We’re in the middle of preseason and it’s felt like fantasy football draft season for much longer. With new formats and styles of playing opening up, football season really doesn’t give us much downtime. That is if you’re involved in a keeper or dynasty fantasy football league. It’s a year-round process and commitment. If you’re here, you’re looking for some tips and strategies for your respective drafts. Don’t go anywhere, below we’ll get you ready for your dynasty/keeper fantasy football draft.
Settings
There are a lot of different formats and settings for dynasty/keeper. This ranges from a keeper league in which you’re allowed to keep, say, 1-2 players. To keeper leagues that allow you to keep most of your starters and then further to full keeper leagues (or dynasty leagues). A dynasty league will allow you to draft and keep your entire roster. Usually, you’ll be in a keeper or dynasty league with around 10-12 people, some ranging out to 14-16 managers.
If you’re doing a snake keeper draft, generally the format is you can keep a player and sacrifice the draft pick in which you selected said player the following year. So for example, if you were to draft QB Patrick Mahomes in the second round, in order to keep him, you’d give up a second-round pick in 2024. So if you’re able to find a gem in the later rounds, keeping that player will be more appealing.
For auction drafts that are keeper, same deal, if you win the auction on a player at $10, you keep that player for the same price and that figure is subtracted from your budget for the following season’s draft.
You can of course play all different formats — standard scoring, half-point PPR, full PPR, Superflex and so on. No matter what format you play on, there’s a certain way to go about drafting your team that is different from season-long. Let’s take a look at what to do in the first round.
First round pick
Keeper
In a straight-keeper league in which you’re holding onto a few players, it’s all about ADP value. Most keeper leagues also won’t allow you to keep a player longer than a few seasons. So our first-round strategy doesn’t really shift much unless it’s a Superflex format. In that case, if you’re drafting into the top-5, chances are the elite QBs will go first. That means Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert and Trevor Lawrence. There are a few exceptions with WRs Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase. You can also explore a young back like Falcons’ Bijan Robinson.
Dynasty
If it’s a dynasty league that is Superflex, follow the above for the first round. If it’s a non-SF dynasty, things change a bit. At the top, you’re going to want to target the young elite skill position players. Here’s a list of players at WR and RB to target depending on where you fall:
WR
Justin Jefferson
Ja’Marr Chase
CeeDee Lamb
A.J. Brown
Amon Ra St. Brown
Jaylen Waddle
Chris Olave
Garrett Wilson
RB
Bijan Robinson
Jonathan Taylor
Breece Hall
Josh Jacobs
Travis Etienne Jr.
When to draft a QB?
That isn’t to say ignore QB entirely. If you’re playing in a non-Superflex format but the passing TDs are 6 points rather than 4 points, that increases the value of QBs. You can make a case for selecting Mahomes, Allen, Burrow or Herbert somewhere in the mid-to-late first round if that’s the case. Hurts, Lamar Jackson and Justin Fields, while valuable, don’t have as much upside in a 6-point passing TD format.
In Superflex formats, taking a QB with your first-round pick is ideal. Even if it’s toward the middle and some of the big names are taken. Because you can play two QBs in your starting lineup and they’re generally the top scorers with high floors, it is important to draft two quality signal callers. Here’s a look at the QBs in Tier 1 to help you out:
Mahomes
Allen
Hurts
Burrow
Herbert
Lawrence
Jackson
Fields
After that, Indianapolis Colts QB Anthony Richardson isn’t a bad idea if you think he’ll be any good in the NFL. Kyler Murray will miss most of the 2023 season recovering from an ACL tear. He’s in a group with Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott, Bryce Young, Tua Tagovailoa and CJ Stroud. You aren’t looking at that group in the first (maybe Richardson or Young). But in the second and third rounds, those could make for a great pair with one of your first-round QBs.
When to draft a TE?
The way to approach TE is different now in keeper/dynasty. Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce has spent most of the past 10 seasons as the top selection. He remains the top projected tight end but turns 34 years old in October. While Kelce has said he has no plans to retire, that could change at any point. All it takes is another Super Bowl, another injury for Kelce to shift his feelings. That changes how we look at TE heading into 2023.
You’re still taking Kelce first among tight ends in a keeper or dynasty draft, it really just depends on what strategy you want to go with at the position. If you take Kelce, be sure to select a young TE that may need a season before stepping in as a starter and producing. If you’re in “win-now” mode, taking Kelce in the second or third round feels OK. He still should outscore the second-best TE (Mark Andrews?) by a decent margin.
As for TEs outside of Kelce, Andrews and Kyle Pitts appear next in line followed by a group featuring George Kittle, Dallas Goedert and Darren Waller. The idea of waiting on tight end still feels like the way to go in a keeper/dynasty format. There shouldn’t be much separation between Andrews and Waller. It’s really whenever you feel comfortable taking someone in that group.
In dynasty, targeting a young TE makes sense but you likely won’t need to reach too high for one. This group includes Cole Kmet, Pat Freiermuth, Greg Dulcich, Michael Mayer, Dalton Kincaid, Sam LaPorta and Luke Musgrave.
Sleeper picks
In keeper and dynasty formats, sleepers are less like sleepers. Usually a sleeper is identified as a late-round pick with upside, whether that be because they’re young or jumping into a new role with more usage. It could also mean a player in a better situation or someone just going overlooked. But in keeper and dynasty formats, those are the players that will separate you from the pack and help you win now and in the future. So you’ll need to be ready for the potential of managers reaching on sleepers to ensure they can select them.
Have a list handy of players you like above their ADP. Make a rule that you’ll only go over on a certain player’s ADP a specific amount of rounds. For example, let’s say you really like Jaguars WR Calvin Ridley this season. On average, he’s likely going around the 20th WR and sometime in the 4th or 5th round of drafts. Make a note that you’re OK going up and grabbing Ridley somewhere in the top-40 selections as opposed to top-50. It’s a little tougher doing so with players higher up in the draft as opposed to FLEX or bench spots later on. Reaching for players you like is fine, but you don’t want to lose value.
The type of sleepers you should be looking at later on in your draft is first- and second-year players. There are many who believe in the sophomore slump but we also see plenty of second-year wideouts take a big step forward in Year 2. It’s also good to identify players in top offenses who are being overlooked. There are quite a few RBs in this category, including Chiefs’ Isiah Pacheco, Bills’ James Cook, Vikings’ Alexander Mattison and Eagles’ D’Andre Swift. All four of those backs are going outside the top-20 at their position.
Players to fade
Older players who are lacking in upside on bad teams are who you want to fade in keeper/dynasty formats. Sure, there’s always a chance a team can turn things around. Whoever gets the No. 1 pick for the 2024 draft may end up with Caleb Williams, which would be great for players around him. But you can’t really bank on that now.
Try to avoid players who are injury-prone in situations where their job isn’t secure to begin with. Chargers WR Keenan Allen is being selected among the top-20 WRs in fantasy. He’s had issues with injuries and is aging. Los Angeles also has Mike Williams, Quentin Johnston and Joshua Palmer. Plus, RB Austin Ekeler will milk plenty of targets in the passing game. It doesn’t take a lot to derail Allen in fantasy.
Steer clear of time-shares in any form. Running backs by committee will almost always water down a player’s value week-to-week. New England Patriots RB Rhamondre Stevenson is a good example. While he had a great season in 2022, the Pats are looking to add to the backfield depth and that could mean bringing in Dalvin Cook, Ezekiel Elliott or trading for another top back. Clearly, the team doesn’t feel comfortable proceeding this season with just Stevenson. He’s being selected as a top-10 RB and in the first three rounds of fantasy drafts.
Summary
There aren’t hard rules for drafting in keeper or dynasty formats. For keeper leagues, it’s all about figuring out which players you’d like to hang onto long-term at the top of the draft while giving yourself options further down the board. Chances are the player you thought you’d end up keeping isn’t the same from the beginning of the season and at the end. Draft how you normally would in a keeper format and be sure to look for players with the most upside later on in drafts.
In a Year 1 dynasty league, there’s no reason to draft for the future. Find a balance between picking up players who make sense long-term and players who can help you win now. Just because a player isn’t a rookie in their second year doesn’t mean they don’t have long-term value. Stability at QB matters more in dynasty, similar to real life. Picking up a franchise QB under contract who you know can produce in fantasy might be the most important thing in dynasty, particularly Superflex leagues.
My best advice overall would be have fun with it. Sure, that’s corny and cheesy and sort of lame but it’s the truth. Dynasty and keeper formats can feel a lot like being the general manager of your own team. It basically is. So as long as you trust your instincts (and favorite fantasy football analysts), there’s no reason you can’t bring a title home.
