Pimp Your Franchise - Skattebroken

(Nothing in this post was created using any sort of generative AI)

The climax of the season peaked with The Pollard Express winning the championship over Tony Dorset in another very exciting playoffs that I wish to be a part of at some point. With the crowning of a champion comes the next offseason, one of the most important times of year for rebuilding teams. No team is looking for a good offseason more than the Skattebroken franchise after a historically bad season. 0-14 regular season after dealing with numerous injuries and under performances from key players. For a special post, I will be pimping (shoutout pimp my ride), or fixing this franchise in hopes of giving them a blueprint of how their offseason should go to set them up for success. I will give a history of how this team ended up here, some trade targets, along with some players they should look at drafting. This will be a long one so let's jump right into it...

How Did We Get Here?

Prior to getting this team out of the ginormous hole they are currently in, it is important to reflect on how they got to this point in just the third year of this dynasty league. During the start up draft, this team drafted fairly well creating a solid foundation.

1. Breece Hall

2. Jaylen Waddle

3. Kenneth Walker

4. Trevor Lawrence

5. DJ Moore

6. Terry Mclaurin

7. Alexander Mattison (yikes)

8. Kadarius Toney (yikes)

9. Mike Evans

10. DeAndre Hopkins

11. Trey Mcbride

This was a solid foundation for a dynasty with a mix of young and old players. It is important to note that this draft was prior to the 2023 season. So players like Hopkins might seem like a poor draft pick but he was WR22 that season being quite productive for this team. This team made a few major trades prior to the season including sending DJ Moore away for Dameon Pierce and Quinten Johnston, and then trading QJ away for Irv Smith + a 2nd + a 3rd. In hindsight these trades look... less than ideal. But at the time of the trades, DJ was coming off a sub 200 fantasy point season, and Pierce was an up and coming RB while QJ was an exciting rookie for some. Trading QJ away for Irv was not great but getting a 2nd and a 3rd was solid. The only other pre-season move this team made was adding Kyren Williams off waivers. This was an absolute A+ pickup, can't really get better than that. Kyren has since put up two straight top 10 seasons for his position quickly, becoming a key piece to this team.

During the season Skattebroken made 2 key trades and 1 major free agent move. In the first month they traded Breece Hall + a 2nd away and got AJ Brown. Today this might be looked upon as a bad trade but AJ Brown was coming off a 300 fantasy point season, and proceeded to have a top 5 season at his position in 2023, and while his next two seasons have not been as productive he was top 5 in PPG in 2024, making him an elite producer while on this team. Just before week 5 started this team was 3-1, a good start to the year, but they decided to trade Mike Evans + a 2nd for Deebo Samuel. Up to this point in the season Deebo had boasted a pretty good 17.25 points per game, but giving up Mr. 1000 and an additional 2nd rounder is not a great trade, but Dynasty Deal Maker called it a small loss at the time of the trade. Evans finished as the WR7 in 2023 while Deebo finished as the WR15. Essentially giving up a 2nd to drop from WR7 to 15 is not great value in my opinion. The last major transaction for this team was the unfortunate dropping of Trey McBride. At this point he was still behind Zack Ertz on the Cardinals, but man in hindsight, this drop is brutal. Trey McBride is currently the TE1 in points and probably value among all tight ends. This drop didn't immediately hurt this team as they finished 7-7 and made the playoffs. In the playoffs this team came to play winning their first round matchup against Tony Dorset. They cruised past, putting up a whopping 198 points in this matchup going into round two facing PooShiesty9. Unfortunately they had a pretty down week only scoring 83 fantasy points and getting eliminated in the 2nd round in disappointing fashion.

The first offseason in this league's history was a significant one for this franchise. They didn't make many trades but their draft is what made it impactful. With the 8th pick in the first round, they drafted Jayden Daniels, who would become their franchise QB giving them pace at that position for years to come. They also drafted Trey Benson, Jermaine Burton, and Marshawn Lloyd.

Jayden Daniels carries this draft class

These players haven't been really anything for this team as the only one with playtime was Benson this season when James Conner got hurt, but unfortunately Benson got hurt immediately killing any chances at providing any sort of value. While it was a quiet offseason, locking down one position is always a good thing.

The first major transaction of the 2nd season was acquiring Darnell Mooney who seemed to breakout for the Falcons, for Khalil Herbert + a 2nd round pick. Dynasty Deal Maker says this was a bad trade at the time, but I personally disagree. I think that Mooney had shown he could be productive with Kirk Cousins or Michael Penix at quarterback, and a 2nd + Khalil Herbert is a perfectly acceptable price for a player that put up nearly 1000 yards showing he could start every week. After falling to 3-7 in a week 10 loss the ownership decided it was time to start selling. Deebo Samuel was the first to go, being traded for a 2nd. At the time of the trade, Dynasty Deal Maker graded this as a big loss, but Deebo was only averaging 13.1 points per game for the first 10 weeks, but also missed 2 games during that stretch. 13.1 ppg would put him as the WR39, I think Skattebroken got good value while they still could, good trade in my book. Next was the trade deadline where this team made one significant trade and a couple really small ones. The two small ones were sending Jonnu Smith away for John Metchie and a 3rd (was kind of a whatever trade, I like getting a 3rd for a guy they picked up off waivers), and traded Nick Westbrook-Ikhine away for a 3rd (again another whatever trade. Getting a pick for a waiver guy is always good). The significant trade is where this team ended up falling off in the 2025 season. Skattebroken traded away their star RB in Kyren Williams + Isaiah Likely + Deandre Hopkins + a 3rd for Chuba Hubbard + Kyle Pitts + a 3rd.

This was the significant trade that would end up hurting this team next season. The owners of Skattebroken believed that Kyren was not as good as Hubbard and decided to make the trade. This was a hotly contested trade in the Sleeper chat when it happened with many people around the league disagreeing with their evaluation of Hubbard vs. Williams. They still insisted this was a good trade for them. This unfortunately was only just the beginning of their downfall. They finished an unfortunate 5-9 and missed the playoffs.

The 2nd offseason for this team is where the roster is really shaken up. They attempt to go all in. They move up in the lottery to the 2nd pick, and trade back to 1.03 and pick up a 2nd in the process (2.03). Good process here getting a high pick in addition to only moving back one spot. The first major trade of the offseason was sending away AJ Brown + Jared Goff for Derrick Henry + Khalil Shakir + 2nd round pick.

Derrick Henry was coming off a HUGE season finishing as the RB4 with 1900 yards and 16 touchdowns scoring over 330 fantasy points. The reason to trade AJ Brown away despite being top 12 points per game, was mostly because of the scheme and coaching changes. Saquon dominated the offence, almost breaking the rushing record, and after winning the superbowl, their genius offensive coordinator Kellen Moore left to become a head coach elsewhere. While I personally was high on AJ Brown during the offseason, this was a good trade to make for this team. Derrick Henry would be the star of the team and Shakir would help their (at that moment) thin wide receiver room. The next big trade was giving away another one of their young good running backs. Trading away Kenneth Walker + 2.03 for Jameson Williams + 1.07. Giving away Walker when getting Henry in another trade is fine, and being able to move up into the 1st round again I think is good value. The difference in value between Walker and Williams being about 6 picks I think is fair considering how inconsistent Williams was the previous season. This meant the Skattebroken now had the 1.03, 1.07, 2.08, and 2.09 picks in the draft. They proceeded to crush the 1st round selecting Tetairoa McMillan and Tyler Warren, who both ended up being significant pieces for them this season. In the 2nd round they picked Cam Ward and Jaydon Blue. Ward and Blue did not have good rookie seasons (Ward was bad statistically but will be good in the future, while Blue did not play at all and was not a great prospect). Despite the 2nd rounders not being as impactful, hitting on two first rounders was huge for this team and their future. After the draft, they traded away Darnell Mooney + a future 3rd for rookie Cam Skattebo. Darnell Mooney was coming off a near 1000 yard season building some trust within the Falcons QB room so maybe not the best process here, but it definitely worked out trading for Skattebo. He quickly became a huge piece to this team. Lastly, this team completely secures their running back room by trading away Jaylen Waddle + Jaylen Wright + 27 1st + 27 3rd for David Montgomery + Tyrone Tracy + 26 1st. This trade prior to the season is not bad value only swapping firsts but completely securing your RB group is important. Not necessarily a bad trade in my opinion. And lastly, right as the season began, Skattebroken traded Tracy for Stefon Diggs + a 3rd. RB room still looked really good before the season so Tracy wasn't a crazy loss plus Diggs provided some good WR depth they desperately needed. The starting lineup looked a little like this coming into the 2025 season in hopes of competing

QB: Jayden Daniels

RB: Derrick Henry

RB: Chuba Hubbard

WR: Terry Mclaurin

WR: Tetairoa McMillan

TE: Tyler Warren

Flex: Stefon Diggs

Flex: Jameson Williams

Bench: David Montgomery, Khalil Shakir, Kyle Pitts, Trey Benson, Cam Skattebo

While I was personally low on this roster in my hot takes article and said they would miss the playoffs, this is still a completely respectable lineup compared to what I have sent out a few times. This is by no means a bad team (only thinking prior to the season), but things went horribly wrong for Skattebroken during the 2025 season. Week 1 they lose by 6 points, Derrick Henry fumbles on MNF and Josh Allen scores 39 points for a 1% loss. No big deal. Week 2 was a 20 point loss to Tony Dorset in which Derrick Henry only scored 2.8 points. Again no big deal, the team is averaging 147 points in two games. Week 3 was another 20 points loss this time to Njigbas in Paris, this time the whole team generally under performed. Chuba Hubbard only had 10, TMac only 9, Warren only 7, Jameson only 7, and Henry only 11. Again no big deal these games happen, a bounce back should happen any week now. By week 4 things are completely falling apart. Jayden Daniels got hurt putting Marcus Mariota as the team's starter, Terry Maclaurin also gets hurt, Henry has a 3rd consecutive poor week, and Trey Benson gets hurt immediately after getting the starting job. Team loses by 40 this week and the owner is spiraling, wondering how this could have possibly happened to him. Chuba Hubbard, one of the key RB pieces on this team also gets hurt and will proceed to miss 2 games and lose his starting job to Rico Dowdle. This was one of the significant things that kept this team from winning. Not only did Hubbard get hurt, but losing his starting job KILLED this team's weekly performances. Week 5 is a 30 points loss to PooShiesty9 in which Henry has yet another poor performance averaging a mere 8.3 points per game from weeks 2-5, which has been killing this team (also Jameson has 2.5 points this week). Week 6 finally Derrick Henry bounces back a little with 17.5 points and the team puts up 150 but unfortunately still loses to Mahomies over Mahoes. After week 6 with 0 wins, I put out an article titled "Panic Meter" in which I rate this team as a 10 on that meter. The franchise and owner are completely panicking over a horrendous 0-6 start, trying to figure out any way to get just 1 win, and figure why this is happening to them. Some people in the league think that this is just karma for a tank lineup they sent out in the previous season. In week 6 of the 2024 season this same team benched AJ Brown and Terry Mclaurin for guys like Jonathan Mingo and Trey Benson (as the backup).

This awful tank job is why some people believe that the Skattebroken franchise was cursed into the awful season of being 0-6 so far. But it only gets worse and worse. Shortly after this the team decided to sell. Clearly the team wasn't working and the only way to change things was to sell. Derrick Henry + David Montgomery for a 27 1st and 26 3rd was the first major deal to go down. Henry had been extremely underwhelming this year and was a large part of the winless streak. Two more weeks go bye, and the team is still winless at 0-8, and this is where things took a turn for the worst. The one of the only bright spots for the team, Cam Skattebo, dislocates his ankle in week 8 taking him out for the entire year. This was a heartbreaking loss for a franchise that just wanted one thing to go their way. This was where another player gets sold as they continue to accumulate draft picks. Stefon Diggs gets traded straight up for a 2nd. About a month goes by again before the next trade as the team continues to pile on losses. Creating a historically bad season in terms of 'Worst start to a season' and 'Longest losing streak' as the team is 0-12 at the time of this next trade. Tucker Kraft gets injured meaning they need a Tight End. Skattebroken springs to the phone and gets a deal done. Khalil Shakir + Juwan Johnson for DK Metcalf + 27 2nd + 28 3rd. Personally I thought this was good value despite the general feelings about Metcalf, I thought getting a borderline top 20 WR (in fantasy) PLUS two draft picks was good value for Skattebroken. Just 4 days later it was time to say goodbye to a couple more players. Terry Mclaurin + Chuba Hubbard + 27 2nd for Jaylen Waddle was the last trade of the season. In week 14 after going 0-13 this was the final lineup of the season

QB: Jayden Daniels (got hurt this week)

RB: Devin Neal

RB: Samaje Perine

WR: Jaylen Waddle

WR: Jameson Williams

TE: Tyler Warren

Flex: Kyle Pitts

Flex: DK Metcalf

One note is that Tetairoa McMillan was on a bye week and would normally be slotted in. Unfortunately for Skattebroken, they did complete the historic winless season going 0-14. And that is how we got to the current offseason, and I will try to give this franchise a lift by Pimping the Franchise like its a MTV show from the mid 2000s.

How Do We Fix This?

While the team ultimately lost 14 games in a row, it is important for me to say that this is not a bad team that should have lost 14 games in a row. The circumstances and matchups were truly unfortunate and the combination completely killed this team. There are plenty of things to like about the current roster. Jayden Daniels being the franchise QB is big, having key players like Jaylen Waddle, Tetairoa McMillan, Tyler Warren, and Cam Skattebo is huge. There is a good base structure here. The two glaring weaknesses are RB and depth. Obviously after trading away Henry, Monty, Hubbard, and Tracy the RB room was going to look a little weak but we can band-aid that for now. The main thing working for this team right now is that they actually have a couple good players, and plenty of draft capital to work with, here's how it looks right now

2026

1st (own)

1st (via PooShiesty9)

2nd (via Pollard Express)

2nd (via Tony Dorset)

This is a good stockpile for this season although not having their own 2nd rounder this year hurts a little. The best possible thing for this franchise is having their own 1st rounder. Being in the lottery for the #1 overall pick is MASSIVE. In an ideal world, this team would get the #1 pick and either draft the best prospect (likely to be Jeremiyah Love) or trade back a few spots, and pick up an extra player or couple picks in the meantime. If they are unlucky enough to drop to any of the other picks in the lottery, they should look to draft one of the top three wide receivers (Jordyn Tyson, Carnell Tate, and Makai Lemon). Jordyn Tyson is easily the most talented of the group but comes with major injury concerns (minor and major). Carnell Tate is a classic OSU product that will just be a quarterback's best friend. Good route runner, good hands, and reliable, but below average to average athlete overall. Makai Lemon is slightly worse at the route running and hands compared to Tate, but is a much better athlete and way better after the catch than Tate. Any of these three guys would be a good selection in the lottery if Skattebroken does not end up with the #1 pick. With the other 1st that this team has, it's hard to predict all the players that would be available at the end of the 1st round (1.08) but some of the players this team should look out for would be like KC Concepcion (WR), Jonah Coleman (RB), Denzel Boston (WR), or even Justice Haynes (RB). Based on some broad dynasty mock drafts these are just a few names floating around the 1.08 spot and all of them would be a good addition to this team. Important to note that we shouldn't be drafting for what positions are in need. Skattebroken is quite weak at running back at the moment, but that doesn't mean every pick should be an RB. If the better talent is the WR or TE they should draft the better talent and figure out the position later. It's a little harder to project two late 2nd round picks but just to throw out a few names to look out for late in the 2nd round: Chris Bell (WR), Jadarian Price (RB), Elijah Sarrat (WR), Jakobi Lane (WR), Germie Bernard (WR). We are only really looking for depth pieces at this point in the draft, players in the 2nd and late 2nd in this case, are so rarely going to become a top fantasy talent so the expectation should be depth and flex plays. Best case scenario the Skattebroken leaves the draft with: Jeremiyah Love, KC Concepcion, Chris Bell, and Jadarian Price. This (based on projections in January) would be a really good draft that ownership should love. Getting a stud RB in Love would be a huge boost to the RB room, Concepcion should be a very good 2 for a team providing high upside in the flex spot and Bell/Price should provide good depth for this team.

Ideal starting lineup after the draft

QB: Jayden Daniels

RB: Jeremiyah Love

RB: Cam Skattebo (when healthy)

WR: Tetairoa McMillan

WR: Jaylen Waddle

TE: Tyler Warren

Flex: Jameson Williams

Flex: KC Concepcion

Bench: DK Metcalf, Chris Bell, Jadarian Price, Kyle Pitts, Trey Benson

This lineup looks so much improved from last season and we haven't even gotten to the trade targets yet.

Trade Targets

If this team really wants to get back into relevance instead of historically bad, they will need to trade to upgrade players. To really upgrade the RB room this is where most of the heavy lifting will be, aside from Jeremiyah Love. I think the best way to acquire potential startable running backs will have to be on the cheap end of guys that people don't generally like. Tony Pollard will be a cheap option. Is he gross to think about and didn't have an appealing last season? Yes. Will he be cheap to acquire and have a solid floor which is exactly what this team needs at RB? Yes. I think if you could get The Pollard Express to bite on two 3rds for Pollard or even a 3rd plus some faab I would do those trades immediately. Not because you're getting incredible value Tony Pollard, but because he's cheap and someone you can start on random weeks and know he's got a decent floor. Not a ton of upside, but a good floor is all this team needs.

I feel like another RB piece this team could reasonably grab would be Bill Croskey-Merritt. He had a super up and down season, getting benched in favour of Chris Rodriguez does not help and was confusing for many people. He showed some occasional flashes but also some bad struggles, albeit with a struggling offence in general. Would he cost a 2nd? Maybe, maybe more. But I think JCM at least has the upside to be a solid RB2 in fantasy and I think that's worth paying a 2nd or even a little more than that. If this team wants super cheap players, then on the same team, Brian Robinson. Robinson is coming off a nothing season behind a healthy Christian McCaffrey, but enters free agency looking for a team to take a chance on him. While that might be unlikely since he is not a game changer, he is likely to be a backup for someone. I think it's worth it to try and acquire Robinson if he is cheap enough. Can't ever have too many handcuffs, just ask Walk me Jeanty.

The last disgustingly cheap RB to look into would have to be Isaiah Pacheco. The guy simply was really bad this year. But he was the RB15 with over 200 fantasy points in 2023 and is just super cheap. No real reason to have much hope for Pacheco but the guy's value almost can't get any lower but I just have this weird belief in the guy. Acquiring him for next to nothing couldn't hurt a team that just went 0-14

The next trade target is a little lofty considering he was a 1st round pick in the 2025 rookie draft, and no it's not Kaleb Johnson. RJ Harvey started to breakout towards the end of the season, but was partly because of JK Dobbins getting injured. Clearly Harvey is the best back on the Broncos and that should continue into the next season at the very least. I think if the price was cheap enough I would encourage trading for him. I think paying a 1st would be too much for this team specifically, but if you could get away with only giving up two 2nds and getting a future 3rd in return I would do that in a heartbeat. Harvey would give a big boost to this RB room but only if the price is right. Skattebroken shouldn't be throwing away picks all willy nilly just yet, they simply aren't ready for that. This is just so they can have some competent players on their team and be brought back into relevancy.

The last true trade target is obviously gonna be draft picks. This team does not have the luxury of a million draft picks like Mahomies over Mahoes does, they have to be quite careful. Their stockpile after 2026 does not look good

2027

1st (via PooShiesty9)

3rd

2028

1st

2nd

3rd (via I'm Done my Kraft)

3rd

They are quite low on draft picks, and not having their own in 2027 is gonna be quite hurtful next offseason unless they are able to acquire it for cheap. If any players suddenly gain value that is unsustainable, they should probably sell. If Malik Washington starts to show out, sell. If Isaiah Bond starts to play well, sell. If someone is desperate for a TE, sell Chig Okonkwo (or Kyle Pitts) and don't look back. If someone shows interest in Metcalf for a reasonable value, or you're able to trade Metcalf + pick for an even better pick like a 1st (not sure if anyone would do that), then that is a trade you smash accept. Managing draft picks will be crucial for the success of this team in the coming years.

I think including all of these would be unrealistic based on how many trades actually get completed, but just for simplicity I think the most realistic ones to get done would be the Tony Pollard, Brian Robinson, and Isaiah Pacheco trades. Again, not good players. They won't put up huge performances but they are handcuffs, and one guy with a high floor. Not flashy guys, but guys to fill out the roster with.

Final Roster looks like this:

QB: Jayden Daniels

RB: Jeremiyah Love

RB: Cam Skattebo

WR: Jaylen Waddle

WR: Tetairoa McMillan

TE: Tyler Warren

Flex: Jameson Williams

Flex: KC Concepcion or Tony Pollard

Bench Brian Robinson, Isaiah Pacheco, Jadarian Price, Trey Benson, DK Metcalf, Chris Bell, Kyle Pitts

I think this team is overall much improved, although far from complete. I think this team will win more than 0 games which would be a huge improvement. While many, many things will happen from now until the start of the next season, but I think this team could be put in a much better position to win in the future if they are managed correctly.

I hope you enjoyed the first edition of Pimp your Franchise, I know it's not my normal sort of article but I thought it would be fun to try and help rebuild a team with just the one offseason and make it competent. I won't do this every offseason, only when there is one clear very bad almost historic team like this year.