Last week, Renee introduced the Franchise League Football format of dynasty fantasy football (FLF). Today she digs deeper into the strategy of managing a team.
Once your league is full, the commissioner will “activate” the preseason, which means the starting 14-man rosters will be randomly assigned to each fantasy GM. We employ an algorithm that draws on one of 10 realistic contract databases to assign players to each franchise in the league.
Player contracts may be regular (REG, expiring in 2025 or 2026), restricted free agent (RFA, can be kept but will be subject to league-wide blind bidding in the first round of the auction), in the extension zone (EZ, in the third year of their original contract and eligible to be kept and extended for a small salary increase) or previously extended (PEP, can be kept, but will become a free agent when their contract expires).
Prior to the preseason auction, each fantasy GM must cut their roster to between six and nine players. This serves several purposes. First, things change fast in the NFL, and what looked like a great player on a great contract in 2024 may not be so appealing today. You can cut the dead weight, freeing up extra salary to snap up this year’s hottest players in the free agency auction. Second, it more closely mimics the NFL. Real players don’t stay on their team forever. Savvy coaches and GMs are always mixing it up, and although the player doesn’t get a say in FLF, this format encourages a lot more player movement than a traditional dynasty league. Lastly, the keep/drop period forces you to think ahead strategically to where you want your franchise to be heading into this year’s auction, next year, and beyond. Though you’re taking on a seasoned roster, this is your first chance to shape it into the winning dynasty we all crave.
Today, I’ve invited my friend and colleague, Dave Sukoff, who was instrumental in developing this game from the beginning, to analyze our keep/drop decisions in the inaugural FLF league. Dave has played what is now FLF with his MIT classmates for two decades, continually tweaking and upgrading the format until it achieved the perfect balance of fun and strategic decision-making. He’s also a partner of the tech firm, Scope Labs, which is building FLF for the masses.
Using RotoViz tools, my expertise in cognitive biases, and Dave’s unique knowledge of and history with the game, we’ll go player by player to analyze our keep/drop decisions.
