Trading Keepers For Draft Picks- Look Before You Leap

The evolution of fantasy football was introduced with the keeper league some time ago. What was once a rare league is now more common than ever, giving fantasy owners the option to not only draft a player but invest in his career. Draft boards are organized a lot different when a fantasy owner is planning for the future, but many people have a tendency to always want the new rookies and give up quality production.

One of the most popular features to the keeper league is the ability to take advantage of excellent drafting. Prior to a fantasy football draft, owners decide on who’s worth keeping and who has to go; the owners that have an abundant amount of star players can have a garage sale for owners with limited options for players to bring with them to the new year. Keeper leagues range from holding on to just one player to as many as 7 or 8.

Trading extra keeper players that are not going to be there for you in the first round is a great way to gain extra picks and become a fantasy football dynasty, but if not careful a trade junkie can ruin a team for years to come.

This article was spawned from an email that was written to us for advice over a tough decision in a keeper league trade. In the letter this diehard fantasy owner – let’s call him Randy (as I don’t want to throw him under the bus) – had received a trade offer for Steven Jackson, who was one of his top keeper players. The trade offer was a 2nd and a 3rd round pick in exchange for Steven Jackson and two late round picks. Randy went on to explain his reasoning that the Rams were being re-built and that the passing game was not what it once was, which would cause defenses to load the box against the run. He then mentioned that despite the fact that the second round pick was late it would give him the option to add a rookie for the future. I was going to send a basic

reply over the trade until I had reached the bottom of email. Randy had listed who he was planning on keeping after making the trade…..there were 6 players he had listed!

This was a 6 player keeper league, and Randy was about to give up a top 10 running back for a second and a third round pick. Now if you’re wondering what the big deal is, I might save your season. Sure Jackson could get hurt week one and this article will look stupid, but in a 12 person 6 player keeper league there are 72 players off the board before you even start your draft. If Randy was getting a high first round pick and there was an amazing rookie running back in this years draft class then maybe we could agree with this trade, but he was receiving picks which were the equivalent of picks in the 72-84th overall range for the 2^nd round pick and 85th-96th overall range for the 3^rd rounder. How many good running backs are there in the NFL? Do you think there will be one that will equal Steven Jackson this late into the fantasy draft?

The best way to analyze a keeper trade is to count the amount of players removed off the board from keepers. Then using top 200 rankings see where that player is being listed and try to envision the worth of the picks you are acquiring.

For some reason, when the phrase “I’ll give you my first round pick” is mentioned fantasy football owners lose their minds. Extra picks are always nice, but one of my new hobbies is commenting from the sidelines after a deal like this is made, seeing who those picks ended up being. It’s the easiest way to get a laugh at a fantasy draft when you inform the league that Steven Jackson was traded for an average tight end and a tier 3 receiver.