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Fantasy Football Week 1: Examining Trade Market for Top 100 Flex Players

Fantasy Football
September 10, 2015

Trades? We talking about trades? Before a game has even been played?

Yeah, we’re talking about trades.

Look, folks, an owner can offer you a great deal for your team at any moment. Even, yes, before a single regular-season snap has been played. So to make sure you are prepared in such a scenario, let’s break down the top flex options on the trade market before a single game has even taken place (I’ve included tight ends on the list since some leagues allow you to flex tight ends, though doing so is generally an unwise idea).

LeSean McCoy apparently doesn’t think DeMarco Murray is one of the best backs in the NFL.

“I think Murray’s good,” McCoy told Zach Baron of GQ.com. “But I don’t see him as competition as far as the best backs. I like my game a lot.”

Salty much?

Surprise trades can do that to a player, I suppose. But I tend to disagree with Shady, as I think the two players are part of the group that represents the most valuable options in all of fantasy this season. Those two, along with Marshawn Lynch, Adrian Peterson, Eddie Lacy, Jamaal Charles, Matt Forte and Le’Veon Bell, are absolutely the top values in fantasy at this point in the season.

It’s pretty simple, really—because of the lack of quality depth at the running back position, the elite tier of backs are worth their weight in gold.

To be honest, folks, when deciding trade values at the moment, you are basically taking your own preseason rankings and separating players into value tiers. You could even break players up into groups of 10 based on your preseason rankings and assign each tier a numeric value.

From there, you are basically saying, “If Player 1 is in the top tier and worth 10 points, then I need to ensure I’m getting back a player or multiple players who have a value that also equals 10.”

So, in my rankings, that means if you were looking to trade Forte, you would want to get back some of the following packages:

Look, it’s not always a perfect system. That’s because in most trades you always want to be getting back far more value than the other player is getting. Getting back a value of “10” on the chart is the lowest possible return you want to get back for Forte, in other words.

I’d recommend always trying to a few value tiers above a player, however. While this chart should give you a general idea of how to value players, these aren’t hard and fast values. Trust your gut.

Since this chart will change drastically throughout the season, it’s hard to really recommend making that many trades at the moment. One thing I will say, however, is that you can probably buy low on injured or suspended players like Arian Foster, Julius Thomas or Todd Gurley.

In general, however, I recommend giving your team a week or two before pulling the strings on any trades. If someone blows you away with an offer, don’t stubbornly reject it because you want to see how your team shakes out, but in general, I’ll always advocate seeing what you have before shaking things up.

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