Fantasy Football Draft Picks: To Trade Or Not To Trade?

Changing draft order picks can be an interesting conundrum for many fantasy football players. This short article describes what it means to trade selections, why people do it, and when it makes sense for them to do so. Of course, this only applies to the traditional snake eraser format.

Receiving your fantasy football draft pick is an exciting and sometimes terrifying time. Typically, the league commissioner will arrange for these selections to be determined prior to draft day so that teams thoroughly prepare for their first few rounds. Even if you get your pick a few minutes before the draft begins, a question will arise; Should I try changing my selection??

For those new to fantasy football, the draft pick is your position in the writing order. The order starts at 1 and each team takes turns choosing their first player according to the order of the draft. When the last person in the order chooses his player, he chooses again. The order then flows back to the player who chose first overall. This process is repeated. This is known as the classic snake eraser format. To provide clarity, our next example is a 10-team league. Overall selection number 1 will choose 1st, 20th, 21st, and so on.

The question remains, am I happy with this selection I received or do I want to try trading? All of this will signal the wishes of your core team. How to interpret: do you have a position that you want to put more emphasis on than others, or do you want to have a more balanced team? In some leagues, RB emphasizes the scoring setup, so you may want to focus on getting a strong group of running backs. In some leagues, the QB or WR are a very focused position. Before you get to draft day, start to understand the league’s scoring setup and come up with a game plan for how you want your main team to look like.

Strong in corridors

This year it looks like the running back position is going to be highly coveted. This means that around 12 of the first 15 selections will be the best projected riders. Of that group, there are about 4 or 5 that are considered elite and players cannot be absent. If you want to insure one of those guys, you’ll need to have the 1-5 choose in the order. A second plan to gain an advantage with the runners will be to choose later in the order, such as 8-10. This will give you the ability to pick a solid (but not elite) runner in the first round and take another around the turn. This would give him a strong starting team in RB.

Strong on receiver

The first option this year could be to win an elite wide receiver in the first round and a solid running back on the order turn. This would mean he’s off to a balanced start and could make a lot of sense in some leagues. This plan could happen if you had a mid to late first-round pick, like choose 7-10. If you want to be super charged in the WR position, it is even possible to grab 2 of the elite receivers in your rounds 1 and 2. This will make your running back situation quite shaky, but you will be ready for WR.

Strong in QB

This year it’s safe to say that most leagues will put less emphasis on the QB position. This is because there are a lot of capable starting quarterbacks. If you’re determined to land one of the top 3 elite quarterbacks, plan for them to be available from the beginning to the end of the second round. No matter which first-round pick you get, chances are that at least one of the best will be available in the second round.

All in all, it depends on him coming prepared with his core strategy before the draft. If you are fully determined on a certain range of selections, then definitely try switching to the selection that will give you the desired team composition. Most of the time, it is easier to trade lower than higher. Below is a quick simulation guide on the type of equipment you might have depending on your first round selection.

Selections 1-4

  1. Adrian Peterson (RB), Demarco Murray (RB), Percy Harvin (WR)
  2. Arian Foster (RB), Larry Fitzgerald (WR), David Wilson (RB)
  3. Jamaal Charles (RB), Darren Mcfadden (RB), Dwayne Bowe (WR)

Selections 5-7

  1. Ray Rice (RB), Matt Forte (RB), Percy Harvin (WR)
  2. LeSean McCoy (RB), Maurice Jones-Drew (RB), Reggie Wayne (WR)
  3. Calvin Johnson (WR), Maurice Jones-Drew (RB), Ryan Mathews (RB)

Selections 8-10

  1. Matt Forte (RB), LeSean McCoy (RB), Andre Johnson (WR)
  2. Trent Richardson (RB), Alfred Morris (RB), Dwayne Bowe (WR)
  3. AJ Green (WR), Julio Jones (WR), Demarco Murray (RB)

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