With Week 2 in the books, I thought it would be a good time to check in on the FFPC high stakes dynasty leagues.

The real action was in the $1250 where I participated in the first player for player trade in the league (take a guess on which player I acquired). I also splurged during the first BBID period of the season occurring just prior to the first Sunday of the season.

Free Agency:

First the new free agent, Kareem Huggins. I bought into the hype about him after his productive preseason. The guy is lightning fast, ran very well in the preseason and at the time had (and still has) only Carnell Williams standing in the way of a starting gig, so I decided this was the time to take the plunge on a player. Not wanting to risk that I would lose him to another bidder, I spent $780 out of my $1000 to grab him (next bid was less than half of that amount - ouch). Worst case, I just blew a ton of bidding dollars on this player instead of some other bust (although it did work out great at least in one league last year where I blew all of my dollars on Jermichael Finley). This move certainly is not looking like a good one now after his groin issues, but he should be back soon so I am hopeful he will take over at RB some time this year (by injury or otherwise, but most likely by injury). Turns out, had I not spent the dollars on Huggins, I would have blown even more (maybe $990+) on Brandon Jackson, which could turn out much worse in the end. Anyway, I’m not worrying about it since I still have enough dollars to land that one player that will make a difference for next year (if its not Huggins).

The Big Trade:

The only player on my team worth trading at this point would be Rashard Mendenhall, so it was nice to see him producing Week 1. I put him on the block after the game. My goal was to secure a top WR or TE, since I already have Stewart and Spiller as my RBs of 2011. Those two, plus one or two more top rookie RBs in next year’s draft (probably one or both of Mark Ingram and Ryan Williams), would make a fine backfield going into next year. The next step would be to shore up the WRs or acquire an elite TE.

Got a few decent offers for Mendenhall, but nothing that really peaked my interest...until Vernon Davis was dangled. I went into this league thinking that I could acquire an elite TE in Year 2 at approximately third round startup prices (despite the 1.5 PPR), so just after the startup draft, I would have rejected this trade for sure. But, after experiencing the startup draft and thinking it through all summer, I began having doubts. Third round value may be able to land a Jason Witten, Dallas Clark or Antonio Gates type next year (and thats a maybe) due to age concerns, but I certainly would not be able to grab Jermichael Finley (already a first round value this year) or Vernon Davis (a second round value this year) assuming both have good years and its looking like thats going to happen. I’d rather have Finley right now, but besides him, I wouldn’t rank any other TE in this dynasty format ahead of Davis. I also wouldn’t be all that surprised if he became the consensus TE1 by next year. The guy is a physical freak, has a great attitude and work ethic and at 1.5 PPR, this guy could be a monster (not that he wasn’t already one in 2009).

Still, giving up Mendenhall would not be easy. While I basically concluded that the two players were dead even in this format, I just couldn’t get myself to hit the accept button. I did, however, make it known that an extra 2011 3rd rounder would likely seal the deal. When the new offer came in adding the 2011 3rd rounder, I was compelled to accept.

Anyone have any thoughts on this trade?

By the way, I went 0-2 with a whopping 0 VPs. This is going to be a long year from that perspective, but I am having a blast thus far with the luxury of focusing entirely on building my 2011 lineup. After week 2, here’s what I have:

QB: None
RB: Stewart, Spiller (with hopefuls Huggins and Rashad Jennings)
WR: Vincent Jackson, Dwayne Bowe, Demaryius Thomas (!!!), Kenny Britt, Braylon Edwards (ouch), Lee Evans
TE: Vernon Davis, Jared Cook, Rob Gronkowski

I still have all 6 1st rounders for next year but I have nothing much to report on that front at this point in the season, but a combined value of the 6 equivalent to 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.12 is still a decent possibility. Not that it means much right now, but if the season ended after week 2, I would have the 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.7, 1.9.

Next up, the FFPC $750 Dynasty League.