Dynasty Roster Construction (4 Viewers)

[psmurphy1028]

First year doing a dynasty league, and we've already completed the start up b draft. I wish I would have thought to ask this question to more experienced dynasty players before drafting, now.

How important is your starter depth compared to your bench depth in dynasty, compared to redraft?

It occurs to me that you have to have bench depth in dynasty because there aren't many available options on the waiver wire. Where as in redraft your bench usually consists of upside players, with the ability to grab breakouts off the waiver wire to immediately improve your bench depth or potentially your starting line up.

But, how often do dynasty leagues come down to a war of attrition, and it's your bench depth that wins you a league, because your bench depth outplayed the rest of the leagues bench depth?

Or is it more common that health and a teams starters staying healthy collectively decides a league?

When I drafted I wonder if I over prioritized WR bench depth, and under prioritized having a deep starting line up.. The league is Superflex, TEP, and I wonder if I should have targeted QB and TE positions earlier.

Is it more likely that the team that stays healthiest takes down a dynasty league? Or is that bench depth critical because everyone is going to get hit?

 

[IHEARTFF]

Depends on format like how many bench spots and starter spots. The deeper the benches the more you need to be able to find guys to stash that can develop into playable assets.
Some of the teams draft win now rosters that look like good redraft teams. Others draft the shiny young rosters that might need some patience. Injuries definitely can matter and often lead to trades between contenders and rebuilders.

 

[mjb03003]

In Superflex and TE Prem you absolutely have to prioritize QB and TE. It’s really hard to beat teams that are stacked at QB/TE because even if their WR/RB are just league average, the point difference from their QBs and TEs will carry them to victory most weeks.

As far as starting lineup vs. depth…

I think it’s more important to have good balance of proven/established and young/upside. You could have a stacked starting lineup but if it’s all older vets you are going to have a very short window to win the league. On the flip side if your entire lineup is super young/upside guys it can be hard to beat the teams that have several elite veterans producing at the top of their position. Given the choice between the two builds I’d take the all young/upside roster 10 times out of 10, because you can always trade young players to address needs, or for future draft capital if you decide to go the rebuild route. You’re never fully out of it if you have a handful of good young players that would fit on any roster.

The optimal build to me is to have half your starters be proven vets and the other half exciting young guys on the verge of a breakout. This sets you up to be a perennial contender. As your veterans fade away/retire and your youngsters become established vets, your rookie draft picks will be the youth infusion that keeps your window open indefinitely. You want your bench/depth to be a mix of vets who aren’t worth much in a trade but are capable of spot starts during byes/injuries and young players who have shown promise but may still be waiting for a larger role in their offense.

This has been the roster construction that I’ve seen win consistently, and when you inevitably do have a down year, that type of balanced roster construction means you have trade chips that will appeal to both contending and rebuilding teams, which helps position you to bounce back quickly the following season.

 

[psmurphy1028]

Depends on format like how many bench spots and starter spots. The deeper the benches the more you need to be able to find guys to stash that can develop into playable assets.
Some of the teams draft win now rosters that look like good redraft teams. Others draft the shiny young rosters that might need some patience. Injuries definitely can matter and often lead to trades between contenders and rebuilders.

Thanks. 10 starters, 21 bench spots. Plus 2IR and 3 taxi squad spots. 36 total for 12 teams. It feels almost too deep. Is this normal for a dynasty? Or is part of the reason the waiver wire feels completely desolate because we have too many bench spots?

 

[psmurphy1028]

In Superflex and TE Prem you absolutely have to prioritize QB and TE. It’s really hard to beat teams that are stacked at QB/TE because even if their WR/RB are just league average, the point difference from their QBs and TEs will carry them to victory most weeks.

As far as starting lineup vs. depth…

I think it’s more important to have good balance of proven/established and young/upside. You could have a stacked starting lineup but if it’s all older vets you are going to have a very short window to win the league. On the flip side if your entire lineup is super young/upside guys it can be hard to beat the teams that have several elite veterans producing at the top of their position. Given the choice between the two builds I’d take the all young/upside roster 10 times out of 10, because you can always trade young players to address needs, or for future draft capital if you decide to go the rebuild route. You’re never fully out of it if you have a handful of good young players that would fit on any roster.

The optimal build to me is to have half your starters be proven vets and the other half exciting young guys on the verge of a breakout. This sets you up to be a perennial contender. As your veterans fade away/retire and your youngsters become established vets, your rookie draft picks will be the youth infusion that keeps your window open indefinitely. You want your bench/depth to be a mix of vets who aren’t worth much in a trade but are capable of spot starts during byes/injuries and young players who have shown promise but may still be waiting for a larger role in their offense.

This has been the roster construction that I’ve seen win consistently, and when you inevitably do have a down year, that type of balanced roster construction means you have trade chips that will appeal to both contending and rebuilding teams, which helps position you to bounce back quickly the following season.

 

[@GregoryLKellogg]

In Superflex and TE Prem you absolutely have to prioritize QB and TE. It’s really hard to beat teams that are stacked at QB/TE because even if their WR/RB are just league average, the point difference from their QBs and TEs will carry them to victory most weeks.

As far as starting lineup vs. depth…

I think it’s more important to have good balance of proven/established and young/upside. You could have a stacked starting lineup but if it’s all older vets you are going to have a very short window to win the league. On the flip side if your entire lineup is super young/upside guys it can be hard to beat the teams that have several elite veterans producing at the top of their position. Given the choice between the two builds I’d take the all young/upside roster 10 times out of 10, because you can always trade young players to address needs, or for future draft capital if you decide to go the rebuild route. You’re never fully out of it if you have a handful of good young players that would fit on any roster.

The optimal build to me is to have half your starters be proven vets and the other half exciting young guys on the verge of a breakout. This sets you up to be a perennial contender. As your veterans fade away/retire and your youngsters become established vets, your rookie draft picks will be the youth infusion that keeps your window open indefinitely. You want your bench/depth to be a mix of vets who aren’t worth much in a trade but are capable of spot starts during byes/injuries and young players who have shown promise but may still be waiting for a larger role in their offense.

This has been the roster construction that I’ve seen win consistently, and when you inevitably do have a down year, that type of balanced roster construction means you have trade chips that will appeal to both contending and rebuilding teams, which helps position you to bounce back quickly the following season.

Great post. I do take exception with one aspect. I tend to use a Win Now approach. In all of my leagues regardless of format. If you start out building for the future, you might always be building and never quite be built! Though for my depth - and this depends entirely on bench size - I focus on future/insurance. For instance if Kyren Williams is my RB1, I might draft Blake Corum late. He provides insurance for my RB1.

 

[IHEARTFF]

Depends on format like how many bench spots and starter spots. The deeper the benches the more you need to be able to find guys to stash that can develop into playable assets.
Some of the teams draft win now rosters that look like good redraft teams. Others draft the shiny young rosters that might need some patience. Injuries definitely can matter and often lead to trades between contenders and rebuilders.

Thanks. 10 starters, 21 bench spots. Plus 2IR and 3 taxi squad spots. 36 total for 12 teams. It feels almost too deep. Is this normal for a dynasty? Or is part of the reason the waiver wire feels completely desolate because we have too many bench spots?

I agree with you. 21 bench spots to 10 starters seems like way too many and is almost certainly leading to a desolate waiver wire.

 

[IHEARTFF]

I’d also recommend you read many of the recent pages of the dynasty value discussion thread. Really helpful for understanding player values for SF and TEP and a good place to discuss possible trade ideas.

 

[mjb03003]

In Superflex and TE Prem you absolutely have to prioritize QB and TE. It’s really hard to beat teams that are stacked at QB/TE because even if their WR/RB are just league average, the point difference from their QBs and TEs will carry them to victory most weeks.

As far as starting lineup vs. depth…

I think it’s more important to have good balance of proven/established and young/upside. You could have a stacked starting lineup but if it’s all older vets you are going to have a very short window to win the league. On the flip side if your entire lineup is super young/upside guys it can be hard to beat the teams that have several elite veterans producing at the top of their position. Given the choice between the two builds I’d take the all young/upside roster 10 times out of 10, because you can always trade young players to address needs, or for future draft capital if you decide to go the rebuild route. You’re never fully out of it if you have a handful of good young players that would fit on any roster.

The optimal build to me is to have half your starters be proven vets and the other half exciting young guys on the verge of a breakout. This sets you up to be a perennial contender. As your veterans fade away/retire and your youngsters become established vets, your rookie draft picks will be the youth infusion that keeps your window open indefinitely. You want your bench/depth to be a mix of vets who aren’t worth much in a trade but are capable of spot starts during byes/injuries and young players who have shown promise but may still be waiting for a larger role in their offense.

This has been the roster construction that I’ve seen win consistently, and when you inevitably do have a down year, that type of balanced roster construction means you have trade chips that will appeal to both contending and rebuilding teams, which helps position you to bounce back quickly the following season.

Great post. I do take exception with one aspect. I tend to use a Win Now approach. In all of my leagues regardless of format. If you start out building for the future, you might always be building and never quite be built! Though for my depth - and this depends entirely on bench size - I focus on future/insurance. For instance if Kyren Williams is my RB1, I might draft Blake Corum late. He provides insurance for my RB1.

I’ve been guilty of building too much for the future and having a roster that is too young and unproven and never actually turns to the corner to be a contender. It’s frustrating but at least if you go that route you have a lot of chances to fix it and you can keep tinkering to try to find the right combo of players to make a formidable starting lineup. That’s why I think you need to balance it. You want enough proven guys that you’re able to contend right away, but you also want at least a couple of your best players to be guys you can reasonably expect to hold their value for several years so you have some outs.

I’ve seen people go extremely win-now in startups and they usually bail on the league by year 3 when their roster is falling off the age cliff and they have no trade chips anyone wants. Not saying you do that @gregorylkellogg but it’s logically hard to keep it going when you lean too heavily into the win-now strategy. And keeping it going is what dynasty is (supposed to be) all about.

 

[psmurphy1028]

In Superflex and TE Prem you absolutely have to prioritize QB and TE. It’s really hard to beat teams that are stacked at QB/TE because even if their WR/RB are just league average, the point difference from their QBs and TEs will carry them to victory most weeks.

As far as starting lineup vs. depth…

I think it’s more important to have good balance of proven/established and young/upside. You could have a stacked starting lineup but if it’s all older vets you are going to have a very short window to win the league. On the flip side if your entire lineup is super young/upside guys it can be hard to beat the teams that have several elite veterans producing at the top of their position. Given the choice between the two builds I’d take the all young/upside roster 10 times out of 10, because you can always trade young players to address needs, or for future draft capital if you decide to go the rebuild route. You’re never fully out of it if you have a handful of good young players that would fit on any roster.

The optimal build to me is to have half your starters be proven vets and the other half exciting young guys on the verge of a breakout. This sets you up to be a perennial contender. As your veterans fade away/retire and your youngsters become established vets, your rookie draft picks will be the youth infusion that keeps your window open indefinitely. You want your bench/depth to be a mix of vets who aren’t worth much in a trade but are capable of spot starts during byes/injuries and young players who have shown promise but may still be waiting for a larger role in their offense.

This has been the roster construction that I’ve seen win consistently, and when you inevitably do have a down year, that type of balanced roster construction means you have trade chips that will appeal to both contending and rebuilding teams, which helps position you to bounce back quickly the following season

In Superflex and TE Prem you absolutely have to prioritize QB and TE. It’s really hard to beat teams that are stacked at QB/TE because even if their WR/RB are just league average, the point difference from their QBs and TEs will carry them to victory most weeks.

As far as starting lineup vs. depth…

I think it’s more important to have good balance of proven/established and young/upside. You could have a stacked starting lineup but if it’s all older vets you are going to have a very short window to win the league. On the flip side if your entire lineup is super young/upside guys it can be hard to beat the teams that have several elite veterans producing at the top of their position. Given the choice between the two builds I’d take the all young/upside roster 10 times out of 10, because you can always trade young players to address needs, or for future draft capital if you decide to go the rebuild route. You’re never fully out of it if you have a handful of good young players that would fit on any roster.

The optimal build to me is to have half your starters be proven vets and the other half exciting young guys on the verge of a breakout. This sets you up to be a perennial contender. As your veterans fade away/retire and your youngsters become established vets, your rookie draft picks will be the youth infusion that keeps your window open indefinitely. You want your bench/depth to be a mix of vets who aren’t worth much in a trade but are capable of spot starts during byes/injuries and young players who have shown promise but may still be waiting for a larger role in their offense.

This has been the roster construction that I’ve seen win consistently, and when you inevitably do have a down year, that type of balanced roster construction means you have trade chips that will appeal to both contending and rebuilding teams, which helps position you to bounce back quickly the following season.

Thanks

In Superflex and TE Prem you absolutely have to prioritize QB and TE. It’s really hard to beat teams that are stacked at QB/TE because even if their WR/RB are just league average, the point difference from their QBs and TEs will carry them to victory most weeks.

As far as starting lineup vs. depth…

I think it’s more important to have good balance of proven/established and young/upside. You could have a stacked starting lineup but if it’s all older vets you are going to have a very short window to win the league. On the flip side if your entire lineup is super young/upside guys it can be hard to beat the teams that have several elite veterans producing at the top of their position. Given the choice between the two builds I’d take the all young/upside roster 10 times out of 10, because you can always trade young players to address needs, or for future draft capital if you decide to go the rebuild route. You’re never fully out of it if you have a handful of good young players that would fit on any roster.

The optimal build to me is to have half your starters be proven vets and the other half exciting young guys on the verge of a breakout. This sets you up to be a perennial contender. As your veterans fade away/retire and your youngsters become established vets, your rookie draft picks will be the youth infusion that keeps your window open indefinitely. You want your bench/depth to be a mix of vets who aren’t worth much in a trade but are capable of spot starts during byes/injuries and young players who have shown promise but may still be waiting for a larger role in their offense.

This has been the roster construction that I’ve seen win consistently, and when you inevitably do have a down year, that type of balanced roster construction means you have trade chips that will appeal to both contending and rebuilding teams, which helps position you to bounce back quickly the following season.

In Superflex and TE Prem you absolutely have to prioritize QB and TE. It’s really hard to beat teams that are stacked at QB/TE because even if their WR/RB are just league average, the point difference from their QBs and TEs will carry them to victory most weeks.

As far as starting lineup vs. depth…

I think it’s more important to have good balance of proven/established and young/upside. You could have a stacked starting lineup but if it’s all older vets you are going to have a very short window to win the league. On the flip side if your entire lineup is super young/upside guys it can be hard to beat the teams that have several elite veterans producing at the top of their position. Given the choice between the two builds I’d take the all young/upside roster 10 times out of 10, because you can always trade young players to address needs, or for future draft capital if you decide to go the rebuild route. You’re never fully out of it if you have a handful of good young players that would fit on any roster.

The optimal build to me is to have half your starters be proven vets and the other half exciting young guys on the verge of a breakout. This sets you up to be a perennial contender. As your veterans fade away/retire and your youngsters become established vets, your rookie draft picks will be the youth infusion that keeps your window open indefinitely. You want your bench/depth to be a mix of vets who aren’t worth much in a trade but are capable of spot starts during byes/injuries and young players who have shown promise but may still be waiting for a larger role in their offense.

This has been the roster construction that I’ve seen win consistently, and when you inevitably do have a down year, that type of balanced roster construction means you have trade chips that will appeal to both contending and rebuilding teams, which helps position you to bounce back quickly the following season.

Thanks. I appreciate the response. Based on where I drafted at the 1.08, the elite QBs were already off the board so I targeted young positional talent. I went with rushing upside with my two starting QBs but dont have any real depth at the position, or long term stability for that matter.
For the most part I like the combination of RBs I came away with in terms of youth and current opportunity.
It's a 2RB / 3WR / 2 FLEX league, so my preference will be to always start a minimum of 4 WRs which I tried to make the strength of my team.
I landed on Engram as my TE, thinking the premium may boost his value slightly more considering he's always been a volume play. Ertz is a potential second flex starter in a pinch considering TEP, and hoping Chig can build on the back half of last year's momentum with a QB upgrade.
I like my WR5-7 and think they all have potential to be FLEX worthy. At RB, I would probably need an injury in front of one of my guys for anyone beyond RB3 to crack the starting lineup this year, but I do like Charb's potential if he can get a starting role in Seattle, or somewhere else.
Posting my roster below. Would like to hear your thoughts on how I did? Do you think I devalued QB and TE too much? And do you think the roster as a whole has the right amount of balance? I'm concerned I didn't lean into a first year contender build strongly enough, but I'm also not positioned as a rebuilder, especially when considering I traded away my 2027 1st to get Kaleb Johnson on the team. Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[psmurphy1028]

QB1Kyler Murray
QB2Justin Fields
QBJameis Winston
QBJake Browning
QBTrey Lance
QBTyrod Taylor
RB1DeVon Achane
RB2D'Andre Swift
RB3Kaleb Johnson
RB4Rachaad White
RB5Zach Charbonnet
RB6Will Shipley
RB7Kyle Monangai
RB8Ollie Gordon
RBJeff Wilson
RBChris Brooks
RBJulius Chestnut
WR1Justin Jefferson
WR2Brian Thomas Jr.
WR3Rashee Rice
WR4Jameson Williams
WR5Darnell Mooney
WR6Rashod Bateman
WR7Cedric Tillman
WR8Calvin Austin
WRTre Tucker
WRKeAndre Lambert Smith
WRJohn Metchie
WRJermaine Burton
WRCharlie Jones
WRJaCorey Brooks
TE1Evan Engram
TE2Zach Ertz
TE3Chig Okonkwo
TETommy Tremble
TEErick All

 

[psmurphy1028]

I’d also recommend you read many of the recent pages of the dynasty value discussion thread. Really helpful for understanding player values for SF and TEP and a good place to discuss possible trade ideas.

Thanks. I will check it out. I have been looking at dynasty trade value charts too. I guess my question was more about understanding people's actual experiences in the past since this is my first dynasty league. But I do expect injuries to open the door for potential trade partners and potentially drastically alter a teams landscape and their ability to contend. I also don't like that our league is set up with no trade deadline at all. I would think that when the playoff seeds are set, those teams would be locked from making trades, and you have to go on your playoff run with the team you have. I don't like that if someone makes the the finals, they can just leverage their future for one game to win the championship. Is there usually some sort of trade deadline?

 

[Ray Barboni]

Lots of good advice in here, so I won’t clutter it up. Just wanted to say to always keep up with who’s on the WW.

Players pop up all the time. Even in the deepest of leagues, value shows up. Scour each teams depth charts, run down the entire FA list in your league - target 3rd string RB’s to stash. Just make sure they have some unfounded upside, like being a rookie, or an UDFA with some athleticism.

 

[@GregoryLKellogg]

In Superflex and TE Prem you absolutely have to prioritize QB and TE. It’s really hard to beat teams that are stacked at QB/TE because even if their WR/RB are just league average, the point difference from their QBs and TEs will carry them to victory most weeks.

As far as starting lineup vs. depth…

I think it’s more important to have good balance of proven/established and young/upside. You could have a stacked starting lineup but if it’s all older vets you are going to have a very short window to win the league. On the flip side if your entire lineup is super young/upside guys it can be hard to beat the teams that have several elite veterans producing at the top of their position. Given the choice between the two builds I’d take the all young/upside roster 10 times out of 10, because you can always trade young players to address needs, or for future draft capital if you decide to go the rebuild route. You’re never fully out of it if you have a handful of good young players that would fit on any roster.

The optimal build to me is to have half your starters be proven vets and the other half exciting young guys on the verge of a breakout. This sets you up to be a perennial contender. As your veterans fade away/retire and your youngsters become established vets, your rookie draft picks will be the youth infusion that keeps your window open indefinitely. You want your bench/depth to be a mix of vets who aren’t worth much in a trade but are capable of spot starts during byes/injuries and young players who have shown promise but may still be waiting for a larger role in their offense.

This has been the roster construction that I’ve seen win consistently, and when you inevitably do have a down year, that type of balanced roster construction means you have trade chips that will appeal to both contending and rebuilding teams, which helps position you to bounce back quickly the following season.

Great post. I do take exception with one aspect. I tend to use a Win Now approach. In all of my leagues regardless of format. If you start out building for the future, you might always be building and never quite be built! Though for my depth - and this depends entirely on bench size - I focus on future/insurance. For instance if Kyren Williams is my RB1, I might draft Blake Corum late. He provides insurance for my RB1.

I’ve been guilty of building too much for the future and having a roster that is too young and unproven and never actually turns to the corner to be a contender. It’s frustrating but at least if you go that route you have a lot of chances to fix it and you can keep tinkering to try to find the right combo of players to make a formidable starting lineup. That’s why I think you need to balance it. You want enough proven guys that you’re able to contend right away, but you also want at least a couple of your best players to be guys you can reasonably expect to hold their value for several years so you have some outs.

I’ve seen people go extremely win-now in startups and they usually bail on the league by year 3 when their roster is falling off the age cliff and they have no trade chips anyone wants. Not saying you do that @gregorylkellogg but it’s logically hard to keep it going when you lean too heavily into the win-now strategy. And keeping it going is what dynasty is (supposed to be) all about.

The future is built around the rookie drafts for me. And while life can intervene in dynasty leagues, folks who bail because their roster is old lack character and you are better off without them. The great thing about dynasty is found in the challenge of maintaining a competitive team over the course of several seasons.

 

[menobrown]

But, how often do dynasty leagues come down to a war of attrition, and it's your bench depth that wins you a league, because your bench depth outplayed the rest of the leagues bench depth?

It's a good question and I've not read the replies so sorry if this was addressed.

In my experience and thought process dynasty teams, or really redraft as well, with strong depth are built for the regular season. These teams can far more easily navigate injuries and bye weeks.

The playoffs are different but I need to note I think of this in more of the FFPC style of playoffs were the final is 4 teams over a two week period. At this point I think it defaults to teams with better lineups, or studs, over depth. Can't get a "lucky" win because you faced a depleted team or one that had a down week.

This was actually on my mind with a team of mine in the last day or so that I thought all of these things about. Thought the team had incredible depth at every position but was a little light on sure thing studs. Last two seasons my team has scored first and second most points in the regular season but finished 3rd and 5th overall in the playoffs.

Long story short for me I think studs are going to help you prevail in the playoffs more then depth but depth might be more of an assist in helping you actually get to that point.

Anyway I put my thought process in motion on my team I mentioned above and nuked most of my teams depth, especially at WR, to add two big time studs and hopefully do better in the playoffs.

 

[psmurphy1028]

But, how often do dynasty leagues come down to a war of attrition, and it's your bench depth that wins you a league, because your bench depth outplayed the rest of the leagues bench depth?

It's a good question and I've not read the replies so sorry if this was addressed.

In my experience and thought process dynasty teams, or really redraft as well, with strong depth are built for the regular season. These teams can far more easily navigate injuries and bye weeks.

The playoffs are different but I need to note I think of this in more of the FFPC style of playoffs were the final is 4 teams over a two week period. At this point I think it defaults to teams with better lineups, or studs, over depth. Can't get a "lucky" win because you faced a depleted team or one that had a down week.

This was actually on my mind with a team of mine in the last day or so that I thought all of these things about. Thought the team had incredible depth at every position but was a little light on sure thing studs. Last two seasons my team has scored first and second most points in the regular season but finished 3rd and 5th overall in the playoffs.

Long story short for me I think studs are going to help you prevail in the playoffs more then depth but depth might be more of an assist in helping you actually get to that point.

Anyway I put my thought process in motion on my team I mentioned above and nuked most of my teams depth, especially at WR, to add two big time studs and hopefully do better in the playoffs.

Appreciate the insight based on the past couple years' experience.