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Author: Steven Van Tassell
We are only a few days away from the start of the first-ever Dynasty Owner drafts! For those of us in the beta group, it’s an exciting time and time to start thinking about fantasy football in a new way – as a Dynasty Owner. With drafts coming up and Dynasty Owner being new and different, it’s not surprising that there are more Dynasty Owner draft tips than one article could hold. Therefore, Dynasty Owner proudly presents Draft Tips – Part 2: Electric Boogaloo (If you don’t get the reference, go to https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/electric-boogaloo).
All stats are based on the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system as outlined in the updated Dynasty Owner Constitution. Standard Dynasty Owner scoring gives you .1 points for every yard rushing or receiving, .1 point for every 2 yards passing, 1 point per reception, 6 points for a rushing, receiving or passing touchdown and 2 points for a successful 2-point conversion (rushing, receiving, or passing). Interceptions or fumbles lost cost you 3 points, while a fumble that is recovered by the player’s team is a loss of only 1 point. Bonus points are available for 100-199 yards rushing (2 points), 200 yards rushing or receiving (6 points), 300-399 yards passing (1 point) and 400 yards passing (4 points). Kickoff and punt return touchdowns are worth 6 points for the player and kickoff and punt returns are worth .25 points for every 10 yards. Standard Dynasty Owner scoring for kickers gives you 1 point for every extra point, while a missed extra point will cost you 1 point. It’s 2 points for a field goal of between 0 and 39 yards, 4 points for a field goal between 40 and 49 yards and 5 points for a field goal of 50 yards or longer. A missed field goal of between 0 and 39 yards will cost you 3 points, while a miss of 40 yards or more is a loss of 2 points.
Here are some more tips that are hopefully going to help you win your inaugural 2019 Dynasty Owner league championship (unless you’re in my league, then you’re playing for second place!).
QB Scoring is Higher Than Most Leagues, but Some QBs Will Benefit More
In looking at the Player Rankings, the high number of points scored by QBs in 2018 and projected for 2019 using the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system stood out. In 2018, a total of eight QBs scored over 400 points using this system:
- Patrick Mahomes (KC) – 558 points
- Matt Ryan (ATL) – 465 points
- Ben Roethlisberger (PIT) – 440 points
- Andrew Luck (IND) – 433 points
- Deshaun Watson (HOU) – 422 points
- Jared Goff (LAR) – 410 points
- Aaron Rodgers (GB) – 405 points
- Drew Brees (NO) – 402 points
The number of RBs, WRs and TEs who scored over 400 points in 2018 under the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system: Zero.
Why? It’s all about the scoring system. The Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system gives you .1 point for every two yards passing and 6 points for a passing TD. Most other fantasy leagues give you 1 point for every 25 yards (or .04 points per yard) and just 4 points for a passing TD. This creates a lot more points for the QBs in Dynasty Owner than most other fantasy leagues.
And it appears that your less mobile, traditional pocket QBs are likely to get more of a bump from the scoring system in Dynasty Owner more than the younger, more mobile QBs.
Let’s take the eighth QB on this list – Drew Brees – and compare his scoring from just those two categories (yards and passing TDs) in Dynasty Owner vs. most other fantasy leagues. Brees passed for 3,992 yards and had 32 passing TDs last season. He was 13th in passing yards and tied for 6th in TDs. His fantasy scoring from these two categories come out as:
- Dynasty Owner: 391.6 points
- Most Fantasy Leagues: 287.68 points
That’s a difference of 103.92 fantasy points over the course of a season, or nearly 6.5 fantasy points per game. While the scoring will be higher for all QBs, your traditional pocket passers such as Brees who throw for a lot of yards and a lot of TDs will benefit more than other QBs, like Deshaun Watson. In 2018, Watson was in 5th overall in QB scoring, but just 11th in passing yards with 4,165 yards and his 26 passing TDs were good for 12th place. He had 20 more total points than Brees, but didn’t get nearly the bump that Brees got from the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system.
- Dynasty Owner: 364.25 points
- Most Fantasy Leagues: 270.6 points
Despite having more Dynasty Owner points than Brees, Watson’s scoring bump from the Standard Dynasty Owner scoring system is over ten points less than Brees’ at 93.65 Dynasty Owner points.
Now suddenly, after taking about value, value and more value, those older, but more expensive traditional pocket passers suddenly might be worth a spot on your Dynasty Owner roster because of the scoring system. Or are all QBs just more valuable because all of them will score more points?
Extra Roster Spots
Quick question. Which one is higher – the number of rounds in the Dynasty Owner draft or the number of roster spots on your Dynasty Owner roster? The answer is the number of roster spots (24), not the number of rounds in the draft (20).
With four extra roster spots that you can fill after the draft is over, proper roster management, including leaving some room for extra practice squad players, could be even more important than in a regular fantasy football league.
The NFL minimum rookie salary is $495,000 annually. That’s means if you want to fill your final four practice squad spaces with the cheapest rookie free agents, you’ll need at least $1.98 million in salary cap room after the draft is over. Even room is needed to fit in that veteran who breaks out late in the season (see Anderson, C.J. last year). Even non-free agent rookies who are available and start to produce unexpectedly will cost you more since and you want to pick their minimum salaries are even higher. Don’t forget about these extra roster spots when you are drafting and leave some salary cap room.
The good news for this year is that after the draft is over, but before the season starts, you’ll have time to tinker. And before the season starts is the best time to tinker with the extra roster spots on your Dynasty Owner team since you don’t have to pay the 25% of the balance of a dropped player’s salary until after August 31st.
Sadly, all of this roster maneuvering might be rough for those people who prefer regular fantasy leagues where every Tuesday morning, you get to pick up the “flavor of the week” (aka the free agent who scores the most fantasy points). And yes, I’m looking at you, Mike Strope.
Don’t Forget about Bye Weeks
Have you done any mock drafts? If so, you may have noticed (or maybe not noticed) that bye weeks are not visible in the mock draft lobby. For everyone, Dynasty Owner is a brave new world and some Dynasty Owners aren’t going to be prepared for this since they haven’t done any mock drafting (or read this article).
Do yourself a favor and put together a list of all of the NFL teams and their bye weeks before your draft or print yourself a bye week cheat sheet like this one (http://printableteamschedules.com/images/nfl/byeweeks.pdf). Or don’t do it.
Then let’s say you get the number one pick in your Dynasty Owner draft and grab the reigning NFL MVP, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. Great move, you’re thinking. Top scorer in 2018, plays for high-powered Kansas City offense, Tyreek Hill is back for the whole 2019 season, low salary ($4.1 million) with 3 years left on his contract. What’s not to like?
Your draft keeps rolling and you decide it’s time for a backup QB, but you are starting to worry about the salary cap and don’t want to roll out big money for Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Russell Wilson or any of the other $25 million plus QBs still remaining. Then you see that Kyler Murray is still available, hit the Draft button and you’ve grabbed him as your backup QB. Sweet move! You’re all set, no need for another QB for you since you’ve got two young ones in Mahomes and Murray.
After the draft is over, you’re looking at your roster and suddenly notice that the Chiefs and the Cardinals are on bye in Week 12. Oh no! You can’t start a QB on bye, as that’s a $1 million Dynasty Dollar fine. Oh sh!t! And you have little room left under the $120 million salary cap to get a third QB and the best ones available are Daniel Jones at $6.4 million or Joe Flacco at $22.1 million. Oh cr@p! The curse words really start flying as you think about what you can do to win your Week 12 match-up.
You know what would have saved you from this problem. A bye week cheat sheet. Go print one now.
Conclusions
Including salaries and a salary cap means, there’s a lot more to think about in Dynasty Owner than a regular fantasy football league. You’ve got a new and exciting scoring system that appears to be weighted slightly in favor of one type of QB. It’s those QBs who do most of their damage from the pocket – throwing for yards and touchdowns – over the new, mainly younger mobile QBs who get you fantasy points with both their arm and legs.
Speaking of rosters, besides just your active roster and reserves, you have a practice squad on which you can fit four extra, non-drafted players. That is, if you left salary cap room and can fit them on your roster.
Finally, bye weeks take even greater significance when you have to manage the Dynasty Owner salary cap. If you draft poorly and have two QBs on the same bye week, you can’t just cut another player without salary ramifications and freely pick up a replacement like regular fantasy football. So, make sure to have that bye week cheat sheet at the ready when it’s time for your draft.
Good luck to everyone with your Dynasty Owner draft!
Steven Van Tassell is a freelance writer for Dynasty Owner