I see this topic has been long forgotten, but in my main league, there is no trade deadline (I have no idea why). Luckily the other owners aren't cheesy and don't trade with teams eliminated from the playoffs.
The league is 12 teams with this roster requirement: 2 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 2 TE, 1 Flex, 2 PK, 2 TD, 1 IDP, 5 Bench.
I'm #1 in points and #1 seed. Playoffs are Weeks 14-16.
I had:
QB: Alex Smith, Philip Rivers, Marcus Mariota
RB: Ezekiel Elliott, Carlos Hyde, Dion Lewis, Mike Davis, Orleans Darkwa
WR: Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuester, Deee Westbrook, Dontrelle Inman
TE: Rob Gronkowski, Austin Seferian-Jenkins, Greg Olsen
PK: Jake Elliott, Stephen Hauschka
DEF: Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans Saints
IDP: Zach Brown
The #8 seed (yes, 8 of 12 make the playoffs to keep them interested throughout the season) was desperate to make a trade due to being on the bubble. He's facing me this week and his roster has been devastated by injuries (David Johnson, Deshaun Watson are his 2 biggest losses). If he loses, he's surely out of the playoffs.
Today I offered him Marcus Mariota, Orleans Darkwa and Austin Seferian-Jenkins for Travis Kelce. I make a ton of offers each year hoping that someone pulls the trigger on one and totally expected him to reject this. But, he didn't, and I'm the proud owner of Kelce and 2 bench spots.
I now have the #1 and #2 scoring TEs in a 2 TE league where most teams don't have 1 good TE, so that is a huge advantage. I was willing to trade him Mariota as I haven't been comfortable with starting him unless absolutely necessarily. The only times I did were during bye weeks for Alex and Rivers and when Mariota played TNF while Rivers played on Sunday and was dealing with a concussion (ended up being the smart play anyhow).
But this was the thought process. It's a short bench league, so we can't really roster injured guys for long. I picked up Greg Olsen a couple of weeks ago as he was floating out there in FA for a long time. That's also how I ended up getting Jax and NO defenses, as teams can't afford to carry 3 TD normally. I used 1 roster spot on Trent Taylor (SF), as I expect Jimmy G to rely on him steadily and feel that he's not getting the love he desires (if you've read this far, that's the only thing you may take away from any of this). The other? Aaron Rodgers in hopes that he returns Week 15. If they can beat the Bucs this week, they then travel to Cleveland in Week 14. That's 2 winnable games for Hundley, and would leave the team in the hunt for a WC spot in time for Rodgers to return Week 15 IF healthy. I think the chances are pretty good and so it was worth snagging him for a possible Round 2 playoff start, with Zeke coming back for the Super Bowl that I fully intend on being in.
This is more of a gloating post, and since nobody in my office gives a damn, I felt like I needed to share it with a bunch of people I don't know who also don't give a damn.