Fantasy Football Salary Cap Draft League Rules & Settings Advice (2023)

Nothing beats a good old fashion fantasy football snake draft. Yet, salary cap leagues have become more popular over the past several years. However, this article won’t tell you how to win your salary cap league. For that, read my salary cap drafts strategy and advice article.

Instead, this article will help first-time salary cap players, and commissioners set up their league to succeed with the proper rules and settings. There are several ways you can set up your league to make it unique or interesting. However, these are the three basic things you need to figure out for your league to succeed.

Snake Draft Pick Strategy: Early | Middle | Late
Draft Targets for Every Round: Early | Middle | Late
Fitz’s Draft Primers: QB | RB | WR | TE
2023 Fantasy Football Draft Kit

Startup Salary Cap League Rules and Settings (2023 Fantasy Football)

Determine the Order

The first thing you must do with any fantasy football league is determine the order each team will pick. However, unlike a snake draft, you don’t need to reverse the order in a salary cap draft. Since every team can bid on every nominated player, there is no need to reverse the order every other round.

However, some leagues like to keep the same snake draft mindset for their salary cap drafts. Logically there is no need to. Whether it’s just for a gut feeling or it plays a role in their draft strategy, some players like the idea of having back-to-back nominations.

Meanwhile, there are always simple and fun ways to determine the nomination order. You can randomly pick names from a hat or have some wild NFL Combine-like competition.

It’s All About the Budget

The commissioner will need to come up with a roster construction, just like they would in a snake draft. How many starting quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, and bench spots will the league have? What about a team defense or individual defensive players? Will you have a starting kicker spot? How many injured reserve slots?

However, the commissioner’s job doesn’t stop there. The next thing they will have to determine is the budget size. Most 10 or 12-team leagues with 15 or 16 roster spots have a $100 or $200 budget. I recommend a $200 budget. It is the typical size budget for first-time players and will make things easier in the later rounds.

Each team will receive an imaginary $200 to fill out their roster. While you can make certain rules for how much you must bid on a specific position, that’s more complicated than needed, especially for first-time players.

Yet, it brings up a critical decision — the minimum bid size. Most fantasy football platforms will have a minimum bid of $1. While you might want to change it to 50-cent intervals or even lower, keeping the minimum bid to $1 is much simpler. However, some leagues will say that after reaching a certain dollar amount, the minimum bid becomes $2, $5 or even more. Frankly, I find that more annoying than helpful.

Almost all fantasy football platforms require each team to hold onto enough money to fill out their roster with $1 bids. That is in place, so first-time players don’t spend $198 of their $200 budget on seven players and only have $2 left to fill out the remaining nine spots on their team. However, consider allowing each team to use their budget however they want.

Once they run out of money, that team must wait until after the draft to add undrafted free agents to their roster. Allowing this to be an option creates more creative draft strategy options for each team.

What are the Nomination Rules?

By now, you think you’re ready to set up your salary cap league. However, there are a few last things. The nomination rules can be very simple — you take turns nominating players, and the team with the highest bid wins that player. Yet, should you have to bid the $1 minimum when you nominate a player, or can you put a player up for nomination without having to bid on them?

Most fantasy football platforms require the team making the nomination to make the $1 minimum bid. However, consider changing that rule, especially for in-person home leagues. It could lead to some interesting draft strategies and funny moments.

Another thing to remember is what happens when a team runs out of money (assuming you allow that to happen in your league) or roster spots. Does that team still get to nominate players, or do they have to sit quietly in the corner with their beer?

There isn’t a right or wrong answer here. However, I like allowing every team to continue nominating players for everyone else, even if they are out of money or roster spots.

One other thing salary cap leagues can do to spice up the draft process is to have a full-round nomination. Instead of each team taking turns making a nomination, every team announces which player they will nominate for that round. That gives everyone the knowledge of which players will be up for grabs in this round, allowing them to make more complex budget decisions. This idea is likely better in person with a giant whiteboard, but it can work remotely too.

The Fun Twists

Those three critical points will help you set up your salary cap league to succeed. However, commissioners should consider adding these two twists for some extra fun.

Hybrid Draft

The one thing that most fantasy players hate about salary cap drafts is how long it takes. A typical standard-size league snake draft takes less than 90 minutes to complete. Meanwhile, most salary cap drafts last multiple hours. Instead of doing the entire draft as a salary cap league, consider splitting it into two halves.

You can do a salary cap draft for the first half and then switch to a snake draft. That would allow each team to target the players they really want first before switching back to the traditional snake style of picking players to keep the draft from taking several hours to complete.

Another option is to start with a snake draft before turning it into a salary cap draft. This way, each team can be as aggressive as they feel necessary to secure their favorite late-round sleepers.

Blind Bidding

If your fantasy league still has a traditional style or even priority waivers, join the rest of us in the 21st century. A free agent acquisition budget (FAAB) waiver system is the way to go. Not only does it allow every team the chance to claim the big-name waiver wire add every week, but it also requires teams to budget their money throughout the season.

More than likely, if you’re starting up a salary cap league this season, you’ve used FAAB waivers in the past. However, consider using a FAAB-like system for your draft. Instead of a team nominating a player and everyone bidding out in the open, consider doing blind bidding.

It will be easier to do blind bidding in person, where every team can write their name and dollar amount down on a piece of paper and put it in a hat. However, it’s possible remotely, but you will need someone not in the league to organize the blind bids. The commissioner then pulls each bid out of the hat and determines the highest bidder.

Instead of having that one annoying league mate beat you out every time for a player or driving up the price only to dump the player in your lap, you can make every team have to guess at the player’s true value to secure him.