How will your league handle an 18 game season? (1 Viewer)

[Sinrman]

Likely a part of any new collective bargaining agreement, there will be an 18 game (19 week) season. The owners are seriously pushing for

this, obviously seeing more $$ at the end of the tunnel. The players scoff at it because it's added wear and tear on their bodies, and feel

they should be compensated more for this (and rightfully so in my opinion). But I think it's only a matter of figuring a $$ figure and hammering

it out, just like most everything involving the new agreement.

Assuming they do agree to terms and we have a season next year, and there ends up being an 18 game season (2011? 2012? 2013?), how will your

fantasy league handle it (scheduling-wise)?

 

[Adebisi]

The players don't scoff at it because it's more wear and tear on their bodies; the players scoff at it so they can use it as a bigger bargaining chip when they negotiate a new CBA.

 

[Klecker]

My 10-team dynasty league that just finished its 11th season will be expanding to 12 teams if/when expansion happens to the NFL schedule. We will add one team to both of the divisions and continue to play each team in division twice and the other division once. This adds up to sixteen regular season games. As I am anticipating an 18-game/20-week NFL season (not 19 weeks as anticipated by the OP), we will have a three-week playoff and avoid playing on Week 20. (If the NFL ends up with an 18-game/19-week regular season, we'll have to make some alterations.)

 

[duaneok66]

My 10-team dynasty league that just finished its 11th season will be expanding to 12 teams if/when expansion happens to the NFL schedule. We will add one team to both of the divisions and continue to play each team in division twice and the other division once. This adds up to sixteen regular season games. As I am anticipating an 18-game/20-week NFL season (not 19 weeks as anticipated by the OP), we will have a three-week playoff and avoid playing on Week 20. (If the NFL ends up with an 18-game/19-week regular season, we'll have to make some alterations.)

what would be the details of your expansion draft??? just curious . . .

 

[tarheel4ever]

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[Jeff Pasquino]

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[Sinrman]

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Good stuff as always, Jeff. It gives some good food for thought on this very subject.

I wonder if there are any other variations being considered by others...

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

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Like the two week championship

 

[Klecker]

My 10-team dynasty league that just finished its 11th season will be expanding to 12 teams if/when expansion happens to the NFL schedule. We will add one team to both of the divisions and continue to play each team in division twice and the other division once. This adds up to sixteen regular season games. As I am anticipating an 18-game/20-week NFL season (not 19 weeks as anticipated by the OP), we will have a three-week playoff and avoid playing on Week 20. (If the NFL ends up with an 18-game/19-week regular season, we'll have to make some alterations.)

what would be the details of your expansion draft??? just curious . . .

Without getting into the intricacies of our scoring and keeper systems, each current owner would protect some players (four or five, most likely) based on a point-cap (high-scoring players from last year cost more to keep than lower-scoring players). Once a player was selected from his team, that owner would be able to protect two more players (regardless of value). When a second player was selected from his team, all of the remaining players from his team would be protected.Note: A small group of us developed these rules in 2001, knowing that we might be looking to expand at some point in the future. We "tested" them by doing mock expansions on two different occasions to make sure that they still worked properly.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

Ya know, who says we have to expand FF schedules just because the NFL is expanding theirs? This could be the answer to the "players resting" problem that has plagued FF leagues for years. Play the same schedule we were before, don't worry about your star players sitting out because they've clinched, and enjoy the last month of the NFL season without having to worry about FF implications.

The two-week championship is a good idea too, and could still be implemented this way and still wrap up in plenty of time to not have to worry about your FFers sitting.

 

[Daniel Shirley]

Under the assumption it will be a 20 week season with each NFL team getting two bye weeks, I plan to make our 16 team/4 divisions (2 conferences) large IDP keep 10 do:

-6 games against divisional opponents

-4 games against other division in conference

-4 games against a division in the other conference (rotates each season)

-1 game against rival regardless of in/out of division (rivalry week!)

-Weeks 16, 17, 18 are playoffs in typical six teams qualify (top team from each conference receives bye, 4 division winners get in, wild card from each conference).

No action week 19 or 20.

 

[coolnerd]

 

[duaneok66]

My 10-team dynasty league that just finished its 11th season will be expanding to 12 teams if/when expansion happens to the NFL schedule. We will add one team to both of the divisions and continue to play each team in division twice and the other division once. This adds up to sixteen regular season games. As I am anticipating an 18-game/20-week NFL season (not 19 weeks as anticipated by the OP), we will have a three-week playoff and avoid playing on Week 20. (If the NFL ends up with an 18-game/19-week regular season, we'll have to make some alterations.)

what would be the details of your expansion draft??? just curious . . .

Without getting into the intricacies of our scoring and keeper systems, each current owner would protect some players (four or five, most likely) based on a point-cap (high-scoring players from last year cost more to keep than lower-scoring players). Once a player was selected from his team, that owner would be able to protect two more players (regardless of value). When a second player was selected from his team, all of the remaining players from his team would be protected.Note: A small group of us developed these rules in 2001, knowing that we might be looking to expand at some point in the future. We "tested" them by doing mock expansions on two different occasions to make sure that they still worked properly.

thanks - very interesting concept . . .

 

[bicycle_seat_sniffer]

#1 - add a roster spot to all league I commish because of double byes and more injuries.

#2 - the fantasy superbowl will always be the weekend before the last weekend of the real season.

 

[Todem]

#1 - add a roster spot to all league I commish because of double byes and more injuries.#2 - the fantasy superbowl will always be the weekend before the last weekend of the real season.

I see most leagues doing this.

 

[Godsbrother]

Not sure what we will do but most likely it will only affect the playoffs and possibly changing the way we divide teams in divisions.

On the other hand it might be interesting to blow away our HTH system and go strictly by points. Award prizes based on points through week 10 (assuming 20 week season).

Then after week 10 throw all of the players back into the pool, have a new draft, and play another season over the final 10 games.

 

[az_prof]

I wonder if we really want to be playing our Fantasy Championship in Wk 19 though? Won't there be even more top teams that will have wrapped up division and playoff seedings who will sit star players?

 

[bicycle_seat_sniffer]

I wonder if we really want to be playing our Fantasy Championship in Wk 19 though? Won't there be even more top teams that will have wrapped up division and playoff seedings who will sit star players?

who knows? week16 sittings right now are rare. so if your crystal ball tells you something different let me know

 

[kardplayer]

For my 12 team, 3 division league, I'm going to propose we go to a 14 week regular season. That lets us play everyone in our divisions 2x (right now we play 5 division games - 2 teams 2x, 1 team 1x) with a two week championship game. That wraps us in Week 18, and we'll see how the Week 19 lineups look and make another call for year 2.

A lot will depend on when the byes happen in the NFL - I like that they are isolated to the out of division weeks in our current schedule.

 

[Sweet Love]

#1 - add a roster spot to all league I commish because of double byes and more injuries.#2 - the fantasy superbowl will always be the weekend before the last weekend of the real season.

I see most leagues doing this.

I agree with the added roster spot (I think some leagues will not think about this and pay for it), but I am not sure about having the Championship game in week 19 (two extra games plus an extra bye equals a 20 week season, if I am correct). I would probably vote to dial it back to week week 18, as in week 19, you could easily have teams coasting at that point and resting players.

 

[Billy Bats]

Ya know, who says we have to expand FF schedules just because the NFL is expanding theirs? This could be the answer to the "players resting" problem that has plagued FF leagues for years. Play the same schedule we were before, don't worry about your star players sitting out because they've clinched, and enjoy the last month of the NFL season without having to worry about FF implications.The two-week championship is a good idea too, and could still be implemented this way and still wrap up in plenty of time to not have to worry about your FFers sitting.

I agree, BUT how can we hold playoffs and a fantasy bowl if NFL teams are on a bye at any point during weeks 14,15,16? I don't know what the NFL has planned, but that will certainly alter fantasy scheduling.

 

[Keith R]

Unfortunately, I could not access the story (not a paid member )

Right now, we have 12 teams, 2 conferences, and have a regular season thru Week 15. Teams play each member of their conference 2x and members of opposing conference 1x with one exception; teams do not play their "opposite" team from the other conference at all in the regular season. (If a team finished 1st in conference last year, they don't play last year's last place team in the other conference, 2nd does not play opposing 5th, etc.)

My early thoughts are as follows if season extended to 19 weeks; Keep conference schedules as is. Add the game that does not currently occur (opposites) and have teams play their "match" from the other conference 2x instead of 1x. What I don't like about that is that only 10 of 17 games will be conference games instead of the 2/3 ratio currently in place, but I may be willing to concede that w/o a better alternative.

As for a 20 week schedule, I don't have many ideas yet, and it seems like that is the more likely possibility. I can tell you my leaguemates will not want to end the season before the final NFL week. Beyond that, I am hesitant but open to discussing realignment, expansion, etc but very unclear as to how to proceed.

 

[cubbie5150]

 

[Ned]

Ya know, who says we have to expand FF schedules just because the NFL is expanding theirs? This could be the answer to the "players resting" problem that has plagued FF leagues for years. Play the same schedule we were before, don't worry about your star players sitting out because they've clinched, and enjoy the last month of the NFL season without having to worry about FF implications.The two-week championship is a good idea too, and could still be implemented this way and still wrap up in plenty of time to not have to worry about your FFers sitting.

I agree, BUT how can we hold playoffs and a fantasy bowl if NFL teams are on a bye at any point during weeks 14,15,16? I don't know what the NFL has planned, but that will certainly alter fantasy scheduling.

My thoughts exactly. If the 2nd bye is during weeks 14-16, we gotta push our schedules out. No way you have playoffs with bye weeks to worry about.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

I wonder if we really want to be playing our Fantasy Championship in Wk 19 though? Won't there be even more top teams that will have wrapped up division and playoff seedings who will sit star players?

Teams still have to win to earn a bye week and/or homefield advantage. Even if they have those things wrapped up, they aren't sitting players (unless injured) in week 19 (then week 20 and then the playoff bye week). It would be a month between games for those guys if they sit.

 

[fsufan]

i run 3 dynasty leagues

two 12 team leagues, 4 divisions, 3 teams per

the other is a 10 team league with 2 divisions of 5

the 12 team leagues will be going to 2 divisions of 6, play division opponents 2 times, other teams once

really no clue on the 10 team league

 

[snogger]

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For 10 team leagues you state:

That leaves Weeks 18 and 19 for the fantasy playoffs

What if you like the ESPN type format where you play two games against your opponent and total score moves on?Right now we play weeks 13-14 for round 1 & weeks 15-16 for the Championship/Round 2.

My assumption, at least for the first year of a 18 game schedule, is we'd end up playing through week 20.

Does that help or hinder the scheduling with a playoff format like that?

 

[snogger]

#1 - add a roster spot to all league I commish because of double byes and more injuries.#2 - the fantasy superbowl will always be the weekend before the last weekend of the real season.

Our roster will probably increase by more than 1 spot. With two byes you are going to be filling in a lot more than normal.. 10 team league right now with 16 players.. not sure if go to 18 or 20

 

[SaintLouisCardinals]

 

[JohnnyU]

12 Teams 2 divisions

Our schedule is already complicated, but I guess we could add another non-division game and adjust the below formula ---

Each team still plays teams within their division twice. Games played outside the division is based upon the standings of the previous year. Weaker teams get an easier 3 game schedule, better teams get a harder 3 game schedule.

1) First place teams play teams 1, 2, and 4 from the other division.

2) Second place teams play teams 1, 3, and 5

3) Third place teams play teams 2, 3, and 6

4) Fourth place teams play teams 1, 4, and 5

5) Fifth place teams play teams 2, 4, and 6

6) Sixth place teams play teams 3, 5, and 6

So I say we could leave it the way it is for the SB (weeks 14-16) and maybe use week 17 for a total pts game giving either a $ prize or 1.13 pick for the winner? We could add another non-division game and adjust the above formula.

 

[Jeff Pasquino]

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Happy Holidays

For 10 team leagues you state:

That leaves Weeks 18 and 19 for the fantasy playoffs

What if you like the ESPN type format where you play two games against your opponent and total score moves on?Right now we play weeks 13-14 for round 1 & weeks 15-16 for the Championship/Round 2.

My assumption, at least for the first year of a 18 game schedule, is we'd end up playing through week 20.

Does that help or hinder the scheduling with a playoff format like that?

Needless to say, the twenty game schedule really clashes with ten team leagues.The typical two division setup falls apart unless you get creative.

Thirteen games for regular season only works with double week playoffs

 

[Football Jones]

14-team dynasty & redraft leagues will now work perfect with a 13-game regular season & 2-week playoffs (which is a big plus) ending in week 19 (the NFL will likely go to 2 bye weeks, making it a 20-week season). For redraft leagues, I'd suggest adding teams to get to 14 & use the same format. That format is going to be the gold-standard from now on, IMO.

The only problem is there's a bunch of 12-team dynasty leagues which requires you to get more creative. Personally, if expanding wasn't an option in those leagues (which is hard to do), I'd work off of an 11-game regular season & use the rest for the playoffs (divide it up however it works best). It leaves more weeks open for non-playoff teams, but you can always have a Toilet Bowl so those teams can play longer.

Unbalanced schedules in any format (especially divisions) are unfair by their very nature. All it does is allow some teams to play stronger schedules & some teams to play weaker schedules. I could see having divisions if you could control the other team's scoring, but as we all know, that's not the case. I don't buy the rivalry thing. Just too much downside with division play.

 

[Yellow Line is Unoffcial]

Just set up a new dynasty league for next year. I believe there will be a 20 week (18 games and 2 byes) NFL season.

2 six team divisions

Play your division twice (10 games)

Other division once (6 games)

Playoffs weeks 17-19

 

[Dez]

Check out Pasquino's thoughts in Week 17 - Hot Reads.

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Feedback welcome.

Happy Holidays

For 10 team leagues you state:

That leaves Weeks 18 and 19 for the fantasy playoffs

What if you like the ESPN type format where you play two games against your opponent and total score moves on?Right now we play weeks 13-14 for round 1 & weeks 15-16 for the Championship/Round 2.

My assumption, at least for the first year of a 18 game schedule, is we'd end up playing through week 20.

Does that help or hinder the scheduling with a playoff format like that?

Needless to say, the twenty game schedule really clashes with ten team leagues.The typical two division setup falls apart unless you get creative.

Thirteen games for regular season only works with double week playoffs

I run two 10 team leagues, in the past when we used week 17 we just had 1 team play 2 non division games.So now we have them play 2-3. No big deal really.

Also back in the one year when there was an odd number of teams we had bye weeks thru week 17 and people had to deal with players on a bye.

I think SD byed week 17 that year and I forget who byed week 16 but those teams who had those players were stuck that year.

Hopefully they don't do that with the double bye.

 

[cvnpoka]

2 fantasy season imo. crown a champ after 1-10 and then redraft that week and do it again for 11-20.

 

[Dawg Pound 69]

For my 12 team, 3 division league, I'm going to propose we go to a 14 week regular season. That lets us play everyone in our divisions 2x (right now we play 5 division games - 2 teams 2x, 1 team 1x) with a two week championship game. That wraps us in Week 18, and we'll see how the Week 19 lineups look and make another call for year 2.A lot will depend on when the byes happen in the NFL - I like that they are isolated to the out of division weeks in our current schedule.

I love this proposal for 12-team leagues. Much better than having 2 divisions of 6 teams each. Great idea to end FF season after Week 18, as it seems likely that many starters will be injured or a healthy scratch in Weeks 19 & 20. And a 2-week Super Bowl makes it more likely that the better team wins. Hopefully commishes of 12-team leagues see the wisdom in this type of setup.

 

[Jeff Pasquino]

14-team dynasty & redraft leagues will now work perfect with a 13-game regular season & 2-week playoffs (which is a big plus) ending in week 19 (the NFL will likely go to 2 bye weeks, making it a 20-week season). For redraft leagues, I'd suggest adding teams to get to 14 & use the same format. That format is going to be the gold-standard from now on, IMO.The only problem is there's a bunch of 12-team dynasty leagues which requires you to get more creative. Personally, if expanding wasn't an option in those leagues (which is hard to do), I'd work off of an 11-game regular season & use the rest for the playoffs (divide it up however it works best). It leaves more weeks open for non-playoff teams, but you can always have a Toilet Bowl so those teams can play longer.Unbalanced schedules in any format (especially divisions) are unfair by their very nature. All it does is allow some teams to play stronger schedules & some teams to play weaker schedules. I could see having divisions if you could control the other team's scoring, but as we all know, that's not the case. I don't buy the rivalry thing. Just too much downside with division play.

12 teams is not a problem, as YLIU points out. 10 teams is the problem, and I think that those leagues will fall by the wayside.

 

[Dez]

14-team dynasty & redraft leagues will now work perfect with a 13-game regular season & 2-week playoffs (which is a big plus) ending in week 19 (the NFL will likely go to 2 bye weeks, making it a 20-week season). For redraft leagues, I'd suggest adding teams to get to 14 & use the same format. That format is going to be the gold-standard from now on, IMO.The only problem is there's a bunch of 12-team dynasty leagues which requires you to get more creative. Personally, if expanding wasn't an option in those leagues (which is hard to do), I'd work off of an 11-game regular season & use the rest for the playoffs (divide it up however it works best). It leaves more weeks open for non-playoff teams, but you can always have a Toilet Bowl so those teams can play longer.Unbalanced schedules in any format (especially divisions) are unfair by their very nature. All it does is allow some teams to play stronger schedules & some teams to play weaker schedules. I could see having divisions if you could control the other team's scoring, but as we all know, that's not the case. I don't buy the rivalry thing. Just too much downside with division play.

12 teams is not a problem, as YLIU points out. 10 teams is the problem, and I think that those leagues will fall by the wayside.

I have been running 2 (10) team leagues one since 1994 and one since 1997.My 1997 league is a dynasty league and I can assure you both leagues will never fall by the waste side.I certainly have no plans to add teams to either league especially the dynasty league.I will run these 2 (10) team leagues until god strikes me down and just because the NFL schedule is going to change I certainly will not let it cause the fall of my league.To me it is very simple. I have 2 (5) league conferences.We play each team in the conf x 2 = 8 games, we will play 8 out of conf games as well if needed (should they go to a 20 week season)So we play a total of 7 teams x 2, and 2 teams x 1.For the previous 13 years (We used week 17 as the fantasy bowl until this year) we always played an unbalanced schedule anyway we played 5 conf x 2, 1 out of conf x 2, 4 out of conf x 1 = 14 games.So should we elect to go to 16 games we play 7 teams x 2, 2 teams x 1 = 16 games.You don't have to have every single team play every single other team the exact same amount of times.It doesn't happen in the NFL so why is it a must for our leagues ?It certainly won't be for mine.

 

[coolnerd]

14-team dynasty & redraft leagues will now work perfect with a 13-game regular season & 2-week playoffs (which is a big plus) ending in week 19 (the NFL will likely go to 2 bye weeks, making it a 20-week season). For redraft leagues, I'd suggest adding teams to get to 14 & use the same format. That format is going to be the gold-standard from now on, IMO.The only problem is there's a bunch of 12-team dynasty leagues which requires you to get more creative. Personally, if expanding wasn't an option in those leagues (which is hard to do), I'd work off of an 11-game regular season & use the rest for the playoffs (divide it up however it works best). It leaves more weeks open for non-playoff teams, but you can always have a Toilet Bowl so those teams can play longer.Unbalanced schedules in any format (especially divisions) are unfair by their very nature. All it does is allow some teams to play stronger schedules & some teams to play weaker schedules. I could see having divisions if you could control the other team's scoring, but as we all know, that's not the case. I don't buy the rivalry thing. Just too much downside with division play.

12 teams is not a problem, as YLIU points out. 10 teams is the problem, and I think that those leagues will fall by the wayside.

I commish a couple of ten team leagues, and at the moment I can't see a reason why my guys would revolt with a 3 times your division and 1 time versus the other division set-up. Playing your division that much establishes who are the best couple of teams in that bracket, so the week 18,19 playoffs works. don't see 20 games as the total death of the 10 teamers.

 

[Football Critic]

I wonder if we really want to be playing our Fantasy Championship in Wk 19 though? Won't there be even more top teams that will have wrapped up division and playoff seedings who will sit star players?

who knows? week16 sittings right now are rare. so if your crystal ball tells you something different let me know

But with the longer season, just as we are wondering whats next...the head coaches could be changing the entire plan for the season if it goes to 18 games. The playing time situation could play out in a way which we do not know yet.Coaches could do certain things like bench one runner one week and another the next to give equal rest as the end of the season approaches...just one scenerio. Remeber the longer the season more reason for resting players.

 

[ffwebster]

2 six team divisions

Play your division twice (10 games)

Other division once (6 games)

Playoffs weeks 17-19

This is exactley what I have planned for the two 12 team leagues I run..

 

[Genester]

[quote name='Dez' date='Dec 31 2010, 10:59 PM'

You don't have to have every single team play every single other team the exact same amount of times.

It doesn't happen in the NFL so why is it a must for our leagues ?

It certainly won't be for mine.

This, of course, is the clear and simple answer - the unbalanced schedule. If you think it's unfair, go to total points or all-play or doubleheaders or simply vary the schedule each year or use SOS as a tie-breaker. As long as the schedule is set in advance of the draft and is clear to all, I see no problem at all. How do I know? Been playing with an unbalanced schedule for years already.

 

[FUBAR]

I wonder if we really want to be playing our Fantasy Championship in Wk 19 though? Won't there be even more top teams that will have wrapped up division and playoff seedings who will sit star players?

who knows? week16 sittings right now are rare. so if your crystal ball tells you something different let me know

But with the longer season, just as we are wondering whats next...the head coaches could be changing the entire plan for the season if it goes to 18 games. The playing time situation could play out in a way which we do not know yet.Coaches could do certain things like bench one runner one week and another the next to give equal rest as the end of the season approaches...just one scenerio. Remeber the longer the season more reason for resting players.

You're right that we don't know how each coach will handle the change but I have a hard time thinking players relevant to FF in most leagues will be completely benched unless they're injured. I can easily see limiting their carries or even removing them when ahead by a couple scores, I can see benching them for injuries that they might have played through this year, but I cannot see an increase in coaches benching a runner for no reason or rotating players game to game. I don't know that 2 extra games will change all that much except that more players will probably be on IR for the FF playoffs.

 

[Ariakis]

I think we need to see where bye weeks will fall out before new schedules and overall decisions are made. I'm tempted to just suggests my leagues stand pat and end in 16 or maybe do a multi week playoff or something. Problem is if byes continue past week 10 your division games in fantasy may still face bye issues to skew results.

 

[Insein]

Going to be tricky for us. We're a 10 team, 2QB league. If we were a standard 10 team league I'd just have us expand to 12 and be done with it but a 2QB league with 12 teams doesn't really work. We'll have to see how it goes.

 

[kncks12]

#1 - add a roster spot to all league I commish because of double byes and more injuries.#2 - the fantasy superbowl will always be the weekend before the last weekend of the real season.

I see most leagues doing this.

I agree with the added roster spot (I think some leagues will not think about this and pay for it), but I am not sure about having the Championship game in week 19 (two extra games plus an extra bye equals a 20 week season, if I am correct). I would probably vote to dial it back to week week 18, as in week 19, you could easily have teams coasting at that point and resting players.

No doubt we are going to see more rest of players. I plan on ending the season 2 weeks early to avoid this catostrophe. So if there are 20 weeks I will look to end our season week 18 if there are 19 weeks then I will look to end week 17. After a couple years we may change as we see it play out but I just think it will be very watered down at end of season

 

[Crash and Walk Away]

For my 12 team, 3 division league, I'm going to propose we go to a 14 week regular season. That lets us play everyone in our divisions 2x (right now we play 5 division games - 2 teams 2x, 1 team 1x) with a two week championship game. That wraps us in Week 18, and we'll see how the Week 19 lineups look and make another call for year 2.

A lot will depend on when the byes happen in the NFL - I like that they are isolated to the out of division weeks in our current schedule.

This would be my choice for a 12 team league. I think it would be particularly attractive if the nfl stuck to one bye week, then the above would work with a 1-week championship game and be balanced.As for one of the other thoughts

Teams still have to win to earn a bye week and/or homefield advantage. Even if they have those things wrapped up, they aren't sitting players (unless injured) in week 19 (then week 20 and then the playoff bye week). It would be a month between games for those guys if they sit.

I'm in the camp that think there will be more of this in the 18 game season. There will be more of a chance to be like Philly this year: 3rd seed wrapped up (or even 4th if the 5 and 6 are not that much different). There will be more of a chance to have the one seed wrapped up like NE this year or Indy last year. There will be more teams playing their starters for only a half in week 19, similar to what some teams do now in week 16, especially RBs who take a season-long pounding.But I think the bigger impact is there will more teams clinching an inability to make the nfl playoffs. There will be more experimenting with determining "the future of the franchise", e.g playing Tebow this year. I also think we'll see more injuries towards the end of the year, making it less likely that the team with the best ff team during weeks 1-18 will be at full strength week 19.