Dynasty Diaries: Every Move is Important
Welcome to dynasty diaries. In this series, I will give you an inside look at all of my teams, their history and my plans for the future. I’d like to provide some insight into struggles I’ve faced, and reveal weekly thoughts and feelings on anything and everything football. Join me as I succeed or crash and burn. For more information on the leagues, check out the introduction. If there is anything more you’d like to see or any questions you have, please let me know in the comments section.
We’ve really ramped up the content here at DLF over the weekend, and if you haven’t taken advantage of our Black Friday Cyber Monday Sale, I urge you to do so while you can. I thought now would be a great opportunity to share some thoughts from the dynasty diary as we approach crunch time in our leagues.
Have you ever scrolled through your league activity or received a notification email saying a free agent has been picked up and you are left wondering “how was he not on a roster?” and thinking he’d be a nice addition to your squad? Or do you see trades going down and think “I would have paid that price (or even more)”?
There are many stomach-dropping feelings in fantasy football (mostly during game time), but these are a couple that can be controlled – with hard work, an understanding of your league and perhaps most importantly; constant activity. Is there anything you can do right now or could have done this week to improve your prospects both in the short-term and long-term? You know the answer.
One thing we, as dynasty owners tend to do (and must do) is look way ahead into the future. We’re preparing for the 2017 draft, looking at this off-season’s free agents and even looking as far ahead as the 2018 class. However, in that we can overlook the waiver wire, where you still have a chance to make moves now to help the future. While the hot rookie names are the most exciting to talk about, I thought I’d go back over some moves that have been more game-changing for my dynasty teams than those rookie picks – the not-so-glamorous free agent pickups.
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The Leagues
International Dynasty League (7-4)
Notable free agents recently added:
- Spencer Ware
- Christine Michael
- Tyreek Hill
- Breshad Perriman
Spencer Ware has been the poster boy for ‘Zero-RB’ this year, settling in nicely to the Chiefs’ starting role with Jamaal Charles unable to return to full health. Like many other owners I’m sure, I was able to acquire Ware from waivers towards the end of last year and have benefited hugely. Michael is another who was free almost everywhere (in this league I drafted him in the startup, and had already cut him and dropped him in the past), but had enough production early in the year to really make a difference. While he ultimately ended up where I thought he would in losing out to Rawls, his points have made a huge difference. Hill and Perriman have not become weekly starters, but have both on-field and trade potential.
These pickups were all made by scouring the wire and projecting the future (as well as a bit of good timing). Players who were high draft picks, players who are becoming free agents this year, or players who are likely to see a starter ahead of them move on are always high on the list of additions. Who are the players in those situations you could pick up now to replace your roster cloggers? Who are those on your team, when you really think about it, who don’t offer much more upside than a bye week fill-in?
Notable free agents recently added:
- Adam Thielen
Every league is different, and sometimes either you miss out or the pickings are too slim. In this 16-team league, the waivers are thin, but the depth also means I was forced to start Thielen and he’s been great. I’ve definitely tried to add some useful depth from the free agent pool (Thielen, Jeremy Kerley, Bryce Treggs, Jacob Tamme and Trey Burton) but the likelihood is if someone will score points, they are already on a roster.
While it doesn’t make life easier with ultra-thin waivers, it can make those pickups even more important. Or perhaps, it means trading and drafting is more important, depending on how you look at it. If you are in a deep league, have you made every move possible to improve the end of your roster? Knowing I can’t find anyone else, I’m more likely to make some trades and move some pieces to build depth another way.
Notable free agents recently added:
- Jalen Richard
- Terrance West
- Larry Fitzgerald (FA Auction)
- Steve Smith (FA Auction)
- Adam Thielen
- Vernon Davis
I was honored and overjoyed to end the regular season as conference champion and highest point scorer in KS3 this year. And a huge part of it was my approach to the free agent auction. Every team starts the year (before the FA auction) with $1000 to bid or trade. As the free agent auction was approaching, I took a hard look at last year’s players who were picked up from the wire, and looked ahead to what talent level would be available this year. I realized there wouldn’t be a chance to get a player with the ceiling of Larry Fitzgerald, and was also willing to take a gamble on Steve Smith (if anyone could come back from an Achilles injury at age 37, it would be him). I won Fitzgerald for $441 of the $1000 (the most expensive free agent), and Smith for $50. The other (less successful) acquisitions at the time were Danny Amendola ($15), A.J. McCarron ($20) and Tyler Kroft ($2).
While this only left me with $472 for the year, there haven’t been too many opportunities to blow that budget on any ‘star’. There have been some expensive blind bidding waiver wins this year (Christine Michael for $101 and Cameron Meredith for $100), but every other notable name was cheap, but simply timed well. Kenny Britt ($0), Terrance West ($12) and Jacquizz Rodgers ($3) have been perhaps the most influential free agents this season, and they cost next to nothing.
It’s so deeply important to know your leagues and landscape, because you can only play what’s in front of you. While we give advice for many different types of leagues here, your success in your own will be a lot to do with understanding the rules and rosters, and how best to maximize your chances of creating a stronger team.
With that in mind, whether it’s your first dynasty year of your fifth, are you prepared for life after the season? Do you know which players you are retaining, and which you might let go? Have you looked at other rosters and asked the same question? How does the standard of the free agent class compare to the standard of the rookie class? And ultimately, what can you do now to prepare for it?
Notable free agents recently added:
- Sam Bradford
- Tim Hightower
- Spencer Ware
- Josh Doctson
- Mohamed Sanu
- Terrelle Pryor
- Adam Thielen
- Gary Barnidge
- Jack Doyle
If you have read the first piece in this series, you’d know this team needed a huge amount of work, and a huge amount of work is what I’ve put in to turn things around. At the moment, I’m sitting at the top of a tightly-contested conference and am definitely over-performing. While it would have been perhaps a wiser option at the beginning of the year to throw in the towel and plan ahead, I actually consider every year an opportunity to sneak a win. Fantasy football is unpredictable, fortune favors the active, and importantly; this is a ten-team league.
As for the players, I’ve been extremely bold to develop this team. Last off-season, I blew the full $1000 of my free agency money on Bradford after he signed in Philadelphia, but this year I’ve been more methodical to build a much stronger squad. I added Sanu early in September ($11), Ware shortly after ($78) and followed up with a huge bid of $514 for Pryor after week three. While this was only his first big game, he’d shown in preseason how special he could be and has been worth every penny. Most recently, Hightower was won on the wire for $41.
You’re probably wondering how Josh Doctson ended up on the waiver wire. For reasons unknown to me, one owner gave up on the rookie. I know it’s absurd, but it’s a lesson in 1.) you never know what the other owners in you league are thinking and 2.) know your rules. Because Doctson was cut, he was ‘locked’ which meant no blind bids were allowed. I set an alarm, and got him on a first come, first served basis. I’m sure every league has their crazy stories like this, and while I knew it was mad, I still took advantage. (P.s. I would love to hear any of these whacky stories.)
So what can you take from this?
Whether you are a title favorite this year, or seemingly too far away to imagine competing, every move counts. As Brian Malone convincingly suggests, bad teams can compete for a title but they have to fight for it. Good teams have to fight to stay good, as we know how quickly things change in this game we love. If you want to ensure you succeed at the end of this year and moving forward, take the time now to evaluate every single roster spot and ask yourself – are there moves I can make?
Remember to:
- Stay active
- Spend time every week looking at the free agents available
- Know your free agency and waiver wire rules!
- Know which players on your team are expendable
- Look at rosters from every team in the league to compare the quality of the end of their rosters
- Know which NFL players will become free agents next year and who that will affect
- If in a contract league, look ahead to your expiring FAs and importantly, look at soon-to-be FAs on other teams
Any of these will help, but just know that all the time you spend now making moves for your dynasty team could be largely important in your future success – don’t hesitate to get your head down.
I’d love to hear your best free agents moves and acquisitions over the years – please do share them in the comments.
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As well as editing for DLF, James writes for Sky Sports and can be found on Twitter at @JS_Football
- 2022 Rookie Class: An Early Look at Kenny Pickett, QB Pittsburgh - January 31, 2022
- Dynasty Fantasy Football Rookie Update: Quez Watkins, WR PHI - July 15, 2020
- Dynasty Fantasy Football Rookie Update: John Hightower, WR PHI - July 7, 2020
