How do you go about turning around a team with no assets?
Total brag here. I took over a last place team pretty devoid of any assets besides Patrick Mahomes about three years ago and won a championship last year. I took the 1.01 that I inherited my first year and traded down for three picks in the first two rounds. I traded any aging running backs that could have been of use to somebody for picks and players. For example, I traded Kenyan Drake (remember him?) for Terry McLaurin, who eventually became Miles Sanders for me (I dealt McLaurin and Khalil Herbert for Sanders and Allen Lazard last year when I needed a running back to win). I traded Corey Davis and Bryan Edwards for a second and future second back when Edwards was still coveted after a poor rookie season and Davis had had his good year with the Titans. I traded Melvin Gordon for an actual, honest-to-goodness first when he still had legs (before Javonte came along I found a willing partner to do that deal). I scoured the wire for any longshot possibilities (I claimed James Robinson on waivers before Leonard Fournette was cut because I was up on the college game), and when time came, I flipped Robinson for a first and Dallas Goedert. I dealt Julio Jones for what I thought was a boon, but turned out to be a Chark. But Julio totally fell off the cliff. I also received Mostert in that deal. Used him a year, then pulled a second-round pick with him.
There's more than that. But really, I won't bore you with the details. I traded down in the draft when it benefitted me to do so, and I traded up when it did (I sent the 1.4 and 2.4 that I had acquired for the right to draft Ja'Marr Chase, which seems crazy in retrospect, but wasn't at the time). I traded away aging quasi-assets that I thought would bust for seconds and used them to either pick players or swap them for bona fides like in the Chase deal.
That said, I won but am probably going to go through some growing/rebuilding pains of my own as i mortgaged a bit to win this year. So maybe we can regale each other with rebuild stories soon.
But the key thing is you have to be proactive and take your lumps for two years. So draft accordingly and with attention to consensus and slotting, something I still need to work on. Scour the wire and hope to hit on guys so you can send them to contenders for seconds. What's your roster look like? What are your picks? You might have to just take lumps for a year or two if you're barren of both.
And Happy Fourth, wgoldsph. I hope this finds you well.