How does Fantasy Football work? Beginner's guide to getting started

Fantasy Football allows NFL fans to experience what it's like to have a team of their own. Players are drafted and rosters are managed, including trades and transactions, as if the one playing is a real general manager.

Making it even more fun is the fact that their teams are fully made up of real NFL players, making watching and following games even more fun.

While Fantasy Football has been around for decades, the number of users playing continues to increase each season. This means that many new fantasy players are getting their first taste of how it works each year. This guide will help beginners first starting out and those speculating about joining their first league ever.

How do I get a Fantasy Football team?

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The first step to getting a Fantasy Football team is signing up for a league. Leagues are most often hosted on popular fantasy websites, such as Sleeper, ESPN, and Yahoo.

They offer private leagues that can be created via invite only, making them exclusive to friends, family, etc. The other option is to join a public league made up of random fantasy users.

The two most common types of fantasy leagues are season-long and dynasty formats. Standard leagues draft new teams every year, while dynasty leagues will carry over rosters from one year to the next. This means users keep their same teams for multiple years in a dynasty and just select rookies each offseason following the annual NFL draft.

Once a league has been entered, a date for a fantasy draft will be determined. These are usually done online in a specific chat room, but can also be done offline at a group gathering and submitted to the website later. The draft is probably the single most important event in Fantasy Football leagues as it determines each roster.

How does the fantasy draft work?

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The pool of available players is made up of all the real NFL players. For example, Chiefs fans can get the opportunity to draft players like Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce to their fantasy team. This will give them added rooting interest when watching their team play because their performances will directly impact their fantasy scores.

The two most common types of drafts are snake and auction. In a snake draft, each team is "on the clock" to select any available player, similar to the real NFL draft.

An auction draft is exactly what it sounds like. Each team has a specific amount of "money" to auction on players. The highest bidder gets the player, but managers can only keep bidding if they still have money remaining.

Fantasy Football leagues also include a pool of free agents consisting of all NFL players not currently on anyone's roster. Each team will have a limited number of starters and bench players, with the remaining undrafted and dropped players becoming available free agents.

Fantasy managers also have the ability to trade with other teams, making roster management similar to the real NFL.

How does the scoring work in Fantasy Football?

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Scoring points in Fantasy Football is directly related to the way each player performs in their real NFL games each week. Most leagues feature each team with a direct head-to-head matchup against another user every week, with the higher-scoring fantasy team getting a win.

The best record at the end of the season will determine a champion, or at least the field of fantasy playoff teams in a league.

The other type of scoring is called rotisserie. Rather than having head-to-head matchups with other users each week, every team is simply trying to total as many fantasy points in the season as a whole. Total scores are tallied each week, with the highest points combined across the entire season determining a league champion.

Quarterbacks are always he highest scoring players in Fantasy Football because they account for the most yards and touchdowns. It's also important that they receive points for rushing as well, so targeting mobile quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen can score you a lot of fantasy points.

While all scoring systems can be customized by the league manager, the most common structure awards a point for every 25 passing yards and every 10 rushing or receiving yards. Touchdowns are worth six points each, receptions one point, and deductions are given for turnovers. Simply put, the most productive NFL players are often the highest-scoring fantasy players as well.

Many leagues also include kickers and team defenses as well. Kickers receive fantasy points for converting scoring attempts and sometimes get reductions for missing kicks.

Fantasy Football managers also pick a team's defense, such as the Dallas Cowboys or Philadelphia Eagles. They receive fantasy points for sacks, forcing turnovers, holding opponents from scoring, and touchdowns, including defensively as well as on kick and punt returns.