Calling a Taxi

TheFFGhost

taxi

One of the unique features of dynasty fantasy football is the concept of a “taxi squad.” The concept of a taxi squad revolves around a collection of “not quite roster spots” (usually between four and eight) where an owner can essentially stash rookies while they develop without taking up valuable roster spots that could be used for immediate contributors. While some leagues avoid implementing the feature, by and large, most dynasty leagues have some version of a taxi squad. The concept has grown in popularity significantly in recent years as the dynasty fantasy football audience has become better informed and more refined. While the fantasy game has continued to redefine itself and increase in competitiveness as a whole, the taxi squad has been largely overlooked when discussions about strategy occur. Such an important and useful tool absolutely needs to be discussed more often.

Fantasy football, especially dynasty fantasy football, is all about having options. Options, you might say, are the life blood of any successful franchise. The more options you have, the more ways you have to win. The fact the concept of a taxi squad has been so poorly covered is a travesty. Arguably the most important enhancement to the dynasty fantasy football game, in terms of flexibility, the taxi squad should have ton and tons of articles focusing on it. Sadly, this often overlooked feature is regularly an afterthought both with fantasy owners and experts alike.

That ends now.

First, a bit of history and background on the concept of a taxi squad. “Why is it even called a taxi squad,” was one of my first questions about this topic. “Where in the world did that name even come from?” Well, that in itself is an interesting story.

The founder of the Cleveland Browns, Arthur McBride, was a very wealthy man during his lifetime. He made a lot of money in various business, one of which was a taxi cab company. As it turns out, if one of the players in his employment was injured or was kept on the roster for depth, he would put them to work driving taxis – this is where the term taxi squad comes from.

While players on the taxi squad are no longer put to work with a second job, much of the idea remains. Players, largely rookies, are placed on the taxi squad if they aren’t quite good enough to make the standard roster and instead are set aside, on a separate collection of quasi-roster spots. These players may not play in a game unless they are called up to the active roster. In a large percentage of fantasy football leagues, a player may not return to the taxi squad once they have been called up to the active roster. Clearly, calling a player up to the active roster is a big decision as you can potentially lose two options, something which I mentioned earlier is the life blood of any successful franchise. The first option you lose if call a player up from the taxi squad is a player on your current roster if you are at the roster limit (as a side note, you should always be at your roster limit as it presents more options, flexibility and a greater chance of taking at advantage of a potential breakout player). The only time you should not be cutting a player from your active roster is if a roster slot frees up due to an injury. The second option you lose if the ability to take full advantage of your taxi squad slots. Therefore, with such a big decision, one must weigh the decision very carefully.

Before I continue, let me relate to you just how important a taxi squad can be to your fantasy squad. Two years ago, I took over a team in complete disarray. I had a very high draft pick, but very little chance of winning that season. I took AJ Green and stashed him away. The next season I took Robert Griffin III and was later able to get Josh Gordon and stash him on my taxi squad as well. I obtained Trent Richardson later via a trade and hit the waiver for players with lots of potential such as Danny Amendola and several IDP players who are just now budding. This season, I’m moving the taxi squad players onto my active roster and now have an incredibly competitive team.

Any taxi squad promotion should not be taken lightly as the decision to promote a player or keep him on your taxi squad can dramatically change the trajectory of your team.  The following ten considerations must be made when making this decision:

  1. Will the player you are moving up crack your starting lineup this season?
  2. Is this player better than all the players on the waivers at this position?
  3. Is the position the player in question plays even a required starting position?
  4. Will winning the remaining games matter?
  5. Is this an emergency where waivers aren’t running and there is a minimum roster count?
  6. Can other owners raid your taxi squad?
  7. Is there a limit on how long a player can stay on the taxi squad and is this time now up for this player?
  8. Has this player been cut?
  9. Is this player injured?
  10. If this is a salary cap league, does moving this player up improve your salary position?

Consider those your Ten Taxi Squad Commandments. If you answered “no” to any of these questions, you need to very seriously consider your potential move. If you answered “yes” to all of these questions (or at the very least, no less than nine of these ten), it is very likely the move you are considering is a good move for your team. The reasoning for each of these questions is as follows:

  1. If the player has no chance of cracking your starting lineup, you aren’t going to see any kind of advantage by promoting them. Doing so simply removes another player from those possible of breaking out for you.
  2. If there is a better short or long term player available on waivers then grab him. It would make no sense to promote a player with less potential at any point in the playing spectrum, from short to long term, if a better player exists for you to take advantage of.
  3. If the position the player plays at isn’t even required, it most likely makes more sense to keep them on the taxi squad. Moving a non-essential player up to the active roster achieves nothing.
  4. If there is no way to get into the money than the simple, harsh reality is moving a player up to the active roster might actually harm the long term viability of your team. As much as we like to think this is close to running an NFL franchise, in reality it isn’t. Moving a player up to the active roster doesn’t get them experience or playing time. Leaving a player on the taxi squad in these situations is, strategically speaking, the right choice.
  5. Some leagues require a minimum number of startable players (e.g. not injured) on an owner’s active roster. If one of your active roster players has suddenly become injured, cut from their team or otherwise unable to play, the taxi squad can be turned to as a last resort. The situation in which this may occur is if waivers have either already run or are not running at that point when one of your active roster players becomes unstartable.
  6. Some leagues allow taxi squads to be raided by other owners in much the same way the NFL allows teams to pluck players from another team’s practice squad provided that player is moved to the active roster of the raiding team. If your league runs its taxi squad this way, your hand may be forced by another team. If this situation occurs, you must consider if the player in question plays into either the short term plans of your team if it is in a “win now” mode or the long term goals of your team if it is in a “rebuilding” mode.
  7. Many leagues have a limit on how long any one player may spend on the taxi squad. If the player in question has reached this limit, you have a tough decision to make – does this player help your team or have they just not proven that they have a bright enough future ahead of them to be useful on your roster?
  8. Cuts are a part of football and we are about to enter the prime season for player cuts. Sometimes a rookie just doesn’t work out or other times a second year player is now playing for a different coaching staff than the one who drafted him. That staff has no ties to the player and sometimes that coaching staff is looking to clean house. If the player in question has been cut, it is not always a bad thing – they may find a more suitable or even beneficial situation so beware of cutting that player too quickly. However, the longer a player goes without a team the less likely he is to be worth your taxi squad spot.
  9. I’m in may leagues where injured players may not be on your taxi squad. If you’re in a league like this, the choice of moving the player off your taxi squad may be out of your control. If the rules governing your taxi squad are flexible, this bit of misfortune might be an opportunity as well. If you can move a player from your taxi squad to the injured reserve, it could potentially free up a taxi squad spot for a rookie you could grab off of waivers. Again, each league runs their taxi squad differently, so refer to your league’s rules before attempting this, but if such a move is allowed, at least there is some modicum of a silver lining in the unfortunate situation.
  10. Salary leagues require considerations on many different levels. Say you have a tight end who paid a substantial amount for, let’s call it $8 million for two years. Maybe that player didn’t perform as you had expected last season. Many leagues allow for “buying out” a player’s contract, so in this scenario your team would take a $4 million hit in order to cut this player. Many of these leagues also have set amounts for rookies based on what pick they were taken with. Let’s say you took a rookie tight end in the first round and the set salary for that round/pick was one million dollars for a four year contract. If you buy out the player currently on your roster for $4 million and promote the taxi squad player, you will have effectively freed up $3 million in cap space. If you are hurting for cap space and/or the players are comparable in performance, this move makes a lot of sense.

A huge part of dynasty fantasy football is superior roster management. You can have an incredible team, but if you aren’t managing your roster well, you very well may not be successful, or at the very least less successful than you could potentially be. Conversely, a team with good to excellent roster management skills could net themselves an extra win or two during the length of a season. A huge, but often misunderstood or underutilized, aspect of proper roster management is the taxi squad, learn it, love it, use it! I cannot overemphasize just how important taxi squad management can be to the long term success of a dynasty franchise. Mismanagement would lead to your team lacking players to depend on in the future. Successful management could ensure that your team is making you money for many years to come, kind of like those first players hired to drive taxis were doing for Arthur McBride.