First Step: Know the scoring settings and bylaws
It may seem simple, but it’s the most important step in the dynasty startup strategy. When you join a league read through the scoring settings and see if anything is abnormal. For example, some leagues prefer 6 point passing touchdowns and some prefer 1 point per reception or no points per reception. This should all inform your draft decisions. If it is a tight end premium league, make sure you are drafting a target-heavy tight end over one who relies on touchdowns. There are also some leagues that will apply “big play scoring”. For example, a 40+ yard reception could be an extra point; when this is the case you may want to stray away from slot receivers and look for players with big play upside such as Tyreek Hill or Tyler Lockett.
Second Step: Roster Settings
Most fantasy players have a good idea of the league they are joining, but it’s always important to study those league details further. It usually provides a competitive edge but there many types so let’s dig into them. Superflex leagues are becoming more and more popular—this simply means any player can fill a flex roster position, including quarterbacks. These leagues require managers to value quarterbacks higher both in the draft and in trade negotiations. Two tight end leagues, another increasingly popular variety, are tricky. It requires you to increase your valuations of tight ends, and this is even more important than early-round quarterbacks are to Superflex leagues. In 2TE, you must start two tight ends every week. This amplifies the inherent challenge of the tight end position: the major absence of elite production at the position.
Just as you must start two tight ends, in a 3RB league you must start three; This does not demand the same amount of attention as they are more plentiful but still worth paying attention to. Something that is often forget about is how many positions you must start in total. This is important to check because you must ensure that you are not too top heavy in talent and thus lacking the depth to have meaningful starters each week. For example, you may have 9 elite players but if you must start 14 then you may need to turn some of those elite players into multiple good/great players.
Related | Under The Radar Rookie Running Backs: Hunting For The Next James Robinson
Third Step: Rookies
Where are they? Are they included in the start up draft? Are you selecting placeholders for rookie picks rather than players? Or are you getting the picks that are inverse of your start up picks? These are all important aspects to a start up especially if you are drafting prior to the NFL draft. This becomes very difficult when selecting rookies during the start up Pre-NFL Draft because you obviously don’t know what team they are going to be on but are also without their draft capital.
Draft capital basically means how much a team invested in a player by taking them earlier in the draft, which is exactly what you want out of a fantasy player. It is not an exact science as players like Arian Foster and James Robinson can be undrafted and still perform but it is much more likely that if you are drafted early then you will perform better than those drafted later.
This is due to many reasons, one being how much that team respects their talent to take them at that position. Two, the fact that since they invested that pick, they may hold onto that player longer, even if they aren’t performing as expected. Three, a player selected earlier will have a longer rookie contract than someone who is taken later. First round is 5 years, second and third is 4 years, and beyond that is 3 years to include UDFA.
Fourth Step: Build a draft board for your league
Essentially take all of the players and put them in the order you would want them regardless of your team need. When doing a start up it would behoove you not to “build your lineup” during the draft. It is nice to go in a specific order and construct the line up so you know it will be a smooth process to Week 1 but it’s best not to let value slip.
If you are in a league and you have four QBs and no RBs but the QB’s who are falling are valued much higher than the RBs then you should attain five QBs until the correction is made. This is somewhat league dependent because you need to make sure that you are competing with active managers to ensure you can get trades done to fill the team need later. Side note: Active trading is vital to ensuring you do not get lost in the changing landscape that is dynasty football.
Player values change very frequently and you need to stay on top of the news and market value. Something else to pay attention to is ADP and specifically the ADP of the platform you are using. I love certain players and will take them earlier than their ADP because I know if I wait then I may miss out; It is a fine line to walk when doing this. You can either overreach by a lot and risk humiliation or take them right before someone who will be upset about it.
There is nothing wrong with either option but you want to make sure you are not losing value when taking someone earlier than ADP. Make sure that you are incorporating the first two steps, roster and scoring settings, into the draft board. It can be somewhat daunting to create your own draft board so if you need help or want to smooth the process over you can use our rankings and my dm’s are open to break it all down.
(Recent start up mock draft where I captured the essence of leaguemates undervaluing QBs)
Fifth Step: Trade back
It does not matter what pick you have; you should be looking to trade out or back of the first round or two. Unfortunately, you will not have one of the most elite players in the league according to market value at the time of the draft, but like I said before it is changing frequently. For example, in 2020 start ups Ezekiel Elliot was a first round pick, but now he is closer to a third round pick. For this reason, you should eliminate the risk of a first round pick losing value, and acquire multiple second thru fifth round picks to diversify your assets.
With this method, even if one player does lose significant value you still have a strong investment in another player. This has become increasingly popular and more difficult to do but trust me someone will want that first round pick. I find it particularly important to maintain depth while also having elite players, but how much better is a first-round pick than a second-round pick? I will have an article coming out soon that goes into the details of my trades and picks in a super flex tight end premium league. The main premise will be showing the upside of trading back but I will also note all of the steps mentioned here and how I utilized them.
