Fantasy Football Trade Dispute: Brees for Orton and Grant

Q: In a 12 team league where QBs receive 6 points for passing touchdown and 1 point for every 25 yards, Team 1 (managed by the league commissioner and in first place) is trying to trade Ryan Grant and Kyle Orton for Team 2\’s Drew Brees (in last place).  Something does not seem right about it.

A: Tis the season for collusion.   At this point in the fantasy season, the disparity between the elite teams and the scrub teams becomes evident.   With that disparity comes the temptation for the scrub teams to dump their stars to a more competitive team in an act of collusion.   Whether the scrub team is helping out a friend or relative or trading fantasy stars for non-fantasy items like cash, booze or sexual favors, collusion poses a serious threat to the balance of your league.

We agree that any trade between first and last place teams at this stage of the season is suspicious.   However, the value exchange in this trade is, in our opinion, within reason.   Brady is now that top ranked QB (based off of ESPN rankings) while Orton is ranked 13th (so not even a starter in a 12-team league that starts 1 QB).   The difference in value here is clearly substantial.    That said, Ryan Grant is currently the 12th ranked RB, just below Michael Turner and above the likes of Steven Jackson, Clinton Portis, Matt Forte and LT – technically making him an RB1 in your league.   We would still rather be on the Brady side of this trade, but it is a reasonable strategy for the other team to downgrade at QB in order to improve significantly at RB – and keep in mind, Orton is still a solid QB on a competitive team (9TDs, 1 INT).

We recommend that you confront the two owners on the topic of collusion and ask them to defend the fact that this trade was made to improve BOTH teams.   However, in the absence of any evidence of collusion, you have no choice but to evaluate this trade on its own merit and we don’t believe the value exchange in this trade is overly lop-sided.