Trade Grade 14

 And here...we...go!

Trade 14
Esco receives Trevor Lawrence, Gus Edwards, and Calvin Ridley
Marco receives Tua Tagovailoa, Antonio Gibson, and Brandin Cooks

My initial reaction when I saw this trade go through: Our first ever Real Mock Trade! I'm a genius!

My immediate follow-up reaction: Those fuckers! Now I have to give good grades or risk being a hypocrite. It's not lost on me that this exchange may have taken place:

Marco: It's about time Kumpf made a blog post. He's unemployed, what else could he be doing? 

Esco: Yeah, Kumpf is a weird guy. Always thinks he knows how to run everyone's team better than they do, he's not a genius. He has one Chef Coat in 13 years!

Marco: Yeah....Anyway, what do you think about the mock trade Kumpf gave us?

Esco: Ehhh...It doesn't move the needle for me a ton, but it's not bad.

Marco: Yeah but if we go through with it, Kumpf will have no choice but to give us both good grades.

Esco: Good point, that's worth it on its own. Kumpf loves giving unnecessarily bad trade grades. Except to Barnard, those are deserved.

Marco: Yeah fuck Barnard.

For the trade itself, Marco's team is officially complete, and bordering on juggernaut status. Which means he will barely miss a bye, and lose in the first round to the NiJo team, which will very likely be Esco. Tua does have a rough stretch coming up, but Marco is thinking about Weeks 15-17, not Weeks 11-14.

Fake Esco was correct above, this doesn't move the needle a ton for him. It makes him less Dolphin-dependent, something I've been aiming for since 2000, and gives him some improved flex options. He also has a crazy Jaguars stack that could be big in juicy matchups against Cincy, Houston, and Tennessee.

All in all, this is obviously a win-win and more teams would be better off blindly listening to me. 

Esco Grade: A
Marco Grade: A