you want them to trade with you, don’t treat them like an idiot.  Especially if they are an idiot.  Then you definitely want them to think that you respect them.  Which you don’t, because they are an idiot.

Everyone in your league wants to trade.  We play fantasy football to pretend we are big shots with our imaginary players.  There is nothing more satisfying than pretending to fire a pixelated version of an NFL quarterback for throwing an interception that cost you a playoff berth.  Your opponents in your fantasy football league feel the exact same way! Everyone loves fantasy football trades.

So if you follow these simple guidelines, you will find making fantasy football trades that much easier.

  1. Evaluate Your Roster: You should not make a trade in your league just for the sake of making a trade.  With fantasy football trades, your goal should always be to make yourself better.  Find out where you team is strongest.  That is what you should be trading.
  2. Evaluate Your Opponents Rosters: Before initiating a fantasy football trade, you should be looking for teams in your fantasy football league that are weakest where you are strong and strongest where you are weak.  If you have 5 wide receivers in the top 20 in scoring, but no quality running backs, find the guy with running back depth and no wide receivers.
  3. Start A Conversation With That Owner: You don’t just email your opponent a trade offer. Businesses don’t just mail a company a check when they want to buy them out.  They wine and dine them.  So begin your artful act of seduction. Go grab a beer with him.  Buy him a beer.  Buy him as many beers as is necessary to make this trade happen.  Just make sure you pay for his Uber after you drunkenly coerce him into giving you his best players.  Because you are a gentleman.  The important part is having a conversation before you make an offer.
  4. Get Him To Name The First Player: There are two questions that need to be asked. First, which players on my fantasy football roster do you like?  Second, which players are you willing to trade?  The reason it is important that he name the player he wants first is whoever names the player they want first is in a position of power.  They set the tone. Everyone evaluates players differently.  He might be in love with a player on your roster that you want to get rid of.  That makes that player more valuable to him than it does to you.  This in turn allows you to maximize the value you get for the aforementioned player.  Because your goal is to give away the least amount of value for the players on your roster while strengthening your roster.
  5. Try To Make Sure Both Parties Are Happy: This is the most important part.  Fantasy football is supposed to be fun. If you just go out to try robbing your opponents of all their good players, you will find that nobody will trade with you after a while.  If you are a big enough jerk, you might not even be invited back to your league.  Try to act in good faith.  If he loves your bad players and insists on taking them, people will understand.  If you hold his family hostage at gun point, tell him you will release his wife only if he will give you Tom Brady for Mike Glennon, people will hate you. (Also, probably arrest you)

Making trades happen is easier than you think.  Everyone wants to trade in their leagues.  If you follow the above guidelines, you will soon find yourself a master of the art of the fantasy football deal.

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