Five COVID-19 Discussion Topics for All Fantasy Leagues
On a normal year, OTAs and minicamps would be completed by now and we would be greatly anticipating training camps and all of the news that comes with them. Unfortunately, this isn’t a normal year, and I have a feeling there is a whole legion of curveballs waiting for us as we progress through the next few months. Nonetheless, as the old saying goes – the show must go on!
However, before your dynasty season begins, you and your leaguemates need to have a few discussions about the “what ifs” that could come our way. That way, you have a framework established just in case. As we all know, there are three possibilities for the 2020 NFL season:
1) The season goes from start to finish with only minor impacts
2) The season starts late and/or ends early
3) The season is cancelled
Each one of these three will have an impact on your fantasy league in varying ways, so here are five things you need to consider now with the rest of your league.
Discussion 1: COVID IR Slots
In both a full season and a partial season, there are going to be players who test positive for COVID-19 and miss some games. If that happens to be a double-digit number of players each and every week, it means fantasy teams could easily have multiple players who are unavailable. Your league needs a way to deal with this.
Some options include allowing players who test positive for COVID-19 to be put in your IR slots, allowing an unlimited number of players to be placed on IR, and allowing anyone who was on IR to be brought back to your active roster at any time. Personally, I’m in favor of having all three of these options put in place and probably a few others as well. Give owners the flexibility and tools to at least have a full roster during what will likely be a potentially frustrating season at times.
Discussion 2: “Opt-Out” Players
NFL players may well have the option to “opt-out” of the NFL season as a result of the pandemic. These could include players who have a pre-existing condition which puts them at higher risk, players with family concerns, or just players who are uncomfortable with the situation as a whole. Regardless of why they are opting out, your league needs to consider how to deal with them.
Do they stay on the active roster and eat up one of the roster spots? Can they be placed on IR for the year? Does something else occur with them? I don’t know how common players opting out of the NFL season will be, but the NBA had several players do it, so I’m guessing there will be at least a few in the NFL as well.
Discussion 3: League Payouts for a Shortened Season
If the league plays a full season or there isn’t a season at all, then the money end of things is pretty easy, in my opinion. Full season, payout as normal. No season, hold the money for next year. It there is only a part of a season, it gets a lot more interesting and everyone needs to be on board before things kick-off.
If you only have payouts for the playoff winners, what if the season stops suddenly and you don’t get to have playoffs? If you have payouts for regular season and playoffs, do you increase the regular season payouts or roll the playoff payments to next season? There really isn’t any right or wrong here, it is just something that your whole league needs to agree to before the season begins. You don’t want to mess with people’s money.
Discussion 4: 2021 Rookie Draft
If the NFL plays some or all of the season, the 2021 rookie draft goes on just like normal, though I would suggest you spend a little time double-checking your tiebreakers or adding them in if needed to help ensure there aren’t any issues with the draft order. The tricky part comes in if the NFL skips their entire season. There are some who are saying you just keep whatever the draft order was for 2020 and go with that. While that is definitely an option, I’m going to suggest something a little bit different.
If the 2020 NFL season is, in fact, cancelled, it makes for the perfect opportunity to do something a little more exciting with the 2021 rookie draft. Since you won’t have any 2020 standings to base the draft order on, I’m going to suggest you convert the 2021 rookie draft into a 2021 rookie auction. Auctions are much more fun in my opinion than drafts and it gives everyone the opportunity to build their own strategy and get whoever they want the most, so take advantage of the chance to switch your rookie draft into an auction.
If you are going the auction route, you just need to decide how many dollars each round of a draft pick is worth. For example, perhaps a first-round pick is worth $100, second-round is worth $40, third-round is worth $20, and a fourth-round if worth $10. If someone has two firsts and a third, then they get $220 for the rookie auction. Feel free to adjust the numbers as your league sees fit, but an auction could be the best and most fun way to go.
Discussion 5: Player Contracts (Contract Leagues only)
If you play in a salary cap and/or contract league, you have a whole other layer of concerns to worry about since time is more important in your league than a traditional dynasty league. If the 2020 NFL season does not occur, what happens to all of the contracts in your league? The two obvious choices are that all of the contracts advance one year just like they normally would or none of the contracts advance at all. However, I would advocate that if the 2020 NFL season is in fact cancelled, the best way to handle this would be to give owners the option to advance contracts or not on a player-by-player basis.
The reason I advocate to give owners the choice is there will definitely be some players who were signed to a shorter contract due to concerns about their age. For example, if someone signed a 28-year-old running back to a two-year deal, they signed them with the intent of no longer having them on their roster when they turned 30. On the flip side, if someone paid a premium for a high-priced rookie, throwing one of those years on that rookie deal away is unfairly penalizing that owner. Giving owners the option to advance one but not the other is the fairest way while also adding an element of strategy to the process.
That’s it for my shortlist of five topics your league needs to be discussing right now. I’m certain that there are more which need to be addressed as well, both specific to your individual league rules as well as items which are general enough that all leagues need to consider it. If you have anything you think leagues need to discuss, let’s help each other out and post those ideas in the comments.
Let’s cross our fingers that the entire 2020 NFL season can be played, but let’s make sure we are prepared in case it isn’t. Good luck with your discussions!
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- Final 2021 Pre-Draft Rookie Mock: Round One - April 25, 2021
