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Is Bucky Irving for James Cook fair?

Bucky Irving and James Cook have been on opposite sides of 21 real dynasty trades.

Not simulations and not a calculator lining up two numbers. Every one of them is a completed trade from a public Sleeper league, graded at the player values that were current on the day it happened.

None of them were a straight one-for-one. Every time these two crossed, something else was attached to close it.

This is the part a calculator cannot tell you. In 5 of these deals exactly one side had to attach something extra, and 3 of those 5 times it was the Bucky Irving side (2 the other way). The side that keeps having to add is the side holding the lesser asset, so the market has been treating James Cook as the more valuable of the two.

21
Deals they were both in
0
Straight up, one for one
3 / 2
One side sweetened: Bucky Irving / James Cook

What they cost today

Everything above is priced on the day each deal happened, which is the only honest way to grade a completed trade. It is not what they cost now. Today Bucky Irving prices at 2,323 and James Cook at 7,092, so the market currently rates James Cook about 3.1x the other. A pair can lean one way across its history and price the opposite way now; that gap is the whole reason to check the deal in front of you rather than the deal someone made in 2023.

Values as of 2026-09-04.

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The deals themselves

DateMarginWent with Bucky IrvingWent with James Cook
2026-08-25-23%Cam Ward, 1 2ndMichael Penix, Adam Randall
2026-08-23-4%Jayden Reed, Justin Jefferson, Rico Dowdle, 1 more, 1 2ndLamar Jackson, Michael Pittman, Chase Brown, 1 3rd
2026-06-16-70%2 2nds
2026-05-17-39%Kyle Monangai, Omar Cooper, Deshaun Watson, 2 2ndsJonah Coleman, Michael Pittman
2026-05-14-72%Brock Bowers, Jalen CokerDrake London, Garrett Wilson
2026-05-06-4%Sam LaPorta, 2 1stsDalton Kincaid, Kaleb Johnson, Travis Kelce, 3 more
2026-04-28+0%1 1st1 3rd
2026-01-10+24%Kenneth WalkerAJ Barner
2025-11-15+45%Garrett WilsonRicky Pearsall
2025-11-11-43%DK Metcalf

Read each row as: Bucky Irving, plus anything in the third column, was traded for James Cook plus anything in the fourth. An em dash means that side sent nobody else. Margin is the value gap at that day’s prices from the side that received Bucky Irving; positive means that side came out ahead.

The whole-deal margin

Across all 21, the whole-deal value gap runs -4.5% from the side that received Bucky Irving, so the side ending up with James Cook has generally come out ahead on face value. That measures the entire trade, every piece included, not these two players against each other.

Why this beats a calculator on this exact question

A calculator answers “is Bucky Irving for James Cook fair” by subtracting one number from another, and it gives every manager in your league the same answer. That tells you nothing about whether the trade closes. What closes it is whether one side has to attach a piece, and which side that usually is. The 21 deals above are the record of what leagues actually agreed to when these two were on the table together.

How trade fairness actually works →

Full trade histories

Every Bucky Irving trade · Every James Cook trade

Other matchups for these two

All players with real trade data →

Values from DynastyProcess and nflverse. Trades from public Sleeper leagues. When the data will not support a fair grade I leave it out and say so. Is this trade fair? · All players · Research · Privacy · Terms