Any advice on my rebuild??

[Gazzerk]

I am in the second season of my dynasty league. My first season was not successful at all and I finished last. My team was definitely better than it performed but it was not even close to being a well round team. I was in the mindset of having a few studs and filling gaps with average players. Injuries also hurt quite a bit.

Fast forward to this season and I used my firs overall pick to take CEH. I actually started with roughly the third highest points for in the league and was still 0-5 through 5 weeks. Every team I faced was having a record week for their team. I still had drastically underperforming players though and just got sick of it all. I started to take it much more seriously and began grinding and pushing trades left and right. A lot of the pieces I acquired are not even on my team at this stage and were used to slowly build to bigger and better pieces. Age wasn’t even really a problem as my oldest starter was probably Melvin Gordon at 27. I had zero depth at any position. I had Mahomes, Conner, Gordon and Marquise Brown and that was about it. Most of my other picks were flops.

One major difficulty with trying to rebuild is that we can’t trade draft picks yet (voting for it this offseason). Any rebuild attempt would have to be for real players and would require recognizing talent and trying to snag that player before the owner knew what they had. I knew something didn’t feel quite right after even week 1 so I started making little moves here and there right away. I lucked into a few frustrated owners and got lucky a bit.

My first move was exchanging James Conner for AJ Brown and Zack Moss. I had to wait out AJ Brown’s injury for a few weeks but it is now paying off big time and Moss could turn into something. My biggest upgrade was likely somehow turning Brees and Watkins (in a 1 QB league) into Junior Jones. He was still injured at the time and laid an egg and the owner lost it. He was likely going to accept the first offer he got and that’s what he did. I sat on Julio for 2 weeks and he rewarded me with a 30 point domination and real contending owners were now salivating over him. I then caught news of Melvin Gordon’s DUI first thing in the morning. I had been going back and forth with an owner for a deal including Gordon. Ironically enough, he finally countered with something solid as soon as I found out. I wanted out from under Gordon either way and I had Lindsay on my bench who has a shot to win the backfield anyways. I traded Gordon and Marquise Brown for David Montgomery and Tee Higgins (who I am very high on). I traded Myles Gaskin after snagging him on the waiver wire for Jamison Crowder as I really needed some WR depth. I’m still not positive how I feel about that but Crowder has been good for me so far. Shortly after that, I pulled off what I think has been my best trade for my future so far. I have been working to get Golladay all season and have watched him get traded to others. I sent Julio Jones, Montgomery and Tre’Quan Smith in exchange for Golladay and JK Dobbins. Each trade has gotten me significantly younger and deeper. My team finally feels like it has a future. However, I feel like I am now trigger happy. I’m religiously browsing for potential trades to make and new ways to upgrade and build. I think I may be at the point where it may be best to let some of these players develop and turn into something.

One problem is that I have started to win since making these moves. I’ve actually been winning pretty handedly and out scoring most teams in the league the past 2 weeks. I don’t want to finish in the middle and end up with a weak draft pick but I also really don’t want to finish last as the last place team has to eat 24 pancakes in 24 hours at an iHop and you can’t leave until it’s done. I am strongly considering making a real push toward trying to make the playoffs. I feel like I have completed the majority of my rebuild so if the players I’ve gotten are going to win then why not let them? The majority of my league is in the middle sitting at 3-3 with only 3 teams at 4-2 and 5-1. I will be 2-5 after this week.

I will put before and after teams for comparison. Am I doing the right thing by trying to make a push here? Should I make more moves and continue to rebuild? Does my current team have a real shot? Has my team actually gotten much better or am I just delusional?

1 QB League 1/2 PPR QB 2WR 2 RB 1 Flex Def K

Start of the season team:
QB-Mahomes, Brees
WR- Marquise Brown, Watkins, A. Miller, John Ross, Mike Williams.
RB- CEH, Conner, Melvin Gordon, Tarik Cohen,
TE-Hurst, OJ Howard
K-Butker
Def-Detroit, Chicago

Current team:
QB-Mahomes, Minshew
WR- AJ Brown, Golladay, Tee Higgins, J Crowder, Tim Patrick, John Brown, Sterling Shepard,
RB- CEH, Dobbins, Z. Moss, P. Lindsay, T. Cohen, D. Johnson.
TE- Hurst
K- Butker
Def- Chiefs

[jordanzs]

Sorry I just scrolled to the bottom of the post.

Now > Then

[dark_knite03]

Should go in the assistant coach forum but sell Lindsay and Cohen if you can. John brown would be another sell. You have a solid group of wrs to build around keep going on it. Golladay could/should be moved at the right price. Look for something better at te also

[Sriracha]

The urge to constantly rebuild is strong... but at some point you have to play the game.

If you're scoring points, and winning... then why do you think your team can't win it all? It's all highly variable. Any of your starters could catch fire during the playoffs (or a hot waiver add) and propel you to a ship. The most stacked team doesn't always win the ship... a lot of luck involved in this.

It's definitely better to have earlier draft picks.. but they don't assure you a better player. Plenty of early round busts, and plenty of gems to be found at the 10 spot.

[Gazzerk]

Thanks for the responses. My bigger concern was whether I have a real shot to actually make the playoffs given that I’m 2-5. My team is flying high right now though so maybe I can string together some wins and make a real run.

[PTW32]

I really like that team but i dont think you are a contender this year. Too much ground to make up really RB2.

I get the vibe that this league may have more of a redraft mindset than dynasty (no draft pick trading, guys getting frustrated with injuries and moving guys for shitty value). Id try to take advantage of that. Look you trade crowder, patrick, john brown and even shepard. Id target injured guys and under performing rookies like cortland sutton, reagor, pittman, edwards, juedy

[gpaok]

I think you are still weak at RB but I have to admit your WR core is crazy good vs what you found at start. Great job there!!!
Dobbins is a good guy for next year. If are targeting RBs maybe you can try to trade for Carson who tends to have a lower value vs production. Mack is another injured RB which will be at a new team next year most likely so maybe there is something there.

Either way great job on the WR core you have!!!

[dark_knite03]

I think you are still weak at RB but I have to admit your WR core is crazy good vs what you found at start. Great job there!!!
Dobbins is a good guy for next year. If are targeting RBs maybe you can try to trade for Carson who tends to have a lower value vs production. Mack is another injured RB which will be at a new team next year most likely so maybe there is something there.

Either way great job on the WR core you have!!!

I don't think I'd try to buy Mack for anything more than a 3rd. No rb has returned and been effective from an Achilles year.