Week 10 is here and my teams are fairly well positioned to make playoff runs. While it won’t likely end up this way come Week 14, 12 out of my 13 non-startup teams would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. The other 3 startup teams by design will not make it this year.

Unfortunately, none of the teams are looking particularly dominant from a redraft perspective. I think at least a few will end up winning their leagues (just by the numbers alone), but which ones will not be obvious. A number of them look awesome for dynasty, but for this year, there are other teams in those leagues that look just as good with flashes in the pan types like Emmanuel Sanders and Brandon Lafell and oldies but goodies like Peyton Manning, Marshawn Lynch, Matt Forte and the like. Teams with those players are matching up well with my typical Calvin Johnson, AJ Green, Julio Jones, Demaryius Thomas lineups this year. It will be interesting how it all shakes out.

Last Minute Trades:

With the deadline in the FFPC now here and the DFWC deadline approaching, contenders are doing what they can to improve their playoff lineups via trade. I made a few myself in the FFPC $750 League #10 that I usually would not make.

This team is positioned nicely for the playoffs with Calvin Johnson, Alshon Jeffery, Julio Jones and Randall Cobb at WR and Jimmy Graham at TE (1.5 PPR TE), but the team was weak at QB (Eli Manning) and even weaker at RB (Ahmad Bradshaw and Chris Johnson). With Calvin being out for so long and with Graham having his own injury woes as well, this team fell out of the running for the Week 14 bye weeks ago, so it will need some luck in Week 13 to get into the final 4 for the 2-week total points playoff. I felt like the team needed a little more firepower to make a title run.

Accordingly, I traded away what will be a top 4 pick in 2015 (in the FFPC, it could be anywhere from the 1.1 to the 1.4 depending on the results of the draft pick consolation round playoffs) plus Roddy White for Jamaal Charles. With a backfield of Bradshaw and Charles, I am feeling a little more comfortable about this team’s chances, but there was still that weakness at QB.

To shore that up, I traded my last remaining 1st rounder (my own which could be anywhere from 1.7 to 1.12) along with Eli Manning for Peyton Manning! As far as dynasty value, its not a good trade. Peyton may not even play after this year for all we know. But Peyton Manning is one of the few QBs this year (along with Andrew Luck and one or two others) that are true difference makers at a not so difference making position. This team was very well set up for the future with those two 1sts and already a pretty good playoff team this year even without Charles and Manning, but I thought I’d try something new and actually “go for broke” in a league. Besides, although the 1st used to obtain Manning will be a total loss as soon as next year, with a little luck, it is quite possible that I’ll be able to trade Charles next year for an early 1st for a wash.