Dynasty vs Keeper Leagues: What are the key differences?

Last Modified Jan 18, 2024 06:33 GMT

Another season of fantasy football is here. Fantasy football has been growing in popularity over the years. There are a lot of formats in fantasy football.

From redraft to dynasty to keeper to so much more. And if you’re someone who has been introduced to fantasy football very recently, these terms might sound very foreign.

The most popular format of fantasy football remains the redraft. However dynasty and keeper leagues are right behind. In this page, we will be looking at the key differences between keeper and dynasty leagues,

Dynasty vs Keeper Fantasy Football Leagues

Two things can be the same yet very different. That’s what dynasty and keeper leagues are. Dynasty and Keeper leagues operate in a very similar fashion yet they are very contrasting in nature. If you’re new to fantasy football, you’ll be scratching your head.

Dynasty league is a league of commitment. As a fantasy football manager, when you draft a player, you’re going to stay committed with that player for a long time. You cannot change your roster every single year. There will be trading during the season and you will have the chance to drop off certain players. Other than that, your roster remains the same every year.

When it comes to Keeper leagues, the main difference lies in the commitment. It is similar to dynasty leagues in terms of having a similar roster every year. In keeper leagues, you can retain or “keep” certain predetermined players from the current roster heading into the next season.

Once you “keep” the predetermined players, the remaining players of your roster go into the availability pool and if you want them back, you will have to acquire them only through the draft next season. There is a specified amount of players you can “keep” from year to year in keeper leagues.

Dynasty vs Keeper leagues: How does the strategy differ?

As we discussed earlier there is a stark contrast between dynasty and keeper leagues, although they share a few similarities.

Drafting is the process in which fantasy football managers for a team. This is arguably the most important aspect in fantasy football. Irrespective of the league that you play, there is a lot of strategy that goes into drafts. Managers spend the entire off-season coming up with the best plans and strategy for the draft alone. And ofcourse, the strategy for both these leagues, dynasty and keeper, vary.

Dynasty league is a long term investment league. Hence the fantasy football managers derive different strategies heading into the draft. They prefer value. Managers will look to draft players who are younger and who have more upside than downside. They will take the expertise of veterans, sometimes, in their roster to build their team. Drafting makes all the difference in the world in Dynasty leagues. If the manager fails to draft well, that fantasy team is doomed to fail.

However, when it comes to keeper leagues, there is no such thing as long term commitment to a player. If the manager likes a particular player, then the manager will “keep” the player for the next year as well. Drafting is important but since the keeper league operates with a “win now” mentality, the strategy completely differs here. Managers could go with a player who is closer to his ceiling than a player who will need time to develop to blossom into a complete package.

Waiver work throughout the calendar in dynasty leagues. We mentioned the draft strategy to pick up veterans in Dynasty league, managers claim these veterans off the waiver wire in cases when they don’t draft.

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FAQs

A. In Dynasty leagues, fantasy managers will have the same roster year to year. This gives the managers a taste of building an NFL team.

A. Keeper leagues are where the fantasy manager retains a few players from the current roster but not every player heading into the next season.

A. In Redraft leagues, fantasy managers completely shuffle their team every year and redraft a new team every single season.

A. In Keeper leagues, managers can “keep” a predetermined number of players from the current season into the next season. In dynasty leagues however, managers will take their entire roster into the next season.

A. In redraft leagues, it’s a complete new start every season once the current season is done. In keeper leagues however, managers can usually retain 3-5 players from year to year.

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