So you’ve completed your draft and are waiting for the season to start. Don’t just sit and do nothing. A good manager is always looking for ways to improve his/her team. Here are some ideas for trades to offer after your draft.

To give context, I’ll be addressing this from the point of view of an ‘average’ league. This would mean a 10-12-team redraft league with about 9 starters and 7 bench spots. Some of these principles can be applied to in-season trade offers too.

Check Positions

Trades ideally help both teams. Maybe you’re weak at RB. Maybe someone else is weak at WR. You giving one of your bench WRs for one of their RBs on their bench could improve both of your starting lineups. Or maybe you don’t have needs. But you could consider taking advantage of someone who is desperate at a certain position by offering them depth for studs. I’ll talk more about that in the next section.

Upgrade Your Starters

I love finding gems on the waivers. I am not very concerned about my bench because I trust I can replace them with free agents during the season. What I’ll often do is to try and trade a few bench players or bench players along with my starters to get one better player. You can look for managers who are deep at a position and have a bench player who you’d start. You can also look for people who have weak depth and offer them depth. This can apply particularly to managers who have lost players due to injury.

Chat with Your League

We often talk during our drafts. One thing we often talk about is who we wish we had drafted earlier. For many trades I offer, I’m just guessing at who the other manager would want. But if you’re communicating with your league, you can have a better idea of who to offer. That can help you to offer players that another manager may value more than you do in order to acquire a player you may value more than they do.

Monitor Hype

Hype comes and goes. Rookies were very hyped right after the draft. Injuries and trades lead to hype about guys that move up the depth chart. News narratives can get people overly excited about players. Publicity like Hard Knocks can boost people’s exposure to players. Know when to not buy into the hype and use that to sell high on your players.

Examples

I made two trades right after my draft. One guy missed the start of the draft and auto-drafted T.J. Hockenson 2 picks before me. I took Mark Andrews and because he preferred Andrews while I preferred Hockenson, we traded TEs right after. This is how communication can help. I also traded Ja’Marr Chase and Devonta Smith for Tyler Lockett to be my WR3. This combines monitoring hype with upgrading my starters.

Wrap-Up

Never stop trying to gain an edge. That being said, don’t trade just to trade. Trades can also ruin a team so be careful with the trades you offer. But hopefully, this gives you ideas for what types of trades you can offer after your draft.

If you found this article helpful, check out other Belly Up Fantasy Sports articles at Belly Up Fantasy and you can follow me at @liuac.