Shawn is known for his high stakes victories in redraft and best ball, but he spends 10 times as many hours on dynasty, winning some of the most prestigious industry leagues. Today he begins the Dynasty Workshop with a look at the state of 2021 startup rosters.
With FFPC Dynasty startups now open for 2022, it’s time to crank the Dynasty Workshop into high gear. My approach to dynasty is based on two interlocking concepts: Perpetual Reloading and the Permanent Championship Window.
In the workshop, I’ll discuss two very different startup approaches. The first we’ll call the ultra-aggressive approach, and if that isn’t patient enough or aggressive enough for you, I’ll detail why the patient approach is actually even more aggressive. Obviously if you’re trying to build a permanent championship window, you’re not sitting back and waiting for a dynasty to just happen.
Workshop Topics
- Startup Strategy
- Trade Philosophy and Tactics
- Player Valuation and Rankings
- Roster Construction
- Orphan Tactics and Rebuilding
- Rookie Drafts
Within each area I’ll have a series of lessons. The pieces necessarily overlap and create an overarching strategy that will put you in position to earn byes in the majority of your leagues every season.
Of course, those are strong claims, and to provide some foundation, it’ll be helpful to look back at what the 2021 lessons produced. The first step in our 2022 process is to examine the 2021 RV TriFlex startups and determine where we are after one season. Did the strategy and tactics from the startups translate into Year 2 rosters that find themselves in a championship window?
Want to skip some steps in rebuilding that orphan? Curtis Patrick explains why and how to make a roster-defining trade.
The Permanent Championship Window Is Open
The FFPC TriFlex league is my favorite dynasty platform. Monty Phan recently wrote about all the trade activity that centers around the March cutdown deadline. The TriFlex leagues are a 1-QB, 2-RB, 3-WR, 1-TE, 1-SF, 2-Flex format. The Superflex, TE-Premium structure with a moderately deep starting lineup provides a level playing field for dynasty managers and encourages activity. The startups in this format are intense.
Every offseason you cut down to 16 players before the rookie/veteran draft that occurs after the NFL draft. The goal is to create elite starting lineup upside while maintaining enough of your overall roster value in future picks.
We’re now in the part of the annual schedule where teams have 16 players and are awaiting the draft to fill out rosters. Teams can then be over the 20-player limit until the second cutdown right before the regular season.
In this initial lesson, I’m going to look at the three teams I co-managed last season, all of which took a trade-back approach in the startup. I’ll examine their current strengths, needs, and whether they’ll be 2022 contenders.
