Dynasty Football Advice: 6 Ways To Avoid Destroying Your Team

Dynasty Advice

In Dynasty Fantasy Football there are a lot of ways to build a team. But have you ever taken a closer look at the teams that fail? Dive deeper into why those teams are destroyed. Often it is not one single factor leading to their demise. Did a team start trading just to trade without considering value? Are owners sending out bad trade offers and making it, so no one wants to deal with them? Is the team so focused on a youth-based building approach with their team, but instead becoming another roster’s farm system? Maybe they don’t realize what they are doing. Perhaps they haven’t looked into their crystal ball and seen the harm they are doing to their roster. In this post, I will help you look into the crystal ball and identify ways to avoid destroying your dynasty team.

1. Appropriately Value Rookie Picks (especially for 2020)

One of the first things I learned about playing dynasty fantasy football is the cheapest time to acquire a stud is through the rookie draft. Even at the cost of the 1.01 in rookie drafts, think about the previous costs to acquire Saquon Barkley or Ezekiel Elliott in their respective rookie drafts. Yes, the price to get to those players on your roster will be expensive, but if you paid the price you are now reaping the rewards. To appropriately value rookie picks you should start by looking over the other rosters. Obviously, evaluating another team’s roster can be tricky, but even inexperienced owners can identify strong contenders. Secondly, a one year difference shouldn’t be given a significant discount. First rounds rookie draft picks are still first-round picks even a year out. By devaluing a rookie draft pick due to time, you are devaluing your roster. Finally, don’t overuse the injury excuse when evaluating another team’s roster. Just because Devonta Freeman has experienced injuries in the last two years doesn’t mean 2019 will be injury-riddled.

2. Pay Attention To League Settings

Superflex, IDP, Devy, points per reception or first down, or flex heavy, dynasty has every format you could imagine to trip up fantasy gamers. With all of these settings available, it is more important than ever for us to pay attention to our league settings and to plan our draft strategies accordingly. If a manager ignores these settings and does not take advantage of scoring advantages they will find themselves at a strategic disadvantage before the league even has their startup draft. 

3. Only Use the Average Draft Position (ADP) As A Guide To The Market.

There are a few places where someone can mine Dynasty ADP information from, including FantasyData, and ADP is good so you have an idea of what other owners are going to do. Knowing what other owners are going to do will allow you to take advantage of the draft and focus on drafting the players you want. Ultimately, and I know this will sound silly, but the “A” in “ADP” stands for average and average is exactly what your teams will be if you only draft according to ADP. 

4. Be An Active Owner

The world of dynasty fantasy football is different from redraft in many ways, but specifically from the aspect of league communication. Being non-communicative is not only a way to tank your team but is also one of my biggest pet peeves. So you might ask, “how can I be an active owner?” There are a lot of ways to achieve this. A manager can make sure to send out regular trade offers. While this sounds simple, the basic act of regularly sending out trade offers will let your league know you are always willing to talk trade and also put in the back of their minds that you are always willing to consider trade offers. Another way to be active is to participate in group chats. This allows you to form relationships within your league and can lubricate the wheels to get a deal done quickly. Open communication can also allow you to shop current offers quickly. For example, if you receive a trade offer in your mailbox, it is always a good idea to shop the same offer to other teams to see if you can get a better/similar deal done.

5. Focus on the Entire Prospect Profile

Players like Phillip Lindsay are a great story for the NFL. Undrafted free agent out of a local school burst onto the scene and ends up leading the backfield. People love rooting for the underdog and a player who comes out of nowhere to beat the odds.  Unfortunately, Lindsay should also be considered a cautionary tale. Lindsay is undersized, undrafted, and came into Broncos camp as a player on the roster bubble. Generally, these players don’t hit. Another example of looking at the entire profile is Ronald Jones. Jones does possess the draft capital but is sub 210 lbs., low receiving production in college, and athletically tested out poorly. Ultimately, no one has a 100% hit rate, but by focusing on a complete prospect profile, you can become a better evaluator and improve your hit rate.

6. Know Your Risk Tolerance

Risk can come in many forms. Are you taking a risk by betting on rookies, drafting players who have a criminal history, or are you betting on the injured players? Your past fantasy football experiences hold weight towards your willingness to take these risks, and every manager has a different risk tolerance. Personally, I would never advise someone to be too overweight towards risk when constructing their roster. While you may maximize the upside of your roster, you are also introducing high volatility to the roster’s potential longevity. 

BONUS: Don’t Count on Rookies

Fantasy football is a small sample-sized game. Yes, it is nice having a roster full of young with high expectations, but veterans are key to bridge the gap between the young hopefuls and the proven veterans. A simple way to negate the youth bias is to not count on rookies. By not counting on rookies and planning your veterans to be your highest-impact starters, you can plan out your season and it will be a bigger boost to your team if rookies to start to contribute regularly.