It’s getting to be that time of season where your fantasy team can fall into one of three categories:

I. You’re far and away the class of your league, and there are no other teams that can realistically challenge you. Sit back, and bask in the glory of your creation.

II. You’re the definition of a basement dweller, looking up the stairs at the teams who are contending like Gollum, treating your worthless team like your ‘precious.’

III. Your team is in the middle of a nerve-racking, aneurysm-inducing race for a playoff spot.

It’s this last category I’ll be talking about this week. We’re at the point in the season where one deal, whether it be a pickup or a trade, can directly put you in serious contention for that coveted playoff spot.

If you drafted a lot of depth at a certain position, knowing that you might use those players who have been warming up your bench as trade bait, now is the time to do it. Also, if you’re going to try and make a trade to get some serious talent at a position that you’re lacking, it’s probably going to be from a team that’s out of contention.

If the owner that you’re going to try and make a deal with is at the bottom of the league, you’ll have to sacrifice some of your depth to make a move for a first or second-round caliber pick.

At the beginning of this week, I traded away Justin Forsett, Knowshon Moreno, Randy Moss and Joe Flacco to a resident bottom-feeder and got Chris Johnson and Miles Austin in return. I had absolutely no running back depth, and plenty of receiving depth, so losing Moss didn’t hurt me too much, and Johnson gave me the kind of top-tier point production that will put me in direct contention for a playoff spot.

It’s moves like this that may seem risky, but can have a huge payoff in the end. If you’re in the middle of the pack, now is not the time to play it safe.

Now is the time to pull the trigger on some big-time risk/reward deals to try and put yourself over the top.