Trading is an exciting and strategic aspect of dynasty fantasy football. In dynasty leagues, a fantasy manager’s success often hinges on their ability to trade efficiently. Fantasy managers can fill gaps in their roster, improve weaknesses, and provide depth to their overall squad. Successful trading requires a solid understanding of player values, league trends, and negotiation skills. In this edition of Dynasty Trade Secrets, we will explore roster construction.
Dynasty Trade Secrets
In the first article of the Dynasty Trade Secrets series, we discussed assessing your team roster to determine whether you are a pretender or a contender. We followed that article up by diving into player values. Then, we tackled draft pick values and finding the right trade partner. I encourage you to read all four articles first, as we will be building on these concepts:
STEP 1 | ASSESSING YOUR ROSTER
STEP 2 | UNDERSTANDING PLAYER VALUES
STEP 3 | UNDERSTANDING DRAFT PICK VALUES
STEP 4 | FINDING A TRADE PARTNER
STEP 5 | ROSTER CONSTRUCTION
Roster construction in fantasy football refers to how you build and manage your team of players to maximize points throughout a season. It’s one of the most critical strategic elements of fantasy football, and it involves making smart decisions about positional balance and depth.
Using the Nerds App, I will highlight my team in the Intro to the Nerds App League. If you want a full breakdown of the league, make sure you read Keith Ensminger’s full article.
From my roster construction, we can see that I view this team as a contender, and so does the Dynasty GM, as I rank third overall in Contender Mode:
POSITIONAL BALANCE
Positional Balance refers to maintaining a well-rounded roster across all positions to ensure both short-term competitiveness and long-term sustainability. Because dynasty leagues involve keeping most or all of your players from year to year, striking the right balance between positions is crucial for success over time. Balanced rosters give you leverage in trade negotiations. If you’re overloaded at one position, you might be forced to trade from weakness. When you have positional balance, it allows you to take “best player available” in rookie drafts without being desperate for a specific position.
Positional balance depends on your team’s roster. A rebuilding team might prioritize young wide receivers and quarterbacks with long-term upside, while a contending team might stack running backs for immediate production.
DEPTH
Depth refers to the strength and quality of your bench and reserve players. Depth is crucial in dynasty fantasy football because of the long-term nature of the league, the larger roster sizes, and the constant change in player values due to age, performance, injuries, and team situation.
Depth is important to cover bye weeks and the inevitable injuries that will occur to your fantasy rosters. Every year, NFL team’s bye week changes and having depth is vital to make sure that you are fielding a competitive roster.
In having depth, it also allows for more trading flexibility. When drafting my team, I projected Kirk Cousins to land in a starter role somewhere. As of this writing, that has not occurred and I am left with a hole for my third quarterback. I have depth at my running back and wide receiver positions where I can use those assets to possibly trade for a third option.
Positional depth is important as well. Ideally, you would want 4 starting quarterbacks on your roster but could settle with three at the minimum. Mid-tier and even low-end quarterbacks have starter appeal. I would also look to stash backup quarterbacks with upside or quarterbacks that have a possible path to a starting role.
At the running back position, depth is a must. Running backs have the highest injury rate, so obtaining talented “handcuffs” could turn into a league-winning decision. Unfortunately, I was unable to secure any of the handcuffs for my own running backs.
At wide receiver, I like to carry 5 solid wide receiver options and then the rest, I tend to look at players with fantasy potential. I like the upside of Calvin Austin as he has a chance for some significant playing time with the trade of George Pickens.
Tight end becomes extremely important in tight end premium leagues. I have solid veteran options in Mark Andrews and Mike Gesicki and the potential upside player in Brenton Strange. AJ Barner was a potential sleeper of mine but that has since fizzled out due to the drafting of Elijah Arroyo.
If you are a rebuilding team, prioritize depth with upside young players, rookies, and backups on expiring contracts. Contender teams should focus on quality over quantity. While depth is still important, focus on reliable options that can produce immediate results.
REVIEW | ROSTER CONSTRUCTION
A well-constructed roster isn’t just strong at the top—it has the layers to survive and adapt. Building and managing depth effectively is what separates consistent contenders from the teams constantly stuck in the middle.
Trade Target of the Week | Dynasty Trade Secrets
Arian Smith | WR | New York Jets
Since we have just discussed stashing players with potential upside on your roster, Arian Smith might be a player that you don’t even have to trade for and may be sitting on the waiver wire. The 4th Round rookie receiver has been uncoverable during the New York Jets OTAs. The WR2 position is wide open in New York and Smith is clearly making his case for that role.
