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The Redraft to Dynasty Blueprint
4 Plays8 days ago
With the debut episode, I wanted to spend time debunking the myth that dynasty football is too hard and make the game seem more approachable. If you play redraft fantasy, than the transition to dynasty is incredibly simple. In fact, I believe dynasty to be the more enjoyable format to play. So let this be your crash course into understanding how to make the leap!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Beyond the Redraft'
00:00:57
David Reed
Welcome in to the debut episode of Beyond the Redraft. I'm your host Dave Reed and if you're listening to this, you've likely felt that empty feeling in January where your fantasy roster, the one you spent months researching and obsessing over, just kind of disappears.
00:01:13
David Reed
And I'm here to tell you that the fun does not have to end when the NFL season ends. In fact, that may actually be when the fun is just getting started. This is the podcast that is your gateway to Dynasty football.
00:01:26
David Reed
Now, my goal is not to give you more noise in what is a already a saturated sea of fantasy content. It is more to be your consolidator of that content. I'm going to take that amount of data from the world's best analysts, filter through it, and provide you with my own perspective while giving you the tools to form your own.
00:01:44
David Reed
You don't need to be a college football scout or need to work a second job as a fantasy researcher with a degree in analytics to win a dynasty. You just need to know where to look for information.
00:01:54
David Reed
Let's go beyond the redraft.
Is Dynasty Football Difficult?
00:01:56
David Reed
Now, I want to start this first episode with really just debunking the fifth myth that dynasty football is hard. For many of many of my friends and many people I've talked to, they they look at dynasty and they get a little overwhelmed and it kind of prevents them from taking that leap into dynasty football. But I want to tell you right now, you don't need to watch 40 hours of college football don understand Dynasty football. In fact, most of the analysts in the space don't even watch college football during the season. They they simply don't have time with the NFL season.
00:02:29
David Reed
Fortunately, though, they all ah most of them do actually do film study in the offseason and all the modeling that we need. And they kind of provide that to you so you don't have to do all that work. And there are only so many relevant rookies each year. So it's very easy to get caught up.
00:02:44
David Reed
Again, you don't have to be an expert just like in Redraft. You just need to know what experts to trust. And again, my job here is hopefully kind of point you in the right direction for that.
00:02:55
David Reed
also want to say the time commitment for Dynasty, in my opinion, is a lot easier and way less of a weekly time commitment than Redraft is. Since most of the big events for Dynasty take place in the offseason, there isn't that much of a time crunch.
00:03:11
David Reed
In the regular season, you're spending so much time on waivers and trying set your lineup the right way. you don't need to do that here. there'll be Waivers are not a huge part of Dynasty. And when you're doing a draft, it's usually in a slow draft, which means you have about like eight hours or so to make your pick. But we'll get into that more in a little bit.
00:03:32
David Reed
But again, a lot of your skills that you already know from redraft, that will carry over. your You're still playing the game of fantasy football, making your start-sit decisions, and trying to win your matchup. So honestly, dynasty, most of it, you already have the skills to do. In fact, it's actually the perfect complement to the redraft leagues as a result.
Why Choose Dynasty Over Redraft?
00:03:53
David Reed
Now for me, I'm going tell you why I think Dynasty may even be better than redraft. Again, as I mentioned, waivers are super, super thin. So those stressful Tuesday nights, grinding, trying to figure out what who should be picking up, who should I drop, looking through all the waiver ranking articles on the internet, that stresses me out. You will not be doing that in Dynasty.
00:04:16
David Reed
Waivers are not a part of a big part of your uh the game your rosters are super deep so there's barely anyone to pick up now the off season nfl free agency just started today when i'm recording this and this is where the fun is because there's so many huge nfl trades so many new signings players moving from team to team new opportunities showing up people getting the big check so you know that the teams are going to use them And then you have the NFL draft again, where you're going to see new exciting players get big opportunities and other players potentially losing their job. It's almost like the stock market scene, players values go up and down.
00:04:56
David Reed
And the reason this is so much fun is because most leagues you have a group chat with your friends. And when you do redraft, that group chat is only good for about 20%. Four months when the NFL season is going on.
00:05:09
David Reed
Right now, me when you're in Dynasty, it goes 12 months in the year. Everyone's talking about all the different moves, the trades, changing the values, getting excited for these new players. It makes your community, your friendships get even tighter in Dynasty leagues.
00:05:24
David Reed
And the engagement throughout the season is just so much higher because in redraft, if a team is out of the playoff contention, they are no longer that active. They're not making pickups, they're not really making that many trades. There's nothing to play for.
00:05:39
David Reed
In redraft, I mean, in Dynasty, there's always something to play for. Themes that are not doing well, they're rebuilders. They're trying to get young players trying accumulate picks. But if you're a contender and you're going for it, you're more willing to make moves to try to get that belt and that title.
00:05:56
David Reed
Everyone's had that no matter what the stage is involved and in it. It's way more fun that way. And for me, one of the most fun parts of Dynasty of Fantasy in general is the trades. There's way more trades in Dynasty because you have way more assets.
00:06:12
David Reed
you know your draft picks for rookie picks for future years that everyone wants a piece of it everyone is more willing to move you have more players on your team because you have deeper rosters i think most leagues have about 15 to 20 bench spots and that you you have players who have carry more value because of the long-term outlook of dynasty redraft if a player is not performing this year No one's really trying to trade for them, but in Dynasty, if it's a young player who's not doing that much right now and have a lot of production, but could in the future, add a is still a valuable asset and something that you can use in a trade.
00:06:50
David Reed
So there's a lot more ways to make these fits, plus the the different perspectives of the team, one being contender and one being a rebuilder, makes it more likely to do a trade because you guys are better trade partners.
Key Elements of Dynasty Leagues
00:07:05
David Reed
Now moving to some of the strategic fundamentals to understand with Dynasty and this is where things shift a little bit. Again it's still fantasy but you just need look at it through a slightly different lens.
00:07:18
David Reed
The biggest thing is just the value in players and the most important thing age does matter. It's not everything but it does matter in Dynasty. More because of what a lot of positions have in the age cliff when production drops off first of players certain age.
00:07:35
David Reed
Running backs have ah an earlier age cliff than, say, a wide receiver root or a quarterback. Around, say, age 27 for a run back, you start see production decline. It's not the same for everyone, like Derrick Henry. You can go forever, but you do see this. So because of this age cliff, wide receivers carry way more value than generally running backs because you have more...
00:07:58
David Reed
a longer window of production coming from wide receiver giving maybe don't know eight years of production where running back maybe gives you five now the settings This is something that is sometimes a little different, but you may see it in some redraft leagues.
00:08:18
David Reed
It's just how the the leagues are set up. So the biggest thing, say about 90% dynasty leagues are what we call a super flex. So that means you have one position where you could start either a running back, wide receiver, tight end, or a quarterback.
00:08:34
David Reed
Generally, this means it is a two-quarterback league because quarterbacks score the most points. So you usually want to start quarterback in that position. Another growing popular format is tight end premium.
00:08:46
David Reed
And this just gives a boost of points to tight ends so they become more useful, maybe it become a flex option for you. The way this works is say you're in a full point PPR.
00:08:56
David Reed
So once you ever catch every player gets one point except tight end, they may get one and a half points. So it makes them a little bit more valuable in that regard. Again, you've got deep rosters, as I mentioned, so but you also may have more starting spots because your rosters are so deep. But you also may have something called a taxi squad. Now, you have a deep bench, as I mentioned, 15 to 20 bench box.
00:09:19
David Reed
Taxi squads are for incoming rookies that you just want to kind of see develop. And you can put them on there and wait a couple of years. lively You can wait up to three years. and see if they develop into anything and um and if they do you can take them off the thing is you take them off your taxi squad usually can't put them back on but you can keep them there without burning a bench spot so you don't have to worry about kind of cutting this player who you wanted to see if they could develop into something and the last thing is again rookie picks they are a currency in dynasty you get usually the next three years of rookie
How to Join a Dynasty League
00:09:55
David Reed
picks i usually have four four rounds in my leagues
00:09:59
David Reed
And these are assets that you can always trade and they never get injured. but their value will change throughout the season. and underscorre I should say the year, and i I do want to point that out because in season, contenders don't really value their rookie picks as much. They're trying to win, and they will use them to buy players.
00:10:16
David Reed
But as you approach the NFL and your own personal rookie drafts, those picks become way more valuable than they were they were season. So if you're going to flip a pick, try to hold and weep when it's most valuable right before those drafts.
00:10:32
David Reed
Now, given you a lot, and the you may hopefully are interested in maybe getting started and joining a dynasty league and want to know how to do it. Well, the easiest way is if you're already in a redraft league, is kind of talking through league mates and seeing if they'd want to start a second league.
00:10:48
David Reed
That is... in tandem with the redraft league and just convert another one to a dynasty league this is great you will already know all your league mates get some more active you have the friendship and you can kind of have two competing championships that you work for so that's a fun way to do it the other one is there's tons of communities you can find of people looking to either fill a spot in dynasty league start a new one I know the fantasy footballers have a community that is open have great active owners that are looking to add people start new leagues. You can also go on Reddit, and Reddit isreed can be a great place to go on. You go on the Dynasty Football Reddit, and there's always people looking to start a league or or fill out their own league.
00:11:30
David Reed
Now, depending which way you go, couple things to know. If you're joining a league that has already been instituted and then owner left, it's you're taking over what we call an orphan team.
00:11:42
David Reed
So this is usually a fixer-upper, not always the case, but i'd say 95% of the time if owner left, their team wasn't great. You're taking it over and it's usually a nice challenge where you're trying to turn this team around and either flip some assets and and may take a couple years, but it's actually a fun challenge. I've done it myself a few times. I just kind of, I wouldn't say it's on hard mode, but it's it's just, it's a unique way of playing the game. It's taking lot of your team and it's very rewarding when it works out.
00:12:09
David Reed
Now, other ways, if it's a new league, you're going to do a startup draft. And this is, i would generally would recommend doing this after the NFL draft. and A lot of the free agents have signed and you know where all the rookies are because again, values can change dramatically. We do a startup draft and this is a long, long draft and usually you do it as a slow draft so it could take weeks because everyone has again, say eight hours to make your picks so no one's rushing.
00:12:37
David Reed
and And you can do this either with or without rookies. I prefer breaking out the rookies because I like having the rookie draft afterwards, its a lot of fun. but A lot of people do have all the rookies included just for one major draft. now If you're doing a rookie draft, this is usually, I'd say, about three to five rounds that you're doing a rookie draft. And the first one, I do recommend doing it as a snake draft. But after that, all your future rookie drafts that you do will be linear drafts. And this may be new to a lot of people who play only redrafts because all the redraft leagues, it's called a snake draft, where if you have the last pick in one round, you have the first pick in the next one.
00:13:17
David Reed
That's not how rookie drafts work moving forward in Dynasty. It's linear to mimic what is like the NFL draft. If you have the first pick in one round, you're going have the first pick in the next round. If you have the fifth pick in one round, you'll have it in the following round as well.
00:13:30
David Reed
And this is generally because the earlier picks go to the teams that performed the worst the year before, and it helps them turn around their franchises. So it's just something to keep in mind when you're doing your rookie drafts. and If you're joining in Dynasty League, the platform I prefer to use is Sleeper. if It is the best mix of flexibility and customization with very easy to use UI and app and the app is great. And I'd say most people are using Sleeper these days.
Resources for Dynasty Football
00:14:03
David Reed
Now.
00:14:04
David Reed
to give you some of the resource shout outs. So the resources that I use, and these are the ones that I'm going to be referencing and pointing people to, and I won't ever be going too deep into this content from them i want you if you are interested i'll tell you where to look you should definitely support these analysts they're awesome and everything they do and they're actually are great guys they truly want to see their followers have success and a lot of them they're good in their own unique ways and and depending what you're kind of looking for it may mean you go to a different analyst for that so
00:14:38
David Reed
First group i would say is the is Matt Harmon and his reception perception. He's the wide receiver guru out in the space. and He watches a ton of film. He knows what wide receivers are kind of despite quarterback play or winning and running the right best routes the best way. He also says has a great discord and has a lot of interaction in there. And you can actually submit questions to him directly on there. And he kind of gives previews on there. So Matt Harmon, reception perception.
00:15:04
David Reed
Love him. And again, wide receivers for Dynasty are or one of the most valuable assets that could
00:15:12
David Reed
I'd say for going through the den dynasty process or the deep data modeling, the to me, one of the best is JJ Zacharysen. Hopefully you pronounced that right. And you can find him on LateRound. He's got a podcast that's awesome.
00:15:28
David Reed
He's got a newsletter that's great. And he he also has a guide that you can buy as well. that Honestly, I think he's got one of the best analytics models that you can find. I believe it's called the ZAP model. It's awesome.
00:15:39
David Reed
Also, the fantasy footballers. I've been a huge fan of theirs for years. They have the Ultimate Draft Kit and the Ultimate Draft Kit Plus. You can subscribe to that. if They have a Dynasty Pass. They also have some Dynasty podcasts out there with Warrior Bets. Also, some great content out of them. And they also do have a Discord that has a lot of interactions you can get involved in as well.
00:15:59
David Reed
you want to get to really deep scouting, Matt Waldman and his RSP, Dane Brugler of The Athletic, and Daniel Jagdermay. These are probably three the best guys that really analyze all the different prospects out there. They really get to understand by watching the film and everything as well. So all these guys, I really recommend. Dane and Daniel are great if you want understand what kind of draft capital of rookies might be getting ahead of time.
00:16:25
David Reed
Now there's a lot of other people in the space, and there's great communities and markets, if you could just throw them out there that I do look into sometimes. There's got Dynasty Nerds, Fantasy Pros, Yahoo, CBS, Rotoballer, again, Reddit always works. And there's a lot of, if you go on Twitter or X, there's lists you can follow that have it all in there. And also there is Keep Trade Cut, KTC, which is great because it's crowdsourced, but I do want to give a warning with that. It's good to understand how people are viewing certain players in a crowdsource way if you have a trade calculator and those things are <unk>re good to get used as sanity check do not use it as gospel um you got to think for yourself and understand what works and sometimes the values are not exactly right in the street calculator so do not use it to
00:17:16
David Reed
be yes or no completely on trades just use it to be like hey is this trade in a ballpark correct but again you got to make decisions yourselves we're all adults here but yeah these are all the content i use going forward i'm going to be referencing more of these i will definitely be pointing you in the direction if you want to dive deeper into any of these stuff and again support all these analysts they have great products as well if you're able to Now going forward, now that this is all behind us, hopefully you're still involved and you really want to dive into the Dynasty. And this is where the fun comes in.
00:17:48
David Reed
In the next coming weeks, we're going to be talking about where all the new free agents landed, what the changing in values are, but also we're going to be looking into the 2026 incoming NFL rookie class. there's a lot of interesting rookies coming in there.
00:18:03
David Reed
We'll probably do quarterbacks tight ends together and do running backs and wide receivers. But just to quickly talk about some names you should know going into that, Quarterback is really Fernando Mendoza, kind of the field after for that, but Mendoza is going to be the number one NFL overall pick.
00:18:19
David Reed
Running back, similar thing. You've got Love out of Notre Dame, Jeremiah Love, who is most likely your one-on-one and most your rookie draft, but there are some interesting names behind him.
00:18:30
David Reed
One receiver, you got a top three in Tyson, Lemon, and Tate at Ohio State. Those are the top three. And then there's some, again, it's a pretty deep class, and there's some interesting names behind them. And then Tate and got Sadiq at Oregon. and a couple other guys. Eli Stowers did pretty good. That's pretty interesting. But again, we'll get into these players later. So if you're interested in those players, please, please keep following along.
00:18:56
David Reed
And ah hopefully I'll see you next week. So thanks again for listening. Really appreciate it.