Bench Players (1 Viewer)

[Team Smokin']

How many is too many, or not enough?

Starting a new league (12 teams) and a new format. Seems like more on-line leagues have 5 or 6 bench players. So, 6-7 too many and 2-3 certainly not enough?

Since we are doing FAAB and waiver wire and bye week players you would need a minimum of 4 bench players? Our co-commish wants only 3... to encourage more bidding and picking up of players. (He's used to a old system where we were allowed to pick up a bye player and keep the original player after the bye). Me thinks 3 is not enough in this new format. You could end up with 4 players on a bye and would have to drop a potentially drafted player just to fill your roster. Is 4 enough? I wish to stay within the integrity and strategy of the game as the new commish. Co-commish thinks too many bench players will shrink the talent pool of free agents? I've played in 12 team leagues with 5-6 bench players and there are still tons of great waiver wire pick ups.

Care to chime in?

 

[brun]

Usually I favor more, rather than fewer bench slots. This makes a smaller ww pool of players which may also encourage more trades if your league allows trades since desirable players may reside on other rosters.

 

[abbottjamesr]

We played with 5 bench spots for many years in my main 12 team league. Always options on the wire.  We moved it to 6 last year and I don’t think it hurt the option that much. The extra spot allowed most to carry a second of the onesy positions that you would not normally roster due to the constraint. 

I always wanted more roster spots as it favors the folks who do more reasearch into the late round picks that are fliers. 

 

[JohnnyU]

redraft - fewer

dynasty - more

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

Deeper bench encourages more trades as the FA list is a bit more lean.

by the same token you don’t want the FA list to be so lean that you have to trade to fill a BYE.

Depends on format as well. for my redraft D/ST league we start 10, with an 8 man bench.

We start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 O-Flex,1 TE, 1 D/ST & 1 K.

So an 8-man bench  allows for BYE week coverage / injury depth while also allowing a spot for a handcuff RB. 

My IDP league starts 17 with an 11 man bench. Because we have 7 IDP starters it’s hard to cover all the BYEs & injuries without a deep bench - IDPs seem to get hurt more often. It’s crazy how 11 seems small after 4-5 weeks of play when all the little red crosses show up.  

some leaues I've been in have a short bench - 5-6 players to cover a 9-10 starting lineup. IMO there’s too much top talent on the FA list, and it takes something away from the skill out drafting when there’s so much talent on the FA list.  

 

[wlwiles]

I play in a 14 team league IDP league where we start 13 players (4 IDPs) each week, and only a 5 man bench.  It's very interesting to see the different strategies utilizing the short bench. 

Some guys will carry a 2nd QB because the wire is so lean, they want to make sure the bye is covered.  About half the league only ever rosters 4 RBs or 4 RBs at a time, so if injuries and byes hit at the same time then some folks end up having to pick up handcuffs to use at flex that might only get 3-5 snaps that week.  Almost no one rosters an IDP player in a bench spot, and I'd say 90% of them get dropped on their bye week just because the benches are so short. Being a waiver hawk can end up netting you a pretty decent IDP haul though if you time byes right.  And you can't be the guy that stubbornly rosters someone else's stud handcuff and just waits for injury, that bench spot is too precious. 

I like the challenge of managing a short bench, but I think in the end ours should be 6 bench spots instead of 5. 

 

[Stompin' Tom Connors]

PPR redraft with 14 players, with teams 14-players deep -- 9 starters, 5 bench spots. Because we have more teams than standard, the 5 bench spots are deep enough to carry 4 sound rotational flex/backup spots but not so deep as to there being nothing on the wire. This especially comes into play during bye weeks when teams often face hard decisions of having to drop a player on a bye who can be a fairly dependable in flex/matchup play to cover the bye or not.

Regardless of league size, this is the balanced depth I think you want to seek -- not so deep that the wire is completely barren every week and forcing players to drop options through the season, and not so shallow that you can't have at least 1 credible backup QB and 2-3 slots to backup WR/RB/Flex positions

 

[Dr. Octopus]

How many is too many, or not enough?

Starting a new league (12 teams) and a new format. Seems like more on-line leagues have 5 or 6 bench players. So, 6-7 too many and 2-3 certainly not enough?

Since we are doing FAAB and waiver wire and bye week players you would need a minimum of 4 bench players? Our co-commish wants only 3... to encourage more bidding and picking up of players. (He's used to a old system where we were allowed to pick up a bye player and keep the original player after the bye). Me thinks 3 is not enough in this new format. You could end up with 4 players on a bye and would have to drop a potentially drafted player just to fill your roster. Is 4 enough? I wish to stay within the integrity and strategy of the game as the new commish. Co-commish thinks too many bench players will shrink the talent pool of free agents? I've played in 12 team leagues with 5-6 bench players and there are still tons of great waiver wire pick ups.

Care to chime in?

we have 8 bench spots in my 12 team redraft and there's literally at least 3-5 hot waiver adds each week. His worries seem very misguided.

 

[Efritch4]

Been playing in a 12 man league for years...this year we are most likely switching from a 7 man bench w/ an IR slot to a 5 man bench with no IR slot. 

Our league has very little trading, and with a deep bench guys tend to hoard players. 

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Been playing in a 12 man league for years...this year we are most likely switching from a 7 man bench w/ an IR slot to a 5 man bench with no IR slot. 

Our league has very little trading, and with a deep bench guys tend to hoard players. 

So you're punishing the people that draft the better players?

 

[Efritch4]

I guess that’s a way to look at it...the thought from our Commish is to keep guys from unnecessarily drafting 3 QBs or 2 Def/St in a 1 QB league

 

[Dr. Octopus]

I guess that’s a way to look at it...the thought from our Commish is to keep guys from unnecessarily drafting 3 QBs or 2 Def/St in a 1 QB league

Obviously I'm not telling you what to do but for the sake of discussion purposes - if some team hoards QBs or D/ST the opportunity cost is they have less RB or WR depth.

 

[steelers1080]

I favor a lot of bench spots, but that's usually because I scour the waiver wire and do a lot of research, so if there's more spots I get an advantage. In a very active league I like more bench spots because there's trading and lots of player movement. In a league where most people are standing pat with their teams and not doing a lot of trading, I prefer short benches. This promotes movement and keeps an interesting waiver wire, especially with FAAB. Some leagues I'm in (work leagues), people will draft a team and make 0 moves until their D or K is on a bye. Then some great diamonds in the rough could be languishing on their bench.

I've played in a league with a 3 person bench, that was awesome. It also had 3 IR slots, made for a TON of interesting movement. It's an auction and studs go for 1.5 more than usual because there's much more value in set it and forget it players. 

 

[Interseptopus]

I play in a league with 5 bench spots, and it's impossible. I hate it. I tend to do more research than 10 out of the remaining 12 guys (there's another guy who does probably just as much as me). I end up picking a guy up and dropping at a later date for another prospect or for bye week help for K/D/TE and they get scooped up. It's basically everyone else benefiting off of my work. "Well if the doc has interest, then that's someone I should look at"

Wish we had 1 or 2 more bench spots, but at the end of the day it does make for an interesting WW. We hardly any trades in this league

 

[Dismattle]

I guess that’s a way to look at it...the thought from our Commish is to keep guys from unnecessarily drafting 3 QBs or 2 Def/St in a 1 QB league

Makes little to no sense  Rostering two Defenses should be considered strategy whether its questionable PreSeason rank  OR  Hopes to roster the next 85 Bears D  Its almost the same thing w/ QB's  Its a choice to load up on like rookie QB's which probably pays off very little in comparison to say WR's much less RB's  (Odds of success)  However, I'd be okay w/ limited Teams to rostering two QB's to appease the Commish concerns

Believe its just from a competitive view for the League  Why have startable bye week players available?  Flavors change on the wire too  Players dropped should probably be added by some teams  The bigger bench should mean more likelihood of risk for more immediate return  Ask the Commish if he hopes to see good players dropped because of a combination of bye weeks and injuries?   Ex. Can you say questionable decision making...  Say a team drafts Gronk in the 2nd round and gets word that he will miss four to six weeks?  That could mean carrying at least three TE's somewhat easily  (Gronk, Starter, bye)  Guess one could assume a bye forces one to drop the starter  What say Gronk lands on IR after a week  Oops do-over?

Basically I would say bn limits should leave you w/ but only a few if any WR's worthy of matchup dependent bye weeks  So while I do not know actual starting requirement numbers I would venture to say at least room for eight on the bn which allows room for carrying backups and some lottery tickets  Again not knowing how many flex positions etc. I would estimate a max of ten players  (Some slight bias for Dynasty that only allows limited IR usage)

 

[Team Smokin']

How many is too many, or not enough?

Starting a new league (12 teams) and a new format. Seems like more on-line leagues have 5 or 6 bench players. So, 6-7 too many and 2-3 certainly not enough?

Since we are doing FAAB and waiver wire and bye week players you would need a minimum of 4 bench players? Our co-commish wants only 3... to encourage more bidding and picking up of players. (He's used to a old system where we were allowed to pick up a bye player and keep the original player after the bye). Me thinks 3 is not enough in this new format. You could end up with 4 players on a bye and would have to drop a potentially drafted player just to fill your roster. Is 4 enough? I wish to stay within the integrity and strategy of the game as the new commish. Co-commish thinks too many bench players will shrink the talent pool of free agents? I've played in 12 team leagues with 5-6 bench players and there are still tons of great waiver wire pick ups.

Care to chime in?

we have 8 bench spots in my 12 team redraft and there's literally at least 3-5 hot waiver adds each week. His worries seem very misguided.

Wow! Even with 8. I know there was always plenty of hot waiver adds when we had 6 bench spots in another league each week. Now your taking 24 more out of the pool and still plenty.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Wow! Even with 8. I know there was always plenty of hot waiver adds when we had 6 bench spots in another league each week. Now your taking 24 more out of the pool and still plenty.

To be fair, many times a "hot waiver add" is a one hit wonder and becomes useless after he gets picked up - but with injuries and guys coming out of nowhere the wire is always active.