With a quarter of the football season already spent, many fantasy owners will get the itch to make a trade in hopes of improving their teams. There are a lot of times where both offensive and defensive players will be involved in a trade, which can be difficult to evaluate.

A general rule to think about before making a trade would be to look at the value of each player in terms of points per game based on the league’s scoring settings. Rankings may be off after bye weeks start (they started Week 4). Owners will also want to keep in mind a player who may be more valuable because he plays a position that has a smaller talent pool, like running back and defensive line. Trades including defensive players only are usually easier to analyze because you can compare ‘apples to apples’ for the most part.

Trades come in all different shapes and sizes, ranging from player-for-player exchanges to blockbuster deals where more than five players change hands. Try to fulfill your team’s needs while keeping the bye weeks in mind and if possible, buy low and sell high.

IDP Week 5 – Buy Low

Luke Kuechly, LB, CAR – Many people, including myself, had high hopes for Kuechly before the season started and that faith hasn’t diminished. The 21-year-old racked up 12 total tackles in Week 3 but hasn’t recorded more than five in any other game this season. This makes him a very good buy low candidate because Kuechly will be a very productive IDP player by the end of the season.

London Fletcher, LB, WAS – The veteran and All-Pro linebacker hasn’t gotten off to a great start this season but remains the best IDP option on the Redskins’ defense. Fletcher will pick it up in the coming weeks and some owners may be willing to part ways at this point.

Chris Long, DE, STL – Here is another player off to a decent start to the season who will eventually be very good to fantasy owners in the coming weeks. He has two sacks in 2012 (both in Week 3) after putting up a career-high 13 last year. At age 27, Long is a ‘high-motor’ guy who can get to the quarterback fairly often when he’s on his game.

IDP Week 5 - Buy Low Sell - Eric BerryEric Berry, S, KC – After four games with only 20 total tackles (14 solo) and no sacks or picks, it’s possible that Berry could be sold off by an owner that doesn’t know what they are doing. He’s coming off a torn ACL that kept him sidelined last season so don’t be worried about his pedestrian numbers. The former Tennessee Volunteer is slowly getting back into the swing of things so watch out when he’s fully acclimated.

IDP Week 5 – Sell High

Charles Godfrey, S, CAR – The five-year man out of Iowa is atop most IDP rankings through four games with 21 solo tackles, 10 assists and an interception for a touchdown. Godfrey has never topped 85 total tackles in a season and won’t likely be an elite player down the stretch. Get what you can while he’s got pretty value to the right person.

David Harris, LB, NYJ – It’s not a great example of a player to sell high, but Harris is playing well right now and may have reached his peak in production. His career started out great with exactly 127 total tackles in two out of his first three seasons in the NFL, but production has been down the past couple years. Tackle opportunities are likely to get spread pretty widely amongst Jets’ defenders so trading Harris now isn’t a bad idea.

William Moore, S, ATL – If you are paying attention at home you know that Moore was highlighted as a good waiver wire pickup a couple weeks ago because of his play so far. He is still a good player to own, a potential top-15 talent depending on scoring, but could be potentially used to land a guy like the aforementioned Berry, or another player. Moore’s production will be great, but not elite, so finding a better replacement via trade may be doable.

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