It’s hard to beat the feeling of pulling off a blockbuster fantasy football trade. But actually making a trade happen is often difficult. And, if you aren’t careful, a couple of ill-advised deals can sink your season. Today, I’ll go over some basic tips to help you make some moves, hopefully without hurting your team in the process. Let’s get to it.
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Fantasy Football Trading 101
Know Your Roster
Although countless trade value charts and calculators may imply otherwise, no fantasy football trade happens in a vacuum. Before you start scouring your league for players to target, it’s vital to honestly assess the state of your own roster.
The most obvious thing to consider is your positional strengths and weaknesses — trading for Lamar Jackson when you already have Josh Allen probably isn’t a good idea. Nor is giving up Jahmyr Gibbs if it will leave you without a viable RB2.
It’s also important to consider the overall depth of your team. While I normally recommend consolidating value (more on that later), it might not be advisable to give up two starters for one if your bench is particularly weak. On the flip side, if you find yourself leaving points on the bench every week, it’s probably time to try and trade up for a legit stud.
Finally, don’t neglect to consider your team’s situation in terms of standings and playoff chances, especially later in the year. A strong team that has a playoff berth or a bye secured should look to make long-term moves, potentially targeting injured players or those with juicy playoff schedules. A team on the bubble should be willing to make hard choices, giving up long-term upside if necessary to secure a ticket to the dance.
Know Your League
Once you’ve assessed your own roster, it’s time to look for a trading partner. Considering the factors from the previous section — positional strengths/weaknesses, overall depth and playoff chances — you want to target rosters in the opposite situation to yours.
Try to Make a Win/Win Trade
This is heavily related to the previous point (which is why that section is so short). Especially in a league of experienced managers, by far the easiest way to actually accomplish a fantasy football trade is to create the most beautiful of things: A win/win deal.
This is where analyzing your opponent’s roster comes in handy. Before proposing a trade, put yourself in your opposite number’s position. If there’s no logical reason they would want to accept an offer, don’t send it.
Along with making it infinitely more likely that a deal actually gets done, this technique has the added benefit of improving your popularity with your league mates. Everyone loves receiving a well-considered offer; nobody likes being offered a mediocre tight end when they already have Brock Bowers.
Once again, we want to rely heavily on structural differences between rosters here. If your team is strong at running back and weak at receiver and an opponent is in the opposite situation, that’s a green light to offer your RB3 for their WR3.
However, not all trades have to be based on structural factors. The surplus value that allows for a win/win trade can also be perceived surplus value.
Ideally, other managers in your league are willing to engage in honest communication about players on both rosters. If you notice that you like a particular player on a trading partner’s roster more than they do — or they value a player of yours higher than you do — including that player in a deal should make everyone happy.
Be Willing to Walk Away
Unfortunately, trading is often much easier in theory than it is in practice. Most fantasy managers are higher than “the market” on their own players.
This is partially because of the often-discussed endowment effect, but also because players don’t end up on rosters by accident. If a given player is on a manager’s roster, it’s because they either drafted him, picked him up or already traded for him — you don’t do any of those things for a player you don’t like.
With this in mind, it’s important not to fixate on making one particular deal or landing one particular player. Especially if you’re dealing with a stubborn or risk-averse trade partner, the cost to acquire a given player might simply be too high. This can be incredibly frustrating when you’ve put time into crafting the perfect offer, but it’s part of the game.
When in Doubt, Trade Up
So far, I’ve mostly focused on making trades that benefit both you and the other manager(s) involved. But if you’re looking for one tip to make sure you win most of your deals in the long term, it’s this: Always get the best player (or pick) in the trade.
Fantasy football championships are won by studs. This is especially true in redraft leagues, the vast majority of which are relatively shallow. There are almost always usable players to be found on the waiver wire or on someone else’s bench thanks to another trade. This is a weekly game, and B- and C-tier players simply don’t separate enough from replacement-level players.
This has become even more true recently with the death of the fantasy WR2. With NFL teams leaning into heavy sets featuring non-fantasy-relevant tight ends, fantasy production is becoming more and more condensed into a handful of elite volume options.
If you can get one of those players on your team without giving another in return, it will almost always pay off in the long run, even if your depth suffers as a result.
Get Your Guy
At the end of the day, fantasy football is a game of incredibly high variance, and things change absurdly quickly in the NFL. Looking at last year’s ADP is like stepping into another world. Even within a season, player values will fluctuate wildly. A trade that looks like a steal for one manager in Week 2 can easily reverse by Week 8 — and then flip again by the end of the year.
With this in mind, don’t overthink things, especially if you’re only in one or two relatively low-stakes leagues. If you’re worried about getting fleeced, it might be worth checking a trade calculator or two. But don’t be afraid to ignore the consensus and “overpay” if your heart is set on a particular player.
Fantasy is supposed to be fun, and there’s nothing more fun than trading for a player you believe in and having him carry you to a championship. Just don’t blame me when he tears his ACL that same Sunday.
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Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasyPros.com. Find him on Twitter and Bluesky @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.
