Skip to content

“Trade Your Bench” Strategy and Dallas Cowboy Contract Breakdowns

This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant

By Matt Morrison (@dynastyjerk)

Hello everyone and thank you for tuning in.  As you read this, the NFL prepares to start their first week of the preseason.  I’ve personally never gotten that excited about preseason NFL games in the past, but as the saying goes, “you don’t know what you got til it’s gone.”  The lack of preseason games (and overall preseason hype) last year left a void.  People wanted more buildup.  Hard Knocks was good last season, but it just wasn’t the same without competition.  Well, at the time of this article release, the first preseason game is only three days away.  That game will feature the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers.  This is fitting because today I will be talking about the Dallas Cowboys.  Before I get into the bulk of the article, let me talk about the ultimate Dynasty Owner prize…Chase for the Ring.

There are many unique aspects of Dynasty Owner, but one of my favorites is the Chase for the Ring competition.  If you are new to Dynasty Owner, let me explain what it is…

The Chase for the Ring is a season-long contest where the league champion with the most season-long points wins.  The sole winner takes home a “Super Bowl style custom ring encrusted with real diamonds and rubies.”  The approximate value of each ring is $10,000.  What a grand prize, huh?  While the odds of winning it are low, someone has to be the champion.  Here are some tips for you if you plan on joining Eddie and Viktor as the next Chase for the Ring Champion.

***Full disclosure:  The advice I’m about to give is not the way I would run my team.  You will most likely have to make monetary and draft pick sacrifices if you want to win the Ring.  There is not much value built into these types of teams.  It is quite literally, “I’m going to load up on all the top tier players that I can until I run out of cap room.”  This is a very low-value way to play, but it can be handsomely rewarding in the short term.***

The main goal is going to be to pack your team with the most points possible.  That seems like a no-brainer, but there are a few ways you can go about it.  You may try to play a little more conservative by holding a solid and deep roster.  This is an advised strategy as injuries will most certainly happen every year, and they will likely affect your team.  Having a deep roster construction is the smart way to assemble a dynasty.  However, the Dynasty Owner that takes the grand prize will probably not employ that strategy.  He or she will most likely punt the majority of their bench in order to acquire/trade up for better players.  An example would be this…

Say this is your starting roster in Dynasty Owner:

QBRussell Wilson
RBChristian McCaffrey
RBDalvin Cook
WRDK Metcalf
WRCeeDee Lamb
TEDarren Waller
FLEXMike Davis
KYounghoe Koo

I hope you would agree that this is a very healthy starting lineup.  Well, it just so happens that this team’s bench is equally as impressive.  It’s so impressive that you would be able to trade away Mike Davis and CeeDee Lamb for a top-six wide receiver and then be able to slide James Robinson into your flex spot.  Would you make that deal?  Sure, it depends on the player’s salary and how much cap space you have to work with, but if you are looking to win now, the upgrade from Lamb to a player like Calvin Ridley or Terry McLaurin makes sense.  You would also be losing running back depth, but there are scenarios where this is worth it especially for those Owners that are in the “win now” mentality.  Let me give you an example of a team that has “sold its soul away.”  This team has been gutted of all nonessential players.  This team has had the fat trimmed off of it.  This team has 77 percent of its salary cap tied up in their starting lineup!  Here is the full team…

Starting LineupBenchPractice Squad
QBPatrick MahomesQBJosh AllenQBDrew Lock
RBChristian McCaffreyRBLatavius. MurrayQBSteven Montez
RBAustin EkelerRBBenny SnellRBRoyce Freeman
WRTyreek HillWRAntonio BrownRBJerick McKinnon
WRDK MetcalfWRMichael PittmanWRMarquez Vales-Scantling
TEDarren WallerTEBlake JarwinWRJames Washington
FLEXJames RobinsonKOPENWRKeke Coutee
KSam Ficken  WRJakobi Meyers
    WRGreg Ward
    TEAdam Trautman
    TEWill Dissly
    TEDalton Schultz

There are issues with this team, no doubt.

  • It is so thin at running back that Benny Snell is in a point scoring position
  • There is probably not a starting quarterback behind the top two QBs
  • This Owner only has a single kicker
  • They are pressed up against the salary cap  ($126.8 million)

As you can see, there is a lot of good on this team though.  The fact that it has two Top 3 quarterbacks is a major plus.  There aren’t many teams that can compete for the Ring, but this is one of them.  Additionally, any team that is built in the same way has a chance at the Ring.  If you put two top three quarterbacks, two top ten running backs, two top-five wide receivers, and a top-three tight end on the same team, they will have a shot at the ring.  There will be a lot of risk, but a lot of chance for reward as well.  I will digress as we get into our single contract breakdown of the article.  The player is Michael Gallup.

Contract Breakdown

Michael Gallup has turned into a forgotten player.  He’s one of the least talked about players who ended as a Top 40 wide receiver.  Let’s break it down…

Michael Gallup was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft.  He was the 81st overall pick and the ninth wide receiver taken that year.  At that draft position, he earned a contract worth 4 years – $880,995 per year.  Gallup is in the final year of that contract, and he has been replaced (fantasy-wise) with more talented and more productive players.  Those receivers are Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb.  Cooper and Lamb have taken a lot of the luster that Gallup once had.  I’m not here to tell you that Gallup will ever be viewed with the same potential that he had in the 2019 season, but he will still return value for Dynasty Owners (at least for the 2021 season).  Here is how Gallup compared to his peers last year…

 Salary2020 DD/FP2021 DD/FP
Terry McLaurin$961,918$4,317$3,154
Diontae Johnson$1,070,241$4,823$4,080
Michael Gallup$880,995$5,084$4,092
Hunter Renfrow$708,987$5,205$4,334
A.J. Brown$1,413,092$5,666$4,633

We can see that Gallup ranked near the top in DD/FP.  This is to be expected when we talk about a player who has a dirt-cheap salary and middle-of-the-road production.  Gallup fits that description.  The other players in this comparison also fit that description (at the very least).  McLaurin, Johnson, and Brown have all “broken out” or are poised to break out in the 2021 season.  Gallup will most likely not finish the 2021 season as a WR1.  He may not even finish as a WR2.  But he will be productive enough to be relied on as a Bench wide receiver.  This, combined with the fact that his salary is one of the most affordable in Dynasty Owner, makes him a considerable value.  The value is even more apparent when you find out his current ADP is 107.1.  The end of the 8th/start of the 9th round is a fair place for Gallup to fall to, but I would be happy to take him there.

I want to thank everyone for reading and for watching my video breakdowns on YouTube.  Message me on Twitter (@dynastyjerk) and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  I would appreciate it if you followed @Dynasty_Owner on Twitter as well as subscribed to Dynasty Owner on YouTube.  Next week I’m going to break down the NFC East a little closer.  Thank you all.  Take care and be safe.

TheJerk

Facebook Comments: Please enter a valid URL