Part of what makes dynasty fantasy football so fun is the abundance of approaches you can take. In a traditional redraft league, everyone has the same goal: Win the championship this year. Heading into a season-long draft, you may have a different strategy than your league mates, but you’re all competing for the same trophy.

This is not the case for dynasty leagues. Because the league will last for multiple years, with multiple trophies to be handed out, not everyone has to go all out for the win every single year. As early as the startup draft, you can choose whether you want to go all-in and push for a championship in Year 1 or look to the future in hopes of building a juggernaut years down the line. Let’s take a look at the most common dynasty startup draft strategies, breaking down how and when to best implement each.

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Dynasty Startup Draft Strategies

Win-Now Dynasty Startup Draft Strategy

If you are a long-time redraft fantasy football player new to dynasty, this strategy may appeal to you. As the name implies, the essence of a win-now dynasty strategy is to focus on building a roster ready to compete immediately and take home your league’s very first trophy.

If implemented correctly, a win-now startup draft strategy will allow you to build a monstrous roster, taking advantage of lower prices on still-productive veteran stars. For example, looking at FantasyPros’ dynasty average draft position (ADP), we can build this theoretical roster in a 12-team league:

• QB: Kyler Murray (Round 7, 78 Overall)
• RB: Christian McCaffrey (Round 1, 6 Overall)
• RB: Saquon Barkley (Round 2, 19 Overall)
• WR: Davante Adams (Round 3, 30 Overall)
• WR: Mike Evans (Round 5, 54 Overall)
• WR: Cooper Kupp (Round 6, 67 Overall)
• TE: Travis Kelce (Round 4, 43 Overall)
• FLEX: Aaron Jones (Round 8, 91 Overall)

That’s an eight-player roster made entirely out of top-70 picks in redraft ADP (top-50 if we exclude Kyler Murray), including two first-rounders and five players from the first three rounds. You can also usually build a very deep bench with a win-now startup strategy, grabbing productive, unexciting vets while your league mates gamble on fourth-round rookies who may never see an NFL field.

Of course, this strategy is not without its downsides. The game we love has very high variance, so even the most stacked roster of old studs is never guaranteed a championship. And drafting aging players all but guarantees your team will decrease in value year over year. Most of the above hypothetical roster is one major injury away from complete fantasy irrelevance. If you fail to capitalize on your championship window with a win-now team you could be in for a long rebuild.

If you’re willing to take on even more risk, you can lean even harder into this win-now strategy. Along with selecting older players with your startup picks, you can trade up for more high-value startup picks using your future rookie draft picks. This increases the chances you build a truly unstoppable roster… but also increases the amount of pain you’ll feel once your glory days are over.

Win-Later Dynasty Startup Draft Strategy

You may also see this strategy called “productive struggle,” “build for the future” or even straight-up “tanking,” but the basic strategy is the same for all of these approaches: Draft young, high-upside players, even if you struggle to field a competitive team in year one.

Compared to a win-now strategy, this strategy has a higher upside, but also more risk. You’re more likely to build a true “dynasty” on the back of young studs, but that’s only if you land the right picks. You could also find yourself stuck with a team of draft busts, roster cloggers, and “could-have-beens.”

Again, as with the win-now strategy, you can double down on this strategy if you want by trading away startup picks for future rookie picks. This further reduces your chances of competing right away but increases your chances of landing the stars of the future. As a bonus, since most leagues assign rookie picks such that the worst teams each year get the best picks in the next year’s rookie draft, fielding a bad team one year can help your prospects.

If you really want to commit to the long game, you can even intentionally tank your first year or two with your startup roster construction. You can give yourself a massive headstart in the race to the bottom by almost entirely avoiding a key position (often running back) in your startup draft. Some leagues may frown on this strategy, but as long as you attempt to compete to the best of your roster’s ability once the season starts, you should be in the clear — even if your RB2 is Kenneth Gainwell, as is the case on one of my dynasty teams. Of course, this also comes with the cost of essentially taking yourself out of playoff contention before a single game has even been played. If the rest of your young players break out sooner than you expected, you may regret the huge hole you intentionally put yourself in.

Balanced Dynasty Startup Draft Strategy

If you want to avoid the extremes, you can always take a more balanced approach to your startup draft. Drafting a mix of proven producers and young talent can set your team up to compete both in the first year and the future. Your team may never be truly stacked, but the high-variance nature of fantasy football means sometimes all you need is a ticket to the dance, and a balanced strategy should ensure you usually have a ticket.

This strategy comes with added flexibility, as keeping a balanced mindset allows you to take advantage of the rest of your league’s choices. If a player falls to you at a value, you can happily draft them, whether they’re an aging running back or a rookie wide receiver. You can also be flexible in the trade market, trading up or trading down as value presents itself.

While it is much safer and more flexible, a balanced startup approach is not without its drawbacks. You may find yourself caught in the middle if the rest of your league fully commits one way or the other: One or two win-now superteams full of aging stars could dominate the league for a few years, keeping your balanced team out of the top spot. Once those teams age out, the successful win-later managers may have built their own juggernauts, again leaving your balanced team behind the eight-ball. The goal is to win championships, not finish fourth every year, and a balanced startup strategy can leave you stuck in no-man’s land.

Which Startup Draft Strategy Should You Use?

There is no single right answer to this question. If one strategy was objectively the best, everyone would follow it. Then it wouldn’t be optimal anymore. However, I will still make some recommendations.

If you are a newer dynasty player, I recommend taking a balanced strategy. With lower risk and less strategic nuance, it’s a great way to get used to the dynasty format. You’ll likely make the playoffs for most of the first few years, and from there, anything can happen. Especially if you make sure not to trade away your future picks, as you won’t ever have to truly hit rock bottom with this strategy. You’ll get the fun of watching young players grow while still fielding a competitive roster — the best of both worlds.

As for when to take a hard win-now or win-later approach, that decision is best made during your startup draft. You can often let your first few picks, as well as the first few rounds of picks by your league mates, inform your approach. If it just so happens Christian McCaffrey and Saquon Barkley are the best players available at your first two picks, you can lean into a win-now mindset. If you land Marvin Harrison Jr. and Malik Nabers in the first two rounds, you’re probably better off building for the future. This approach can be particularly effective because the types of players falling to you in the first few rounds are normally indicative of the strategies your league mates are using. A player like McCaffrey falling past his ADP is a sign other managers are prioritizing youth, which means there will be value in targeting productive vets; the inverse is true if you find highly touted young players falling into your lap.

Regardless of how you approach it, nothing is more fun than a dynasty startup draft, so get out there and get drafting… and send me an invite.

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