Tips for your dynasty fantasy football league

If you have never played in a dynasty fantasy football league but love re-draft leagues, here are a few tips to help get you started.

Graduating from redrafts leagues to dynasty can be daunting for many fantasy players. Often, new owners will make similar mistakes during their adjustment phases. Some nuances and strategies make dynasty leagues require a different approach. Here are some tips for players newer to dynasty formats or considering taking the plunge into the deep end.

Year-Round Commitment

Playing dynasty is a year-round experience. In redraft, when a team is out of contention it is easy for the manager to check out on the season. When playing dynasty, teams should always be looking for opportunities to improve. A team that is out of contention could trade an established contributor to a contender for younger assets and draft picks. There are still going to be players on waivers who come up that could have future fantasy value. Managers need to look at upcoming free agents and the last few games to see if there is potential future value in anyone on the waivers.

Teams of All Young Players

Playing in a dynasty league does not mean everyone on a roster needs to be under the age of 25. Players contributing to a title this year or next year are valuable. Ideally, a team will have a mix of players who contribute now to contend and players/picks that help in the future. Too often dynasty players think they have these young players for such a long period. The truth is some players will fail to live up to their potential, others will get injured and there will be outright busts. Balancing a roster with proven players is the smart way to mitigate the risk and upside of young players. There are exceptions of course; a team that is in a rebuild will be young by design. It also will likely not compete for the title in the immediate future.

Draft Pick Valuation

The value of draft picks, especially first-round picks, fluctuates with the time of the year. The closer to the rookie draft the league gets, the higher the value placed on those picks will be. The term that best describes this is rookie fever. Dynasty players have a tendency to get excited once a specific player can be associated with the range a pick is in. This generally makes it easier to trade for picks during the season and easier to trade picks for high-value players closed to the rookie draft. Learning how league-mates look at draft picks is also a valuable tool when it comes to making trades.

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Value of Quarterbacks

In redraft, it is common to wait and find value at the quarterback position but the longevity of the elite quarterback can be a much larger value in dynasty. Sacrificing an early pick on Patrick Mahomes and giving up a high-end wide receiver or running back in redraft can hurt your team. In dynasty, having Patrick Mahomes for a decade is a huge advantage though. This is magnified even more in superflex leagues. Players coming from redraft will often have been successful with a wait on quarterback strategy, which can backfire in dynasty.

Avoid Dynasty Fever

A common cycle that plays out for new dynasty players goes as follows. Join a dynasty league and enjoy the added elements. Get too excited and join too many dynasty leagues in a short period, then step back from leagues after burning out. Proper dynasty leagues are active year-round and require more time than a redraft league. There is no correct magic number of leagues; it is different for each player. If a new player wants to expand into new leagues after a season, adding only one new league at first is a sound plan. Once players are comfortable with the time commitment involved they can judge how many leagues they can truly handle.