Trade Dispute: Forte, Edwards, Gates, Jones, Housh, Olsen, Campbell

Q: Team A trades Matt Forte, Braylon Edwards, and Antonio Gates. Team B trades Felix Jones, TJ Housh, Greg Olsen and Jason Campbell. This seems awfully one sided to me. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

A: Hi Jason. At first glance, we agree that this trade is a bit one-sided. But lets take a look at the stats. Forte is clearly the best player in the trade with over 700 total yards and 6 TDs. As a RB replacement, team A is getting Felix Jones. Jones is currently injured and has under 300 total yards for the year. However, he should be back by week 11 at the latest, potentially in week 9, and has proven he can be a viable fantasy starter from week to week.

Now let’s look at the receivers. While Team B is clearly receiving an upgrade at RB, Team A gets the nod at receiver. Putting reputations and names aside for a second, Housh is outperforming Edwards this year with twice as many receptions, 150 more receiving yards and one more TD.

Gates, another big name player, actually has very similar performance to Olsen (same receptions and yards, Gates has an edge in TDs, 4-2).

So Team B gets a major upgrade at RB, a slight downgrade at WR, and a slight upgrade at TE. If that was the extent of the trade, then we would agree that this is lopsided. But team A is also receiving Jason Campbell wholse 1,426 passing yards, 7 TDs and 63.9 completion percentage have him ranked as a top 10 QB this season. Considering the fact that Team A lost Brady and is pinning their fantasy hopes to the arm of Kyle Orton, picking up Campbell is a smart move.

This trade has to stand.