Rebuilding a dynasty team is not an easy task. Whether you’re taking over a team or it’s time to start over with your own roster, rebuilding a franchise can take years. There are a number of things you can do and steps you can take to speed up the process. In this article, we will be going over what you can do to rebuild a struggling dynasty team.
Identifying a Good Team to Take Over and League to Join
More important than the team itself is the league you’re joining. Make sure their main interest is keeping it competitive for the long term and not looking for a donation. If more than one team has abandoned the league, perhaps you could suggest a dispersal draft. A dispersal draft puts all of the players and assets from abandoned teams into a pool and makes them available for others to draft. This can really help if there are two or three new teams entering the league. Unfortunately, if there is only one abandoned team, a dispersal draft isn’t usually an option. If this is the case, just evaluate the talent and make sure you’re not taking over a bad team that has traded all its draft picks away. Just because a team is orphaned doesn’t mean it’s a bad team. Make sure you do your homework before making any long-term commitments.
Trading
If you decide you are in rebuilding mode, you can get great value for your established talent from “win-now” teams. You can sell those players who may have only a year or two left as legitimate Fantasy options for high-upside youngsters who haven’t quite established themselves as stars yet. However, don’t get too carried away with your youth movement. As mentioned in a previous article in this dynasty series, your roster needs to have the right mixture of up-and-coming talent and established veterans.
Patience
The rebuilding process could and probably should take multiple years, so it is imperative to have patience. Have faith in your players and have faith in yourself as a Fantasy owner. It is key to have patience while your players develop, and believe in your plan. Just like in the NFL, rebuilding is a process in dynasty leagues. Once you are part of a league, stick with it through the lean times. Champions do not fall victim to frustration.
Injured Reserve
Be sure that your dynasty league has a place for players on injured reserve. You do not want to have to drop key players or have a shallow roster because some players got injured. Any league you join should have multiple slots designated for those on IR. This is essential.
Toilet Bowl
Many leagues now have a consolation “prize” for the winner of its Toilet Bowl. Some just give a gag trophy to the worst team in their league. However, some other leagues do it a bit differently and make the title of Toilet Bowl champ something to be coveted. In my personal experience, the teams that do not make the league playoffs are entered into a secondary tournament and compete against one another. The first overall pick in next year’s draft goes to the winner while the runner-up gets the second selection. This is not only a fun way to award the following year’s top pick, it also keeps the entire league involved and competitive. It’s always better when every team is trying to win and is engaged.
Scoring and Matchups
The majority of leagues have a typical head-to-head, win-loss format. However, you may run into a league that is scored by total points. This actually gives a more accurate gauge of the top teams because the standings are based on each team’s overall performance, not weekly matchups. There is no luck of the draw. There may still be head-to-head matchups in these leagues, but they are more for pride or an owner can be awarded additional points for a victory. This isn’t something you’ll come across all that often, but it’s another interesting twist you may find in certain leagues.
In Case of Emergency
In every dynasty league, issues are going to come up. When owners have invested so much time and resources, emotions can run high and tempers may flare. Inevitably, some things are not going to be covered in the rules and problems will emerge. One example I’ve come across concerns what happens when defensive players catch passes and/or score offensive touchdowns. When these kinds of disputes arise, you must always have a contingency plan for how to sort them out. This could include having an all-powerful commissioner who has the final say on all matters. Yet this can lead to additional problems because people are usually not keen about autocracy. The more democratic way to go is to solve the issue at hand via a league majority vote. Personally, what I’ve found works best is to have a three-man committee that everybody trusts decide on matters like this. When a problem surfaces, the committee gets together and hashes it out. Picking the members of this committee is very important. They need to be trusted, competent and hopefully have different perspectives. This way, no one person has total power. Three respected owners can make a joint and fair decision and, of course, ties are avoided.
