The Trade Addict: Busting the Block

The Trade Addict begins this week with a story. On the morning of Week 6 of the 2009 season, the Trade Addict got an e-mail from a guy in his auction PPR league -- the one where TEs and WRs are lumped together and you can start a QB at the flex. This guy -- let's call him "Bob" -- was offering Tom Brady, Chris Johnson, Antonio Gates and Bernard Berrian for Philip Rivers, Vincent Jackson, Dallas Clark, Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson. That's a blockbuster, folks, and "Bob" made his offer a little more than an hour before kickoff of the early games on Sunday, Oct. 18.

Now, understand some things. At the time of this offer, Rivers was drastically outperforming Brady and Chris Johnson was having kind of a so-so year. The Trade Addict feared he was giving up too much at the WR/TE position, and he agonized before finally agreeing to the deal with about 15 minutes left before kickoff. The deciding factor was that Brady and Johnson were two potential No. 1 options at their positions, while Rivers was the only one in the other half of the deal about whom that could be said. Also, the Trade Addict is... well... addicted to trading. So those two things in combination did the deal.

Well, a few hours later, on a snowy field in Foxboro, Mass., Tom Brady threw six touchdown passes. Oh yeah. You remember that game. Imagine how well you'd remember it if you'd traded for Tom Brady that morning! I was trying to not to do cartwheels in the press box in Cincinnati as I wrote a Bengals-Texans game story while "Bob" was sending e-mails that were getting angrier and angrier by the minute.

Another interesting thing happened in that game, a 59-0 Patriots blowout. Johnson, the running back on the losing end, rushed for more than 100 yards. I took note of that and thought, "Hm. Might have something there." Of course, what neither I nor "Bob" knew or could possibly have known was that I had a running back who was about to go on the most insane 10-game run in memory -- an absolute terror in a league that awards points for receptions and mega-bonus points for long touchdowns. Johnson carried me to the brink of the championship game (I was done in by a poor Brady performance, ironically, on semifinal weekend), and "Bob" continues to believe he made a bad deal.

Thing is, that deal worked out extremely well for me. But at the time it was made, things seemed pretty even. I was worried about giving up Rivers (who outperformed Brady the rest of the way), and Clark and Jackson were consistent, high-level producers all year at the WR spot. But the utter dominance of Johnson swung the deal in my favor in retrospect, because if "Bob" had known what Johnson was about to do, he probably wouldn't have traded him for anything.

The lesson here is that you can't be afraid to deal away your studs, because you never know what you might unearth by doing so. If I hadn't been willing to entertain the idea of dealing Rivers, I couldn't have got Johnson. And the way Rivers was playing to that point, many people would have refused to consider dealing him. But the fact is that your best players are the ones people want, and the dealing doesn't turn real interesting until you make it clear that no one's untouchable.

Somebody in that same league asked me about Peyton Manning on Tuesday. I told him I couldn't do it without getting another top QB (in his case, Roethlisberger) back in the deal. Manning has been a monster this year, and if I'm to win this league I feel I'll need to keep him. But if I had to guess, I'll bet I end up dealing him at some point. Not now, but at some point. I'm an addict, remember. And the fact is that if I do deal Manning, I'm going to get a lot in return. So as we move closer to the Thanksgiving-week trade deadline, you can bet I'll be entertaining those blockbuster offers. Because sometimes, dealing away your favorite and/or best player can lead to far greater things. In fantasy football, things don't come much greater than 2009 Chris Johnson.

We've Got (No) Action

No deals this week for the Trade Addict, as I heeded my own advice from last week to practice patience. But I have one viable WR to start this week, so I'm doing some fishing. Ryan Fitzpatrick scored 50 points on my bench last week while I started Jay Cutler (9) and Josh Freeman (16), and I do still have Maurice Jones-Drew, LaDanian Tomlinson, Beanie Wells and DeAngelo Williams at RB. So I should be able to spin some of that into WR help. Just have to find the right combo. I'm currently pondering a deal of Cutler and Wells for Jason Witten, Tony Gonzalez and Shonn Greene. Selling low on Cutler and Wells doesn't make me real happy, because there's a chance I'm giving and not getting the Brady/Johnson end of this deal. But Witten and Gonzalez with Randy Moss and New York Steve Smith would be a nice WR corps the rest of the way, and if Fitzpatrick is really going to produce every week, maybe I don't need Cutler. That's just a big "If," I think, and I wonder if it's better to sell Fitzpatrick high. As you know, the wheels are always turning...

Buy Low

Pierre Garcon, WR -- He's only 'low' because of his injury-sapped performance to date. But with injuries to Dallas Clark and Austin Collie, Garcon is about to take off and play like a WR1 with Manning throwing his way the rest of the year. If you can get him for WR2 prices, I say do it.

Knowshon Moreno, RB -- Sure, Denver prefers to pass. But the fact is, there aren't many RBs in the league who are more consistently reliable in terms of getting touches and getting goal line work. When he's healthy. Which he apparently is now.

Michael Vick, QB -- In case everybody forgot. Eagles are on bye this week, but Vick may be worth sitting through a bye for.

Sell High

Darren McFadden, RB -- Because who's higher right now? And as we've said here before, would you rather be the guy who sold McFadden at an RB1 price and watched him be an RB1 the rest of the year? Or the guy who stuck with him and watched him get hurt again? I know which guy I want to be.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB -- Especially if you can get the Brett Favre or Tony Romo owner in your league to swoon over the big week. For the record, I do think Fitzpatrick continues to perform in Chan Gailey's offense. But if you have him, chances are you can spare him.

Miles Austin, WR -- The dropoff from Romo to Jon Kitna is...well, it's steep. Let's just leave it at that.

The Trade Addict appears every Wednesday on FanHouse and seriously hopes you're not like the guy in his league who traded Andre Johnson for Romo on Saturday. Hit the Trade Addict up for trade advice during the week on Twitter (big square button, above), and Happy Hunting!