Five Dealt at Trade Deadline
Week 12 is already upon us but I wanted to provide a few quick words about the last and final trades before the deadline. I mean, I made it this far with a story on every trade this season. Might as well finish the job.
First of all, the specifics of the trades. In the first deal which occurred on Tuesday night, JT traded the 15th overall pick Keenan Allen for eighth-round pick Patriots RB Sony Michel and undrafted Rams WR Josh Reynolds. Then in the second deal which occurred a mere five minutes before the deadline, Brandon flipped Keenan Allen in a package deal with ninth-round pick Jordan Reed (acquired from Nick) to Erik in exchange for fifth-round pick Brandin Cooks and third-round pick Travis Kelce.
The Allen for Michel deal came to fruition after an injury to Kerryon Johnson left JT with only Nick Chubb at RB for a must-win Week 12 matchup with Erik. Meanwhile, Brandon—the league leader in RB scoring with 44.3 ppg—was especially weak at WR2, particularly after losing Will Fuller to an ACL injury in Week 8. The move gives JT another explosive RB to pair with Chubb and Johnson (Michel actually had three times as many games of 15 points or more than Allen prior to Week 12) while Josh Reynolds, a former Texas A&M Aggie, was a sweetener. It will be interesting to see if Brandon regrets choosing Aaron Jones over Sony Michel, much like Alex’s Sophie’s Choice of Drew Brees over Patrick Mahomes.
Then there’s the deal that ultimately netted Brandon Travis Kelce. This one came together in the last hour before the trade deadline. Taking a page from Josh’s book, Brandon pressed his advantage as the only team owner that doesn’t need a win in the closing weeks. (With a Josh loss to Alex in Week 12, Brandon can clinch a first-round bye even if he loses his last two games.) That meant trading for two of Erik’s players who are on bye in Week 12 in Brandin Cooks and Travis Kelce. Allen for Cooks is a fairly even swap. Though Allen was the higher drafted player, Cooks is averaging more points per game (10.6 ppg vs. 9.5 ppg for Allen), especially now that Cooper Kupp is done for the season, and is on the higher-powered offense. But Kelce (TE1) for Reed (TE11) is a clear upgrade and the price to be paid to get two starters in a must-win Week 12 matchup. For Brandon, he’s officially out of the Tight End Wasteland.
In the end, JT and Erik both made deals to overcome injuries and scheduling disadvantages in advance of their must-win Week 12 showdown while Brandon readied his team for the playoffs by improving upon his two most glaring weaknesses—WR2 and TE.
But enough about these two particular deals. With the trade deadline in the books, let’s talk about the trade market in general. This year, there were 10 total trades involving 9 team owners (Jess, Samantha and Greco made no trades) and 28 players. Five players were traded twice (Sterling Shepard, A.J. Green, Greg Olsen, Keenan Allen and Jordan Reed) with the most dealt position being WR with 12 players traded.
The 10 trades this year are the second-most in league history and the most since 2015 when there were 14. This represents an uptick in league activity as the 10 trades we had this season are twice as many as we had just two years ago. And it’s not just the trade market, league activity as a whole is up across the board as measured by the sum of acquisitions, activations and trades.
As a reminder, acquisitions are the weekly waiver or free agency pickups you make. Activations are in-roster changes made by moving a player from your bench into your lineup. And trades, of course, are trades.
With 10 trades, a projected 300 acquisitions and 631 activations, league activity is at an all-time high.
In the chart above, we’ve represented the sum total of each for all players over the course of each of the last seven seasons. For 2018, I’ve prorated the current transaction counts over the remainder of the season to provide a basis for comparison to previous years.
Currently, we are on pace for 300 acquisitions and 631 activations, both of which would be league records. To put those numbers into better context, they equate to approximately 1.9 acquisitions and 4.0 activations per team per week. Historically, those numbers are typically 1.5 and 3.5, which means that acquisitions are up 27% while activations are up 16% over the historical average. All in all, that equates to a banner year for involvement.
And that is a credit to each of you. A league is always more fun when the individual team owners that make it up are active. Personally, I have leagues that are “higher stakes,” but none that I enjoy more or matter more to me.
And judging by league activity this year and the conversation on WhatsApp, it seems I’m not the only one that feels that way.
