In 2023 RotoViz recommended avoiding the risky QB profiles and instead prioritizing the elite resumes of Jahmyr Gibbs and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The Rookie Guide and NFL Draft content urged subscribers to select Rashee Rice and Sam LaPorta in Round 2 of every draft.
In 2024 RotoViz placed a priority on Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers, and Brock Bowers, suggested QB-needy teams load up on Bo Nix, and encouraged subscribers to make Bucky Irving your priority target late. What does that accomplish when deployed across actual dynasty leagues?
I originally wrote most of this article a couple of months ago at the conclusion of 2024 fantasy leagues, but then I got caught up in working on the RotoViz Rookie Guide. The Guide is a yearly labor of love, and though we obviously don’t always get everything right, the overall results have given our subscribers a big leg up on the competition.
With Volume 3 on the way after the 2025 NFL draft, I wanted to go ahead and publish this piece as a blueprint for our dynasty philosophy and a reference for those readers and potential subscribers looking to verify our previous recommendations.
Over the last five years, I’ve participated in eight FFPC dynasty startups and adopted one orphan for RotoViz content. That orphan was the only team to miss the playoffs in 2024. It went on to win the backdraw and earn the 2025 1.01. The remaining eight playoff teams pulled in five titles, a second, and a third.
Beyond the obvious excitement of playing in these leagues, our moves — startups, rookie drafts, trades — help demonstrate the principles of our two core dynasty components: Perpetual Reloading and the Permanent Championship Window.
The RotoViz Dynasty Blueprint: Always Reloading, Always in the Window
We play our recommendations in high-stakes formats with the FFPC, usually in the RV TriFlex format — the best format in dynasty. I think these recommendations have been successful for three reasons:
- The leadership position RotoViz established in prospect evaluation back in 2013 aided by research evolutions led by Blair Andrews.
- The depth of research that goes into the Rookie Guide.
- Flexible and aggressive dynasty strategies that have been proven many times in expert leagues and high-stakes formats.
I’m biased, of course, but I think Blair’s work is industry-leading. You can also see the fruits of these labors with his high finishes across multiple FFPC formats, as well as his second-place finish in the thousand-strong 2024 Scott Fish Bowl, where he was the highest-ranking industry analyst.
Let’s jump into the actual content with today’s non-paywalled dynasty workshop, which provides . . .
- a breakdown of the various rosters, including future picks
- a look at the tactics employed, including the biggest move of the campaign
- a discussion of individual player profiles and why we were overweight on league-winning assets
- a look at the biggest takeaways from the 2024 dynasty season
We’ll start with a startup from this most recent season that Colm Kelly and I drafted with the RotoViz Overtime community.
Uncle Colm and the Spanish Armada (Colm) – Championship
2024 Startup – $250 Entry
| QB | RB | WR | TE | Picks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jayden Daniels | Kenneth Walker | Jaxon Smith-Njigba | Brock Bowers | 2.08, 2.10, 2.12 |
| Bo Nix | Chase Brown | Jerry Jeudy | Cole Kmet | 3.05, 3.09, 3.10, 3.12 |
| Bryce Young | James Conner | Jordan Addison | 4.07, 4.12, 5.10 | |
| Aaron Jones | Christian Watson | 6.09, 6.10, 6.11, 6.12 | ||
| Travis Etienne | ||||
| Nick Chubb | ||||
| Kendre Miller |
This startup perfectly embodied our belief that Trading Down in Startups is Your Dynasty Superpower. We made 18 trades between the start of the draft and the beginning of the regular season. While not every one of those moves worked out in the end, the overall result was a first-year title.
This was one of the strangest title journeys. In the startup, Colm and I only made two selections in the first four rounds, but they were perhaps the two most transformative players in football: Jayden Daniels (2.08) and Brock Bowers (3.03).
Brock Bowers Was the Generational Prospect of Generational Prospects
That was the title of my article breaking down why Bowers should be the rookie 1.01.
Bowers put together one of the most extraordinary three-season runs in college football history. Despite sharing the field with other elite receiving weapons at Georgia, here’s where he ranks among all individual TE player-seasons with at least 50 targets:
- Yards Per Route: Bowers ranks No. 2, No. 4, and No. 5. Among Power Five tight ends, Bowers sweeps the category (1-2-3). His freshman season YPRR of 3.7 is better than Harrison’s junior season (3.6).
- EPA: Bowers ranks No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4. Trey McBride’s 2021 season slips in at No. 3. If we look at EPA/target, Bowers ranks No. 2, No. 5, and No. 8.
- Receiver Rating: Bowers ranks No. 2, No. 5, and No. 6. Isaiah Likely’s 2021 campaign comes in at No. 1, and Cade Stover’s 2023 slides in at No. 4.
- Broken Tackles: Bowers’ 2022 and 2023 campaigns tie for No. 1 with Sam LaPorta’s 2022. His freshman season comes in at No. 14.
- Yards After the Catch: Bowers sweeps the category, ranking 1-2-3. Bowers also ranks No. 1, No. 2, and No. 5 in yards after contact.
Bowers ended up crushing rookie TE records, but also overall TE records and overall rookie receiving records. He finished as one of eight flex-eligible players to score 300-plus points in FFPC formats.
Every other player from this group scored at least 10 TDs with four scoring 15 or more. Bowers found the end zone four times in the Raiders’ underpowered offense and still crested 300 with 100-plus receptions and 1,144 yards.
The Big Move
Despite largely moving back out of the early rounds, we also traded our 2025 first-round pick in a wild move that netted Jerry Jeudy and Ja’Lynn Polk. After a low-end WR1 finish, Jeudy is now easily worth the 1.12, but the move looked catastrophic throughout much of the season.
At the end of the day, the trade-down extravaganza netted three foundation quarterbacks, a ton of depth at RB, four young receiving stars, and perhaps the most valuable player of the next decade (Bowers).
We also have three R2s and four R3s to help build depth from next year’s rookie class.
The Swearengen Solution (Bjorn) – Championship
2023 Startup – $750 Entry
I don’t expect to ever see another two-week playoff run quite like the one that Bjorn and I witnessed here. The squad scored 229 points in Week 16 but didn’t quite bury our opponents, with one of our opponents putting up 191 and another scoring 185. It backed that up to the tune of 212 more in Week 17 even with Nix and LaPorta on the bench.
We were a bit nervous with Smith-Njigba and Zay Flowers starting poorly in the mid-week games, but the depth also overcame a busted week from Josh Downs.
Last season, Bjorn Yang-Vaernet and I executed an extreme trade-down approach and followed that up this Spring by employing the 2024 Rookie Draft Game Plan. As a result, we’ve been able to build the 5 Pillars That Turn a Dynasty Into an Empire.
For this team, that includes:
- Three franchise QBs, including two of the top-five dynasty assets
- The No. 1 dynasty RB
- Five young, ascending fantasy WRs
- The top three dynasty TEs
- Plus picks
How were we able to accomplish this? We moved down relentlessly in last year’s startup, and that positioned us with 13 picks in the first three rounds of this year’s rookie draft. As a result, we were able to make trades early that netted Daniels and Joe Burrow, while still providing enough depth to add Bo Nix and Bucky Irving later.
The Roster
| QB | RB | WR | TE | Picks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jayden Daniels | Bijan Robinson | Jaxon Smith-Njigba | Brock Bowers | 1.12, 2.10, 2.12, |
| Joe Burrow | Bucky Irving | Rashee Rice | Trey McBride | 3.04, 3.10, 3.12 |
| Bo Nix | Chuba Hubbard | Zay Flowers | Sam LaPorta | 4.12, 5.12, 6.12, 7.12 |
| Jameson Williams | Ben Sinnott | |||
| Josh Downs | ||||
| Adonai Mitchell |
Jayden Daniels Has the Highest Fantasy Ceiling of Any Draft Prospect Ever
That was the subhead for my article arguing for Daniels as the ultimate cheat code in all formats.
On our episode of RotoViz Overtime with Travis May, he compared Daniels to Lamar Jackson as a rusher. . . Let me get this out there right off the top. If Daniels stays healthy for all 17 games in 2024, he’s got a shot at finishing as the QB1. Not the rookie QB1, but the overall top scorer in fantasy.
Daniels wasn’t the overall QB1, but he did put on a playoff show, clipping Lamar Jackson and burying Josh Allen when it mattered most in Weeks 15-17.
In that piece, I explained why Daniels was a full tier above any non-Jackson QB as a rusher and why he was probably also the best pure passer in a loaded class.
The Big Move
Sent: George Pickens, Cole Kmet, 2.05 (Michael Penix), 4.02
Received: 1.07 (Brock Bowers)
Although our trade for the QBs became the new foundation for our roster, we weren’t done making moves. When Rome Odunze went 1.06, we made up our minds to do anything — whatever it took — to acquire the pick for Bowers, even with McBride and LaPorta already on the roster.
This is a good example of how simply having a lot of “stuff” is helpful. Young, ascending players like Pickens are very tradeable, as are additional rookie picks that can theoretically turn into anything.
This is also a good example of a win-win trade. While I would be tempted to rank Bowers as the overall No. 1 in dynasty leagues with TE premium scoring, Pickens outperformed our expectations in a Fields/Wilson offense, and Penix looks like a breakout star at a position of immense value. A year from now, our trade partners may feel like our “overpay” helped them reset their lineup and lock it in for long-term title competition.
No I in Teamocil (Monty) – Championship
2021 Startup – $500 Entry
Monty and I both intended to start Xavier Worthy in Week 17, but the Christmas holiday got on us too quickly. Given our plan to bench Jeudy after his Week 16 dud, the risky outlooks for our Lions, and the declining value of Jauan Jennings, we’d intended to play the hot hand in at least one of those spots.
Thankfully, we didn’t have to spend a full offseason with that regret. We clinched on Sunday, and the Monday night explosion gave each of us a respective top-five score for our FFPC tenures. (And keep in mind that Monty’s ownership group once won the FFPC Main Event regular season total points crown. Of course, SF dynasty squads are structured to score more total points.)
This squad perfectly illustrated the truism about QB value in Superflex: try to lock down the greats but don’t overpay. A star is not required to build a juggernaut.
A look at the overall roster demonstrates how you can dominate the SF spot without a high-end QB2 – and do it without cannibalizing the other positions.
The Roster
| QB | RB | WR | TE | Picks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bo Nix | Bijan Robinson | Malik Nabers | Trey McBride | 2.02, 2.12 |
| Jonathan Taylor | Rashee Rice | Sam LaPorta | 3.05, 3.07, 3.10, 3.12 | |
| Bucky Irving | Jerry Jeudy | 4.08, 5.12, 7.12 | ||
| Tyrone Tracy | Zay Flowers | |||
| Rhamondre Stevenson | Jameson Williams | |||
| Xavier Worthy | ||||
| Jauan Jennings | ||||
| Jalen Coker |
Consider . . .
- Across Weeks 15-17, Jonathan Taylor scored 79 points. That was the same as Joe Burrow and more than Josh Allen.
- With a focus on overall roster depth and flexibility, you can slot Taylor into the SF and still dominate the RB1 and RB2 positions with Bijan Robinson and Bucky Irving.
- With the flotilla of young, star WRs, you can fill the remaining flex spots and still be in a position where you’re debating folks like Worthy and Tyrone Tracy. And that’s with Rashee Rice, who likely would have been this team’s WR1, out for the season.
- With an emphasis on dominating the TE position, McBride and LaPorta give us multiple options to play the young star in the best situation in any given season — and more options for the Flex.
It also shows the importance of the synergy between prospect evaluation and accumulating potential value QBs.
But Nix wasn’t the only key rookie. We actually selected two other rookies before trading for Nix in-draft. Instead of letting the board force our hand with a QB reach at the 1.04, we made the selection of Nabers, a player I felt should be ranked ahead of Marvin Harrison and in the mix at 1.01.
Malik Nabers is the Next Ja’Marr Chase
A High Evasion Rate on Underneath Targets
Nabers generated 46 targets on passes of 5 air yards or less. On those targets, he evaded 13 tackles. I want a WR with run-after-catch ability on these types of manufactured touches. In 2019 both Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase evaded 21 tackles on this type of play.
This was not the forte of Harrison, who evaded only four tackles on underneath targets across the 2022 and 2023 seasons combined. (Nabers also created more yards after contact on underneath targets in each season than Harrison did in the two years combined.)
Run-After-Catch on Intermediate Targets
The same dynamic played out on intermediate targets. Nabers was again above a 40% evasion rate, while Harrison only evaded two tackles total. The on-target catch percentages were also far apart. Nabers came in at 94%, while Harrison trailed the group at 75%.
Although Nabers and Harrison earned the same number of catchable targets (42) at these depths, Nabers crushed his peer by gaining 273 yards after the catch to just 90. Nabers outgained him 633-395 in total yards and smashed in first down conversion (91% to 73%).
Elite Efficiency on Deep Targets
The comparison is more even on deep targets, but it’s interesting that on 72 fewer total air yards, Nabers converted 43 more actual air yards. The LSU product also doubled him up in TDs (9-4), which led to an almost perfect receiver rating (154.6).
Flashing Over the Middle
Nabers is so appealing because his profile is so balanced. We can also see this when we look at some of the targets that might unlock an NFL offense: middle targets of at least 6 air yards.
On such plays, Nabers holds the following edges on Harrison. . .
- . . . a 17-point edge in on-target catch rate (96% to 79%)
- . . . 3.7-yard edge in yards per target (17.3 to 13.6)
- . . . a 32-point edge in receiver rating
- . . . a 2-1 edge in TDs (6-3)
- . . . and a 14-3 edge in evaded tackles
After seeing Daniels play at the NFL level, it’s easy to argue that Nabers’ greater efficiency on deep targets can be explained by better QB play, but even with a Daniels adjustment, the superiority of Nabers’ overall profile was on full display in their respective rookie years.
Nabers should be the key to the future, but we weren’t done in Round 1. When Worthy was still available at 1.11, we traded Brandon Aiyuk for the pick and again passed on our biggest positional need. Although Worthy missed on a ridiculous number of potential long TDs, he finished as the WR8 during the fantasy playoffs and teased a crazy future in the Super Bowl. When it comes to Perpetual Reloading, he’s five years younger than Aiyuk.
The Big Move
Sent: 2025 R1 (1.12), 3.05 (Ray Davis)
Received: Bo Nix, 4.02 (Tyrone Tracy)
It was finally time to find our QB.
Bo Nix Is the Quarterback Teams Should Be Fighting Over
While I was well above the consensus on Daniels and Nabers, and spent the summer with Bowers ranked approximately 50 spots ahead of ADP, my biggest flagplant player was Bo Nix.
Travis published some excellent QB research during his RotoViz tenure, persuasively arguing that we get a better read on a QB’s efficiency once we remove efficiency-inflating plays like jet sweeps and play action. Nix’s attempts advantage disappears once we remove these plays, but his efficiency doesn’t lag. Once we remove these plays, we’re dealing with a much smaller sample, but Nix becomes more impressive not less.
If we removed jet motion and play action and require at least six air yards, Nix posted . . .
- the highest completion percentage at 68%
- the best IQR at 139.5.
- the highest “catchable” percentage (88%)
- tied for the best yards per attempt (14.8)
- the second-highest TD percentage (15.4%).
It’s rarely recommended to trade your future R1, but each trade must be evaluated in a vacuum. A willingness to move the future pick allowed us to squeeze as much value as possible out of the 2024 rookie draft by not reaching at QB.
World Burner (Solo) – Championship
2022 Startup – $250 Entry
Sometimes all of the twists and turns of an NFL season eventually lead back to your ultimate destination. From the Rice injury early to the Nico Collins injury mid-season to the Jalen Hurts injury in Week 16, this squad persevered.
In part due to the loss of Hurts, it scored 156 in Week 16 and went into the final week down by 30 points. It was still down 21 heading into Monday night football with Jameson Williams and LaPorta to play. Then Dan Campbell happened.
This league has been an odd one from the beginning, and I’ve moved future first-round picks in each of the last two years — first for the selections that helped land Rice and LaPorta in Round 2 of the 2023 rookie draft and most recently to acquire Collins.
The Roster
| QB | RB | WR | TE | Picks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jalen Hurts | Bijan Robinson | Nico Collins | Trey McBride | 2.06, 2.07, 2.08, 2.12 |
| Bo Nix | Bucky Irving | DeVonta Smith | Sam LaPorta | 3.01, 3.08, 3.12 |
| Tyrone Tracy | Rashee Rice | Jonnu Smith | 4.09, 6.12, 7.12 | |
| Travis Etienne | Jameson Williams | |||
| Jaylen Warren | Jalen McMillan | |||
| Jalen Coker |
Bobby Slowik’s painful lack of creativity and C.J. Stroud’s epic collapse combined to neuter Collins’ scoring in the final weeks, but his continued emergence moves him into the star category for 2025, an asset worth multiple firsts.
I’d prefer to always keep the first-round pick for the flexibility it brings, but some leagues are tight enough on trades that you have to take value when it comes.
The Big Move
Sent: Kyle Pitts, Jaleel McLaughin, 2025 R4
Received: Chase Brown, 1.12 (Bo Nix), 3.01 (Ben Sinnott), 2025 2.08
It’s important to keep in mind that the game-tying touchdown from Penix to Pitts in Week 17 could have been what the entire season looked like in an alternate universe. Pitts’ final college season and initial pro season certainly suggested that was within the range of outcomes. You never want to hold onto a favorite until just the wrong moment, surrendering him only to watch as he morphs into a world beater.
But you sometimes have to make difficult trades. Without the pick that became Nix, this squad would have been weaker throughout the year and had no QB option in Week 17.
The squad would have been significantly better if not for another “difficult” trade that followed the other path — this one a mid-season endeavor that sent Chase Brown for Jaylen Warren and two 2025 third-round picks. While frequent readers know that Brown was my highest-rostered player across formats, I employ a bit of humility-based trading to balance some of the risk.
Especially after overcoming the loss of Brown’s points to emerge with a title, I’m excited to see what Warren can do as a probable starter next year. He appeared healthy over the second half of 2024 and averaged 11.2 PPG from Week 10 on. In that span, Warren ranked No. 4 in evasion rate (26%), No. 6 in points above average per play, and No. 3 in positive percentage (trailing only Derrick Henry and Bijan Robinson). With both Pittsburgh and Cincinnati looking to add to their RB rooms, Warren may come out ahead in 2025, and either of the two third-round picks could turn into RBs with as much value a year from now.
As much as any team I’ve built, this squad illustrates the importance of prospect evaluation as it relates to Round 2 of the rookie draft. The Rice and LaPorta selections a year ago were augmented by Nix in this draft. Without him, the squad wouldn’t have made the playoffs or made its push in Week 17. With the collapse of Travis Etienne, it wouldn’t have had a dynamic RB2 without the presence of Irving and Tracy.
Can I keep the second-round streak alive? With four R2s and three R3s, I’ll have numerous shots to add around the foundation pieces.
RotoViz (Curtis) – Championship
2020 Startup – $250
In the final year pre-RV Triflex, Curtis Patrick and I participated in a Pros v Joes startup for the FFPC’s regular dynasty format. It’s still a blast.
The Roster
| QB | RB | WR | TE | Picks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bo Nix | Saquon Barkley | Ja'Marr Chase | Mike Gesicki | 1.12 |
| Daniel Jones | Christian McCaffrey | D.J. Moore | Chig Okonkwo | 3.12, 5.12 |
| James Cook | Davante Adams | 6.12, 7.08, 7.12 | ||
| Bucky Irving | Xavier Legette | |||
| Jaylen Wright | ||||
| Isaiah Davis |
And even with shallower starting lineups, you can still win with a sleeper rookie QB and in the face of a Christian McCaffrey injury. All you have to do is roster the two sensational, world-beating players of the 2024 season.
Destiny Is All (Pat) – 2nd Place
2022 Startup – $1250 Entry
My MNF watch party featured an odd dynamic where I was actively rooting against George Kittle, a key piece of my Main Event squad that climbed up into 71st overall.
(The Main Event Sprint featured 849 teams, so even though we weren’t in the mix for the $1 million like a year ago, it felt good to have five teams finish in the top 275, and have seven qualify out of 11 total drafted. Needless to say, Week 15 was a huge bummer.)
But Pat and I needed Jared Goff to outscore Kittle by 11 points. The gap between first place ($7000) and second ($2500) is significant. And Goff was on fire. Alas, Kittle is among the best players in football for a reason.
The Roster
| QB | RB | WR | TE | Picks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Allen | Breece Hall | A.J. Brown | Mark Andrews | 1.11, 2.08, 2.11 |
| Jared Goff | Christian McCaffrey | Garrett Wilson | Tucker Kraft | 3.08, 3.11 |
| Daniel Jones | Bucky Irving | Rashee Rice | Jonnu Smith* | 4.11, 5.11, 6.11, 7.11 |
| Tyjae Spears | Josh Downs | |||
| Jonathon Brooks | Marvin Mims | |||
| Rashid Shaheed |
In trying to defend our title, Pat and I took a few lumps early with the injuries to Rice and McCaffrey. Our selection of Jonathon Brooks at the 1.12 turned into a wasted pick.
But this team was a good example of how every “rookie” pick can be valuable. With the 6.01 in the 2024 draft, we selected veteran Jonnu Smith. We hadn’t yet traded for Mark Andrews, and it wasn’t clear Tucker Kraft would quickly seize the starting position in Green Bay. Even with those developments, Smith became the driver of our just-failed push for a top-two seed, not to mention the engine that powered us through the Week 15 quarters.
If not for the injury to Tua Tagovailoa, we would probably have started him over Downs in Week 17 and won the title by less than a point (although everything would have been different with Tagovailoa). Early injuries bring a very small silver lining. The additional roster spots with Rice and McCaffrey on IR allowed us to keep Smith through his unimpressive opening month. We’ve subsequently moved Smith for a 2026 second-round pick in order to get down to 16 players.
Some good waiver wire fortune in the form of Kareem Hunt and Adam Thielen helped paper over the injury issues. Instead, it was the collapse of Aaron Rodgers and the Jets that hurt us most down the stretch of the season. It will be interesting to see if Justin Fields and a competent coaching staff can solve these problems, or if Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson even remain on the team long term.
The Big Move
Sent: Brandon Aiyuk, Michael Mayer
Received: Mark Andrews, Josh Downs
Andrews’ target-generation collapsed in a more varied passing offense that featured Flowers, but his efficiency was ultra-elite. Andrews led all WRs and TEs with a 141 receiver rating. He posted his best yards per target (9.8) since his rookie year and set a new career high with 11 TDs. As a result, he averaged 0.4 more than his previous best in PPR per opportunity.
Although his bleak performance in Week 17 cost us the title, Downs emerged as a borderline star in Year 2. According to the SIS numbers, he edged big names like George Pickens, Terry McLaurin, and Tee Higgins in YPRR, not to mention other breakout stars like Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Jordan Addison. And he did it with Anthony Richardson and Joe Flacco. Though frequently still an underneath target, Downs gained 257 yards on balls that traveled at least 15 yards in the air.
A 2023 blockbuster continues to be fun to track. We traded Justin Herbert and Ja’Marr Chase for Josh Allen and A.J. Brown. That move helped us win a year ago and pay our entry fee for the foreseeable future, but the gap between Allen and Herbert must remain significant for us not to lose the trade in the long term.
Vantasner Danger Meridian (Blair) – 3rd Place
2021 Startup – $500 Entry
Sometimes you draw the No. 1 pick . . . and eventually regret it. We worked hard to move down from the 1.01 but failed.
The Roster
| QB | RB | WR | TE | Picks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caleb Williams | Jahmyr Gibbs | Garrett Wilson | Trey McBride | 1.02, 1.10 |
| Derek Carr | Tyrone Tracy* | Jaxon Smith-Njigba | Sam LaPorta | 2.02, 2.04, 2.10, 2.11 |
| Daniel Jones | Travis Etienne | Rashee Rice | 3.10, 4.03, 4.10, | |
| Jonathon Brooks | Jameson Williams | 5.10, 6.03, 6.10, 6.11 | ||
| Keon Coleman | 7.03, 7.10 | |||
| Cooper Kupp | ||||
| Marvin Mims | ||||
| Jalen Coker |
While we were ravenous for shares of Daniels, Nabers and Bowers, we certainly weren’t out on Caleb Williams, and passing on him at the 1.01 would have meant completely missing on shares of a QB with potential NFL-altering capabilities.
We also managed to move Deebo Samuel for the 1.10, giving us the option to select Brian Thomas . . . and selected Brooks. It’s hard not to look at this team and imagine what might have been.
But what’s done is done. We don’t expect to be perfect, and the great advantage of Perpetual Reloading is this: no single move will define you. With the 1.02, 1.10, and four second-round picks, we could have the 2025 versions of Daniels and Thomas at this time next year. Hopefully with a new trophy in tow.
The Big Move
Sent: 2.03 (Bo Nix), 3.01 (Ben Sinnott)
Received: 1.02 (2025), 2.02 (2025)
At various junctures of the offseason we moved J.K. Dobbins and Marshawn Lloyd for future seconds. We traded Irving for Keon Coleman in-season but before the breakout. (Sometimes your biggest missed opportunities seem to concentrate on one roster.)
But the big move came during the draft itself when we found ourselves on the clock and Nix still available. This is one of those trades where we theoretically “won” the trade — we moved a 2.03 for a 1.02 and “won” the other part of the trade as well — and yet still may regret it. Nix should have been going in the 1.06 range last year, and his future scoring value has now risen well above that price. Nix also would have helped us address a position that remains a weakness.
We’ve already moved Tyrone Tracy, Jaylen Wright, and Christian Watson for 2026 picks, helping us start the churn early, even before the trades that will result from having 15 picks in this year’s rookie draft.
The Tactical Turtle (Ben) – 5th Place
2022 Startup – $750 Entry
The lone squad that failed to advance through the Week 15 semifinals, Tactical Turtle is also the most loaded with draft assets, including the 1.01.
The Roster
| QB | RB | WR | TE | Picks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tua Tagovailoa | Breece Hall | Jaxon Smith-Njigba | Brock Bowers | 1.01, 1.08, 1.09 |
| Derek Carr | Kyren Williams | Jordan Addison | Pat Freiermuth | 2.08, 2.09 |
| James Cook | Jerry Jeudy | 3.08, 3.09, 3.11, 3.12 | ||
| Tyjae Spears | Jameson Williams | 4.11, 5.08, 5.09 | ||
| Rhamondre Stevenson | Jayden Reed | 6.08, 7.08 | ||
| Jauan Jennings | ||||
| Xavier Legette |
This squad also demonstrates the peaks and valleys of frequent trading. After a 2023 blockbuster that moved Kyler Murray and a trio of second-round picks for . . .
- Jameson Williams
- Mike Evans
- James Cook
- Rhamondre Stevenson
We traded the following big names in the 2024 offseason.
- Saquon Barkley
- Garrett Wilson
- Mike Evans
- Chris Godwin
- George Pickens
That’s almost a full playoff roster right there.
In return, we added:
- Tua Tagovailoa
- Kyren Williams
- Jerry Jeudy
- Jayden Reed
- Bucky Irving (re-traded)
- 2025 1.01
- 2025 1.09
- 2025 second- and third-round picks
Was that a 2024 win? Definitely not with the way Barkley hit big and Evans continued his 1,000-yard streak. Will it be a win in the long term? I’m pretty optimistic.
This was the prototypical example of a win-win trade with our biggest trade partner acquiring the pieces that led them to the 2024 No. 2 seed. (We got a bit lucky in that they finished fourth in the playoffs, improving our picks by several slots in multiple rounds.)
We were able to address the QB position, reduce the average age of our roster, offload extra pieces that we couldn’t handle from a roster limits perspective, and make our championship window permanent. You can’t necessarily control elements like injuries to your QBs (Tagovailoa, Carr), but you can build a deep and powerful lineup that relies less on each individual player with every passing year.
With the 1.01 as one of three first-round picks and nine picks in the first three rounds, this squad should compete for the 2025 title while simultaneously spinning numerous picks into 2026.
Ben and I broke down our dynasty team and discussed how to manipulate the 2025 first round — and any first round — on last week’s Stealing Bananas.
Biggest Takeaways
I would never expect an individual future season to replicate these results with five championships out of seven semifinalists, but I do think you can build permanent championship windows that feature a well-above-average number of byes. It’s possible to create a portfolio that reloads without rebuilding and wins at unusally high rates.
If you want the entire Dynasty Superflex Workshop Series in a flurry of bulletpoints, here it is.
- Quarterbacks are overvalued. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to build an Empire with elite QBs. It does mean you should
- look for any opportunity to add superstar QBs at mildly discounted prices.
- look for every opportunity to add undervalued QBs like Nix.
- look to add lottery tickets at lottery ticket prices.
- look to completely avoid toolsy lottery tickets at premium prices.
- RBs and WRs tend to alternate between over- and undervalued based on the specifics of the previous season. You can exploit this market by seeking to fight the next war instead of the last one.
- Uber-backs can get hurt and they can have short careers, but you’re always looking to find ways to add them at mild discounts.
- RB is always a year-to-year position, which means aging vets who were productive the year before are almost always undervalued relative to solid starters in the supposed “peak” age range.
- Talented, contingency-based RBs (Bucky Irving, Tyrone Tracy) are usually good price-adjusted options in every format.
- Superstar WRs should always be your priority, including over the top QBs in many cases.
- Peak-age, second-tier WRs remain the best asset to sell. They bring big returns and yet are replaceable for squads with enough depth.
- Young, breakout WRs are great trade-down targets in startups and yet these same general profiles can be risky to over-emphasize in rookie drafts before you get any information about their translation to the professional level.
- Elite TEs crush leagues.
- Dynasty trades should be about . . .
- crafting win-win offers that help you and your trade partner accomplish specific objectives that make losers of the other 10 teams in the league.
- using your understanding of prospect profiles to create that tiny bit of leverage that manifests in meaningful value over a large volume of trades.
- continually refreshing your roster with young players and balancing your overall asset value across the present and future.
I hope that whets the appetite for more of what we have to offer in 2025. We’ve increased the one-year subscription to better reflect our combination of tools, player analysis, and cross-genre strategy series. But for anyone buying the Rookie Guide, you get a $30 coupon that either wipes out the cost of the Guide or wipes out the subscription increase. (If you have a subscription and have kept auto-renew on, then your subscription will renew at your original purchase price.) We’ve also lowered the one-month subscription to allow you a chance to join the RotoViz community and sample the wares with less risk.
Congratulations to all of our dynasty champions in the RotoViz community. Good luck in 2025, and we hope you’ll join us for another fun season of dynasty content.
Here’s that link again.
The 2025 Rookie Guide with $30 subscription coupon.
