My Dynasty Off-Season: Maximizing Value of the 1.01
Well, that was fun. Another year is in the books and hopefully you hoisted a dynasty league championship. While the games are great and results are obviously important, this is actually my favorite time of year. Yes, I actually enjoy the off-season more than actual fantasy football. I love breaking down the NFL Draft, evaluating rookies, re-establishing the veteran dynasty fantasy landscape and giving you all as much information as I can in order to be prepared for the beginning of the upcoming year.
This year, I’ve been posting a regular series – My Dynasty Off-Season. This series is intended for me to pull back the curtain a bit and share what I’m doing in terms of team building, roster evaluation, player assessments, trade possibilities, value changes or anything else I’m thinking of. My hope is this series helps guide you through your off-season and helps you be in position to win again next year.
I get bored easily. Like really bored. When I do that, my mind typically travels to another challenge in fantasy football. With that in mind, I decided to take on an orphan team that wasn’t just bad. It’s terrible. Like really terrible. It’s a 2QB league and this was the roster I took over:
Quarterback
Gardner Minshew
Anthony Richardson
Jake Browning
Zach Wilson
Bailey Zappe
Teddy Bridgewater
Running Back
Aaron Jones
Joe Mixon
Zack Moss
Miles Sanders
Sean Tucker
Wide Receivers
Marquise Brown
Derius Davis
Gabe Davis
Marquise Goodwin
Jalen Guyton
Darnell Mooney
Tim Patrick
Kadarius Toney
Tight Ends
Zach Ertz
Noah Gray
Donald Parham
Jelani Woods
Kickers
Will Lutz
Evan McPherson
Ka’imi Fairbairn
Defenses
KC Chiefs
NY Jets
Just let that soak in for a second.
Now that you’ve picked your jaw up off the floor and comprehended that someone is insane enough to actually pay money and take over a team this bad, let’s continue. This team also had the 1.01. 2.01. and 3.01 in the annual rookie draft, so at least there was that.
So, now what?
When you take over a team this awful, you have to maximize every single asset you have in order to get better. As you can imagine, I was greeted upon my arrival by several managers who were interested not only in the 1.01 this season but also in next year’s 1.01. They were all pretty quick to say, “Hey, it’s great to have you. If you’re looking to improve your team, I might be interested in your first rounder this year and next?” To most, I just chuckled. They may have just as well said, “Hey, it’s great to have you. My sincere hope based on you taking this team over is that you’re a moron and willing to trade me what is certainly going to be both this year’s AND next year’s 1.01 for something stupid. Please, oh please be an idiot.”
As you can imagine, I didn’t fall for it.
The purpose of this article is for me to illustrate just how to maximize the value of the assets you have, notably this year’s 1.01, utilizing a real-life example. In a Superflex draft, that’s an asset supremely coveted. Let’s break down what I did and explain the reasoning behind it.
The Situation
This dynasty team has no chance of winning next season or even likely the one after. When your strength lies at kicker, it’s not a good thing. The clear and obvious thing to do with this team is to use the 1.01 on Caleb Williams and hope he pans out. Most would just do that and call it a day. In my mind, taking Williams was the obvious thing to do with this team but also the wrong move. Should Williams not pan out and fail to become a solid dynasty option, this team was going to be yet another year away from contending and stay a total dumpster fire. In my mind, the best player to build around from this draft was Marvin Harrison Jr. On a roster with very little talent, sure things are the best way to get yourself out of the cellar. In my mind, Harrison has the smallest chance to be a bust and at the very least will be a player worthy of being in a dynasty lineup for a long, long tme.
So, that’s end of the article, right? Just take Harrison first and be done? Not so fast.
Harrison was my target at the top of round one but this where my lesson of the day comes in – you always need to work the draft.
The Strategy
Sitting at the top of the draft gives you the power to control your own destiny. My strategy was pretty simple – find a way to get Harrison without just simply using the 1.01 and attempt to acquire more assets along the way. It would require some risk but that’s what you have to do in order to build.
The Execution
Here’s where it gets tricky. You have to accept the fact that whenever you trade down from any spot, the player you may want isn’t guaranteed to be there. Thinking Malik Nabers would be a decent fallback option, I was willing to absorb the risk and see what I could do, accepting the fact I could lose Harrison along the way in a series of moves.
Trade #1
2024 1.01
for
2024 1.02
Jameson Williams, WR DET
To me, this was a pretty easy deal to do. Based on the conversations I had with the other manager, I knew he had targeted Caleb Williams with the 1.01. I also knew I could still get Harrison at 1.02 and essentially pick up Jameson Williams for free. While he was disappointing last season, I still believe he has a bright future and this team needed young assets like no tomorrow. Williams was an easy first round pick just two years ago and it seems he has things turned around this off-season. To move back just one spot, this was the best I could do.
Trade #2
2024 1.02
for
2024 1.04
George Pickens, WR PIT
And now it gets more risky. Moving from 1.02 to 1.04 gives you about a 50% chance of landing Harrison in a 2QB draft. I figured Caleb Williams would go first and Jayden Daniels would go second. The third pick was going to be the wild card where it could be Harrison, Drake Maye, or a host of other players. However, I believed the value in having Pickens to move down two spots outweighed the risk, especially with Nabers virtually guaranteed to be on the board for me at 1.04. If he wasn’t, Daniels or Harrison was going to be there. Again, this team wasn’t one player away – it was around ten.
Trade #3
With the 1.04, I took Nabers as Harrison went off the board as I expected at 1.03. However, with Pickens and Jameson Williams on board now as youthful receivers to go with Nabers, I didn’t need to use the 2.01 on a receiver, so I was able to swing the following deal:
Malik Nabers
2.01
for
Marvin Harrison Jr
I had planned that offer all along if the draft fell this way and was going to be fine either way. I needed one or the other and was happy to make this deal when my turn came around at 2.01.
So, in the end, this is what it looked like.
1.01
2.01
for
Marvin Harrison Jr
George Pickens
Jameson Williams
Based on our dynasty trade analyzer, instead of losing more than 45 points of value by just taking Harrison first overall, I was able to maneuver around with my draft capital and add over 120 points of value – not too bad and something essential for a team in desperate need of infusing some sure-fire talent to a roster that has little-to-none. Even better, these moves still don’t make it likely this team can crawl out of last place and surely isn’t enough to make this team even mediocre, especially with quarterback a gaping hole. Rather than having Caleb Williams and hoping he works out, this team should still have the 1.01 next season and can start building around Harrison, Williams, Marquise Brown and Pickens at receiver. In the short term, I can also start moving some of those veteran running backs to fill out my roster and that’s certainly the next step.
Rebuilding a dynasty roster is a long haul. Maximizing your assets is a key part of building your team. Hopefully this example helps illustrate how to do just that as you never just overdraft a player without exploring the options you may have along the way.
Ken is on Twitter at DLF_KenK
- Lineup Advice: Playoff Time - December 19, 2024
- The Dynasty Aftermath: Trades Gone Wrong - December 18, 2024
- Lineup Advice: Week 15 - December 15, 2024
