Congratulations if you have made it through and are playing for a championship this week. You are in the enviable position of making it to the final week in dynasty success. If you’re on your way to duplicating what the Chiefs did last year and going back to back, great job! More than two years in a row is simply doing what each owner dreams of in dynasty and that is what the Chiefs are trying to accomplish. I host 12 different empire dynasty leagues and they give away a separate pot to anyone that wins back to back or if you win 3 times before someone goes back to back. In my home league that began for the 2020 season we’ve had 1 winner for 4 straight years and that owner is trying to make it 5 straight. This outlines a true dynasty. I have a team that I drafted in 1998 and beginning in 2018 I’ve won 3 times in the last 6 years. I believe I’ve built a dynasty in that league. If these examples are you I really applaud you and your patience and commitment to a process.
I’m preparing my championship teams this week and this means making sure I take care of all the controllables. I don’t want to lose points by just being sloppy. We have 2 games on Wed, 1 game on Thur, & 3 games on Sat. If you have flex spots or superflex spots in your lineup these players shouldn’t ever be in those spots unless those players have played in a game already. If you start Gibbs & Bijan and you plan to use Najee & Rhamondre as your flex you should organize your starters as RB’s Najee & Rhamondre with Bijan and Gibbs in your flex spots. You are trying to set up as much flexibility should something unexpected happen. I do this in all leagues for all positions even 1pm vs 4pm starts on Sunday just so if late news breaks I can maneuver in the most flexible way possible. When news broke before week 1 that CMC was out on Monday night it would have been great to pivot to any position rather than just an RB position. In most leagues it would have been picking up a player like Jennings for the flex over a FB as the handcuff would have been gone. Last week I played vs Bo Nix in the superflex and my opponent left Jameis in QB then realized he had no QB at all and couldn’t move anyone in with points. It’s a tough way to lose out of the playoffs. To me this is money you worked hard to get and you just give it away by taking zeros. In the dynasty game these types of plays are magnified as you can’t just rip up the team and start over you have to take your windows of winning and capitalize. This equates to an NFL coach failing to manage the clock. I look forward to seeing all of your championship rosters in the Discord after this week.
I would be setting an improper narrative if I only spoke of my great fantasy teams but I too have many teams that don’t play in week 17. Most of my leagues don’t have pickup rules for non playoff teams however I try to make sure I’m not affecting the playoffs without affecting my teams. During the playoffs I wasn’t picking up Abdullah but I did pick up McCormick, as I thought he was a young guy that might have a future in the league beyond this year. I also don’t make roster moves the first run of any week to allow the championship teams to make their moves but during week 17 in all of my dynasty teams I’m looking to set my off-season roster. I definitely do this a little different in process than many owners. I operate under the premise that many things change and what I think today is likely to be different in March, then even different in May, then even different in July, then different than both of those times in Sept. If I’m honest the things I thought in Sept are different than they are now. The Ravens were 0-2 and the Saints were 2-0. I first off want to have as many players and then picks as I possibly can. My goal is to have teams that following the draft are 20 players over the roster limit. Yes you heard that correctly. I have teams that end the rookie draft with over 20 players over the roster and I find away to make the appropriate moves by the time we begin week 1. I operate on the premise that the more darts I throw the better the chances of hitting. The next items I look at is youth. I want young players but this doesn’t mean I’m simply cutting old guys more that I’m looking for a way to trade them once the market opens up. I’m simply looking at week 17 to see if I have any unused IR spots or bench spots or someone like zay jones that i think might be done and I can cycle into a young WR. I simply want my roster to roll over totally full. Once we have a full roster its time to exhale a bit and regroup to begin the preparation of the journey that we will begin together in late January.