The trade analyzer shows what a deal or a pickup does to both teams' points per week, projected record and playoff and title odds.
How it works
Using the power rankings' simulation, it plays the rest of the season out thousands of times with the rosters as they are, then again after the deal. Both runs get the same luck, so the difference is the trade itself.
The verdict compares how much the deal moves each team's title odds: within a percentage point of each other is about even, and if both rise (or both fall) it helps (or hurts) you both.
Rosters stay legal: a team taking more players than it sends drops its lowest-projected bench player, and one sending more signs the best free agent at the position it gave up.
Pick up tries each top free agent on your team, dropping your lowest-projected bench player if the roster is full, and ranks them by what they do to your title and playoff odds.
Keep in mind
It values players on rest-of-season projections, so it can't see a role change coming or weigh a win now against one later.
When it updates
Projections and rosters four times a day, around 5:30 and 11:30 AM and PM Eastern; each deal is worked out in your browser when you pick it.
For the curious
An NFL trade is played out 5,000 times each way and a pickup 2,000; the college league plays 20,000. Same luck means each player gets the same simulated weeks whichever roster he's on.