Curtis Patrick reviews the process of choosing a dynasty orphan fantasy football team to build into a perennial winner. 

I love dynasty football as much as anyone I’ve ever met.

Thus, the winter siren song of startup drafts calls loudly to me. I’ve already turned down offers for new leagues. Eventually, I’ll relent because I enjoy working the board and collecting rookies during the draft too much — somebody will lean into that and wear me down.

Oh, and I’ll definitely join another RotoViz Triflex Dynasty Best Ball league — it’s the best way to play dynasty now. But we’re not opening those quite yet for 2022.

Before any of that startup activity begins, I’m pouring some love into my newly adopted a dynasty orphan squad and turning it into a perennial winner. The FFPC has dynasty orphan teams for sale in many price ranges, starting at $77 and maxing out at $2500.

My New Dynasty Orphan

Two weeks ago I added the $250 dynasty Superflex best ball orphan below to my FFPC portfolio.

There are a few different paths I could take to build this into a winner in 2022 and beyond. I’ll detail those in a follow-up article. Today, the focus is on why you should consider adopting a dynasty orphan and how to spot the right squad for you.

Bonus for Rotoviz subscribers: Read until the end and I’ll share my favorite three orphans currently in the FFPC marketplace at the end this article — these are the teams I’d purchase today if I was adding another orphan to my portfolio.

Why You Should Adopt a Dynasty Orphan

If you’ve been playing dynasty fantasy football for several years and feel ready for a new kind of challenge, this is absolutely the right move for you. It’s like stepping up to a chess board where the game is already in progress and you’ve still got to find a way to win.

When you play dynasty in volume, like me, it’s easy to find yourself with concentrated player exposures. Even the best of us can wander into take lock during startup drafts and rookie drafts, so our teams end up looking the same even if we manage 15 of them. This means you can end up always looking for the same types of trades using the same types of player and pick assets, too. To further complicate matters, many of us find our way into a dynasty circle of friends and end up playing the game with the same managers.

These factors can quickly lead to a very “rinse and repeat” feel across your portfolio. What started out as a plan to have fun just ends up feeling like a chore because all of the creativity and imagination is over after the startup.

This leads to team abandonment — orphaned dynasty squads.

Ironically, it’s these dynasty orphan squads that provide a new way to enjoy the game we love so much. Adopting a dynasty orphan gives you access to new players and new managers with whom to negotiate and other new scenarios that you’d never find yourself when managing teams your way.

I really enjoy the Sim City and Civilization game franchises. When I was (much) younger and could spend hours uninterrupted in front of a screen, I’d try to master every scenario in these games.

Tornadoes, floods and monsters: ON, plus $500K debt. When can I start my term as Mayor?

Win the Space Race with India and never offensively attack another player. Yessssss.

Adopting a dynasty orphan is literally more rewarding than those games because after you conquer these new scenarios, you win money, too. By now I’m sure you’re intrigued, but before you run to the adoption agency with a fistful of cash for the commissioner, let me review some important factors you should consider.

How to Choose the Right Orphan for You

I first got the itch to take over a dynasty orphan in 2018. After having fun in Ryan McDowell’s 48-team Kitchen Cinco league startup in 2016, joining Kitchen Sink 3 and taking on 23 other managers in an established league felt like the right next step in my dynasty journey.

I won the 2020 title, in just my third-year in the league.

You can have the same zero-to-hero experience, and it may not even take you three seasons, if you are careful in your approach. There are several important criteria to consider before taking the plunge on adopting a dynasty orphan. If you ignore either one of these recommendations, I take zero responsibility for your experience.

Here they are: