Join the Footballguys Daily Update
Start your morning with our roundup of the most important stories in football - with the fantasy insight you need to make league-winning decisions. Delivered straight to your inbox, 100% free.
Playing with deeper rosters is a great way to maximize your advantage in your fantasy football league. Below are some tips to build a strong and deep roster.
Profiles, Profiles, Profiles
When you have deeper rosters with deeper benches, investing in successful profiles is a huge advantage. In dynasty leagues, for example, tight ends drafted in the second and third rounds of the NFL Draft are strong bets to become fantasy relevant in their career. Selecting them late in a startup or rookie draft and stashing them on a deep bench is a great historical bet.
In redraft leagues, the profiles you are targeting should be potential contributors in small sample sizes. You do not need the last man on a 30-man roster to start six weeks in your lineup for it to be a successful pick. Instead, you are looking for one or two weeks where you know the player will be a strong starter.
The best bets for these types of weeks are running backs who are an injury away from a starting job. Running backs with a top-24 ADP entering the season have a better than 50% chance to miss at least one week with an injury. Rostering running backs who are an injury away from a starting opportunity are great historical bets for spot starts. Wayne Gallman was a great example in 2020. He was an afterthought in normal-sized roster leagues leading up to the 2019 season but was a priority waiver wire add once Saquon Barkley was injured. When you have deep rosters, stash as many potential priority waiver wire options as you can, because they offer good upside in season.
The same is true for quarterbacks in Superflex or start 2QB leagues. Backup quarterbacks in these leagues are very clear decisions. If the starting quarterback is healthy, the backup is on your bench. If the starter misses a week or more because of an injury, your backup is a viable spot starter with week winning potential.
Be Flexible
If you are drafting a roster bigger than 20 roster spots, you are likely to miss on a lot of picks, especially the later ones. It is ok to miss but recognizing your miss and cutting bait is important. If your late-round pick is cut by his NFL team or is buried on a practice squad, cut your losses and replace your player with a player who reflects a good profile from the waiver wire.
When you are playing with deeper rosters, there will be a lot of turnover on the end of your bench, because these players are on the fringe of the NFL. A willingness to move on and add a running back who might be two injuries away from starting is better than rostering a wide receiver on a practice squad.
Draft for Talent and Build on Your Strength
A rule to follow in all drafts is draft for talent not for need. Another way this is commonly said is to draft the best player available. When you get the opportunity to draft more players, continuing to draft for talent is crucial. Some owners will want a balanced roster, with a similar amount of players at each position. If your roster turns out that way because you selected the most talented player at each pick, that is great. But do not sacrifice your best player on the board who is at a position of strength in the interest of building a balanced roster, because you are giving up talent to do so.
Trade For Need
When you draft a team that is deep at one position, you have plenty of trading opportunities. In a traditional Superflex dynasty league that is 28 man rosters selecting five quarterbacks, fifteen running backs, five wide receivers, and three tight ends. This three to one running back to wide receiver ratio is something I shoot for in a startup draft to maximize positional efficiencies. While the positions seem lopsided and ripe for a hole to develop, this plays to the core strategy of selecting predictable wide receivers. If an injury or poor performance happens at the wide receiver position, this roster imbalance will create plenty of opportunities to trade for a wide receiver. The range of running backs this roster will have is wide, which creates a variety of trading options at different price points to your league mates. When you draft for talent and continue to build on your strength, you will be able to trade for need from a position of strength.