The NFL is becoming more popular during the offseason months. With a very interesting news cycle centered around free agency and the NFL draft, fans are always tapped in to see how teams are building their squads up to win Championships. Fans are constantly intrigued by how teams are building themselves as NFL Twitter is always commenting on the reports of the biggest signings and trades. A big reason the NFL is becoming bigger is the emergence of Fantasy Football. In 2019 there were 45.9 million people playing Fantasy Football (Via Statista).
Fantasy Football gives us a smaller-scale chance to build a team a try to compete for Championships against our friends, family, and co-workers. With the growth of the Dynasty Format, it gives us the ability to follow the NFL offseason and react in a way that can change our teams with free agent news or other moves and additions. Dynasty is a way to create a sense of team-building with a long term strategy. Retaining all the players gives you the options to stash some young players you believe can break-out when given the opportunity or you can offload some players for more picks in the Rookie Draft.
The most interesting and exciting part of Dynasty is gauging value to see what each player is worth in trades. Each Manager should try to get ahead of players’ breakouts and declines. You need to be able to see how Player A has an opportunity to become a bigger part of his team’s offense and, in part become more valuable for fantasy. Every year we see players breakout and become consistent producers. If you were a year or two early on that prediction could have paid off huge. In 2019 DeVante Parker was playing in this 5th NFL season and looked like he wasn’t meeting the expectations we had for him once Miami took him in the first round of the NFL draft. If you noticed that he still had a ton of talent, a QB change to Ryan Fitzpatrick, and an escape from an Adam Gase lead team you could have taken a low-risk chance and acquired Parker for a 3rd round pick. Noticing these things isn’t easy but you need to take the risks if you want to win. This is the same with NFL teams. Look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they just won Super Bowl LV by signing Tom Brady who has never been with another franchise before as well as Leonard Fournette and Antonio Brown who were low-risk players who become huge parts of their success. Risks are part of the game and if you can hit on one of those risky transactions it can change the whole trajectory of your team.
It’s always harder to identify a player’s downfall. Just 2 years ago Todd Gurley was on top of the fantasy radar. Going as a top 10 pick and costing a huge haul in trades only to be on his way to being a big name in a terrible Falcons committee this season. Injuries are a big part of his downfall but they were always an issue with him but people put that aside because he was putting up huge numbers. If you traded him away for a package of 2 first-round picks, those two picks could have turned into star RB’s and WR’s all while getting ahead of the nasty Gurley downfall that we’re seeing now.
When retaining your whole rosters the Rookie Draft becomes a huge deal. Some people decide to go all-in on veterans and trade away picks to acquire known talent and some do the total opposite. With so much unknown about how these players will fare in the NFL, each pick is of utmost importance. What do players like James Robinson, Kenny Golladay, Josh Allen, and Chris Godwin have in common? They were all 3rd round or undrafted players by ADP in their respective Fantasy Rookie drafts (via Fantasy Football Calculator). With so much riding on the Rookie Draft, College Football becomes so much more interesting. Of course, you know about the Trevor Lawrence and Najee Harris tiered players but the ones that can win you a title are the ones you will need to do some digging for. The Combine (which was canceled this year due to COVID-19) and Pro Days are where you can spot talent and the NFL Draft is where we can see if that talent will translate to opportunity. In Fantasy Football opportunity is everything. The clearer the path to carries or targets usually means the clearer the path to fantasy relevance. If you can get ahead of the research by watching college football you can see who has real talent or who is a product of their college system. In conclusion to all of that working with Draft picks is a gamble but if you put in the time to do some research on some of the lesser named players you can spot a value late in your draft that can provide you with a solid player that can produce at a high level for your team.
There are many ways to play Fantasy Football but with Dynasty, Fantasy Football is more than 4 months of competing with your league mates and trash-talking on Sundays. It’s become a year-round commitment to building up your roster and trying to become a real contender and potentially a Dynasty.
We would love to hear your opinions on anything Sports related! You can find us on twitter @TheUpsidePlay. Follow us for more Fantasy Football News and Advice and all the biggest news as they happen!
Cover Photo: Hannah Foslien/ Getty Images
Intro Photo: Allen Rubenstien/ StripeHype.com
Yorumlar