Anyone else in a 16-team league? What do you do differently? (1 Viewer)

My main money league is entering its third year, and we have a regular group of 16 teams. Meanwhile, my family league has been going for 10 years, and we somehow keep adding teams. Last year we jumped from 14 to 16. So at this point, 16-teamers are pretty much all I know.

In terms of draft strategy, I think the biggest shift is if you pick anywhere near the turn. Knowing that you'll be waiting for 25-30 picks after you go means that you need to plan on reaching a round or two early for guys you really want.

I've also learned to be a little more conservative with my early-round picks. Even with that many teams, it's still possible to grab a useful TE or flex off the WW, but if you whiff on your RB1/WR1 you're going to have a really hard time digging yourself out of it.

Finally, since all it takes to screw up your sleeper strategy is for one other owner to feel the same way about the guy, it's much harder to find a true diamond in the rough. Again, be prepared to reach for players you really want.

Anyone else?

Don't get caught on the wrong side of a run at QB, meaning its really unpleasant if owners start taking their QB2s and you haven't selected your QB1 yet.

opensourcebeer said:

Don't get caught on the wrong side of a run at QB, meaning its really unpleasant if owners start taking their QB2s and you haven't selected your QB1 yet.

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Yea. It's scary being at the turn and a QB run happens. 

Super King said:

Yea. It's scary being at the turn and a QB run happens. 

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Hmm, I was definitely planning on going late-round QB this year. I guess I'm a little less worried because I view streaming as my fallback option. I started streaming midway through last season and even in a 16-teamer, it worked relatively well (although it did require a little more planning ahead to make sure I grabbed the guys with next week's hot matchup)

16 team league of crusty's ADP

Not saying anything right now because I am trying to beat these guys.

Weird scoring here as RB get no points for receptions, WR get 1 point per reception and TE get 2.

The QB isn't as much an issue because of the use of team QB and no one can draft more than 2. This is total points not head to head. Includes playoff games.

opensourcebeer said:

Don't get caught on the wrong side of a run at QB, meaning its really unpleasant if owners start taking their QB2s and you haven't selected your QB1 yet.

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Agreed.   Look at the mock draft forum for ideas, but many were months ago. 

I'm more likely to take high floor players early and shoot for the moon late.  

Panic a lot.

Play it safe on high floor guys as opposed to riskier high ceiling guys.

Biabreakable said:

16 team league of crusty's ADP

Not saying anything right now because I am trying to beat these guys.

Weird scoring here as RB get no points for receptions, WR get 1 point per reception and TE get 2.

The QB isn't as much an issue because of the use of team QB and no one can draft more than 2. This is total points not head to head. Includes playoff games.

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Ugh I hate that scoring. Why!??

Ilov80s said:

Ugh I hate that scoring. Why!??

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lol because its pretty old.

The larger the league the more valuable QBs and RBs are, and the less valuable TEs are.  16 isn't extreme enough to make QBs rare, you can still wait on those.  But skip the TE and pick a RB over a WR in a larger league. 

Biabreakable said:

lol because its pretty old.

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Lol I know.  Just really makes RB a bit sketchy. 

zftcg said:

Hmm, I was definitely planning on going late-round QB this year. I guess I'm a little less worried because I view streaming as my fallback option. I started streaming midway through last season and even in a 16-teamer, it worked relatively well (although it did require a little more planning ahead to make sure I grabbed the guys with next week's hot matchup)

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In most 16 team leagues, particularly dynasty there won't be ANY starting QBs available on the wire. 

In redraft there usually is and streaming is a viable option. In dynasty, I like to end up with 3 (or more) starting QBs. For every owner with 3, there is someone with no backup QB. If you need one you will pay PREMIUM PRICES. 

It also may afford you the possibility to sell at a premium. I try and get 2 top 20 guys and a late 3rd option. Someone like Osweiler.

A 4th starter means at least 2 teams have no backup and you can often deal a QB for a much better talent than what was available where you got them.

If you are on the turn, try and get your first QB before an anticipated run. You don't want to get stuck with Bradford and RG3 as your only options. You could easily see 10-12 QBs gone before it gets back to you and may force you to pass on value elsewhere, just to get a serviceable QB.

Ben & Jerry's said:

In most 16 team leagues, particularly dynasty there won't be ANY starting QBs available on the wire. 

In redraft there usually is and streaming is a viable option. In dynasty, I like to end up with 3 (or more) starting QBs. For every owner with 3, there is someone with no backup QB. If you need one you will pay PREMIUM PRICES. 

It also may afford you the possibility to sell at a premium. I try and get 2 top 20 guys and a late 3rd option. Someone like Osweiler.

A 4th starter means at least 2 teams have no backup and you can often deal a QB for a much better talent than what was available where you got them.

If you are on the turn, try and get your first QB before an anticipated run. You don't want to get stuck with Bradford and RG3 as your only options. You could easily see 10-12 QBs gone before it gets back to you and may force you to pass on value elsewhere, just to get a serviceable QB.

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Last year, I ended up streaming in both of my leagues out of necessity (I drafted Tannehill in one league and Peyton in another). I think the biggest difference with a 16-teamer was that the pool of streamers was smaller. When people were advising guys like Bortles and Carr as good options, they were long gone in my league.

But I was able to get Taylor in one league and Hoyer in another, which mostly worked out (I also picked up Cousins for one week and then stupidly dropped him).

Ben & Jerry's said:

In most 16 team leagues, particularly dynasty there won't be ANY starting QBs available on the wire. 

In redraft there usually is and streaming is a viable option. In dynasty, I like to end up with 3 (or more) starting QBs. For every owner with 3, there is someone with no backup QB. If you need one you will pay PREMIUM PRICES. 

It also may afford you the possibility to sell at a premium. I try and get 2 top 20 guys and a late 3rd option. Someone like Osweiler.

A 4th starter means at least 2 teams have no backup and you can often deal a QB for a much better talent than what was available where you got them.

If you are on the turn, try and get your first QB before an anticipated run. You don't want to get stuck with Bradford and RG3 as your only options. You could easily see 10-12 QBs gone before it gets back to you and may force you to pass on value elsewhere, just to get a serviceable QB.

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Depends on the league and lineups.  In my main league, going on year 15, you can usually get a decent qb like Eli or rivers at a reasonable price.  The studs are expensive but that's true for all studs. But that's because the lineups are pretty well balanced.  QRWWWTFFK and full (11 players) idp. 

I play in the same League as Bia, and the only reason I do it is because it's 'best ball'. Otherwise, I would not, because I think it's absurd to hold traditional serpentine Drafts for Leagues larger than 12 Teams. It's my opinion that given positional scarcity, there's no other way to equitably distribute Players, than an auction, for any League over 12 Teams. I've done plenty of both over 23 years of playing this, and decided years ago to never again participate in traditional Leagues over 12-Teams which didn't auction. So, my first guideline for anyone considering a 16-Teamer is to employ an Auction-style Draft. Allow everyone to build their Team the way they see fit, given the scarcity of resources. Half the fun will be seeing who's calculus was right, and who's was wrong.

I run a 16-Team Dynasty that started in 2001, and I've played in several others over the years. There's a general rule in League Construction Dynamics that advocates 'the smaller the League, the larger the Starting Lineup, the larger the League, the smaller the starting lineup'...from my experience, I'd say that adage holds water. With smaller Leagues, everyone has a 'Super Team' unless you make the Starting Lineups big enough to mitigate the high # of studs on everyone's Team. With larger Leagues, if Starting Lineups are too large, you're going to wind up with marginal/irrelevant Players scoring close to the League minimum, if at all. Also, the larger the starting lineup, the more potentially deadly a Season-ending injury to a stud can be, which is a consistent, major problem with larger formats. Smaller Starting Lineups and deeper benches lead to more trading, and trading carries increased importance with larger format Leagues, because, by nature the waiver wire will be providing fewer opportunities. So, guideline #2 would be to limit the size of your starting lineup. I think 9 is best: QRWWTFFKD.

Finally, given both above points, for 16 Teams, I think it's become almost imperative to use Super Flex (QB/RB/WR/TE) for either one or both of the Flex positions. With skill position Players spread across 16 Teams, I think it's imperative to allow any Players capable of posting 'starter caliber' points to be able to find their way into a Starting Lineup. In most Scoring Systems, plenty of backup QB's will put up enough points to compete with RB3's and WR4's. I'd rather see them in a starting lineup than on the bench while conventional marginal starters are putting up single digits or donuts. So my third, and final, guideline would be to employ Super Flex, and allow Owners to start 2 QB if they choose.

As a caveat to the last guideline, if you're going to allow Owners to start a second QB, you have to be very, very, very careful about your Scoring System, so that it's only an OPTION to start a second QB, and not an ADVANTAGE. Not enough Leagues put enough time into developing their scoring systems to ensure equity between positions. The larger the format, and the inclusion of Super Flex, makes heightened scrutiny pretty much mandatory.

Good Luck!

I like drafting for 16 teams because it makes drafting for 12 so much easier.

As nittany and others have mentioned, 16 teams puts stress on the league if you can start more than one QB. There are only 32 teams, so it is almost certain that half the teams will not have a viable second QB, especially if other teams can hoard players at the QB preventing other teams from having viable starters. If you only start 1 QB then 16 teams is fine I think.

As nittany mentions, you can play a 12 team league but require more starters, and end up with a similar dynamic of player scarcity as a 16 team league.

zftcg said:

Hmm, I was definitely planning on going late-round QB this year. I guess I'm a little less worried because I view streaming as my fallback option. I started streaming midway through last season and even in a 16-teamer, it worked relatively well (although it did require a little more planning ahead to make sure I grabbed the guys with next week's hot matchup)

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How do you stream QBs in a 16 team league? I haven't played one in a while, but I recall all QBs being rostered all year.

I love the 16 team leagues.  I enjoy the draft challenge that it involves, however, I do think you need to flex your lineups more.  For us we start 1 QB, 1 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 D.  Then we have 2 flex (RB/WR/TE).  That allows for variation in lineups with position scarcity.  We also employ PPR (.5/1/1.5) similar to FPC.  Not a fan of superflex, prefer traditional, but our league has nice variability each year and any team can be successful with the additional flexibility.

Grigs Allmoon said:

How do you stream QBs in a 16 team league? I haven't played one in a while, but I recall all QBs being rostered all year.

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Now that you mention it, there was one wrinkle: Any of the "name" mid-tier QBs -- Eli, Flacco, Ryan -- get drafted, and most of them end up sitting on team's benches as the backups to Brady, Rodgers, etc. So the guys I streamed all ended up being unheralded guys who emerged. Fortunately, at least last year, there were a fair number of those: Cousins, Taylor, Hoyer. (In a Week 16 consolation match I found myself choosing between Mallet and Weeden ... and as it turned out, both were good options!)

I think that if streaming becomes more widespread, that could get increasingly tough to pull off. But like I said, the key is being proactive. Know that RG3 is facing the Saints in a couple weeks, which might make him a good streaming option (or maybe not, but you get the idea). Find a couple QBs you can pair together to get you through the playoffs. I mean, you probably need to do that if you're streaming in any size league, but it's all the more important in large ones.

BTW, has anyone found a site that allows you to do free, live 16-team mocks? Yahoo seems to top out at 14, and most of the other sites I've seen don't even go above 12. There's DraftWizard, which is amazing, but a simulator isn't the same as a mock with actual people.

zftcg said:

BTW, has anyone found a site that allows you to do free, live 16-team mocks? Yahoo seems to top out at 14, and most of the other sites I've seen don't even go above 12. There's DraftWizard, which is amazing, but a simulator isn't the same as a mock with actual people.

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That's what I like about these non-standard leagues.  I have a 14-team half-PPR auction draft with $300 starting money coming up soon. Nobody can mock that stuff out!  It's a benefit to you the more complex the rules if you can figure them out and come up with the correct strategy. 

I really like the 16 teamer I'm in.  Mine is a salary cap league so basically a keeper league in ways.  16 teams, 22 man rosters.  

Things I've noticed in mine:

1) QBs are gold.  Don't sleep on them.  Every starting QB and most backups are rostered.  And they are really difficult to acquire in trades.  I liken it to a start 2QB or Superflex league.  You certainly not streaming QBs in most of these leagues.

2) What you normally would feel is a lower end guy is a starter in a 16 teamer.  Think of it this way.  Say you start 3 WRs.  In a normal 12 teamer this goes 36 deep.  In a 16 teamer just 2 each is almost that as you go 48 deep.  So a bench WR in a *normal* league is a starter in a 16 teamer.  What this means is that you just have to think differently in that a guy you think may be garbage can be a solid bye week fill-in in 16 teamer.

3) Team Defense...you normally can't stream these either as most if not all are rostered.  At least in mine.  Hard to stream kickers too but not as bad.

QB - depends on the league, but generally increased importance, don't have to have the best guy but want a solid guy

RB - increased importance - the best teams usually have solid RBs

WR - decreased important, a lot of serviceable WRs out there

TE - decreased importance

If I were drafting in a 16 team 1/2/2/flex/1  league at #8 it would probably look like this

1.08 - RB

2.09 - RB

3.08 - WR

4.09 - QB

5.08 - RB

6.09 - WR

7.08 - best available

It goes without saying it's all about league tendencies...

make sure you have solid depth and not just fliers on your bench