If you’ve ever played fantasy football before, this article is probably not for you. However, this game is constantly growing, with new managers entering the fold every year. Everyone has to start somewhere. If you’re new to the game, you’re going to encounter dozens of terms and abbreviations you’ve probably never seen before. It may seem a bit overwhelming. That’s where we come in. Allow this to be your one-stop shop for everything you need to know about fantasy football terminology.
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What Are Some Common Fantasy Football Abbreviations?
While certainly not an exhaustive list of fantasy football terms (it would truly be impossible to cover everything), these are some of the most prevalent abbreviations across all fantasy platforms.
aDOT
aDOT stands for average depth of target. This term refers to how far a ball travels in the air past the line of scrimmage before it reaches its intended target.
ADP
ADP is one of the most important terms in fantasy football. It stands for average draft position, which is the average spot a player is selected in fantasy drafts. ADP can be relative to a specific fantasy platform (i.e., Yahoo, Sleeper, ESPN, etc.) or across multiple platforms.
BN
BN refers to a spot on your roster reserved for bench players.
FAAB
FAAB stands for Free Agent Acquisition Budget. Your FAAB is the set amount of virtual dollars that a manager is allotted to spend on waiver wire players throughout the season. FAAB waivers is a blind bidding system where each week, when waivers clear (typically Wednesday morning), the platform awards the players to the teams according to who bid the most.
IDP
IDP stands for Individual Defensive Player. In most fantasy leagues, Team Defenses is a starting roster spot. However, some leagues opt to include actual defensive players. Those leagues are known as IDP leagues.
IR
Much like the NFL, IR stands for injured reserve. In the NFL, these are players that are out for multiple weeks. In fantasy football, the IR spot represents a spot where you can place players listed as Out, IR, or PUP, and they won’t count against your total roster size. This enables you to pick up a replacement player without having to drop anyone, assuming you haven’t maxed out your IR spot limits.
PPD
PPD stands for postponed. You will only see this next to a player’s name when his game is postponed. There is a 99.9% chance you never see this designation.
PPR
PPR stands for point per reception. This is a specific scoring format where players on your roster are awarded a point for catching the ball.
PUP
PUP stands for Physically Unable to Perform. If a player starts the season on the PUP list, that means he is out for at least the first six weeks of the season.
RZ
RZ — or red zone, as generally referred to — is the area of the field from the 20-yard line to the end zone.
YPC
YPC stands for yards per carry. This refers to how many yards a player gains on average each time he runs the ball.
YPR
YPR stands for yards per reception. This refers to how many yards a player gains on average each time he catches the ball.
Fantasy Football Positions
As with the NFL, fantasy football follows the same positional naming in most cases.
D/ST: Team Defense/Special Teams. Traditionally, this stands for an entire NFL team’s defense and their special teams.
DEF: Another abbreviation for D/ST.
K: Kicker
QB: Quarterback
RB: Running Back
TE: Tight End
WR: Wide Receiver
Flex: Any RB, WR, or TE
For those of you in an IDP league, you may find the following abbreviations more prevalent.
CB: Cornerback
DB: Defensive Back
DE: Defensive End
DL: Defensive Lineman
DT: Defensive Tackle
FS: Free Safety
LB: Linebacker
MLB: Middle Linebacker
OLB: Outside Linebacker
S: Safety
SS: Strong Safety
What Are Some of the Most Popular Fantasy Football Formats?
With each passing year, the fantasy community never ceases to amaze with the new variations of this game they are able to create. Here are some of the common terms used to describe fantasy football formats.
All-Play
In most leagues, your team will have one opponent each week. In All-Play, every team plays every other team every week. In a typical 12-team league, that means you have 11 matchups each week. So, the highest-scoring team would go 11-0, and the lowest-scoring team would go 0-11.
Autopick Draft
An autopick draft occurs online, but your league provider drafts each team for the league. Fantasy managers can preset their rankings to help guide the autodraft algorithm.
Auction
The most common draft format remains snake, but auction has been growing in popularity over the years. In an auction league, fantasy managers draft their teams via an auction. One by one, teams go in order nominating players. Every team will have the opportunity to bid on that player. As with any auction, the highest bidder wins.
Best Ball
Best Ball refers to a format of fantasy league where managers draft their teams and never have to actually set their lineups during the season. On fantasy platforms like Underdog Fantasy, once you draft your team, that’s it — there is no further action to be taken. Each week, the platform automatically starts your highest-scoring players, and whichever team has the most points after 17 weeks wins.
Devy
Devy is short for Developmental. This is a format of fantasy football where managers’ total football knowledge is really put to the test. In addition to drafting a roster full of NFL players, you will also draft a roster full of college players. As those players enter the NFL, they join your NFL roster. It’s an extremely challenging format but can be incredibly rewarding when you pinpoint that college freshman who goes on to be the next great NFL superstar.
DFS
DFS stands for Daily Fantasy Sports. DraftKings and FanDuel are the two most popular platforms for DFS. Daily fantasy leagues are fantasy football contests limited to just one week, one day, or sometimes even one game of the NFL season.
Formats vary from drafting rosters via snake draft to crafting a lineup based on a salary cap. You can choose to play in various different contests, but the ultimate goal of putting together a roster that scores the most points remains the same.
Dynasty
Dynasty fantasy football is a format where you do not draft a new team each season. Instead, you have one initial startup draft, and then you keep as many players as you want on your roster for as long as you want. Each year after the first season, a draft takes place consisting of rookies only. This type of fantasy league is designed to emulate being an NFL general manager as best as possible.
Empire
An Empire league is a dynasty-style fantasy football league in which each year, half the entire pot goes to the year’s winners. The other half is set aside in a rolling Emperor pot. The Emperor pot does not pay out until there is a back-to-back winner. Once someone wins consecutive years, that manager takes the Emperor pot, and the league either disbands or undergoes a hard reset.
Guillotine
Guillotine leagues are one of the newer fantasy football formats. This type of league is NOT a traditional head-to-head setup. Instead, each manager has one goal every week: don’t come in last. Each week, the lowest-scoring team is eliminated from the league. That team’s entire roster becomes part of the following week’s waiver group. At the end of the season, the last team remaining is the champion.
Head-to-Head
Head-to-head leagues are the most common league format. Each team has one opponent on the schedule each week. All you need to do is score more points than your opponent to secure a win.
Keeper
Keeper leagues are leagues where each team can retain a set number of players for the following season. Prior to the draft, you would declare the keeper(s) and then enter the draft with these players already on your roster from the previous season.
Linear Draft
You probably won’t encounter a linear draft unless you play in a dynasty league. Linear drafts are conducted like the NFL Draft. They do not snake. Teams select 1-12 and then 1-12 again, rather than 12-1, as would occur in a snake draft.
Offline Draft
Offline drafts occur when your league chooses to conduct its draft without using the fantasy platform’s online software. After your offline draft, your commissioner manually inputs each team’s roster onto the platform you are using to host your league.
Online Draft
An online fantasy draft is conducted on the fantasy platform itself. This is the easiest and, by far, the most common method of drafting. Everyone signs into the draft room at a designated date and time to draft their teams.
Redraft
Forever the most popular version of fantasy football, redraft leagues are likely what you’re playing in. Each season is its own challenge. One season has no bearing on the next. You start fresh every year.
Rookie Draft
Rookie drafts are an integral part of dynasty fantasy football leagues. After the initial “startup” draft, each successive year’s draft consists of only rookies. This draft is typically linear and known as the dynasty rookie draft.
Snake Draft
This is the most common form of drafting. In a snake draft, the order in which teams pick players alternates each round. For example, in Round 1, the order is 1-12, and in Round 2, the order is 12-1.
Third-Round Reversal (3RR)
This drafting style is starting to gain popularity to balance out the value of each draft slot. Statistically, the earlier you pick in a snake draft, the more likely you are to have a top team. This format of drafting flips the order of the snake in the third round. Rounds 1 and 2 proceed as normal, with Round 1 going 1-12 and Round 2 GOING 12-1. However, Round 3 once again goes 12-1, with Round 4 then going 1-12, and so on.
Two-QB/Superflex
Two-quarterback leagues require teams to start two quarterbacks every week. Superflex is similar and more common because it allows fantasy managers to start quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, or tight ends in the Superflex spot. This is much more fair than a strict second quarterback spot because it is not possible for every team to roster three starting quarterbacks.
Common Fantasy Football Scoring Formats
In modern fantasy football, there are too many new and innovative scoring formats to keep track of. Here are some of the more common scoring formats you will experience.
Full PPR
As indicated above, PPR stands for point per reception. In Full PPR scoring formats, each reception is worth 1.0 points.
Half-PPR
In Half-PPR scoring formats, each reception is worth 0.5 points.
Non-PPR
In Non-PPR scoring formats, no points are awarded for a reception. You may also see this format referred to as “Standard.” This is an antiquated term based on this scoring format having been the standard for a very long time. It has not been the standard scoring format for several years now, but if you see someone use it, know that they probably mean Non-PPR.
TE Premium
TE Premium scoring formats are designed to artificially increase the value of tight ends by increasing the amount of points they score relative to other pass-catchers. An example of a TE Premium league is awarding tight ends an extra 0.5 points per reception on top of whatever all pass-catchers receive.
Tiered PPR
Tiered PPR adjusts the amount of points awarded for a reception based upon the length of that reception. For example, a reception that doesn’t gain any yards might not receive any points, but a 10-yard reception might receive 0.5 points, while a 20-yard reception would receive a full 1.0 points.
General Fantasy Football Terms
If you’re reading fantasy football articles or listening to podcasts, you will undoubtedly hear many of these terms. It’s important to know what they mean.
Boom-or-Bust
This term references a type of player who is very volatile on a weekly basis. A boom-or-bust player has a wide range of scoring outcomes each week.
Breakout
This term typically refers to a player who has a chance to perform significantly better than he did the previous season.
Bust
A bust is a player who is at risk of scoring far fewer fantasy points than he should relative to where he is selected in fantasy drafts.
Ceiling
A player’s ceiling is the outcome in which he performs as well as can be expected. It is essentially the best possible season for that particular player.
Commissioner
The commissioner is the person who runs the league. It is the job of the commissioner to create the league, schedule the draft, enforce all the rules, and arbitrate any issues that may arise during the season.
Consistency
Much like the name suggests, this term refers to a player’s ability to produce results fantasy managers can rely on. A consistent player is the opposite of a boom-or-bust player.
Drop
This is the act of removing a player from your roster. When you drop a player, he will hit the waiver wire and be eligible to be claimed by any team in the league.
Flex
This is a spot in your starting lineup where you can start more than one NFL position. Absent any qualifiers, a Flex will allow you to start a running back, wide receiver, or tight end.
Floor
The floor represents the lowest possible outcome that a fantasy owner could reasonably expect from a player. The floor is the opposite of the ceiling.
Free Agent
In the NFL, a free agent is a player that is not currently signed to an NFL roster. Based on that, I’m sure you can figure out what it means for fantasy football. A free agent in fantasy football is any player that cleared waivers and was not picked up by any team in your league.
Gametime Decision
This refers to a player whose gameday status is truly up in the air. When a coach labels a player as a gametime decision, in most cases, fantasy managers will not know if he is going to play until inactives are announced 90 minutes before kickoff.
Handcuff
This term is used to refer to backup running backs behind established starters. A handcuff running back is one that stands to benefit should the starter get hurt.
Injury Report
NFL teams are required to provide daily injury reports for their three practice sessions held four days, three days, and two days prior to gameday. These reports list player injuries and statuses for the upcoming games.
Mock Draft
A mock draft is a fantasy football draft that does not actually count for anything. It is merely practice for the real thing. You can conduct mock drafts with other people or against the computer to test out different strategies and ideas.
Reach
This term refers to a selection in a fantasy draft of a player well before their ADP suggests they should be drafted. For example, if a player has a Round 8 ADP and you draft him in Round 5, that would be considered a reach.
Sleeper
Traditionally, a fantasy sleeper would be a player that is flying under the radar in fantasy drafts. He is a guy not many other fantasy managers know about or are looking to drafts. In modern fantasy football, with the prevalence of information out there, pretty much everyone knows who every player is. Nowadays, a sleeper is typically just player going later in fantasy drafts that has the potential to significantly outproduce his ADP.
Spot-Starter
This term refers to a player you pick up off the waiver wire for the purpose of making one singular start the upcoming week. That doesn’t preclude you from hanging onto this player for longer if he does well, though.
Stack or Stacking
Stacking is a fantasy football strategy whereby you draft a quarterback and pass-catchers on the same NFL team. The most common form of a stack is drafting a quarterback and one of his wide receivers. The benefit of stacking is essentially getting double the points every time your pass-catcher does something productive.
Streaming
This is a strategy whereby fantasy managers don’t have a set player at a position, but rather pick up a new one to start each week based on matchups. Streaming most commonly occurs with kickers and defenses, but it can apply to any position.
Taxi Squad
This term refers to a specific set of players in certain dynasty leagues. Taxi squads usually consist of rookies. Their existence enables fantasy managers to stash players unlikely to contribute immediately without having to burn roster spots. A taxi squad is akin to an NFL practice squad.
VBD
VBD is short for value-based drafting. It is a strategy that assigns a value to every player by comparing that player’s fantasy points to the fantasy points of a baseline player at the same position.
Waiver Wire
The waiver wire is the pool of NFL players currently not on any roster in your league. These players can be added to your roster each week.
