My Beginner’s Guide to Reality Sports Online
Prior to the 2016 season, in my never-ending quest to ensure that 100% of my “free time” is allocated to fantasy football, I had the opportunity to join the Reality Sports Online (RSO) staff league. The previous season, I participated in what amounted to a test run on the RSO platform with some other DLF writers and really enjoyed the unique format (more details below) and more realistic contract parameters than other sites offer. Given its unique approach to drafting and roster management, which necessitates a different strategy than even standard contract dynasty leagues, I realized it could be beneficial to share my experience as a long-term dynasty player trying this new format.
The RSO platform was designed by former NFL front office personnel to emulate the operations of a NFL franchise (thankfully, in a more condensed and time-efficient manner than the real thing). In the Auction room, each owner takes turns selecting a player for the league to bid on. Keeping in mind that there are a limited number of two-, three- and four-year contracts each team can give to free agents, owners offer contracts to the player currently up for bid. Contract length and average annual salary are inversely related, meaning a longer contract provides some salary relief annually (albeit with more guaranteed money).
An extremely beneficial feature is that once I reached the maximum for a certain number of contract years, the site automatically grays out that option so I didn’t have to worry about keeping track of it. Further, while it is a sophisticated contract format, RSO recalculates the contract options as the bids increase so the user can focus on their own strategies rather than specifically what dollar amount to bid.
The Auction room is the feature that differentiates the RSO platform from the others we have all used, and once I got the hang of it I really enjoyed the strategy behind it. The room and format took a little getting used to, so I was glad to have had exposure in my previous draft so I knew what to expect. Before jumping into the platform, I’d recommend joining a free mock here, where you can try between 8 and 16 team formats.
Having provided context for the league, I’ll provide context for my roster heading into the rookie draft. Following a relatively successful inaugural season in which I earned the 1.09 rookie draft pick, the majority of my roster entered free agency. The exceptions were Aaron Rodgers (signed through 2019), Corey Coleman (2018), Eric Decker (2018), Sammy Watkins (2018), Demaryius Thomas (2017) and DeVante Parker (2017). Lineup requirements in this particular league are 1-QB, 2-RB, 2-WR, 1-TE and 2-flex (one of which can be a QB), and given the superflex format I gave Jameis Winston the franchise tag to keep him under contract for 2017.
Heading into the offseason with more than half of my $167,000,000 salary cap available (a total equal to that in the NFL), I agreed to acquire Mark Ingram’s remaining contract in a salary dump effort for his previous team (his 2017 contract is more than a 10% hit against the cap). While the additions of Adrian Peterson in free agency and Alvin Kamara in the draft have decreased Ingram’s perceived fantasy value, in a start-2 RB league where the majority of the best running backs are already under contract I decided to add the risk on a one-year deal. This was my roster entering the 2017 rookie draft.
Having acquired the 1.03 rookie pick (along with Brandon Marshall on a one-year contract) for Todd Gurley (on a four-year contract) during the 2016 season, I had two of the top nine rookie picks to work with. I had traded my second-round pick with Greg Olsen (on a one-year contract) for Corey Coleman (on a three-year contract), so I didn’t have any second-round picks.
Given the combination of lineup requirements and team need, I recognized early that I needed to target at least one running back in the draft. I no longer had the most cap space in the league to comfortably overpay for Jordan Howard, Jay Ajayi or one of the running backs in the next tier, so I knew I had to find some cheap talent at that position in the draft.
Rookies are awarded slotted four year contracts, with the top rookie in 2017 earning over $30 million over the course of the deal (including nearly $6.7 million in the first year, and increasing annually). In the rookie draft room (which is different from the Auction room), Corey Davis went first overall to earn the largest paycheck with Leonard Fournette selected second to take home a cool $28.5 million, over $6.27 million in 2017 alone. Neither selection was surprising as I had already seen this duo taken at the top of several previous dynasty (non-contract league) rookie drafts, though I was a little surprised to see the wide receiver taken first with all players receiving only four-year contracts.
Although I considered making the 1.03 pick available in a trade, with Christian McCaffrey available to fill a major need on my roster I chose to hold onto it and make the Carolina running back the third player off the board. I considered this a great value in a PPR league that requires at least two running backs in the lineup.
In order, the next five picks were Joe Mixon, Dalvin Cook, Mike Williams, O.J. Howard and Kareem Hunt. Overall, these selections mirrored those in many dynasty leagues, which was somewhat surprising given the short-term contracts and nature of some positions to develop more slowly than others. Of course, with variables such as contract dollars, team needs, lineup requirements and a deep waiver pool for a ten team league (not to mention the franchise tags available) there are many ways to strategize for roster construction.
With my assumption that I should lean running back when everyone is getting a four year contract, I passed on John Ross, Evan Engram and David Njoku to buy some Ingram insurance with Alvin Kamara. Even with Adrian Peterson also in the fold, Ingram should get the bulk of the work with Kamara battling (and I anticipate overtaking) Travaris Cadet for the third-down role. When Ingram’s contract runs out with both the New Orleans Saints and Ice Cold Bruschis after 2017, and Peterson is on his way out of the NFL, I will have Kamara signed for three more years.
Interestingly, Kamara proved to be the final running back taken in the two-round rookie draft. A run on wide receivers (Ross, Juju Smith-Schuster and Chris Godwin) was followed with the tight end duo of Engram and Njoku, then the quarterbacks started flying off the board. Pat Mahomes, Mitchell Trubisky and Deshaun Watson were drafted, with DeShone Kizer then sandwiched between Zay Jones and Curtis Samuel to complete the draft. Some of the selections were surprising to me, but as an RSO novice swimming with the sharks it was a good opportunity to learn new strategies.
The dynasty landscape is still young, but has been continuously evolving with more complex scoring, expanded roster and lineup settings, superflex, developmental players, and so forth. We like trying new ways of making this game more realistic and strategic, and RSO takes this to the next level. Parts two and three of this series will be available later this summer, previewing the free agent auction draft as well as a recap with my assessments of each of the ten teams and their strategies.
In the meantime, feel free to comment below or message me @JLFoster10 on Twitter with any questions or comments.
- Dynasty Capsule: Jacksonville Jaguars - February 5, 2018
- My Beginner’s Guide to Reality Sports Online - May 12, 2017
- The DLF Mailbag - February 24, 2017
