Made a few big moves recently in this league, all aimed at the long term improvement of the team at some expense to the present. This gets a little tricky in a $1250 league as you wouldn't want to mess up a title run with a questionable trade for the future. The goal of course in dynasty is to have your cake and eat it to, win now and win tomorrow (and the day after that and so on), but there is definitely potential for a serious and expensive backfiring in this league.

As of a few weeks ago, things had been going well for me with the following roster (scrubs not listed):

Tony Romo

Lesean McCoy
Chris Johnson
Fred Jackson (yeah!)
CJ Spiller

Greg Jennings
Dez Bryant
Dwayne Bowe
Vincent Jackson
David Nelson
Torry Smith
Demaryius Thomas (holding on to hope)

Vernon Davis
Kyle Rudolph

After a slow start in week 1 (taking a loss to my division rival and last year's champ and collecting a paltry 1 VP), I went on a string of 4 4VP weeks in a row to take the frontrunner position with a 5VP lead over the next place team and a 6VP lead in my division (and a 100+ lead in the points race - which I recently discovered gets you nothing by the way).

Along the way, I traded Torry Smith for a 2012 1st rounder (to replenish my stash of 1sts a bit) and prior to Week 6's game, I traded away the goose laying the golden eggs, Fred Jackson, to the team in 2nd place in the overall standings, for Rashard Mendenhall (who at the time was recovering from a hamstring injury and was suffering from a slow start). This is a good value in return for Fred Jackson and maybe even a slam dunk in other dynasty leagues of mine, but for a team ready to win this year, in this particular format and with the stakes involved, Fred Jackson is worth it...easily. So far, I would think both teams are happy with the results. That said, I sure would be feeling a lot more comfortable from a redraft perspective with Fred Jackson back on the team (as good as Mendenhall may be in his own right).

Following the trade and with Vincent Jackson, Dwayne Bowe and Chris Johnson on bye (and with the team underperforming as a whole in Week 6), my team proceeded to lose a close game and gain only 1 VP for the week (and barely got that point I might add). What hurts even more is that my pre-trade lineup would have garnered a win and 3VP this week which would have resulted in a whole different outlook altogether. Now, the once comfortable "looking" lead of 5 VP over the field is now only 2 VP, with several teams ready and able to pass my team as soon as this week for the all important playoff-bye spots (especially with Lesean McCoy and Vernon Davis on bye this week). I always knew that Weeks 6 and 7 were going to be the big challenge for this team, and so far, my team is failing that challenge miserably.

Despite the tough loss, I made yet another trade which could threaten to disturb the balance of the squad. I shipped out Dwayne Bowe, Heath Miller and Kyle Rudolph for Jermichael Finley. While this trade may have looked great in the preseason (in a 1.5PPR TE league), Bowe has been ON FIRE lately and the loss of his consistently stellar production could be quite detrimental to the team's success. Bowe had also already gone through his bye week, and now I have created another challenge week in Week 8 with Finley and Jennings on bye. I couldn't resist the offer though as I love Finley in this format, especially for the long term.

The roster now:

Tony Romo

Lesean McCoy
Chris Johnson
Rashard Mendenhall
CJ Spiller

Greg Jennings
Dez Bryant
Vincent Jackson
David Nelson
Demaryius Thomas

Vernon Davis
Jermichael Finley

Thats it for now. I'll report back in a few weeks, hopefully still in 1st place.