Dynasty Fantasy Football 101
Dynasty Fantasy Football 101: Do you love managing rosters year-round? Are you a true fantasy football degenerate and/or sicko? If the answer is yes to one or both of those questions, then dynasty fantasy football may very well be for you. Dynasty is a rapidly growing format worldwide because it is not just an in-season game, like your typical redraft leagues; it is a 365-day-a-year pursuit. Chase is the keyword here, because people play dynasty to get as close as possible to feeling like a genuine NFL GM.
In redraft, you are only managing a roster for five or six months out of the entire year. But in dynasty, you’re managing a roster every single day of the year, constantly thinking about your next move, which gives people a rush and adds excitement, especially in the dog days of the offseason when no real football is being played yet. In today’s discussion, we will go over why dynasty fantasy football is such a rapidly growing format and why you should get into it if you have not already.
What is Dynasty Fantasy Football?
If you’re not familiar with dynasty fantasy football, it’s a league where you manage a team 365 days a year, hoping it will last for many years. You are constantly fielding trade offers and negotiating with your league mates, even in the dog days of summer when seemingly nothing is going on. This format is a commitment, but if you’re looking for a way to play fantasy football outside of the NFL season, this is precisely what you need. There are some key differences between dynasty leagues and redraft leagues that you need to be aware of if you are looking to get into the format for the first time.
In a typical redraft league, you draft a new team every single year and receive a whole new set of players to work with for that season. In dynasty, however, you keep your team year over year, unless you decide to trade a player away, of course. But that is 100% up to you. So, if you like a specific player and their future outlook in the NFL, then you can keep that player for many years beyond just one season if you want.
Rookie Drafts
There is one huge pillar of the offseason in dynasty leagues, and that is rookie drafts. This is when the dynasty season really picks up and gets going. If you’re unfamiliar with a dynasty rookie draft, it’s a four- or five-round draft where you select incoming NFL rookies immediately after the NFL Draft concludes. If you want an infusion of youth on your team, this is the perfect opportunity.
If you watch college football, you will have an advantage here because you are in tune with the incoming prospects year-round, whereas your league mates may not watch the sport and may be trying to cram in research at the last minute, leading up to the NFL Draft and your league’s rookie draft.
Trade Offers
In a dynasty league, you have to pay close attention to your team because you will be receiving many trade offers from your league mates throughout the offseason, because people love to make deals when there is nothing else going on and no actual football is being played yet. You have to be alert, though, because a lot of the time your league mates will try to lowball you with a trade offer initially, especially if you are a beginner. When you receive a trade offer, ask yourself two questions: “How much will this deal help my team?” and “What am I going for with this team?”
If you are committed to a rebuild, reject the offer and keep the draft picks for the future. If you feel that you are a contending team in your league, accept the offer, especially if it is for a productive veteran who can help you right away and hopefully lead you to the promised land.
Waiver Wire Management
Even though redraft leagues are all very much centered around in-season waivers, waivers are still very important for dynasty leagues as well. Even though players on the waiver wire might not be as widely available because benches are much bigger in dynasty leagues compared to redraft leagues, there is still value to be found if you are committed and look hard enough. The great thing about dynasty is that if you find a diamond in the rough on the waiver wire that exploded out of nowhere during a specific week, you can keep them for many years to come.
Hopefully, they continue to perform well after you found them out of nowhere. If you have the space, you can stash them on your bench, and you just saw a lottery ticket out of nowhere. In season, dynasty leagues become more like redraft leagues, because you still have to set lineups and pay close attention to the waiver wire.
Rookie Draft Deep Dive
We briefly touched on dynasty rookie drafts before, but in this segment, we are going to dive into it even more and lay out exactly how this pillar of your dynasty offseason works and operates. As mentioned before, it is important to watch college football and be tuned into the games weekly during the season, because you will be familiar with these incoming prospects ahead of time, months before the actual NFL Draft occurs. If you watch these prospects weekly, you can comfortably project their future value and gauge where they should and will go in your league’s rookie draft.
Rookie drafts are a significant event for dynasty leagues everywhere because they keep the entire league active and force everybody to conduct well-informed research to prepare for the upcoming season. It brings everyone together and provides a breath of fresh air and excitement for every single team in your league.
In terms of timing, your league’s rookie draft should be in May. This is when everybody is the most active in the league, coming off the high of the NFL Draft and the excitement over all these rookies, so it makes the most sense to do it then. Do not drag it out. Do it as soon as possible.
Team Strategy: Rebuild vs. Immediate Contention
In a dynasty league, it is very important to be aware of the value of your players and the assets that you possess, for both now and the future. Future draft picks, player age, and position value are all aspects of your team that you need to pay very close attention to throughout the season and into the offseason as well. A critical element of dynasty success is understanding how to build your team when you initially join the league and conduct your startup draft.
If you prefer to play the long game and build your team from the ground up, commit to a rebuild right off the bat. It might take you a few years to become a true contender and compete with your league mates, but if that is a challenge that you enjoy, then do it.
On the flip side, if you are someone who wants to compete right away and does not want to wait multiple years to become a contender, then go all in by acquiring experienced, proven veterans across the NFL, rather than rolling the dice on unproven rookies, even if they do carry high upside when they enter the NFL. Deciding on a strategy in a dynasty league is crucial, as failing to make a decision early on can leave you unsure and stuck in mediocrity. Nobody wants that. Commit and stick with it.
Positional Value
Gauging positional value in dynasty is an aspect of things that you need to constantly be aware of, both on your own team and your league mates’ teams. Beginning with the quarterback, this position is the foundation of dynasty leagues, because this is where teams start, no matter what roster build you are utilizing. If you are lacking at quarterback at any point, you might be out of luck, because it is tough to trade for the position in dynasty.
Most dynasty leagues these days use the Superflex format, so it is very difficult to acquire quarterbacks via trade, as most dynasty managers like to have at least three starting-caliber guys on their roster, just because they have to potentially start two players at the position weekly during the season. Nobody wants to be scarce at the position, so because of that, managers are unwilling to move off of their guys a majority of the time.
Moving on to skill players, there is a key difference between running backs and wide receivers in dynasty in terms of positional value and future outlook. Wide receivers are typically more valuable in dynasty than running backs, because the position offers more longevity.
Running backs receive many more touches than wide receivers weekly during the season, so they deteriorate quickly. For running backs, once the age cliff hits, it hits. The dropoff in play comes quickly. For wide receivers, though, they can showcase sustained success over a more extended period because there is not nearly as much wear and tear on their bodies over the years. Keep this critical piece of information in mind when conducting trade talks or just building your team in general.
Finishing up with tight ends, this position is a bit tricky and complicated to gauge in dynasty. If you have one of the elite or borderline elite guys on your roster, then you will have a significant advantage over your league mates. But if you have a couple of those middle-class guys, then it does not really matter, and it is all pretty much the same in the end. Prioritize getting one of these top-end tight ends in your startup draft or even trade for one, because there is a big tier break after those guys, and it is a big cluster of guys that are all pretty much the same in terms of talent and production.
Startup Draft Strategy
The startup draft is a critical piece to your dynasty journey, as it is the foundation of your league and gets the ball rolling when your dynasty league is initially formed. It is vital to have a strategy going into the event, so you know how to operate throughout the draft, especially in the later rounds. There are two philosophies that dynasty managers employ throughout their league’s startup draft: drafting BPA(best player available), and drafting for team need based on certain players that you like and positional value.
It is essential to keep positional value in mind while drafting, but it is not the end-all be-all. If there is a player on the board that is still available that you feel strongly about, take that player. Even if you already drafted a surplus of guys at that position earlier in the startup draft, talent is talent, no matter what position it is. Do not reach for a guy because you think you “need” a specific position, and do not pass on an immense talent for that ideology either. Draft talent. That is what matters at the end of the day.
Player Age
Having roster balance in dynasty is also very important for player age and trajectory. As we discussed earlier, if you employ a rebuilding strategy in your league, you will want the majority of your roster to be rookies or players early in their careers. Youth is key with this strategy. If you feel that you are a contender in your league, it is smart to have a good mix of young players and experienced, proven veterans. Player age is critical in dynasty, but it is not everything. Dynasty managers sometimes overreact to age and tend to ship off proven, productive veterans for no real reason. If a player has been productive for multiple years, keep them.
Do not just get rid of them just because they are “older.” Rookies are great and exciting, but at the end of the day, they have never played in the NFL before and are very inexperienced. Yes, a rookie could contribute to your team for multiple years, but they could also be out of the league and lose all value within a year. You never know.
Gauging the Trade Market
Trade negotiations are extremely key in dynasty leagues, especially in the offseason. Managers are itching to make trades after the season ends, so take advantage of that. Know your league’s mates and their strategy and behavior. There are certain times throughout the offseason when your league is likely to be the most active in terms of roster management: NFL Free Agency, the NFL Draft, and NFL Training Camps. The reason for this is that the NFL is highly active at these points throughout the offseason, and news is coming out on multiple players across the league, so everyone is plugged into everything at these times.
Gauging the trade market in your league is even more difficult in-season because everyone is worried about setting lineups and managing the waiver wire weekly, as opposed to looking to negotiate and ship off players. That being said, if you are looking to trade during the season in dynasty, there is a term we like to use in fantasy football: buy low/sell high.
Buying low means that you should take advantage of a player who just came off a bad performance but still has a promising future outlook, especially if a manager is freaking out about that player.
Selling high means that you capitalize on a player on your roster who has just had an excellent performance, but you’re not a fan of their future outlook and are worried about it. You might be able to find someone in your league who is willing to overpay for that player because they just saw them put up a great fantasy performance. It is very crucial to utilize both of these strategies throughout the season.
Utilizing Dynasty Resources
There are tools and resources out there that can aid you on your dynasty journey, whether you are just getting into dynasty for the first time or are an experienced veteran. Familiarizing yourself with specific film and analytics sites is vital to success in your dynasty league because they provide context for players across the league beyond just base stats and box scores. Knowing what deeper data and metrics mean is extremely important because it could potentially give you an advantage over your league mates, as you are in tune with deeper player metrics and supportive data and are plugged into everything in that world.
Not to brag, but I believe that our content here at Fantasy In Frames is pretty great. Whether in article, video, or podcast form, we are constantly giving you well-informed, actionable advice. If you are a fan of Fantasy In Frames and consume our content weekly, you will have great fantasy football success, specifically in dynasty, in this case.
To wrap up our discussion today, keep in mind that dynasty is a long-term play. Be patient. There will be times when you get annoyed. There will be times when you get frustrated. But stick with it and keep going. You might not find success right away, but that is perfectly ok, because a few years down the line, you might go on a run and win a couple of championships, and all your hard work and roster management strategies over the years will have paid off.