Fantasy Football Dynasty

Print

Escape Fantasy Purgatory with this Dynasty Strategy

How do you escape Dynasty Purgatory?

Dynasty Purgatory is the middle ground between contending and rebuilding, the absolute worst spot in a dynasty league.

Right now, you may be sitting at a 3-4 record. Your team doesn’t have the studs to compete for a championship, but you won’t earn a top-3 pick in the rookie draft, either.

Standing pat does nothing to help you in the short or long term. It’s time to figure out where you stand and make moves to put yourself in championship contention or get younger, giving you a shot to win next year and beyond.

Assess Roster & League

Not all middling rosters are built the same. An unbiased assessment of your team’s potential helps inform what moves will help your roster thrive.

Do you have an awesome team and just ran into bad luck? Or maybe your team is one of the worst in the league but you had a spike week or two?

Use our League Analysis page to get a ranking of every team based on 3D+ Value, including strengths and weaknesses by position.

If your team is sitting near the middle, but outside the playoff hunt, it’s time to make some moves.

Analyze Your Schedule

If you find your team ranked near the top or bottom of your League Analysis despite a middling record, go back and look at your schedule so far.

Have you already played all the best teams in the league? Did you luck out with matchups against the worst teams?

Go to your Team Intel page for more information about your current team and projections for this year to see if you have over-performed or underperformed. 

If your upcoming schedule appears likely to keep you around the .500 mark, you are still stuck in Dynasty Purgatory.

Review Rules and Payouts

Knowing your league rules is paramount to fantasy success, especially in dynasty. 

If there are other ways to earn back your buy-in or make a profit, they can become a focus if a championship is out of your reach.

• Does the toilet bowl winner get money or a better draft pick?
• Are there weekly prizes for top scorers at a certain position?
• Maybe there are ways to make the playoffs based on points instead of record.

These can become your new goal with a purgatory team.

If all else fails, then it's time to make some trades and change your outlook.

Improve to Make the Playoffs

If you've got a strong roster that has simply fallen short, continue to bolster your starters and depth with the aim to make the playoffs.

A hot streak can net you the championship if you can sneak into the playoffs.

Go to our Dynasty Trade Calculator and craft deals that will improve your team. 

The Trade Partner Finder is perfect to identify trade partners who have strengths at positions of need.

For example, If you need to add to your WRs, it identifies which team has an overabundance. You should approach them first.

Trade Away Rookie Picks

One of our key dynasty tenets is to trade away your rookie picks. Your mediocre record might make those picks look more valuable right now than they will in a few weeks -- once your team has rebounded.

Target the worst teams in the league who may have a valuable-but-aging player. 

Use our Dynasty Trade Value Charts to see what your rookie picks are worth. Trading them is an easy way to gain value and turn a purgatory team into a potential powerhouse.

Build for Future (and Better Draft Pick)

If your team has overachieved, unloading short-term players for draft picks or youth gives you multiple advantages.

First, it weakens your starting roster to keep losing and earn you a better draft pick.

Second, you can improve on your 3D+ value to turn a rebuild into a contender more quickly.

Identify players on your roster who have overachieved this season but could fall off in the next year or two. Offer those up to the better teams in the league.

One common mistake is only targeting future rookie picks. Rookies often start out slow and this can extend a rebuild by years.

Look for young, underperforming players who may have opportunities in a year or two. Current rookies who are slightly underperforming but have a path to relevance in a year through a veteran leaving in free agency are perfect targets.

Some examples would be:

• Keon Coleman, BUF
• Jaylen Wright, MIA
• Jermaine Burton, CIN
• Dontayvion Wicks, GB
• Theo Johnson, NYG
• Audric Estime, DEN

They also will come much cheaper than a future first-round pick.

Continue to use our Fantasy Football Trade Calculator to make sure your 3D+ Value is increasing with every trade you make.

Continue Building a Dynasty with these Tools

The Trade Navigator with the Dynasty Trade Calculator is just one of the tools available to help you build and maintain your perennial contender. Learn more on how to dominate your dynasty leagues and improve your value with the video below:

Shane Hallam, Writer

Shane has over 20 years of experience creating content and playing every fantasy football format including redraft, dynasty, devy, IDP, and more. He is a multi-year winner of $500 dynasty leagues on the FFPC and utilizes deep film and scheme study to enhance his fantasy performance.