The DLF Dynasty Fantasy Football Mailbag
Hey, loyal Dynasty League Football universe. I’ll be answering your mailbag questions this off-season and couldn’t be more excited to do so. The off-season is when dynasty league managers get to sit back and relax.
Wait. That’s completely incorrect.
The off-season is when we refine our strategies, look back at the past year, the year to come, and everything in between. With camps opening across the NFL this past week, all our questions have more urgency with the season in sight.
Who's got questions for the next @DLFootball mailbag? You always bring the heat so don't fail me now.
— (((Shanesays))) (@ShaneIsTheWorst) July 24, 2022
Going forward, you can send your questions to the DLF mailbag. Let’s dig in!
Any advice on how to decide between blowing up the team for a full rebuild and trading away a key piece or two for a a coiple quality picks and trying a short-term refresh?
— FootballDingus (@lacesout69) July 24, 2022
Most of the time your roster should tell you whether you need to blow it up and rebuild, or if you should instead try to go for broke. One point I would like to make is that a rebuild should not be indefinite. Set a time frame on when you want to have a contending roster if you do decide to blow things up. Every trade you make should be made with that time frame in mind.
Too often dynasty managers enter a rebuild with no real thought as to when they want the rebuild to end. Don’t be the manager in a perpetual state of trading players for future picks every year. At some point, you need to show some conviction on actual players. I enter every rebuild with the intention of competing in two years’ time, for example, if I’m entering a rebuild on 7/30/2022 then come 7/30/2024 I want to be in a position to contend.
Determining whether your roster is in need of a rebuild versus a refresh should be simple enough. Here are some questions you need to ask yourself: How many elite starters do you have compared to starting roster spots? If you are playing in a superflex league, do you have elite quarterbacks? And if not elite, at least young quarterbacks with the upside to be elite (Trey Lance, Justin Fields, or Jalen Hurts)? How many players could you lose off your roster due to injury and still compete? Do you have enough elite players that you can tier down at a position (the old CeeDee Lamb for Tee Higgins + deal) and still compete? Do you already own extra rookie picks that will allow you to buy during the season if your team is performing well?
Sorry to answer a question with so many questions, but this is the exercise you should undertake when deciding how to move forward with your roster.
https://twitter.com/JopRipler/status/1551293197871190018?s=20&t=9lv7yahrxykOTENhZbDnwA
With the parity of the 2022 draft class and the expectations many of us hold for the 2023 class, it’s fair to wonder if it’s worth it to trade away 2022 second-round rookie picks for 2023 second-round rookie picks. As a DLF subscriber, there are a couple of tools we can use to determine whether this is a good idea. Utilizing the Dynasty Trade Analyzer app we can look at several variations of the above trade to get an understanding of the value of these picks.
One note, the settings for this deal are a 12-team, superflex league. The analyzer gives the slightest of edges to a 2023 pick compared to the 2.01 of this class.
When we assume the 2023 pick is a mid-round pick then 2022 2.01 holds a significant advantage.
Finally, a late 2023 second-rounder is worth slightly more than half of the 2.01 (50.9% to be exact for my pedantic friends).
I agree with the analyzer when it comes to trading the 2.01 for an early 2023 second-rounder, you should make that deal every day of the week while holding onto the 2.01 for what looks to be late 2023 second-rounders.
Where the analyzer and I part ways is the analyzer doesn’t agree that you should trade the 2.01 for 2023 mid-round second-rounders. The analyzer is limited by not being able to account for human emotion (oddly enough I was accused of this same thing in marriage counseling), and the desire many fantasy managers will have to get into the 2023 class at all costs.
Acquiring 2023 first-round picks is going to be near impossible in some leagues, so holding second-rounders may be more fruitful for you in the short or long term. If forced to make those 2023 second picks, you should be able to get a good prospect all the way through 2.06 of the 2023 class. If you are contending in 2022 then you’ll have a finite asset to trade for win-now production. You can also use that 2023 pick in order to tier up at a position, as evidenced by some of the trades located using the DLF Trade Finder app.
So if Rojo gets cut, and CEH isn’t getting it done, who is the guy to own in KC?
— corkfootball (@corkfootball1) July 24, 2022
This question caught my attention for a couple of reasons. The first is that it’s a good reminder to not believe everything you read coming out of camp. Be discerning with where you get your reports about teams. In the span of a few days, there was a report that Ronald Jones might not make the Chiefs final roster, and a reporter touting him as a starting candidate by mid-season. 
Make sure when you’re reading camp news, that you are taking in objective and not subjective reports. You want to know which players are running with the ones and the twos and why, but fade news that indicates how a player “looked” in those reps unless the quote is coming directly from the coaches or fellow players.
Last week, there was much ado about Miles Sanders practicing with the backups while Kenneth Gainwell and Boston Scott ran with the ones, and that news was widely shared on Twitter. But what was less shared was head coach Nick Sirianni’s explanation as to why and his assertion that “Miles is our guy”. It’s important to follow camp news, just make sure you don’t overreact.
Specific to this question, if Ronald Jones were cut for some reason, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire continues to show that he’s not ‘the guy’, this is not a backfield I would want to invest in. Based on the cost of acquisition, and the fact that Isiah Pacheco doesn’t carry the injury risk of Jerick McKinnon, I would prefer Pacheco. Pacheco is blazing fast, with a 98th percentile speed score after burning a 4.37-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. At 5’10” and 215 lbs. he has the perfect size to maintain a three-down role, showing to be slightly above average as a pass-catcher during, and in Total Dominator rating during his best season at Rutgers. 
Considering the fact that McKinnon and Pacheco are basically free in most leagues, whichever you prefer is fine with me, but I prefer Pacheco for the reasons stated above. I have no interest in Derrick Gore, even if he did flash a couple of times in 2021.
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