-Luke B., June 8, 2015
As recently as 2013 I had no idea what a dynasty fantasy football
league was.
Well, I knew it existed (much like trigonometry exists when you are
struggling to pass an algebra course) but then I thought I had found a
lucrative niche in the world of redraft fantasy football. (For those of you who
are truly green on this topic “redraft”
means that an owner drafts a new team every year and that team is
disbanded at the end of the season.) I would average close to $200-$250 in
league fees and end up earning $500-$600 in profit. So needless to say, I was
very comfortable with my little slice of redraft life. I mean, redrafts follow
a relatively easy formula:
1.
You draft a team for this year only; so you are
not too worried about age, or player contracts.
2.
The draft is the hardest part; after that you
just set a lineup and play the waiver wire.
3.
A successful draft can come from prep work that
equates to high school studying.
4.
For owners that are good, there are a lot of “fish”
out there. (Novice players equate to easy money.)
I loved it. I
would play in almost 30 redraft leagues a year, (32 in 2013). I had drafted my
first redraft fantasy football team way back in the fall of 1998. 15 years had
passed, and I had never tried dynasty league football. But, at the end of the
2013 season, I was extended an invite to a startup dynasty league that would be
forming for the 2014 season. So I got to work trying to figure out what the
differences were. After all, if I was going to make this leap, I knew I would
have to know the differences between the redrafts (to which I had begun to
count as yearly revenue) and the dynasty leagues (that I would basically be a
rookie in).
Here are a few distinctions I have discovered between the above
redraft formula and dynasty leagues:
1.
In dynasty leagues, you are drafting players for
more than just this season.
2.
The draft is the just the beginning, then the
real work begins. (trades, waiver wire)
3.
A startup draft comes from prep that equates to
that of discovering cold fusion.
4.
The fish pool is not nearly as plentiful, and
building a winning team takes time.
So now, let’s flesh out these four distinctions:
1. Longevity:
1. Redraft leagues are for one year. This means that all a player
has to do is show up to draft (or even just autodraft,
if you trust the host site’s rankings). If
you mess up, there is
minimal damage in the idea that you don’t
have to live with the mistake for more than the
year. However if the player is a high draft pick, then there are huge ramifications
in the event of injury or
suspension (See: Adrian Peterson, 2014).
2. In dynasty leagues, the players you
draft are yours for as long as the league lasts (or until you trade or cut them). This means that a dynasty player must
consider other aspects of
the player that extend beyond the immediate future (i.e., age, player contract, job security; all of
which shall be discussed in subsequent articles by yours truly).
2. Acitive Owners:
1. Redraft leagues, the post draft aspect
involves trying to get better through the waiver wire. (A listing of free
agents that you can either bid on to obtain or simply select in an order of priority opposite
the league’s standings.) This would be most important with the week 2 waivers, from
which there always seems to be one free agent that becomes vital to grab.
2. Dynasty leagues, depending on the
format have year round trading and suffer from barren waiver wires. So you need to
remain active in the league to have the best chance to succeed. This means also maintaining communications with everyone
in your league, which
can be daunting at times.
3. Prep Work:
1.
In redraft leagues, the draft prep can be as easy as going to ESPN
and getting a top 300
list from Matthew Berry or Christopher Harris. Then, while in season, all you need to do is read a couple of
articles; such as those found here at The Other Fantasy Football Guys, to figure out who
to aim for on the waiver that week.
2. In dynasty Leagues, my own personal
workload for prep has grown immensely. I pay
for sites that assist with metric based research material (DLF, UTH, Rotoviz
and Football Guys) as well
subscribe to their podcasts. I also pay for scouting material; such as Matt Waldman’s
Rookie Scouting Portfolio. I use these tools to better understand both the current and potential values of
players in an effort to sell high and buy low.
4. The “Fish”:
1. In redraft leagues, there are always
new people trying their luck at them as redraft leagues are very
topical in their approach and need little work to be successful at. So the opportunity to succeed in winning money as long
as you know what you are doing.
2. Dynasty leagues are a great deal more
work to maintain any level of competitiveness so it is more
difficult to find people that are “fish”. This forces you
to win through
your own merits as opposed to exploiting the weaknesses of those you play with.
The point in all
of this is that dynasty leagues can be a demanding hobby. It can be time
consuming and it is easy to stumble, and thus, set yourself back; larger
mistakes may take a year or two of drafting to set it right. However, the rewards
of doing dynasty can outweigh those daunting negatives. Being able to build
your own team from the ground up, and cultivating that team into a perennial
winner is just as rewarding as making money. In dynasty, the journey is truly
as rewarding as the destination.
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