The Art of Dynasty | Chapter 1 (Startup Drafts)

Building a dynasty fantasy football team requires strategic thinking and football acumen similar to planning a long military campaign. You must intimately understand your leaguemates’ rosters and tendencies, diligently prepare for the rookie draft and waiver wire, and thoughtfully craft a balanced yet versatile roster aligned to your vision. Knowing when to push all chips to the table for a title run or temporarily rebuild for sustained excellence is equally critical. The finest dynasty owners combine sharp situational analysis with statistical rigor and old-fashioned football study to construct juggernauts that dominate their leagues for years.

This guide outlines core tenets to help you architect a formidable roster poised for both immediate and enduring success. By internalizing essential dynasty strategies around planning, preparation, roster construction, and pivoting between competing goals, you too can rule over your leaguemates year after year like a battle-tested emperor of old.

  1. Startup Drafts
  2. Roster Construction
  3. Ideal Archetypes
  4. Ship Chasing
  5. Iron Bank
  6. Rookie Pick Values
  7. Rookie Drafts
  8. Trading
  9. Roster Management
  10. Bayesian Inference
  11. Startup Supreme
  12. Roster Crunch
  13. Trade Assessment
  14. Productive Struggle
  15. Game Theory

Dominating Startup Drafts

Dominating startup drafts requires a multipronged approach blending patience, preparation, and opportunism. The cornerstone tactic is aggressively trading back early picks to target mid-round value, accumulating assets to construct a juggernaut. Arm yourself with your own projected tier-based player rankings rooted in analytical projections, enabling you to exploit market inefficiencies when capital dries up and drafters reach. Be neither rigid nor reckless, pivoting dynamically based on flow.

Meticulously model player production over near and long-term horizons using tools like Analyst Depot’s projections wizard, which leverages past performance, usage, and machine learning. Derive non-consensus tiers from these outputs to anchor decisions.

When trading back, moderate greed with practical reads of leaguemate psyche. The ideal return for premium 1st rounders are bundled 3rd-5th rounders and future picks. However, don’t force deals without requisite value. Patiently await anxious teams overpaying to grab “their guy”. Whether early or mid-draft, target the 3rd-9th rounds to bring back future cornerstones, balancing win-now juice with enduring pillars.

With preparation and restrained opportunism, accumulate a startup bounty by consolidating overvalued “studs” into a treasury promising multi-year returns.

Here is a recent thread where I discuss my startup strategy with examples:

When drafting in a 1QB startup dynasty league, the proven strategy from experts like Tommy Mo is to focus on running backs early and often. Your first 3-4 picks should be consistent, high-floor running backs with passing game involvement. As Tommy recommends, after stacking your RB room, turn to wide receivers and tight ends to fill out the starting roster. Then, in the later rounds, select a safe, high-floor quarterback coupled with a high-upside counterpart. The goal is to compile four top-15 running backs insulated by a young core of receivers, capped off by two quarterbacks with top-20 potential found in the late rounds.

As you construct your dynasty roster from scratch, balance proven producers against promising prospects using lifetime value projections. Blend consistent veterans with high-ceiling rookies to optimize both floor and upside. As the draft concludes, take fliers on boom-or-bust candidates at skill positions to increase your team’s total potential. Remember that early dynasty rosters always change by Week 1; draft the best value while addressing immediate and future needs.

Remember that it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new draft. Stay patient and let the board work it’s way to you. If you see a player slipping, making him a value, consider moving up within reason. But do not mortgage rookie picks that are one or two years out during the startup draft. There is so much uncertainty in the months ahead and rookie picks are one of the very few dynasty assets that will appreciate in value after the startup draft.

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Chalk
Chalkhttp://theundroppables.com
The ringleader of The Undroppables, Chalk works in the shadows and behind the scenes of the brand. With a preference to remain a supporter and facilitator of the team’s influencers and personalities, Chalk’s focus is to ensure that The Machine stays well-oiled. With years of experience across dozens of leagues, Chalk brings deep and actionable insight to his fantasy football analysis. You can follow him on Twitter at @101chalk.

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