Trade vs. No Trade Leagues

I am currently running a fantasy football league. It's our third year, many of the same cast of characters, some new folks. It's a mixture of new players and grizzly veterans, friends, family, and girlfriends, the potential for nepotism is there. Anyway, I been in several fantasy football leagues over the years, where people are constantly complaining about the fairness of trades.

"This guy can't trade with his son!"
"That guy can't trade with his girlfriend!"
"That's completely unfair!"

The thing I can't understand in leagues that allow trades is that people are so afraid of getting the short end of the stick in a trade that they refuse to trade their players anyway. Especially in a league of newbies, new players are very guarded about being taken advantage of by veteran shysters. So to avoid arguments, accusations, and complaints, my league is traditionally a "No Trade" fantasy football league. If you are coming to my draft come prepared, because the waiver wire is the only way you have to improve your team. The nice thing about a no trade fantasy football league, is that everyone is on equal footing, there are no back door deals, there are no Peyton Manning for JP Losman trades, there are no fire sale playoffs pushes where collusion ensues to screw the entire league as a player with no hope of making the playoffs, unloads his best players for Mewelde Moore, Doug Gabriel, and Travis Wilson. That's not pure ... that's not fantasy football.

Wide Receivers and Kickers get points too

ESPN has some interesting analysts, and for the most part I agree with a lot of what they say in regards to fantasy football, but in their fantasy football draft strategy analysis, when they talk about how the difference between the top wide receiver and the number 25 wide receiver is roughly only four points per game or the difference between the top kicker and the 15th ranked kicker s roughly three points per game, I have to take issue. Now I’m not advocating that during the draft your go out and grab a kicker in the third round or take an early flyer on a top tier wide receiver when Shaun Alexander is staring you in the face, but how many times have you lost a fantasy football game by a slim margin? It happens to me all the time. The extra three points a week I could have gotten from a better kicker, defense or WR could have really helped. As you snake through your rounds on draft day, don’t neglect your backfield, but certainly understand the importance of solid players at these key positions. It’s all about tradeoffs, As you look at your board, if you’re looking at middle of the road running backs on the board versus the possibility of grabbing back to back studs at wideout or quarterback to pair with an average back, don’t be afraid to pull the trigger. I usually take a kicker in one of the last three rounds, but I’m always looking for that one kicker that emerges during the season to give my team the extra three points I’ll need to pull off a close win.