Bold or Foolish?

[dejeanneret]

14 team dynasty league, half point PPR. 14 roster spots (15 with an IR eligible player), start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR/TE, D/ST and K.

Without boring you with my full roster, after years of slowly building through the draft, trades and scouring the free agency wire I assembled a strong team that has won 3 of the past 4 years. I still should be in the running this year, but my roster is aging in places and I'm in the process of slowly turning it over. I'm most focused right now on my RB corps. As it stands, my RBs are as follows: Charles, Foster, Tate, TRich, Grimes and K. Davis.

Now, I actually like Ben Tate quite a bit (drafted him his rookie year, and held him busted ankle and all despite trade offers). Nevertheless, I had hoped to land Terrance West in our most recent draft for obvious reasons. He went a couple of picks before mine. So be it I thought. But now I've been thinking that perhaps I should just try to buy the pot so to speak. Like me, the other owner can't be happy to have one half of the Tate/West combo. But at least I presently have the starting half of that duo (and the other owner actually needs West to be productive in short order based on his current roster). So with that as background, what if I was to offer both Foster and Grimes for West? He gets the Texans' backfield, I get the Browns' backfield.

All things considered, I think it's a bit of an overpayment on my part -- Foster would immediately become a starting RB for the other team, with the insurance in Grimes should anything happen to Foster; whereas West is at best competing with Tate and more likely than not dependent on Tate getting injured. But that's how I've tended to get deals done in this league before: assessing what I want and what other owners can use, matching that with what I can spare, and then overpaying (at least technically speaking) to make it happen. And, as an aside, there's another under the radar dynasty type RB who I wouldn't mind picking up and stashing with the extra roster spot.

Anybody have any thoughts on this generally? Am I onto something here? Am I completely overestimating what I'm offering? Am I nuts for considering this?

[TheWhale]

14 team dynasty league, half point PPR. 14 roster spots (15 with an IR eligible player), start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR/TE, D/ST and K.

Without boring you with my full roster, after years of slowly building through the draft, trades and scouring the free agency wire I assembled a strong team that has won 3 of the past 4 years. I still should be in the running this year, but my roster is aging in places and I'm in the process of slowly turning it over. I'm most focused right now on my RB corps. As it stands, my RBs are as follows: Charles, Foster, Tate, TRich, Grimes and K. Davis.

Now, I actually like Ben Tate quite a bit (drafted him his rookie year, and held him busted ankle and all despite trade offers). Nevertheless, I had hoped to land Terrance West in our most recent draft for obvious reasons. He went a couple of picks before mine. So be it I thought. But now I've been thinking that perhaps I should just try to buy the pot so to speak. Like me, the other owner can't be happy to have one half of the Tate/West combo. But at least I presently have the starting half of that duo (and the other owner actually needs West to be productive in short order based on his current roster). So with that as background, what if I was to offer both Foster and Grimes for West? He gets the Texans' backfield, I get the Browns' backfield.

All things considered, I think it's a bit of an overpayment on my part -- Foster would immediately become a starting RB for the other team, with the insurance in Grimes should anything happen to Foster; whereas West is at best competing with Tate and more likely than not dependent on Tate getting injured. But that's how I've tended to get deals done in this league before: assessing what I want and what other owners can use, matching that with what I can spare, and then overpaying (at least technically speaking) to make it happen. And, as an aside, there's another under the radar dynasty type RB who I wouldn't mind picking up and stashing with the extra roster spot.

Anybody have any thoughts on this generally? Am I onto something here? Am I completely overestimating what I'm offering? Am I nuts for considering this?

I would much rather own the Cheifs and Texans backfield with a piece of the browns (the main piece) than the cheifs and browns alone. Foster may have some tread on those tires but is still far too valuable to trade away for a handcuff. You've won 3 of the last 4 years. Trust in your ability to rebuild without sacrificing your chance at winning again this year.

[rataylor22]

I would much rather own the Cheifs and Texans backfield with a piece of the browns (the main piece) than the cheifs and browns alone. Foster may have some tread on those tires but is still far too valuable to trade away for a handcuff. You've won 3 of the last 4 years. Trust in your ability to rebuild without sacrificing your chance at winning again this year.

Disagree with this. I think Foster is donezo AND he lost Kubiak. Rather than overpay right off the bat though, why not offer just Foster for West and see if he bites? That could potentially give you 3 backfields. Other owner thinks he's winning because he gets Foster, but he's getting Foster for like 1 year max.

[Dickie Dunn]

I agree with Rataylor22, if you are allowed to trade draft picks ask for a low pick as well and when he balks at it due to Foster's age/durability you can move off the pick and make it look like you are doing a solid to solidify the deal. Also based on your stated track record of over paying that should create some good will/trust with the other owner.

[2014olympicgold]

I’d say crazy. I’d look to move Tate for someone on his team before trying to trade Foster for West. Even if Foster is aging, he’s still RB1 by far, and on a team with a QB with little down the field strength, Foster will be worked a lot. Look to trade Foster on a high note, but I wouldn’t do it for West. Foster + Tate for a stud coming out of the gate a little slow

Being 3 of 4 winner tho people might be reluctant to trade with you, I know that happened with me in a hockey league. I had to grossly over pay for St Louis just to get other people to trade with me.

[dejeanneret]

Thanks for the input so far. Rep all around. Other thoughts always welcome.

To flip the script a little, I'm simultaneously seeing whether I can use Foster as a piece of a package to entice the owner of AP to fork him over. His team is decent, but middle of the pack material at best barring something wildly unforeseen. Very little depth and absolutely no exciting youngsters on the way up (which always is a soft spot for GMs in a dynasty league). Gonna be a tough road to hoe to make that one happen, but we'll see.

[dejeanneret]

To close the loop on this, I paid a big price but got a deal done.

.5 point PPR, 14 team dynasty league (keep 10). I gave Foster, VJax and Harvin and I received AP and Garcon.

Steep price, but I needed to shed a player to get the roster down to size and really wanted to boost my RB2 position to take another run at glory this season. So post-trade, my team now consists of the following:

QB: Stafford, Bortles (start 1)
RB: Charles, AP, Tate, TRich, Grimes (start 2)
WR: Calvin, Marshall, Garcon, Edelman, Hunter (we start any combo of 3 WR/TE)
Def: 49ers
Kick: whomever

We'll see. There are a couple more players out on the wire that I'd like to stash at some point as roster space allows as part of a retool on the fly. But I think this roster provides a little more stability than I had before -- was really concerned long-term about re-injury to Foster and Harvin -- and should make for a tough out this season.