I want to talk about trades. I have thoughts. Primarily, I love fantasy football trades. Working through negotiations. Flipping the player you are tired of wronging you for the one who has not wronged you yet. They are the best. I hope to do one someday. 

Trades are hard. Almost every fantasy football article talking about trading will admit that trades are complex. The central theme of these pieces is usually people trying to win trades. I understand this view. Fantasy is a competitive game. We want to win.

I disagree. 

In 2025, the vast majority of players will be sharp enough to recognize the importance of relationships in trading. Aiming to win trades has short-term upside and significant long-term downsides. Almost anyone reading this can immediately think of someone who, every time you get that trade ping, you automatically decline. Your goal is never to be that person.  

After a trade article tells you to stop trying to win trades, it will ask you to focus on value. Here's the real problem. We have multiple sources across the fantasy football space attempting to quantify value, at least in Dynasty. Our Dan Hindery's Dynasty Trade Value Chart and Keeptradecut.com are two favorites. "Trading for value," along with numerical attachments of value, can be confusing. Are you trying to trade an exactly equivalent package? Is that actually a value? 

What I believe happens in most negotiations is that one side attempts to sell a player for 100-110% of their trade value. While the purchaser is looking to pay 90-100%. Neither side is looking to win the deal outright or screw their league mate. They just want value. 

More accurately, they do not want to lose value. 

We remember the trades that turned out great for us. We never forget the ones that turn bad. The vast majority of bad trade offers have a lot more to do with concern over not receiving full value or losing a trade than with outright trying to win the deal. In delicate negotiations, it can be easy to mistake caution for aggression. 

At the end of the day, the goal in a fantasy trade is to make a deal that satisfies your goal. The goal is the goal. Insightful. 

Conceptualizing what trades are and what they aim to accomplish is high-level word vomit. You want to know how to make more trades. Here are strategies that work for me. 

How To Make More Fantasy Football Trades

1. Make more trades. I know. I am killing you. But the simplest way to make more trades is to make offers. Hear what I am saying. I am not saying "spam every fantasy league with rookie fourth round picks for Christian McCaffrey." That is a great way to end up as "that person." Offer more trades across your leagues, and you will make more trades.

2. Make quality offers.  In a perfect world, you will take the time to learn what makes your league mates tick. Who loves rookie picks? Who hates Michigan players? Who needs a running back but will not pay for a running back over 22 years old? Who tweeted Jaylin Noel needs to be starting despite Christian Kirk looking great? In reality, we are busy. And tired. At the very minimum, ask yourself, "Would I accept this trade?" Assume the other person is busy. Give them something worth at least typing a response back. Learning everything about your league mates will absolutely make you better at fantasy. That is a different conversation. We are trying to make trades. 

3. Never just type a response back. If you are taking the time to respond, always include an offer. Give them something to click. People are busy. And tired. It is impossible to accept a trade without a trade to take. 

4. The answer to "What do you want for X?" is always "Your best offer." I get it—the art of the deal. Feel out your opponent. People are tired. And busy. Give them something to click. 

5. The person holding the player values them the most. When we are making content, we want to appeal to as many people as possible. We will say things like "people may not realize how involved Jaylen Warren is in the Steelers offense." In reality, we are saying, "I did not realize how involved Warren is in the Steelers offense." But you know who did? The person who has Warren. People are going to try to sell the best possible version of what they hold. 

6. Change the eye line. Here is where it gets tricky. We may have identified that perfect under-the-radar candidate. The problem is attempting to trade for that player flips them from an under-the-radar piece to the best possible version of that player. So, how do you try to buy low without telling the person you are trying to buy low? Change the eye level. Say you want to buy Cam Skattebo at a discount because of his injury. If you make a trade offer for Skattebo, you are not trying to trade for the injured Giants running back; I am suddenly trying to trade for a three-down, rookie breakout stud Skattebo who just happens to be out of the lineup but will definitely be a stud again. Now, say the person has Justin Jefferson, and you have CeeDee Lamb. You may be equally fine with either receiver. But you want Skattebo. Creating an offer of Lamb for Jefferson will be the conversation. Meanwhile, Skattebo is sitting in that deal. I should call this the Trojan Horse. I also wanted to include this Sorry Joe clip from the movie Role Models somehow. It works too. Sorry Joe. 

7. Carpet Bomb. We all have the person in our league who posts players on the trade block the moment they score a touchdown or an injury occurs above them. How many offers do they get? If you want to make more trades, give people something to click. Instead of hitting the trade block, offer the player to the entire league for what you want. You will get a bevy of responses. Who cares? You just want one person to click accept. The other thing I have seen is changing players' nicknames on Sleeper to the draft pick you want. This works ok, but if you really want to move the pieces, do the legwork.

8. We are all fishing in the same pond. It can be hard to have a meaningful opinion outside of consensus, outside of forcing an issue. When you do have one, that is the time to capitalize on a deal. But recognize, the person you are working out a deal with is likely to have similar player valuations. Do not try to pull a fast one. 

9. "Buys" should feel gross. Buys and sells please the algorithm gods for SEO purposes. But so often, buys are labeled as young, ascending players. That trends more toward buying high with a hope of going higher. To really look for a buy, it should turn your stomach to a degree. But ugly production is still production.

These are just a handful of strategies that have helped me complete more trades. You will notice there is a heavy slant towards Dynasty leagues. Dynasty leagues have to trade; team timelines should be in different windows; and create an incentive to make moves. As for redraft leagues, aside from rebalancing positional depth charts and selling a wide receiver for a running back, or selling to work around injuries, it can be hard to find an incentive to complete a trade.

Thirteen games stand on the schedule; let's get a fix. 

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