The month of September is an exciting time for the football fans. The NFL is back. Football action is back. Their favorite players suit up after six months of off-season.
Fantasy football fans are thrilled for the NFL to be back in action. Fantasy football has seen a significant growth in popularity in the past decade.
While there are different formats of fantasy football, two of the most quickly growing formats are the dynasty and redraft leagues. They’ve taken over the fantasy football circle by storm in recent years.
If you’re a newbie to fantasy football, this page will explain the difference between redraft and dynasty leagues.
Dynasty vs Redraft Fantasy Football Leagues
Fantasy football has been around for a long time. Redraft has been the most popular league among the fans. Dynasty leagues have seen hockey stick growth in recent years. But what is the difference between the two?
In simple words, Dynasty league is where you draft a team and hold onto the players forever, until the player retires. What happens in dynasty leagues is managers have an initial draft where they pick a pool of players and carry them year to year. That’s why drafting is extremely important here. Trades happen during the season in dynasty leagues. And the traded player cannot be kept in the roster when carrying it to the next year.
In short, dynasty league is about long term commitment to the team.
When you come to the redraft leagues, it is the total opposite of dynasty leagues. Redraft league is where you draft a whole different team for every single fantasy football season. There’s a fantasy draft at the beginning of the season and then the trading window where you can move players. Redraft leagues are simple and easy to play.
In short, redraft league is about no commitment to the team.
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Dynasty vs Redraft leagues: How do strategies differ?
As we noticed that there are a lot of differences between dynasty and redraft leagues, which means the strategies differ a lot for the fantasy football managers. Let’s understand the key differences in the strategies.
One of the most important facets of fantasy football is the draft. This is extremely crucial for managers irrespective of the league they play. However there are strategies in drafting as well. It is not the case that one size fits all.
In dynasty leagues, it is more about long term commitment to the team. The fantasy managers will have to be very strategic and pick in the initial draft. They will have to hold onto the player for a long time. Because of this sole reason, drafting makes a ton of difference in dynasty leagues. A poor initial draft will result in failure not just for the current season but also the long term.
Picking players who have higher ceilings and more upside is one of the common strategies in dynasty leagues. Managers want value in their picks.
In redraft leagues, managers are more concerned about the present. Therefore the strategies differ accordingly. Some of the go-to strategies would be zero RB (where managers focus on elite receivers in the early rounds and keep the running backs for the later rounds), late round QB strategy, early TE, hero RB (focusing on one elite RB early and then going for WRs and TEs) and more. The point here is managers pick players who give them the most upside to win now.
Trading and waiver wire is another important aspect in fantasy football. In both the leagues, managers tend to move players through the season. Managers tend to pick up veteran players off waivers in dynasty leagues when they don’t pick them in the draft.
FAQs
A. In redraft leagues, fantasy managers tend to draft a new team every single year. This is a short term game.
A. In dynasty leagues, managers carry the same team from one season to the next one. It’s a long term game.
A. There are typically 15 rounds in redraft leagues where the fantasy managers tend to pick the best roster to win.
A. In dynasty leagues, there are usually 25-30 rounds of the initial draft. This is because it’s a long term game and the managers tend not to play the prospects who could be valuable later in the season.
A. The answer depends. If the fantasy manager wants to get a taste of managing a real NFL team, dynasty league is the go to option. If the manager wants to have fun and take it easy, redraft leagues are preferable.
