The DLF Dynasty Trading Post: December

TheFFGhost

Welcome to the Dynasty Trading Post, a regular column here at Dynasty League Football. This column is intended to track which players or assets increasing, or even decreasing, in value, allowing our readers to adjust their sights and values accordingly.

The NFL season is winding down and fantasy seasons are all but over in nearly every dynasty league, so this edition of the Dynasty Trading Post will serve as an excellent snapshot. This moment in time will be useful for two reasons: first, it will allow us to see what moves playoff teams made to help bolster their teams and, second, this will be a great way to cap the season as leagues lock trading abilities until owners pay their 2019 fees. Trades occurring after this point will be for the purposes of building their 2019 team and beyond. This will also likely mark a marked increase in trades involving draft picks. This actually serves as an excellent baseline for the next year.

Let’s see what the Dynasty Trade Finder can reveal to us:

Not Out of the Woods Yet

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With fantasy playoffs over for most leagues, it is interesting to see the moves teams made in the lead up to – or during – the playoffs to keep moving forward or to simply stay alive. A move that the largest number of teams made was to acquire Robert Woods.

Over the last month, the most-frequently traded of all players in the NFL was Woods, with 21 trades involving him over that time span. That number is larger than some higher-profile players such as Antonio Brown (20), Le’Veon Bell (20), Jarvis Landry (19), Melvin Gordon (16) and A.J. Green (15). Part of the jump in trades involving Woods could revolve around the fact that teammate Cooper Kupp was moved to the injured reserve by the Los Angles Rams just days before the 30-day window began on this report.

Savvy owners likely felt that Woods would be the biggest beneficiary of this injury with Brandin Cooks much further down the list – with only six trades recorded in this same period, less than a third of the number involving Woods. Ultimately, there was no real significant increase in Woods’ production after the loss of Kupp, but you can’t really fault playoff-bound teams for trying to make the best out of a bad situation involving the loss of Kupp.

Mahomes Is Where The Heart Is

One player no one was trading, and probably with good reason, was Patrick Mahomes. In the 30 days before the assessment period, Mahomes was traded 17 times, however within the past 30 days, only one trade was conducted that involved him. This decline represents a 94.1% drop in his trade market, the biggest decline of any player tracked in the Trader Finder application over the past month.

It’s hard to argue with any owner looking to hold onto Mahomes in both the short and long-term. He has had an amazing season, leading the NFL in passing touchdowns in just his first season a starter. With only one more passing touchdown, he would move ahead of Dan Marino for the third-most passing touchdowns in a season and with three more he could move ahead of Tom Brady for the second-most in a season. It’s no wonder then why dynasty owners simply aren’t looking to move him, especially during the playoffs.

Pick A Winner

Like all other assets during this time of the season, draft picks saw a decrease in trading activity as well. Nonetheless, they were the most traded asset by far once again.

The largest amount of trades that took place involving any one pick were those involving 2019 second round picks. A full 22.9 percent of all trades that involved draft picks included 2019 second round picks. This is nearly identical to percentage breakdown for the pick in the 30 days prior to this evaluation period which was 22.8 percent of all trades involving draft picks over that time span. 2019 second round picks were included in 29.5 percent of all 2019 trades involving picks.

The second most traded picks over the past 30 days were 2019 first round picks, accounting for 20.3 percent of all trades involving picks and 26.2 percent of all 2019 pick trades, followed closely by 2019 third round picks which accounted for 18.1 percent of all trades involving picks and 23.3 percent of all 2019 pick trades.

While 2020 picks are traded at a much lower frequency than those of the 2019 variety, 2020 second round picks account for the most 2020 picks traded with 32.6 percent of all trades involving 2020 picks including these picks. The second most traded 2020 picks were third-round picks, that accounted for 24.9 percent of 202 picks traded and then 2020 first round picks, which accounted for 23.4 percent of 2020 picks traded.

IDP Corner Market

The number of trades involving IDP players decreased less than those of offensive players as playoff teams appear to have opted for shoring up their defenses rather than making a big splash to secure a high-priced offensive player. Over the past 30 days, two defensive players were tied for being the most traded: safety Harrison Smith and linebacker Zach Brown. Conversely, two other players saw their trade market drop significantly over the past 30 days, Cory Littleton and Jamie Collins, who were part of 11 trades each in the 30 days before the current evaluation period but who were not traded over the past 30 days.

For some comparison for those of you unfamiliar with IDP, the lack of trades would be comparable to Michael Thomas, who was traded ten times in the 30 days prior to this evaluation period, not being traded over the past 30 days. To close: of note, Luke Kuechly, one of the top linebackers in the league, also went untraded over the past 30 days.

With the close of the NFL regular season, nearly all dynasty leagues have trade freezes in place. As I stated at the opening of this piece, this leaves us at the perfect spot to start the year fresh in the next edition of the Dynasty Trading Post. As of this edition of the series, the Dynasty Trade Finder has recorded 160,715 trades that have occurred over 3,170 dynasty leagues, making it the premiere trade database in the dynasty fantasy football market. Make sure you check it out today by clicking here.

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