How to Manage a Loaded Dynasty Team
For successful dynasty owners, from time to time, the question of how to manage your loaded team comes to mind. Let’s face it, this is an excellent problem to have, but it can be a problem nonetheless.
I’ve been playing fantasy sports since 1997, but have only been playing dynasty football since 2013. Over that time, I’ve won multiple championships in every sport, but nothing is as satisfying as building a dominant dynasty team. I am in no way the world’s greatest dynasty owner, but I’ve been lucky enough to put together a few squads that have been in contention for championships for a few years in a row.
I’ll walk you through my thought process on what to do with your loaded teams, and give you a couple of options that you can kick the tires on going forward. It’s hard to climb to the top of the mountain, and it’s even harder to stay there.
Stack Rookie Picks
One of my favorite strategies in dynasty is to identify draft classes I like two or three years in advance and get as many picks as possible as early as possible in those years. Unless you’re in leagues with very knowledgeable devy owners or huge college football fans, you can gain a massive edge buy being slightly ahead of the curve on rookies.
For example, in 2015 I started doing everything I could to acquire 2017 picks in bulk across all my leagues. I sacrificed my entire 2016 draft to make it happen and was throwing aging veterans into trades to get a pick one round higher. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but the 2016 class has proven to be fairly “meh” across the board, and 2017 is shaping up to be a monstrous fantasy producer.
The 2017 draft produced Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey, Joe Mixon, Dalvin Cook, Alvin Kamara, Kareem Hunt, Aaron Jones, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kenny Golladay, OJ Howard, David Njoku, Deshaun Watson, Mitchell Trubisky, and Patrick Mahomes. Those are just the prominent names, but the entire draft is littered with fantasy producers. Nick Chubb was also draft eligible but chose to stay in school. The point is: if you get it right, and you’re accumulating picks in a big year for fantasy, you’re setting your team up for a solid run for a few years.
The 2019 class was supposed to be a great wide receiver class. After a few of the more prominent stars chose to return to school, and several of the other “names” in this class saw their NFL draft stock plummet, things aren’t looking so good in 2019 rookie drafts.
Next year, however, the 2020 class is reaching astronomical hype levels. You’re not getting any discounts on those picks anymore like you could have last October. You’re not going to get it right 100% of the time, but if you gamble on the right draft classes, you can keep your already loaded team fully loaded. Go get those 2020 picks!
With the team below, I took the future draft pick moves to the extreme. With the second-best record last year, I felt this year’s draft class could do very little to make me better. By moving back and getting other owners to throw in their 2020 picks in deals, I now have eight picks in next year’s four-round draft, with seven likely to be in the top 30 and multiple firsts.
Move Some Pieces
Below is one of my better rosters. As you can see, there is a substantial 2017 draft presence. It’s a 12-team, standard scoring league that starts one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, and one tight end with two non-QB flex positions.
Last year, this team had the best record, and most points scored in my league but lost in the championship game. I won the title in 2017 while having the second-best record and second most points scored. I have quite a bit of star power and youth, and this team should be in contention for a title for the next two-plus seasons as constructed. What to do?
Only starting two receivers, I had the depth and flexibility to move a player during my rookie draft and gain a 2020 pick in the process. Being non-PPR, and hoping to move a player a year or two too early instead of a year or two too late, I moved Julian Edelman during my rookie draft. I was also able to move Doug Martin to the Josh Jacobs owner for a late pick, which enabled me to draft Ryquell Armstead to handcuff Leonard Fournette. Neither player was going to play a significant role on my team outside of a flex play, so it was easy to move them.
I also steadily traded back during my rookie draft, and now I have a young, competitive team and a stockpile of 2020 picks (two firsts, a second, three thirds and one fourth) who can help me compete for another three years.
One thing to be careful about when trading players away from your loaded team: You don’t want to turn a strength into a weakness. Be sure you have enough depth remaining to cover yourself in the event of at least two season-ending losses. I saw a team enter last season with Hunter Henry, Trey Burton and Evan Engram at tight end before trading away Burton and Engram during the pre-season. Once Henry was lost to a season-ending injury, the team went from three good tight ends to zero. You need to be careful not to cut yourself too short, even on loaded teams.
Blow It Up
If you like a challenge, this may be the option for you. It’s been my experience, that in leagues with stacked teams, other owners are easily discouraged. You may need to break your team up to keep the league alive. If you’ve already managed to win multiple championships and you’ve essentially covered your league entry fees for the next decade with winnings, this is one of the less popular options at your disposal. If you have a few orphan teams, throw your roster into the dispersal draft. For many fantasy players, drafting is the most fun part of the process, why not find yourself a reason to get into another draft.
You may be able to take some risks and make trades you might not otherwise have been able to pull the trigger on previously. Maybe there are certain players you have no shares of, and this will give you an opportunity to overpay for them. Perhaps you’ve had a running back heavy roster for a few years; now you can experiment with roster and lineup construction and try to flip your team to a more balanced lineup or go heavy wide receiver. With championship money in your pocket, you have the luxury of testing yourself as a dynasty owner and challenging yourself to get better and find new ways to win and build winning lineups.
With the below roster, I’ve secured the best record in each of the last two seasons, including an undefeated 13-0 last year. Sadly, I lost the championship by .21 points on a stat correction, but the team was the highest scoring team in 8 of 13 regular season weeks and outscored the second-highest scoring team by over 200 points. I don’t want to blow this roster up, but there are few options to improve it with my late 2019 draft picks.
My initial thoughts are to sell high where I can and move Patrick Mahomes, James Conner, and James White all coming off career seasons. I’d probably try to move Tyreek Hill also, but with his off the field concerns I’m looking at a sell low situation. Jarvis Landry may also be a trade away candidate for me. With the addition of Odell Beckham Jr, it’s likely that Landry- a volume dependent receiver- is going to see his volume dip significantly in 2019.
Is that a complete team deconstruction? No. However, by moving Mahomes, Conner, White, Hill, and Landry I can accumulate enough picks down the road to reload in 2020 and 2021 as the rest of my still competitive roster ages.
Do Nothing
It’s the least exciting option, but this is always a possibility. If you have a loaded, productive dynasty team, just sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. If your team has a solid mix of youth and veteran players, and you can steadily replace your aging vets with new blood via your rookie drafts, there really isn’t much for you to do. You can slowly cruise along and keep your team in the hunt each year.
I find this to be the most risk-free path to travel, but fortune favors the bold and if your not making some moves at some point, your team can age out quickly and find itself going from first to last in a hurry. Rookie picks are far from a sure thing, and as your team gets older, one or two bad drafts can sink you. It’s easy to float along, but don’t forget that a boat adrift will occasionally run aground, so keep your eyes on the horizon and don’t be afraid to pivot to another strategy if doing nothing seems to be failing.
There are many ways to build and maintain winning dynasty rosters. Having a successful, loaded dynasty team that you’ve created from your initial start-up draft can be very rewarding. Seeing the wins pile up week after week is a great feeling and collecting your winnings at the end of the season can be an even better feeling. One of the only problems when your team has reached its pinnacle, is trying to keep it there. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer regarding how to keep your successful teams successful, but hopefully, I was able to give you a few options to explore that I’ve successfully employed over the years.
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