TRADE 15: A More Liberal Brees

A blockbuster just before kickoff, as Head Trauma send AJ Green to Pawnee in exchange for three players: The main draw being QB Drew Brees. Liberal released a statement following the trade:

*Trade Alert*:The Liberal (KS) Head Trauma are pleased to announce the acquisition of quarterback Drew Brees, wide receiver Danny Amendola, and running back James Starks, from the Pawnee (IN) Pride, in exchange for wide receiver AJ Green. We would like to thank AJ for his contributions to our team, and wish him the best of luck in Pawnee.
Even though the trade was consummated just 10 minutes before the kickoff of Thursday Night Football, Danny Amendola will be in uniform and active for Liberal.
After a rough start to the season, we now feel we have the pieces in place to really start defecating on the other teams in this league, and we look forward to doing so. Are there any questions?

PAWNEE ACQUIRES: 
WR AJ GREEN

LIBERAL ACQUIRES:
QB DREW BREES
WR DANNY AMENDOLA
RB JAMES STARKS

AJ Green is an elite WR. So is Odell Beckham. So is Emmanuel Sanders. So is Mike Evans. The four of them together is a spread attack unmatched in the history of the Larkspur Bowl. The Pride took the preseason's best rated WR corps... and made it BETTER. All four have substantial injury histories, but when they're on the field, each can thoroughly dominate. So what's the catch? They'll turn to perennially under achieving Jay Cutler under center. The Cutlet has strung together three quality efforts in a row since returning from injury, but it remains to be seen if he can keep from his annual implosion. Pawnee will go as far their QB can take them- be it Cutler, or someone else.

Liberal gets a Drew Brees that has underwhelmed to this point this year- but he's got as steady a floor as there is in this game, a lock to throw for at least one TD week in and week out. Blake Bortles has been better so far, but as with any young quarterback, a linear progression cannot be counted on, and the HT almost have to win out to make the playoffs. There's a lot of context to this trade as well: Bortles is on bye this week- there's a chance we see one of these QBs on the move again following this week's matchup with Saskatoon. RB James Starts went off before his bye week, and has special value to Liberal, as Eddie Lacy's handcuff. Not an obvious upgrade, but a quality depth move for a team that traded Lamar Miller before losing Arian Foster for the season. WR Danny Amendola is a bit of an enigma- an asset out of the slot earlier in his career, his productivity nose dived into irrelevance last year. He's been back on track this time around, but in an offense with a lot of weapons, he's no week to week sure thing. His inclusion put the trade on a deadline, as his 8:30 start time meant if it didn't get done tonight, it wasn't happening in week eight.

A bit of a stunner that AJ Green did not fetch more of secondary component, but the belief has to be that Brees is going to come on strong, and Bortles can be moved soon, or that Bortles will take the reins and Brees can be flipped again on name recognition to augment the offense elsewhere.