both
of us.1) T-Bone is not an idiot. He can analyze this trade himself. If he didn't think it improved his chances of avoiding relegation (which is his stated goal in our conversations, and which I think is fair given his position), he wouldn't have agreed to it.
2) I've written out my rationale for why I think the trade improves T-Bone's chances of avoiding relegation. You may not agree with it; fantasy is a game of making predictions, so that's expected. I think Stevie Johnson is likely to see his targets remain roughly the same. Targets he loses to Gates will be made up for my targets he gains from Rivers passing more, since the Chargers have not had an effective running game with Gordon losing two fumbles in five games and Danny Woodhead being Danny Woodhead. I also see him as a far more consistent player than other options on T-Bone's team. Torrey Smith has always been boom-or-bust, and he lost me plenty of games while on my team in past seasons as a result. Ginn Jr is fortunate he's on a team where he's the least shitty receiver, but when he doesn't find the end zone, he's not going to score well. In his last game he had three targets and only two catches. He has caught less than half of his targets on the year. Johnson, for comparison's sake, has caught over 70%. Ted Ginn is not a viable NFL wide receiver, and he would not be starting on most other teams. He's a good return specialist, but not a WR. He's not going to continue his pace to catch 9 more touchdowns this season. Never going to happen.
Sankey is easily the most likely on that committee to gain a more clear starting role, in my opinion. Time will tell on that, but I think he'll return RB2 value over time.
And I think you over-estimate the gap between Gore and Peterson. Gore has looked very good in his past three games and he's been trending upward. Peterson is another level, definitely, but Gore is an RB1.
To be very clear, as I said earlier,
I do believe I'm getting the better end of this trade
, but I also believe T-Bone's team is made better by it. Mine is just made "more" better, mostly due to my stupidly large depth at WR. What is a viable WR2/3 on most teams is a WR5 for me.Trading an elite RB1 and two throw-aways for an RB1, a WR2/3, and a RB2/3 is not a fundamentally unbalanced trade. That's what I see as happening here. I'd be very disappointed if others decided to join you in voting to supplant the opinion of both team owners on this trade, but I'll step away from this discussion now. I did feel the need to defend my integrity on this trade, but I'll let whatever will happen happen.
