Trading players like stocks

The NFL games on Sunday gave you a first look at your team and how the players you drafted perform. It’s was just one game, but you should have learned something. Today (and every day) you should be thinking how you can make your team better.

There are only two ways you can make your team better – trading players and working the waiver wire. The latter is a prerequisite, but I want to talk about trading players in today’s blog because you can take a big step to a championship with the right trade.

Last year, I lost my No. 1 draft pick, David Johnson, to an injury in the first quarter of the first game. In the third week of the season, I traded for Mark Ingram, and I traded for Alvin Kamara the next week. These two players were the keys to my championship.

This year, I’m in a similar position as I lost my No. 1 draft pick to greed. I’m speaking about Le’Veon Bell, of course. No one in their right mind would have traded Bell for McCaffrey if the Steelers running back and playing. But the fact is, he’s not.

This is the whole idea behind trading players. Trading players is like trading stocks – you want to trade for an appreciating asset and dump a depreciating one. Bell was a depreciating asset, so I traded him. If he returns next week, I made a big mistake.

This wasn’t an optimal trade. An optimal trade would be where you trade a player who has already become an appreciated asset for one that is depreciated but will bounce back. This is a gamble, of course, but if you’re successful, it can pay off big time.

Here’s an example. Look at rosters of teams in your league and see who owns Le/Sean McCoy. No one was worse yesterday than the Buffalo Bills, and few were worse than their running back, McCoy, who had 22 yards on 7 carries and one reception for -1 yard.

McCoy had 3.1 fantasy points, but he has been a top fantasy asset in the past. It seems things can only get better for the Bills and McCoy after their 47-3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Offer McCoy’s owner one of your mid-round draft picks and see if he/she bites.