Week 7 is in the books! We are officially past the halfway point to the playoffs, and things are really starting to take shape. We have a LOT to dive into this week, so let’s just jump right in!
Weekly Challenge Farmer
Starting right away with the Weekly Challenge update, this week’s challenge was “The Flex,” which went to the team with the most points from a non-QB in the flex position. Uncle Tony Pollard was the highest-scoring flex player this week, putting up 37 points (3 TDs, damn), which means Coleman will take the $10 AGAIN. That’s two weeks in a row for Coleman! Whether you’re actually paying attention to the challenges and farming them, or just getting lucky, congrats on another win!
In the Survivor competition, we had a nail biter heading into Monday Night Football between Cam and Nick to decide who would be eliminated. Unfortunately for Nick, CeeDee Lamb was too good and pushed Cam’s team over the hump. Honestly, Nick survived a lot longer than I expected based on his tank commanding, so good on you. But your luck has run out, and you’ve been eliminated. 7 teams remain!
Some of You Are Rolling…
Our highest-scoring team this week was Conner (Team CDunn23… surely we can find a better name for you before the playoffs) with 171 points. This also puts Conner in first place in PF, extends his winning streak to three games, and puts him firmly back in a playoff spot after spending a few weeks on the outside looking in. Halfway through the season, and his team is really starting to hit its stride. Shoutout Conner.
The longest active winning streak in the league belongs to Fred, whose win this week pushes him to five straight victories. Fred’s team continues to prove that he’s a legitimate contender this season, despite me constantly berating him for the age of his QBs lol. The big story for Fred this week, though, was some of the trades he made, which we’ll get to shortly. In any event, he’s now 6-1, and with another strong week or two, he could easily establish himself as the team to beat this year. Shoutout Fred.
The last team I want to quickly highlight again is Tiny Meat Gang (Spencer), who, despite starting Breece Hall, still put together a strong week and moved to 5-2 on the back of a crazy game from Mason Taylor of all people. This team is just consistently solid and capable of beating anyone on any given week. Not much else to say here, but Spencer is quietly putting together a very strong season!
The Trade Gates Have Been Lifted
Story of the week! We saw more trades this week than we have BY FAR all season. Phew, this was insane to keep up with, and damn, was it exciting! Blood was in the water, and it felt like everyone was trying to get in on the action. I want to analyze a couple of the bigger trades that went down, starting with the one that kicked off a chain reaction involving Sean and Julian.
Julian traded away Omarion Hampton and THREE first-round picks over the next three seasons for Amon-Ra St. Brown and Tyrone Tracy. Huge trade!! I fucking love this one. It’s bold for both sides, but I really think it could end up being beneficial for everyone.
Sean has officially chosen a direction: he’s tanking ALL THE WAY. He now has a whole lot of draft capital to fuel the rebuild. Julian, meanwhile, gets an elite, perennial top-five WR to help with his playoff push this season and potentially beyond. The big question mark here is Hampton. If this trade had gone down two months ago, Sean might have absolutely fleeced Julian. But now… the Chargers are seriously ass, and Hampton hasn’t exactly looked great. If Hampton finds his way back to form, this could end up looking like an overpay for Julian. But for now, I love it for both teams. Sean gets the picks he needs to rebuild, and Julian gets the star power he needs to contend. Time will tell, great trade fellas.
Now, onto a trade that really confused me: Fred and Sean’s DK trade.
KCC, a 2027 first AND a second-round pick for… just DK Metcalf? Yeah, that’s certainly interesting.
I personally hate this trade so much that I briefly considered vetoing it because I think it’s grossly imbalanced. But hey, I’m no dictator…
My problem with this trade isn’t that DK is bad. It’s that he’s basically valued around the same as KCC, so adding picks on top of KCC to get DK just doesn’t make much sense to me. To Fred’s credit, he IS 6-1 and clearly feels like he’s in a position to make moves to win now. I just think he could’ve gotten more for that package.
And to make this trade even funnier, KCC had a career game this week. But I digress.
This is a great opportunity to direct you guys to the RESOURCES PAGE on our website, where you can find all sorts of dynasty help, including different content creators and trade calculators. Calculators can be a great way to figure out whether you’re getting fleeced or not. They are NOT perfect, and you shouldn’t make trades based solely on what a calculator says, but they can help you get a rough idea of player values and give you a starting point when negotiating deals.
FantasyCalc.com is widely regarded as one of the best dynasty trade calculators. It uses real trades from fantasy leagues to help estimate market value, combining actual trade data with different crowdsourced rankings and valuations. It’s not an exact science, every league is different, but it’s a solid resource for getting a general idea of how players and picks compare.
For example, if we plug that last trade into the calculator, this is what we get:
Now, regardless of whether you really love DK, really hate the Browns, or whatever else might influence your player evaluations, a calculator can help you realize that your players might have MORE or LESS value than you think. My argument to Fred is that with the package he sent away for DK, he potentially could’ve gone after a better WR — or at least someone with more overall dynasty value. For example, using the calculator to help us gauge value, putting in that same package in relation to some other WR’s, we can see how Fred could have maybe upgraded more than DK…
For Drake London
For Chris Olave
For Justin Jefferson… ok ok you get my point
With that said though - every league is different, and it is impossible to know if the owners of those players would even be interested in trading. That is the fun of dynasty though, and I only urge everyone to not only value players themselves but also pay attention to how the consensus may value someone. This is not to suggest that the calculator HAS to be even on value every time you trade, it really does not. But ballpark values are helpful!
Ultimately though, if Fred wins the championship this season, then it’s all worth it! I love seeing the league this active and all these fun trades going down, and I don’t mean to pile on Fred or be the annoying commissioner. At the end of the day, Sean and Fred were both very happy to make that trade, so it does not even matter! I am just using this trade as an example for future negotiations, and showcasing how a calculator can help you make some tough value gauging decisions… Keep it up guys, and Fred, sorry for having to use you as an example here. You are 6-1 and proving me wrong anyway.
Quick Hits
Jacob pulls off a big upset over Cam with a monster 147-point week. THAT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE A TANK.
Varms, on the other hand, looks like he’s in FULL tank mode, putting up a whopping 56 points this week. That’s the lowest single-week score in the league all season. Holy shit.
Sean, despite all the trades, came VERY close to beating Julian this week. That would’ve been pretty poetic, considering the trade both teams made with each other this week.
Sean actually managed to get something for Tanner McKee! Impressive work!
Fred’s other trade was to acquire Nico Collins from Jake, and for all the hate I had for the KCC trade - this one was very good! Love it for both people. Fred has basically no picks now though, lol!
That’s all for Week 7! I’ll see you all next week!
