Dynasty leagues are the most immersive form of fantasy football, where you keep your players season to season and never have a full roster reset. Unlike one-year redraft leagues, a dynasty league begins with a one-time startup draft of all players, and in subsequent years, you only draft incoming rookies. This means decisions you make in drafts and trades can affect your team for years – much like a real NFL general manager managing a franchise.
Because your roster carries over every year, drafting and trading strategically is crucial for long-term success. A savvy dynasty manager balances immediate competitiveness with future growth, knowing that a short-sighted move (like trading away all your future picks) or a poor draft can set the team back for seasons. In short, winning in a dynasty requires vision and strategy beyond just the current season.
Understanding League Formats and Scoring
Before diving into draft strategy, it’s vital to understand your league’s format and scoring, as these dramatically impact player values. Dynasty leagues come in many varieties:
PPR vs. Standard: PPR (point-per-reception) leagues award 1 point per catch, boosting the value of pass-catchers (WRs, receiving RBs, TEs). Standard (non-PPR) gives no points for receptions, favoring TDs and yardage. Many leagues also use Half-PPR as a middle ground to balance the heavy lean of full PPR vs. the volatility of standard.
In practical terms, a possession receiver with 100 catches is far more valuable in PPR than in standard scoring. Adjust your player rankings accordingly – e.g., a pass-catching RB like Austin Ekeler jumps in PPR formats, whereas a TD-dependent back might be relatively less valuable.
Superflex / 2QB: A Superflex format allows a QB to be started in a flex spot, essentially making it a 2-QB league. This drastically increases quarterback importance – you’ll “almost always want to start a quarterback in the Superflex spot” because QBs score the most points. In a 12-team Superflex league, up to 24 QBs start each week, so the position’s scarcity means elite QBs fly off the board early.
By contrast, in a single-QB league, you can afford to wait longer to draft a quarterback. Takeaway: in superflex, consider drafting a top QB early and valuing young QBs and backups more heavily, as they’re gold in trades and lineups due to supply and demand.
Tight End Premium (TEP): In TE-premium scoring, TEs get an extra 0.5 or 1.0 points per reception compared to other positions. This is designed to make tight ends more relevant (since, in standard scoring, only a few TEs are difference-makers). In a typical TEP league (1.5 PPR for TEs vs 1.0 for others), even mid-tier TEs can score on par with WRs.
For example, in 2017, only 2 TEs produced enough to rank as top-24 WRs in normal PPR, but in TE-premium, that number jumped to 7. This means stud TEs like Brock Bowers or Trey McBride become extremely valuable, and even prospect TEs are worth a bump in your rankings. Plan to draft or trade for at least one solid tight end if your league is TEP.
IDP (Individual Defensive Players): Some dynasty leagues include defensive players (instead of a team defense). Scoring systems vary, but typically linebackers, defensive ends, and safeties can rack up points via tackles, sacks, turnovers, etc. The offense still usually rules – even in IDP, it’s often advised to wait on drafting IDPs until you’ve secured your offensive core.
“Allocate your premium resources to offense… deferring only to defensive stalwarts when value dictates”. In other words, don’t take a linebacker in Round 2 at the expense of a starting RB or WR.
However, know your scoring: if your IDP scoring makes top defenders score like top RBs, adjust accordingly. Generally, grabbing a few high-tackle linebackers or playmakers in later rounds will suffice, as offensive playmakers are harder to replace in dynasty.
In all cases, study your league’s scoring rules and lineup requirements in advance – this “will determine the relative value of positions and, in turn, the order of your draft board.” For instance, if you’re in a 0.25 PPC (points per carry) league, volume RBs get a boost; if punt/kick return yards count, certain players gain value.
Small scoring quirks can create big edge cases – a prepared manager exploits that while others ignore it. Remember: understanding your format is half the battle. Don’t go into a Superflex or TE-premium draft with a standard mindset, or you’ll misevaluate players from the start.
Startup Draft Strategies
Your startup draft (the initial draft that populates rosters for a new dynasty league) lays the foundation for your team’s future. Because you keep all these players going forward, have a clear strategy. Three common approaches are:
“Win Now” (All-In for Year 1): This strategy focuses on building a contender immediately, even if it means rostering older veterans. You draft as if it were a redraft league – targeting top performers like 27-30-year-old stars who can put up big points right away. The benefit: you could win the championship in the first year or two. The risk: your roster might age out quickly or decline together.
For example, a win-now drafter might take Derrick Henry and Davante Adams earlier than a long-term drafter would. Be mindful: “Making a considerable push to ‘win now’ will disrupt the longevity of your roster, but it will maximize the shorter window of contention.”
If you go win-now, accept that you may need to trade or replace aging players within a couple years. Also, don’t completely ignore youth – snag a few later-round sleepers or future draft picks to avoid a total cliff.
“Productive Struggle” (Youth Movement/Rebuild): Coined by analyst Ryan McDowell, this approach means deliberately sacrificing short-term success to build a powerhouse for the long run. You trade down for extra rookie picks, target mostly young players (rookies, 2nd-year breakouts) and load up on prospects. The idea is to assemble a core of ascending talent that will dominate in years 2-3 and beyond, even if Year 1 is rough.
For example, you might bypass a 28-year-old RB in favor of a 21-year-old rookie WR, understanding the rookie might not hit big until later. A productive struggle team often finishes near the bottom in Season 1 (netting a high rookie pick) but then blossoms. This strategy requires patience: “Managers must be willing to endure short-term setbacks for long-term gains… staying committed to the process is crucial”.
If you choose this route, don’t get tempted to “win now” mid-draft – stick to the plan. Emphasize youth with upside – players who could become cornerstone assets for a decade. (E.g., drafting a 22-year-old QB or a 21-year-old WR with a great college profile as your early picks.)
Also, stockpile future first-round picks if possible. The downside is that not every prospect pans out, so you need to hit on enough of them. But a successful productive struggle can create a dynasty (pun intended) that contends for many years once it matures.
“Balanced Approach”: Many dynasty managers opt for a hybrid strategy – try to field a competitive team and keep an eye on the future. This means that, in a startup, you mix stable veterans with promising youth. Perhaps you’ll draft a young elite (like a 23-year-old WR) in Round 1 but then take a reliable 28-year-old RB in Round 2 to anchor the team.
A balanced drafter is “realistic about your chances of winning but recognizes you aren’t far off from contending.” You won’t mortgage the future for one player, but if a good value veteran falls, you’ll grab him. You also hang onto your early rookie picks so your “feeder system doesn’t dry up.”
The goal is to thread the needle: make playoffs now while still developing young talent on your bench. This approach gives you flexibility during the season – if your team is dominating, you can trade a bit of youth for more win-now pieces; if it’s struggling, you can flip veterans for picks and lean into a mini-rebuild. The balanced strategy might not produce the very strongest Year 1 roster or the very best future roster, but it keeps you competitive and avoids extreme boom/bust outcomes.
There’s no single “correct” strategy – know your own risk tolerance and league dynamics. Drafting to Win Now can be very fun (who doesn’t love competing immediately?), but remember that in a dynasty, champions often come from teams that manage their age curve and assets well. A common expert adage is: build for Year 2 and beyond, not just Year 1 unless you see a clear path to a title.
Even if you plan to win now, try not to load up exclusively on players over 30 – their trade value will plummet fast. Conversely, if you go all-youth, be prepared for some losing and make sure your league mates are patient (and that you’re okay paying league dues for a non-competitive first year).
Regardless of approach, identify cornerstone players vs. depth during the draft. Cornerstones are the elite talents who will carry your team (think young franchise QBs, stud RB1s, alpha WRs). Depth players fill bye weeks and provide injury insurance.
It’s often said in dynasty: you can’t win without studs. One experienced manager put it simply: “In a 12-team league, I think studs > depth. You can’t win without studs, whereas depth protects you from injuries. Obviously, you want both, but if I have to pick, I go with studs most times”.
Early in the startup draft, prioritize grabbing a few game-changers (even if they’re older) because true difference-makers are hard to trade for later. Depth is easier to acquire via waivers or trade throw-ins. That said, the deeper the starting lineup requirements (or the larger the league), the more valuable depth becomes.
In a 16-team or a start-11 league, you can’t ignore depth, or you’ll field zeros during injuries. Strike a balance: get 2-3 cornerstone players in the first several rounds (young QB, stud WR, etc.), then shift to value picks to round out the roster.
Also, positional scarcity should be considered in the draft. If it’s Superflex, for example, high-end QBs are scarce (as discussed), so maybe you take two QBs in the first four rounds. If it’s a start-3 WR league with PPR, wide receivers will go fast, so don’t get left with scraps at that position.
Always be aware of the player pool: if there’s a cliff tier at RB after a certain point, you may want to grab one before the drop-off. (We’ll cover tiers later in this series.) The key is being flexible – adopt a general strategy (win-now, youth, etc.) but adjust if the value falls to you.
Adopting a flexible draft strategy is how you get good at dynasty – the key is knowing when to shift from win-now to long-term and vice versa during the draft. Read the room and be willing to zigzag a bit; dynasty drafts are dynamic, and so your strategy should be too.