Consolidating the wide receiver position is a good approach at this point in the season. Depth wide receivers are vulnerable to the draft, trade, and free-agent pressures of the offseason, so finding useful upgrades where you are selling depth is a good investment. Use your depth wide receivers and other depth assets to acquire players who can be starting solutions in your lineup. This can be an upgrade of the projected starting spot at wide receiver or another position.
Consolidating Your Wide Receiver Depth
If you do this right, this can serve a couple of key goals. First, if you sell depth players for a lineup solution, you are improving your odds of success. Second, if you are trading a player outside the top 50 or 60 at the position, there is a good chance you are selling the player at the height of their value. The odds of being a major impact in your lineup are low, so there is only a small risk that the player breaks out in a way that burns you in the trade. Third, you are consolidating your roster spots to open additional roster moves.
When you want to upgrade the wide receiver position, the gold standard is young and elite producers. If you want to fix your dynasty team and add production, this is costly and should be reserved for already strong teams.
Instead, your goal in consolidating your wide receiver depth should be to acquire productive players who are no longer in the young category. When you are making these acquisitions, understand the key you are buying is targets with an aim of improving your lineup.
This Concept in Action
Let's look at some specific examples of trades showing this concept in action.
Trade Away: WR Nico Collins and 2024 3rd-rounder
Trade For: WR Keenan Allen
Keenan Allen was a top-12 wide receiver in per-game scoring after he returned from injury in Week 11. During the eight games to close the season, Allen had 83 targets, more than 10 per game. There was early offseason speculation he could be a trade candidate, but he restructured his contract and is locked into a WR1 role in the Chargers offense. On the other hand, Collins is a fine wide receiver, but he is well outside the top 60 Dynasty wide receivers. He is unlikely to be a top wide receiver on his team or draw sufficient targets to make a meaningful difference in fantasy football. The future third-round pick is likewise going to be a depth option. This trade is a perfect example of combining two depth assets into a single starting player.
Trade Away: WR Darnell Mooney and 2023 rookie pick 2.10
Trade For: WR Deebo Samuel
Both Darnell Mooney and Deebo Samuel are coming off injury-limited seasons. Samuel’s injury is the only way a trade like this would be possible and is a good example of waiting to buy wide receivers after a dip in the price instead of buying when they are at the top of the market. In 2021, Samuel had a career year and was a clear top-10 wide receiver in Dynasty. After a turbulent contract negotiation, he returned to San Francisco and was a disappointment. However, he still has top-10 wide receiver production in his range of outcomes and is one of the most efficient wide receivers in the league. With the potential of a Brandon Aiyuk trade, there is even a chance Samuel’s market value will improve in the offseason.
Trade Away: WR Terrace Marshall
Trade For: TE George Kittle
This is a good use of a depth wide receiver, Terrace Marshall, for an upgrade at another position. George Kittle is one of the few tight ends with TE1-overall in his range of outcomes and solves a lineup position for your team with a quality player.
Takeaways
Early in the offseason is a difficult time to address lineup needs. Specific bets on players with a history of strong production are good bets to improve your team and a better bet for production than younger depth options. Using this phase of the NFL Draft to consolidate your depth players for players that can make a difference in your lineup is a good way to improve your team.
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