2016 Trades in Review- Part 1

Happy Friday lords and lady, and welcome to the 2016 year in review- trading post. As your friendly neighborhood Iron Bank, I'm happy to kick off this most recent segment looking back at the first year of our league.

I'll be going through all 32 teams this year, highlighting how active they were in the trade market and when, their biggest deal, their best deal, and by my standards, their worst deal. I'm going to do my best not to repeat deals between houses, so it if comes across as one house's best deal, I may not highlight it as another house's worst.

Considering the sheer chaos that was our startup draft, I've only selected those deals for consideration in certain circumstances. I'm sure there are plenty of big/best/worst options available, but for the purpose of this year, I've kept the focus mostly on the preseason & in season trades

Last disclaimer, this takes a while, probably 20-30 minutes/house. So the work has been done over a few days. So while there may be some observations that have been overcome by recent events, I don't think they'll change the overall message or ratings of the deals.

Enjoy!

House Baratheon

69 trades total- 12 during startup, 57 pre/during season

Trading overview- Louis was one of the more active traders this year, often gaining the first mover advantage and striking trades before the league knew there was a market. The best example of this was his trade with Faceless where he brought back Agholor and Dez for Tyrod and Diggs. He did a masterful job flowing between consolidation trades and depth trades, optimizing his lineup decisions while maintaining overall flexibility. While many feel he was on the short end of a number of his trades, his willingness to continue trade discussions and approachability as a trade partner will allow him to swing the value pendulum back in his favor.

Biggest Trade: Gave Tyrod and Diggs for Agholor and Dez. Trade that tipped Louis’s hand as a trader who would move anyone on his team. He had talked up TyGod all startup as a cornerstone QB, but didn’t hesitate to trade him when the opportunity presented itself. Sent a strong signal that his team would operate as a free market/clearing house for the better part of the year.

Best Trade: Gave Cam, DA, Ingram, Wallace, and a 4^th to the Iron Bank for Bradford, Hill, Crowder, and Julio. Sold out of Cam & Ingram at their peaks, before Cam’s fall out of the top 10 QBs and Ingram’s demotion to a timeshare.

Worst Trade: Gave DT for AP and John Brown. Praised for the trade at the time, a little distance makes this one look a lot more lopsided. Brown has turned out to have sickle cell traits and be on a highly restrictive pitch count and AP’s coming off another major surgery. Not a terrible piece to have, but in exchange for a 29 yr old WR20?

House Reed

27 trades total- 5 during startup, 22 pre/during season

Trading overview- Reed got out to a rapid pace with his trades, making 3 trades with Arryn and 1 with Iron Bank to obtain 3 picks in the top 45 of the draft. The drawback, was that it left him without a pick for ~4 rounds. From then on he was a targeted trader. Targeting his favorite players in trades and avoiding conversations otherwise. While he takes an impressive amount of shit for his team being bad, he can’t blame that on the trades he’s made, as he’s come out ahead more than most.

Biggest Trade- Gave Cam and fodder for Simean, Hyde, Cooks, Tyrell Williams, and Banefort’s 2^nd- if anyone wants to see where Banefort’s roster shifted from balance to 4 studs and duds, here it is! Reed gave up a lot to be top heavy in the draft, but with one move repopulates his depth and picks up the eventually very valuable Banefort 2^nd as well.

Best Trade- Gave Devin Funchess for Jay Ajayi, Pharoah Cooper, and Malcolm Mitchell. Reed has 2 trades where it could be said that he took Iron Bank over a barrel. This one is arguably the worse of the two. He “sold it now” during his Funchess sweepstakes getting the pre-breakout Ajayi, the pre-breakout Mitchell, and Cooper (who is still pre-breakout) for Funchess, who looks to be more flash than substance.

Worst Trade- Gave Jordan Howard, Allen Robinson, and Vance McDonald for Adrian Peterson, Kevin White, and Jordan Reed. If you’re looking for where Reed’s team picked up the injury bug, I found patient zero. The worse news is, it comes with an even worse trade. A Rob had a down year by any measure, but still represents a significant upgrade to White. Howard is the lead back in Chicago, where AP may not make it back on the field. Reed looked like a beast when he was on the field and was the TE1, but how much longer he’s out there is up for debate.

House Mormont

5 trades total- 2 during startup, 3 pre/during season

Trading overview- Doesn't trade often..... and that's probably a good thing. Mormont built a monster through drafting well, and not messing it up through overactive deals

Biggest Trade: Swaps his 1^st two picks (1/2 wrap) for Julio and a mid 2^nd. Everyone has different approaches to a startup. Some want to load up on 2-3 studs, others want to build depth, others want to build up their youth and play for the future. Mormont wanted to get his guy, in this case Julio. From that regard, you’ve got to like the move for him because he got his guy, for essentially swapping pick positions for the 1^st 2 rounds with Night’s Watch, which is inherently a balanced trade on the surface.

Best Trade: Gave Charles Clay for Lance Kendricks. It didn’t end up getting him the win in the 1^st round of the playoffs, but he was able to acquire a starting TE with Reed out for a far more reasonable price than what was being asked on the market.

Worst Trade: Gave Tyreek Hill for Baratheon’s 4^th.  A 4^th round pick for the WR12. Ouch bro, serious ouch.

House Stark

23 trades total- 6 during startup, 17 pre/during season

Trading overview- never scared off by the big name involved in the trade, House Stark executed some of the bigger trades that have shifted the balance of power in the league, let alone the playoffs (swung big trades with 2 of the final 4 teams in the 24 hours before the deadline). Cam, Wentz, Gronk, Zeke, Demarco, and Carr all called his team home at different times in the season (with only Cam still holding court).

Biggest Trade: Gives Wentz, Hill, and Edelman for Rivers, Zeke, and Benjamin- As Zeke emerged as one of the top players in fantasy this year, Stark was able to nab him for what many felt was a particularly low price. If Wentz develops into the next Roethlisberger, Casterly acquired his QB1 for the next 15 years, but that’s still a big if.

Best Trade: Gave Adrian Peterson for Jeremy Hill, Markus Wheaton, Egen’s 2^nd- a 2^nd and a chance to get younger for an aging veteran who may have one good season left in him. Great example of turning the clock back on a big name.

Worst Trade Gave Brent Celek, Stark’s 2^nd for Jesse James- at the time, James was the TE destined to inherit the Miller workload now that Green might have a career threatening injury. Certainly didn’t turn out that way as James was unable to assume the mantle, leading to a timeshare with the likes of Xavier Grimble. Stark certainly wishes he had his 2^nd round pick back.

House Santagar

24 trades total- 7 during startup, 17 pre/during season

Trading Overview: Arguably one of the more successful traders in the league. He was constantly able to peddle an asset to meet his need. He made a consolidation trade (for Dez), a youth for production trade (Moncrief for DT), and a break up trade (Gurley for Booker, Ware, and Henry). Which helped him improve his team to the point of making the playoffs from the highly competitive Essos & Dorne division.

Biggest Trade: Gave Ben, J Stew, and DT for Bradford, Crowder, and Julio- Bara upgrades his QB to his favorite Steeler, but in the process gives up what would become 2 top 7 WRs, giving Santi quite the collection when paired with Evans.

Best Trade: Gave Matt Forte for Davante Adams- Adams didn’t last long on Santi’s team, but this was a swap that most felt was overwhelmingly in his favor. Especially when you take into account Baelish acquiring Forte for his playoff schedule, in which he injured himself 3 minutes into…

Worst Trade: Gave Sant’s 2^nd for Torrey Smith- Not a lot of bad trades to choose from for Santi, but he made two swaps of pick for player. The one above for Torrey, and his 3^rd for Troy Niklas. Based on it being a better pick and a more disappointing player, I’ve picked the Torrey swap, but considering the results of both, I wouldn’t recommend he pursue that kind of trade in the future. Close runner up was sending away Simean for the bust named Matt Jones (who?)

House Tully

17 trades- 10 during startup, 7 pre/during season

Trading Overview: Tully did most of his trading damage in the startup, choosing to trade down early and often to amass as much capital in the top 100 picks as possible. He continued this mantra post-draft, finding opportunities to sell out of pieces that didn’t fit his longer-term vision in favor of players who did as well as draft capital. He’s built an impressive roster, earned one of the top 2 picks, and held onto his name. This is a dangers team 2018 and beyond

Biggest Trade: Gave Booker, Ware, and Henry for Gurley, S. Anderson- classic consolidation trade. Tully gets the best and worst piece in the trade, Santi gets the 2^nd -4^th , win-win

Best Trade: Gave Randall Cobb for Devante Parker. Despite your feelings on the polarizing figure that is Knight Parker, you have to love this trade for Tully. Royce is moving towards a playoff push and wants to add Cobb who’s in the midst of a 3 game hot streak, and Tully is able to sell him at his peak for another one of the metric marvel WRs his roster has attracted. Now all he needs to do is trade for Cooper to complete the set.

Worst Trade: Antonio Gates for Eli Rogers- it’s saying something that this is the straw I have to grasp at in order to find a bad trade for Tully. In the end, Gates didn’t fit on his team, and due to the emergence of Henry, was losing market share in the eyes of many of the owners. In order to not be left with nothing, Tully probably took a discount in the form of Rogers for Gates.

House Greyjoy

29 trades- 21 during startup, 8 pre/during season

Trading Overview: One of the busiest traders during the startup, Greyjoy had three goals in the startup. First- acquire 2 of the top QBs to serve as the cornerstone of his team. Second- surround them with as many top 150 picks as possible. Third- convert all future draft capital to the best startup picks he could get. All three goals were wildly successful, giving him the flexibility to move pieces such as Carson Palmer and Jordan Matthews without putting his core at risk.

Biggest Trade: Gave Carson Palmer for Jordy Nelson- by about the 8^th or 9^th round of the draft, teams were learning a very difficult lesson. In a 16 team superflex league, only the foolish man waits on QB. Due to his foresight, Greyjoy was able to peddle the one of his less essential and older QBs for a very useful starter in Jordy Nelson.

Best Trade: Gave Aaron Burbridge for Forrester’s 5^th- sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make. Despite what I’m sure was unrelenting pressure to make a big move involving one of his core players, he held strong knowing they could carry him deep into the playoffs. The trade highlighted here is indicative of almost all of his post-startup moves. Small adjustments with non-core pieces

Worst Trade: Gave Jordan Matthews for Doug Martin- TDs help to even this out some, but given the opportunity to switch back, I’d imagine Greyjoy would in a heartbeat. Martin appeared to be the sole owner of the TB backfield once again thanks to injuries to Sims and Rodgers, and proceeded to average less than 3 ypc. Compared to the continued target monster that is Jordan Matthews, the Ironborn should have been wary of this golden price

House Wode

32 trades- 11 during startup, 21 pre/during season (11 by Wode, remainder by Codd)

Trading Overview: It’s never easy to take over an orphan, let alone one mid-season, especially one who has seen it’s own very valuable 1^st traded away on a team that’s not playoff ready. So first and foremost, kudos to Wode for taking on that challenge. That said, Wode probably fell victim to a number of the big mistakes orphan adopters tend to. They trade away their veterans for a discount, they don’t understand the nuances of the rules (taxi theft in this case), and are forced to be patient until time & the market gives them a chance to recoup some value. That said, Wode had some tough lessons this year but absorbed them well.

Biggest Trade: Gave Jordan Howard, Braxton Miller, and Michael Thomas for Jeremy Hill and Royce’s 1^st Pre-week 1, this looked like a much better trade. Howard was stuck behind an impressive looking Langford, Thomas was listed as the WR3 or 4 in New Orleans, and House Royce looked like a team that was going to struggle to make the playoffs. 3 months later, Royce is in the postseason, Howard is the 2^nd best rookie back in the league, and Michael Thomas has arguably unseated Brandin Cooks as the WR1 in New Orleans. The 1^st being the equivalent of the 1.12 helps to soften the blow, but this one could have turned out better for Wode.

Best Trade: Gave Lannister’s 2^nd and Tully’s 3^rd for Zach Ertz- able to take advantage of a tilting Iron Bank, Wode was able to grab the target monster that is Zach Ertz as he becomes one of Carson Wentz’s favorite weapons. Considering Ertz was changing hands last offseason for a 1^st and his recent performances, it stands to reason Wode will be able to flip Ertz for a 1^st if he so desires this offseason.

Worst Trade: Gave Jimmy Graham for Brett Hundley- there were a couple of trades which can only be described as head scratchers for House Wode. Some only look that way with the benefit of hindsight (his big trade above a prime example). Another one is his swap of Jimmy Graham for Brett Hundley. We all heard the rhetoric last offseason about the PCL injury Graham and Cruz were returning from “The next player who is able to rebound from that injury and be an effective player again will be the first.” Fast forward 4 months, and due to Gronk’s Back and Reed’s concussions, Jimmy is arguably the TE1 in fantasy.

House Arryn

75 trades- 34 in startup, 41 pre/during season

Trade Overview: Congratulations to house Arryn for being the most promiscuous trader in the league this year. During the startup, Arryn spent his time focused on getting his two cornerstone QBs and then monopolizing as much of rounds 3-7 as he could. After the startup, he made the conscious decision that 2016 was not going to be his year, kicking off his productive struggle in earnest with an explosive trade with the Iron Bank. He spent the next few weeks meticulously acquiring draft capital in the prestigious 2017 draft. Little did we know he was pulling a “Trading Places” in us (great movie, if you haven’t seen it, go see it). He transitioned from seller to buyer as teams began to look towards the draft to improve their teams’ futures. As a result, he’s sold off almost all of his draft capital, but amassed a roster full of top end talent with a good amount of youth preparing to back them up when called upon. He may no longer be known as house Arryn, but he’s a contender for years to come due to his artful trading this year.

Biggest Trade: Gave Russell Wilson for Bank’s 1^st, Baratheon’s 1^st, Reed’s 1^st, and Free Folk’s 1^st- the lesson to learn in a superflex league this deep is if you don't draft your cornerstone QBs, you pay for them later. That's exactly what Arryn made Bank do here, in the end pulling 4 non-playoff 1st round picks for Russell Wilson.

Best Trade: Gave Lannister’s 2^nd, Hightower’s 2^nd, and Targaryen’s 2^nd for Wode’s 1^st- DISCLAIMER: This trade was made with House Codd, not House Wode. That said, this comes out to the 2.06, 2.07, and 2.13 for the 1.02. Not a bad trade if you can get it.

Worst Trade: Gave Keenan Allen, Jalen Richard, Banefort’s 3^rd, and Forrester’s 4^th for Derrick Henry and Tyler Lockett- not every trade works out gangbusters. Arryn attempted to move one of his many long term assets to improve just enough to keep his name. Unfortunately, Tyler Lockett didn’t understand he was supposed to be the next version of the 2015 Allen Robinson, not the 2016 Allen Robinson and Henry didn’t emerge like he was expected to.

House Baelish

26 trades- 14 in startup, 12 pre/during season

Trade Overview- Baelish was most active, like many of the successful owners this year, in the startup. However, unlike the rest of the teams trading down, he didn’t want 2017 picks. Rather was looking for additional picks in the top 100. Thus, he built the dominant team for this year. What’s truly scary, is a few of the trades where he might have moved himself out of MORE value.

Biggest Trade- Gave DeMarco and Golden Tate for DeVonta Freeman- Another what might have been moment. Demarco outperformed Freeman on his own this year, plus the added depth of Tate later in the season certainly wouldn’t have hurt.

Best Trade- Gave Devonte Booker for DaVante Adams, Egen’s 2^nd – Talk about selling high on an asset. Baelish flips Booker, who you’d be lucky to get Egen’s 2^nd for today, for the pick and the breakout star Adams.

Worst Trade- Gave 4.22 (Drew Brees) and 6.25 (LeSean McCoy) for 4.13 (Doug Martin) and 7.14(Ladarius Green)- The trade was made when everyone was still in draft pick form, but holy wow, imagine if Baelish had Brees and Shady this year instead of Doug and Ladarius?

House Egen

18 trades- 2 during startup, 16 pre/during season

Trade Overview- A lean traded during the startup, preferring to stand his ground and take his guys rather than moving around the board. In hindsight, that’s probably for the best considering how some of his early trades turned out. Egen’s trading skills definitely improved as the season moved on, acquiring a number of cornerstone pieces below market value.

Biggest Trade- Gave Paxton Lynch, Karlos Williams for Dak Prescott- winner of the Dak-scapes, acquiring this #1 QB when he was still on the cheap side ended up being a major coup for Egen’s lean roster

Best Trade- Gave Michael Floyd for Free Folk’s 2^nd, Baelish’s 3^rd – Panned as terrible at the time, considering Floyd’s future completely depends on his ability to stick on NE’s roster, this could end up being a well-timed cash out

Worst Trade- gave 2.24, 3.09, Egen’s 1^st for 2.15, 2.28 – If you look at the players involved, he gives Lamar Miller, T.Y. Hilton, and his 1^st for Derek Carr and Demaryius Thomas, which isn’t very lopsided on the surface. What makes this his worst trade is less than a month after the startup, he’d flipped the 2.15 (Carr) straight up for Cousins (4.30) and 2.28(DT) and Kelce (5.09) for Doctson (4.08) and Fleener (7.21). I’m sure most every team could be held to account for a trade made with post-startup with startup values, but why give up your first to move up 22 combined spots, only to surrender the value a month later?

House Royce

33 trades- 12 during startup, 23 pre/during season (Tollet was all startup trades, pre/during season was Royce)

Trade Overview- the triumphant hero who came to save us from a fate worse than Tollet (trick question, there is no fate worse than Tollet). That said, Royce inherited a solid team thanks to a few savvy startup trades (moving down from 1.04 for Banefort’s 2017 draft was one), but continued to build on this as he drove the team to the playoffs. Royce eschewed big bang trades early, preferring to keep his young core intact for a longer-term play that all changed when a podcast host Hot Taked “Royce will be the points wild card from Ice.” From there, Evan made big splash moves to grab Randall Cobb, Antonio Brown, and Blake Bortles. Although he was 1 and done in the playoffs, he’s set up well to return next year.

Biggest Trade- Gave Cousins, Petty, Agholor, Bryant, Banefort’s 1^st, Tyrell’s 1^st, Baelish’s 1^st for AB84, Rawls, Targaryen’s 1^st – A lot to give up, but one must pay a lot to acquire the league’s best WR. Cousins and the Banefort 1^st had to hurt to give up, but he ends up getting back the 2^nd best 1^st in the trade in the form of Targaryen’s and Rawls is showing well in Seattle. A lot of capital changed hands in this one.

Best Trade- Gave Michael Floyd for Kirk Cousins and Terrance Williams- his 1^st trade might have been his best. Floyd’s future is tenuous at best, Cousins is a top 8 dynasty QB asset which is gold in this league.

Worst Trade- gave Banefort’s 3^rd for Bryce Petty- Petty’s Iron Price was a 5^th, giving what at that time projected to be a high 3^rd for him is the definition of a desperation overpay.

House Clegane

68 trades- 31 startup, 37 pre/during season

Trade Overview- Clegane’s strategy was clear from the startup. Move down, acquire assets, and play the long game. He had an opportunity to accelerate his timetable to this year, but chose to stick to his initial strategy. Its paid off handsomely as he has a deep, young team with the opportunity to add more in this years draft. Clegane’s trademark as a trader was rarely did he give an outright no with a decline. It usually came with an explanation and often, a counter. Making him an easy person to trade with.

Biggest Trade- Gave Cousins, Abdullah, Riddick, D Wash, Santi’s 2^nd, Hyde, Keenan Allen, and Coates for C. Cook, AB84, D. Robinson, Big Ben, C.J. Anderson, and Devonte Booker- alright, technically this is 2 trades in one, but this committee of 1 knows they were part of a similar strategy. In an effort to re-form his team via sweepstakes, Clegane acquired arguably the most valuable stack this year. While they were being sold together in the sweepstakes, he ended up tradeing them separately to retool his team the way he saw fit.

Best Trade- Gave Charles, Huff, Forrester’s 4^th for Hyde, D Wash, Janis, Hightower’s 5^th – in an attempt not to duplicated trades between teams, I’ll settle on this one as one of Clegane’s best, and it’s indicative of the kind of trade he worked all year. Through good timing and smooth talking, he was able to upgrade Charles- injured again and fighting to avoid a time share for his job, to Hyde- a true feature back when healthy this year. He was able to leverage this value to bring back AB84 later, another example of buying at the right time

Worst Trade- Gave Jimmy G, Funchess, R Rodgers, and Tyrell’s 4^th for Kessler, Chris Moore- this one puzzled me, say what you will about Funchess, but he’s worth more than Chris Moore. It’s unclear whether Kessler will even be the starter next year or relegated to backup behind a 1^st round QB the Browns draft. Comparing that to Jimmy G who is all but guaranteed a starting job next year, and I struggle to see the value.

House Lannister

22 trades- 16 startup, 6 pre/during season

Trade Overview- Lannister did most of his work during the startup. He shied away from moving the premium pieces wholesale, often making slighter moves to go up and down to grab his target players. He made a few small tweaks before the season started and resisted the urge to make any other moves until the deadline. We’ll see if this season inspires Lanniser to get more aggressive in his trade discussions in the future

Biggest Trade- Gave A Rob, Eifert, for Floyd, Green, and Rudolph- Anytime A Rob and Green change hands, it tends to be your biggest trade.

Best Trade- Gave Murray for Dorsett, Louis, Strong, and Bank’s 1^st – As players were flying around near the deadline, it was difficult to get full value for some of the top assets. Lannister was able to succeed in getting a mid 1^st and 3 undervalued WRs in the 2^nd/3^rd round pick range. Considering what Murray went for after this, Lannister has to be pleased with his value

Worst Trade- Gave Simean for Baelish’s 5^th – A starting QB for a 5^th, yeahhhhhhh

House Banefort

13 trades- 4 during startup, 9 pre/during season

Trade overview- long live the Banefort!  He made it a priority this year to focus on consolidating as much premium talent as possible, sometimes to his detriment. This strategy shifted mid-year as the playoffs moved out of reach. We’ll have to wait and see if his transition to asset collection yields him the depth he needs to compete without sacrificing any more of his elite assets.

Biggest Trade- Gave Came Newton for Rivers, Stark’s 1^st, and Casterly’s 1^st – signaled a change in direction from consolidation to asset collection. His follow-on trade to turn Rivers into another pick gave him 3 1sts in the top 11 of this year’s draft.

Best Trade- Gave Matt Jones for Trevor Simean- not a bad cash out considering what happened to Jones the back end of the year

Worst Trade- Gave Brissett, Wentz, T. West, H. Henry for Romo, Deandre Washingon, and Gronkowski- Another consolidation trade that didn’t go as planned. Romo was supposed to get his job back when he returned and Gronk was supposed to be a world beater. Instead, Banefort loses out on his depth he’s trying so hard to rebuild for players that all disappointed this year.

House Casterly

19- 9 startup, 10 pre/during season

Trade overview- Casterly split his moves ~50/50 between the startup and the season. Most of his moves came after he saw the gap in the Westerlands of a division leader and made the decision to fill that gap.

Biggest Trade- Gave Rivers, Zeke, T. Benjamin for Wentz, Hill, Edelman- A very interesting long term play. Swaps promising rookies in order to corner the QB who could be leading the Eagles for the next 10-15 years for the RB who’s taken the league by storm now.

Best Trade- Gave Jordan Matthews, Forrester’s 3^rd for Sanders, Crowder- Playoff teams tend to overpay for assets near the trade deadline, but Casterly avoided that tendency. He was able to acquire 2 of the higher scoring WRs recently for one who has been disappointing and a 3^rd round pick. Well done to take advantage of a tilting Iron Bank to improve his team.

Worst Trade- Gave Boyd for Dorsett- Initially this looked like an exchange of end of the 1^st round rookie picks who weren’t going to live up to expectations. But where Dorsett is well blocked by WRs on the Indy roster, Boyd was only an injury away from an every down role, and taking well to the slot/flanker position. Since the Green injury, he’s shown to be productive in his work thus far and will likely continue to grow in the offense.

I'll be back soon with the 2nd half of the league.