The New Reality No.134: Contending Roster Management

Chad Parsons's The New Reality No.134: Contending Roster Management Chad Parsons Published 10/10/2019

The dynasty trade market heats up in the middle of the season as owners point towards a contending or building mindset according to their 2019 results thus far. With sample size growing for the current season, owners are more comfortable projecting roles, usage, and performance than entering Week 1 or in the early weeks. As a result, becoming more active with bolstering a playoff-caliber roster or shifting to 2019 viable options is critical. This week's edition will look at contending rosters for 2019.

CONTENDING ROSTER TRADE IDEAS

The general idea behind trading as a contending dynasty team is two-fold - acquiring production for the current year but also making dynasty trades which look at multiple seasons to aid a team, not a redraft-centric approach of buying a month or two of impact. The natural win-win trade for contending teams is targeting the non-contenders by offering rookie picks and/or hopeful producers and young players for 2020 and beyond.

*All listed trades have been executed in dynasty trades in the past week and are the type of construction recommended to contending dynasty teams*

QUARTERBACKS

Seeking older players from a non-contending team is a tried and true trade strategy for target production. With the NFL rules shift, dynasty GMs should be less concerned with age at quarterback than ever before. Brady is QB7 in terms of aWORP/G (Adjusted Wins Over Replacement Player) through Week 5 with three high impact performances. Ryan is QB5 and Rivers at QB12. Here are some recent trades involving these targets:

RUNNING BACKS

Gurley has been a hand-wringing asset for dynasty GMs this season, but he is healthy and RB14 in True Impact (aWORP/G) with two elite performances and two other strong ones. Ekeler should come at a discount from the pre-Melvin Gordon reporting date period but Ekeler is still a sturdy RB2 with the elite upside already exhibited if Gordon were to miss any time the rest of the season. White is perpetually underrated due to his pass-centric role. However, White was RB9 in aWORP/G last season and RB21 to-date in 2019 and offers quality RB2/Flex depth in PPR leagues.

WIDE RECEIVERS

Jones, Fitzgerald, and Edelman all have declining values where they will continue a downward slide going forward regardless of their near-term production. However, Jones is WR6 in aWORP/G despite a relatively sluggish start (for him) and the same goes for Hopkins (WR13). Edelman is WR15 in aWORP/G and Antonio Brown not working out and Rob Gronkowski unlikely to return this season are net positives for Edelman's rest-of-season projection.

TIGHT ENDS

Dissly is younger than everyone else on this list but strongly undervalued by the dynasty community. Dissly is TE8 in aWORP and Olsen-Walker are both just inside the TE12 line in the True Impact metric.

Photos provided by Imagn Images
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