Friday, Sept. 7, 2001

The art of the deal

Wheeling and dealing is half the fun of fantasy football

By Ken Bikoff, Associate editor

In the end I settled with Faulk, although the lure of Culpepper was interesting. The draft went down, I put together what I believed was a solid team with Donovan McNabb at quarterback, Faulk at running back and Rams wideout Torry Holt (what can I say, I have a thing for skill players in St. Louis) as my lead receiver. I took the time to gloat over my soon-to-be fallen opponents, already taking the trash talking up a notch.

There’s one thing you can count on immediately following every fantasy football draft. No matter who you are playing with, you can bet there will be one guy who will walk out of the draft room staring at his roster wondering — sometimes out loud — just what he was thinking when he made his selections. He doesn’t have a solid running back or wide receiver, and he’s left with team that wouldn’t be able to put up big fantasy points if defense took Sunday off.

Sure enough, one of the guys in my league was pounding the panic button less than 24 hours after the draft. After loudly saying that he didn’t believe his team would fare very well — I believe the words he used were "we suck" — he came to me with a trade offer. His receiving corps were in sorry shape behind lead wideout Isaac Bruce, and he wanted to improve a little bit. He offered me the coveted Culpepper and receiver Qadry Ismail in exchange for McNabb and Holt, and I was intrigued.

Adding Culpepper would give me two of the three players who I wrestled with prior to the draft, but my wide receivers would be lacking without Holt. I drafted the Jets’ Wayne Chrebet, Oakland’s Jerry Rice (now, THAT sounds weird), St. Louis’ Az-Zahir Hakim and Chicago’s David Terrell, and I wasn’t too keen on giving up my top receiver. I counted by asking for Bruce in exchange for Holt, but he wasn’t falling for it.

Here was my dilemma. I wanted Culpepper, but I still would be solid with McNabb and I was happy with my selection of Holt. Ismail wasn’t a huge consideration for me — I could have been offered a free oil change or a case of beer along with Culpepper, and the focus would still be on Culpepper — and the decision came down to whether or not I was willing to give up two solid players for one great fantasy player.

Faulk’s knee scares me to death, and I was worried that the turf at Veteran’s Stadium would attack my starting quarterback and leave me with little Doug Flutie — doesn’t he remind you of a Muppet? — as my starter. By moving McNabb and bringing in Culpepper, I would kill two birds with one stone. I would have a safety net for Faulk while eliminating the Philly turf monster. With that in mind, I pulled the trigger on the deal. I’m now the proud fantasy owner of Culpepper and Ismail, and although their contributions to the ballclub during their 18-hour stay with the team were many, I wish them the best.

As for my opponent, well, adding McNabb and Holt still doesn’t make up for the miles-wide hole at running back, and he’s scheduled to be my victim in Week 4.

Bring it on.

"In Our Opinion" fantasy columns have now resumed for the 2001 season. Columns will appear daily, Tuesday through Friday, throughout the regular season. The Fantasy Doctor has returned with your pigskin prescriptions, so send your fantasy questions to the Doc's attention at fantasydoctor@pfwa.com

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2001 - 2002 Season