So I was playing around in one of the Fantasy Football leagues I'm in (a bunch of old high school buddies), and one of them who admittedly has a talented roster, throws out LaDainian Tomlinson as possible trade bait. Now how many times have you seen that over the past three or four years?

I love this time of year because it's when fantasy players really start to get frustrated with their "stars" not performing at a high enough level. And being the consensus top pick in almost every draft I saw except one (and I watched dozens at the National Fantasy Football Conference in NYC where participants paid four figures to enter), Tomlinson was expected to bring more than four rushing touchdowns and just over 500 yards after seven weeks.   

So I traded Matt Forte for him - a rookie with the Bears who has put up slightly better numbers. I did so because I believe Tomlinson gets better as the season goes on - and he's getting healthy. Being able to grab a top pick from a disgruntled owner is part of the fun in fantasy, and I expect every league has a participant ready to dump a full-fledged star out of frustration or desperation. But the law of averages doesn't lie - these guys will get their numbers in the end.

Perhaps Peyton Manning is now available in your league. Anyone sick of Ryan Grant also running into a pile of nowhere (except last week, though his per-carry average still wasn't very good)? Now is the time to pounce on your fellow players and make some gains.