Dynasty 101: Your need-to-know guide for a successful dynasty football league (2024)

The dynasty format is exploding.

Redraft provides the challenge of drafting for the season ahead with limited fear or frustration of injuries during training camp or at offseason events. Draft the best team possible and, win or lose at the end of the season, wipe the slate clean and do it all again next year.

Those seeking a greater challenge and the desire to simulate the experience of being a general manager of their own team ultimately find their way to dynasty. Drafting and managing a much deeper roster, annual rookie draft and the constant quest to be first to uncover next year’s superstar are just part of the experience. In dynasty, once a player is on your roster, there they shall remain until you decide otherwise. That’s the key to the dynasty experience — once your roster is established, the players are yours season after season.

The dynasty format provides the greatest challenge possible due to the engagement needed by each coach. Your long-term results will most certainly be impacted by continual research and strategic execution. Follow the news, contracts, injuries, incoming rookies, camp reports and preseason action toward identifying the players who are tomorrow’s news stories before your competition does. Luck remains an important variable each season, but it takes a back seat to your due diligence and work ethic as a coach.

Whether seeking to play in your first dynasty league or looking to be a commissioner of a new league, let me offer a few of my primary tenets to being a competitive coach or running a successful league.

Before getting started realize what follows is a very small subset of many different considerations.

Player

Know your format

I can’t tell you how many “Help!” questions I receive from coaches who completed their new league start-up draft but didn’t spend enough time looking at the roster requirements. From the number of teams in your league, size of rosters and, most importantly, your scoring, understanding the format will dictate much of your initial build strategy.

If your league requires starting two running backs, you must have two quality names to trot out each week. As a general rule in situations like this, I try to prioritize drafting two top-14 backs and neither should have questionable roles. Positional scarcity is a real issue if you misjudge starting requirements or don’t secure enough depth in any one position.

The primary action is to understand how all players performed in the scoring format based on last year’s production. That, when combined with your starting requirements, will produce your start-up draft cheat sheet.

Know your strategy

I’ve long said that your strategy for building a dynasty team should only be as strong as your ability to depart from it when needed. You must have an idea about what you are trying to build and how you plan to go about it. When performing your start-up draft, which position will you prioritize before seeking value in other positions? Will you forgo being competitive in the first year or two and build through youth or prioritize veteran production to win now? A balance of both? Perhaps you will seek your favorite players with winning a secondary goal. It’s your team, do as you wish.

There is no right or wrong answer in how you wish to construct your roster other than having no strategy at all. Know your format, develop your strategy and stay true to yourself as a coach.

Do the work

There is no substitute for hard work. To be a competitive dynasty coach, you must commit to putting in the time throughout the entire year, not only during the season. In fact, the NFL season is a time for rest and enjoyment of the games. It’s the time when you get to take your foot off the pedal a bit and see the work you’ve put in to that point play out on the gridiron.

Each month of the year presents opportunities to improve your roster now, or in the future. The beauty of the dynasty format is that it’s football 7 x 24 x 365. There is no offseason. Rejoice!

Finding and using your resources is extremely important. Whether The Athletic, Dynasty League Football or any of the other mainstream fantasy sites, these resources pay for themselves many times over by performing much of the legwork, allowing you to analyze and process data more quickly, and get a jump on your competition. Support your fantasy sites!

Commissioner

So, you want to want to run a dynasty league? Before you do, make sure you are ready for the commitment and that you’ve done your homework. Running a dynasty league does possess similarities to that of a redraft league but is much less forgiving.

Getting key decisions correct out of the gate before inviting your first GM will save you from headaches later. To be sure, headaches await in many forms regardless, but if you do your research and prepare properly, you can spend your time on small adjustments rather than trying to patch a sinking boat.

Following are a few key decisions which will serve as the foundation for your league. Think them through carefully and don’t be afraid to seek input from others before setting them in stone.

League format

League format is arguably the most important aspect to get right on Day 1 and it’s exceedingly difficult to change later. The format will dictate draft strategy for your coaches and a shift in this area in later years could require a redraft, creating some very unhappy coaches.

SuperFlex (SF) formats have dramatically increased in popularity but can create a have or have-not division in your league. This is not meant to scare you away from the format but all coaches need to understand the high priority placed upon quarterbacks in the SF format.

Nuances are present in the other formats including Point Per Reception (PPR) and tight end premium leagues as well. PPR leagues are more well-balanced across all positions while non-PPR overweighs touchdown production, typically reducing the value of wide receivers.

I prefer full 1.0 PPR formats due to the balancing of positions which allows for multiple strategies for coaches to build their rosters but any format is valid as long as every coach understands it ahead of the draft.

League cost

Be very careful as no one likes to throw away money. Prior to the draft, all coaches are filled with excitement and anticipation. But it only takes a year or two until it becomes evident which teams are competitive and which are not. Uncompetitive coaches may become frustrated, disinterested and eventually abandon the league.

Consider keeping the league cost low or use multiple side pots to keep coaches interested and enthusiasm high to reduce abandonment.

Roster size

There are as many thoughts on roster size as there are players in the NFL. My personal desire is to ensure no less than 300 players are rostered. That means at least 25 players per team in a 12-team league assuming no IDP (individual defensive players). My personal preference is for north of 30 players. As an added variable, consider doing away with IR (injured reserve) spots and simply increase roster size.

The reason for large rosters is obvious. You don’t want excessive talent on the waiver wire. Talent should be rostered to encourage trading and reward research. For IDP formats, consider bolstering the roster number by 1.5 — 2 times the number of required starters. For example, if you will require four IDP starters, increase the roster size by a total of six to eight.

Starting requirements

Related to “league format” above, the starting requirement for each week is an important determinant for how coaches choose to build their teams. Requiring two running backs means 24 backs will be forced onto the field each week, thus increasing the priority of the position during the draft and beyond. Factoring positional scarcity into your scoring format is a variable in all leagues, but the greater the number of required starters from a position means greater scarcity.

In most leagues, I favor starting one running back and two wide receivers while allowing for 2-3 Flex players. The reason for this is to allow for maximum flexibility in roster construction. Dynasty GMs must decide whether to overweight running backs, invest more heavily in wide receiver or be positionally agnostic.

Trade deadline

This is a hotly debated topic and discussing it openly is akin to a dinner party for the Hatfields and McCoys of the 1800s.

The primary battle lines are drawn around which week the trade deadline should be placed. Many favor an “as late as possible” (Week 12-plus) deadline while others favor earlier (Week 8). A later deadline allows coaches to shape their teams late into the season in preparation for, or even during, the playoffs, while an earlier deadline requires more forethought and preparation by coaches, potentially allowing for second-half injuries to play a larger role.

I strongly favor a Week 8 deadline. The reason is because I’m a passionate believer of coaches needing to perform the work necessary to prepare their teams and allowing injuries to be part of the game which will challenge depth. Furthermore, I’m firmly against later season trades by coaches with no chance of making the playoffs for draft picks and younger players in return for productive veterans. This can upset the balance of the league late in the season. In my view, trades need to occur earlier in the season when the playoffs are still on the line.

I’ve seen too many situations where an average team “sells out” late in the season via a roster dump which unbalances the league playoffs in a way which would not have played out otherwise.

Commissioner psychology

Commissioner behavior brings down more leagues than any of the other items on the list in my estimation.

A heavy-handed commissioner may be seen as meddling and overreaching his/her authority. A completely hands-off commissioner who doesn’t set expectations for sportsmanship, team management and league operation may be overrun by more assertive coaches. It takes a very even-handed commissioner to strike the right balance between fun in the league and proper/expected coach behavior.

Encourage your coaches to propose and respond timely to trades, engage in “healthy” trash-talking, actively participate in making their teams better and engage in league operations by voting in polls, adhering to roster rules and voicing disagreement privately as opposed to in an open forum. Good sportsmanship must be encouraged for the fun of all.

Again, it’s a fine line between being a dictator and a milk toast. Set the expectation early with your coaches, get their buy-in and then stay active to keep it. And addressing conflict immediately must be practiced!

In conclusion, I hope you found this “brief” foray into the dynasty league informative and helpful. It’s a challenge to properly cover such a deep topic in a single article.

If you haven’t taken the dive into dynasty yet, you won’t regret it. Once you do, you’ll never go back.

(Photo: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)

Jeff Haverlack is one of the founders (2006) and owners of DynastyLeagueFootball.com (DLF) and has been an avid player of fantasy football from the 1990s. While much of his time is spent on the business of fantasy sports including writing content for DLF and other websites, Jeff is also passionate about NFL-related rookie and collegiate player scouting and development. In his spare time he likes to involve himself in photography, guitar, hiking/exploration, financial planning and the wine industry. Follow Jeff on Twitter @DLF_Jeff