So much of dynasty fantasy football is centered around finding young players and building for the future. Sometimes, managers forget about the ultimate goal — to win. Someone has to win this year. Why not you? Why not now? Let’s discuss how dynasty fantasy managers should make decisions about their roster if the goal is to go all-in and win a championship in the upcoming season.
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How To Win This Year in Dynasty Fantasy Football Leagues
For the purposes of this article, we’re already past the point where you’re trying to figure out whether you want to chase a championship in the upcoming season. You’ve already made that decision. This is not the first year of your league. You’ve put in the time. Your roster is stacked. The future is now. Your goal in 2023 is to aggressively pursue that championship.
Allow me to accompany you on the journey through a dynasty season and go step by step, discussing what actions you need to take and what moves you need to make to put yourself in the best position to win this year.
The Rookie Draft
The first key event in your quest for a title is the rookie draft. How you approach this draft when your goal is to win now is different than if you’re going for a competitive rebuild or a full rebuild.
MORE: 2023 Dynasty Player Profiles
As with any draft pick in fantasy football, you can do two things with it — use it or trade it. The answer to what you should do depends on the rookie class, where you pick, and the other managers in your league. Both options can help you win this year. You just need to figure out what is best for your team in your league.
Using Your Rookie Draft Picks
The great part about this option is it’s always on the table. Using your rookie picks is definitely the simplest method because it doesn’t rely on anyone else. Trading requires another manager to work with. Using your picks does not.
Whether you’re unable to trade your rookie picks or are just not interested, you can always use them to improve your team. If you aren’t trading them away, your focus needs to be on players you believe can contribute as rookies.
A big reason managers often build rosters around wide receivers is that rookie running backs are much more consistently reliable contributors than rookie wide receivers. For that reason, your rookie picks are best spent on running backs.
You don’t need to concern yourself with the safety that comes with wide receivers’ long-term utility. You want the instant production associated with running backs.
Now, that doesn’t mean draft running backs at all costs. If you’re contending, odds are your rookie draft spot isn’t particularly high. The surest of running backs are going to go early. If all you’re left with are suspect running backs or the top wide receivers, then you may have to take the receivers.
The most important takeaway is to avoid players that are multi-year projects. Your goal is to win now, so you need players that will help you this season.
Trading Your Rookie Draft Picks
In many leagues, potential is valued greater than reality. With a player, you know what he is. But a pick? Well, that could be anything!
Rookie draft picks are potential. They represent an unknown player that you hope will contribute to your team. The goal is to turn your rookie draft picks into productive players. Dynasty managers sometimes get caught up in the allure of what could be and forget about what already is.
MORE: 2023 Dynasty Rookie Rankings
Train yourself to think about trading rookie picks as using those rookie picks on the veteran players you are trading for. Instead of using your rookie draft picks on players that may or not emerge into productive assets for your fantasy team, you can use them on players that you know are productive assets.
The easiest trade partners to find are the rebuilding teams that still have useful veterans. In 2023, a bunch of the top running backs and wide receivers likely have no more than 1-3 years left as top options at their respective positions.
Teams that are two, possibly three years away from competing have no use for these players. But they can be very helpful for your team trying to win right now.
Target players that are in the second half of their careers. Think wide receivers in their late 20s. These are players that still have several useful seasons ahead of them. At the same time, they’re old enough that they’re not part of a rebuilding team’s plans.
Get yourself a couple of players without having to give up anyone that will contribute to your championship run this season.
In-Season Free Agency
Once the season starts, the waiver wire becomes a key component of your success. What dynasty managers are looking for on the waiver wire varies based on that team’s approach to the season.
While the rebuilding teams are taking stabs at breakout young players, feel free to spend your FAAB on any player providing immediate value.
MORE: Finding the Right QB Draft Strategy for Dynasty Superflex Leagues
Every season, there are hot waiver pickups that everyone knows are one-season wonders. Dynasty managers building for the future aren’t necessarily going to prioritize these guys. You should. Focus on adding as many players as you can that can contribute immediately.
With that said, by no means should you ignore rising prospects. There may not always be useful win-now players. But you want anyone that can provide value. If that means grabbing a player that likely won’t contribute this season for the express purpose of trading for a win-now player, you should absolutely do that. This leads into the final section…
Trading
Once you really get into a dynasty league (think three or four years in), the haves and have-nots are usually clearly defined each season. There will usually be a few teams each year that can realistically win it all. There will be a few that are dead in the water. And then there will be a few that can go either way.
When you are one of the teams that can clearly win it all, and you’ve committed to going for it, you need to do everything in your power to gain an edge. Sometimes, that results in arms races between two or three superpowers. You do what needs to be done. It’s an unfortunate reality, but constantly thinking about the future is going to inevitably hurt the present. If you’re not going to do everything in your power to win when you have the team to do so, when will you?
Ideally, you can win without mortgaging the future. But more often, you have to make a decision. Then or now. If the answer is now, don’t fret over trading future rookie draft picks for players that you know can help you immediately but might not have much value beyond the current season.
The nature of dynasty leagues is such that no one can be competitive every season.
If your team loses a key player to injury late in the season, you need to replace that player. As Mike “The Situation” puts it, you didn’t come this far just to come this far.
At some point, there will be diminishing returns. You don’t need to upgrade your worst starting wide receiver from, say, 12 PPR points per game to 13. Going all-in on winning now doesn’t mean completely depleting all future value. Focus on making moves that will have a meaningful impact on your odds of winning.
