Dynasty Fantasy Football: Traversing the Trade Finder
Welcome back to traversing the trade finder, a series where I pick a couple of players and try to find what opportunities are available to us using the amazing Dynasty League Football Trade Finder tool. For those who are unfamiliar, this tool helps you find real trades being made in dynasty leagues with the ability to search for specific players or draft picks and to filter by various settings. We love to talk about finding opportunities in the dynasty trade market, and this tool literally shows you these opportunities in action. For this edition, I took a look at one wide receiver to buy and one wide receiver to sell. Let’s dive into what I was able to find this time.
For all trades, I will be using the following filters: 12 Teams, 2QB, 4 points per passing TD, and 1 point PPR.
Amari Cooper, WR CLE
While some may complain that Amari Cooper can be a little inconsistent on a week-to-week basis, he’s been quite consistent year-to-year, finishing as a WR2 in points per game in all but two years of his eight-year career while having at least 13.3 PPR points per game in all but one year and at least 14.4 PPR points per game in all but three years. Coming into 2023, continuing to provide a WR2 season should be the expectation, and there’s reason to believe Cooper could have a WR1 finish if Deshaun Watson rounds back into form after a disappointing six-game stint to end 2022. Additionally, the reports and rumors from the Browns all offseason is that they plan to cater the offense more to Watson’s strengths and become a more pass-heavy team than they have been in the past, which can only help Cooper’s outlook. As the WR35 in the latest Dynasty League Football Startup ADP, Cooper looks to be a great buy for any competing team as a player whose production should easily outweigh his cost of acquisition. With that in mind, let’s see just how cheaply he can be acquired.
This is about as cheap as you should be able to find as a cost to acquire Amari Cooper. The 4.04 is essentially meaningless to me in trade negotiations. The hit rate on fourth-round rookie picks is so low I’d never let one stop me from making a trade. So, this is basically Cooper for a 2024 second-round rookie pick which is an easy decision. I would even consider buying Cooper on a rebuilding or retooling team for this price, as I think there’s a good possibility you could then sell Cooper in season for more when he’s producing the way he likely is too. In almost all cases, if you can buy a player for an obviously good discount, you should do it.
For a lot of people, your thoughts on this trade will depend on how much you still believe in Skyy Moore. I am solidly in the camp of not believing. There are just so few examples of a wide receiver doing so little as a rookie and then still going on to find success. More often than not, I don’t want to make the bet that a player will be an outlier which is what you’re doing with Moore at this point. Even if you’re still in on Moore, we can all agree that his dynasty market value is worth no more than a random second-round rookie pick which means you can also look at this trade as Amari Cooper for two second-round rookie picks, a trade I’d still like to make if I’m a competing team.
DJ Moore, WR CHI
DJ Moore has been more of an idea than a realization for basically his entire career. Everyone recognizes how incredibly talented Moore is, but that talent has never materialized into the fantasy football finish you’d expect, whether due to his quarterback situation or something else. Despite the lack of difference-making production, Moore has managed to keep his dynasty value mostly, currently sitting as the WR22 in the Dynasty League Football June Startup ADP. Part of why Moore has been able to keep up his dynasty value this offseason is from being traded to the Bears and the hope that comes with playing a new quarterback. Now, I do think that Justin Fields can be a very good passer and is likely the best quarterback Moore has ever played with; we need to examine the offense. Last year the Bears were the least pass-heavy team in the NFL by a large margin, only having 377 passing attempts on the season. Naturally, I, like many, expect the Bears to pass more this year than they did last year, but how much more can we reasonably project them to pass? Even if the Bears had 25% more pass attempts than they did last year, a significant increase, they would only have 471 pass attempts on the season. Moore will likely command a large target share in this offense, but if the offense isn’t passing enough, it won’t matter. While it hurts me to say this, I think it’s time we finally move on and stop holding on to the dream that Moore will give us that difference-making season.
I was stunned when I saw this trade. The gap between Jaylen Waddle and DJ Moore is much greater than the value of Chigoziem Okonkwo. Even if you added a first-round rookie pick to the Moore side, I’m going to take Waddle. Now, I wouldn’t expect you to be able to get a similar deal done in your leagues, as this is a very cheap price for Waddle, but it helps show that Moore still has a good amount of value on the market. Tiering up from Moore to a better wide receiver, regardless of your team makeup, could be a great move, as wide receivers are a good place to store value because of their longevity. I’d be checking to see how much more I’d have to add to Moore to trade for players like Christian Watson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Drake London, Devonta Smith, and Tee Higgins.
Speaking of Christian Watson, here we go. As I mentioned earlier, a fourth-round rookie draft pick means nothing to me when it comes to trade negotiations. You can really just look at this as DJ Moore for Watson straight up, and I’ll take Watson every time. These two are trending in different directions, with Watson being the one headed in the right direction as he looks to easily be the number one option for the Packer’s offense, and he has the explosive playmaking ability to have an extremely high ceiling as a player. No matter what my team looks like, I’m making this trade for Watson.
Hopefully, these trades have given you some ideas on how to handle Amari Cooper and DJ Moore in your leagues, and you’re able to get some profitable trades done. Good luck to all in your future trading endeavors. Until next time, like always, I’ll be traversing the trade finder.
- Four Running Backs to Buy, Sell, or Hold in Dynasty Leagues - May 14, 2025
- Four Quarterbacks to Buy, Sell, or Hold in Dynasty Leagues - May 7, 2025
- Four Tight Ends to Buy, Sell, or Hold in Dynasty Leagues - April 30, 2025
