Also, this is another reminder for app users to use the Yahoo website, as it offers more options than the app. You can see the players in the draft pool you will be picking from here. You can see the draft order here, with your keeper players filled in at the bottom of the draft. You can also go to the league's front page, where the schedule is posted, and you can click on each team to see their rosters. Please note that your matchup preview with each opponent will be showing as zero vs zero until after we draft.
I think that's all I have for now. Please check your texts/emails/Facebook messages/message board inboxes on July 25th, which is when I will be reaching out to ask you if you want to drop any of your keepers. Until then, buh bye.
I just want to give everyone a quick update how things are going to work. On July 25, which will be exactly TEN days before the draft, I am going to send everyone a personal instant message/email/text with their roster and inform them they have until August 4th to submit any changes they want to make to their keepers. Remember, you must keep between 15 to 20 players. Alice and ned only kept 15, so they are pretty much locked in and do not have to do anything. Everyone else either has 19 or 20 players currently rostered. If you wish to make any cuts, you will have from July 25th until August 4th to make them. As soon as the clock rolls over from August 3rd to the 4th, your keepers will be locked in.
Remember, we have 25 man rosters in this league. The number of players you carry over combined with the number of draft picks you have must equal 25. So if I keep 20 players, I get 5 draft picks in the upcoming draft. If I keep 19, I get 6. If I keep 18, I get 7. So on and so forth. It will be up to you to decide whether you want to keep all the players you brought over, or drop a couple and earn some more draft picks in the process. If you have a player on your team that you don't think will see any minutes, or you don't think will be a valuable dynasty asset (like Tommy DeVito, for example), I encourage you to drop him and pick up the extra draft pick. Again, you will have from July 25th until August 4th to submit to me a list of any players you wish to drop, otherwise all your keepers will be carried over.
As far as the draft itself, a reminder that it takes place on August 4th at 4:30 CST. Remember, this is a dynasty draft. You already have your core players. You are essentially adding to your roster in the hopes of keeping it competitive for the years to come. Don't come into this draft thinking you are going to pick Christian McCaffrey or Tyreek Hill or anyone like that. Those players are already taken. The draft will consist of the incoming rookies mixed with unrostered veterans from the end of last season. It is absolutely essential that you do your research and try to grab as many promising young players as you can. Once a player joins your team, you have him for life. Imagine getting the next Ja'Marr Chase or Patrick Mahomes as rookies, and then having them on your team forever. All great players have to start somewhere!
On that topic, I have heard a few of you say "I don't really pay attention to college football. I don't know which rookies are going to be good and which ones aren't. I am not familiar with any of these names." I have some news for you: I don't really watch college football either. I do pay attention to what the experts have to say, however, and I also paid a lot of attention to the actual NFL draft when it happened. But knowledge of college football is absolutely not necessary, as long as you read over some summaries of the incoming class and familiarize yourself with its players. Here are a few good resources for you if you need the extra help:
I will further explain why each year's draft is so important. Let's say your running backs are horrible. In a redraft league, you can just start over next season. You do not have the luxury of starting over in this league. If your running backs are bad, you can't just shake the running back tree and add a good one to your team. You have to draft a rookie and hope they hit. Or maybe draft a second or third year guy who's been buried behind veteran running backs, who you think is ready to shine. You can even deal away draft picks to a fellow league mate in order to pick up a running back.
You always have to play the long game in dynasty. That's why it surprised me last year to see players like Keenan Allen, Mark Andrews, and Nick Chubb just dropped from rosters completely. Even if they are injured or underperforming, remember that you are playing the long game. If you don't see a future for a player on your roster, try to initiate a trade with a league mate and get something in return!
Please, if anyone has questions about how this will work, or is confused by the process, send me a message and I will gladly explain.
Here is a picture of Gary Busey:
I also want to explore the possibility of future changes to the league. I've made it no secret that when my son is older, I wish to expand to 14 teams to add him and one other player (preferably a family member). That will be somewhat of a "soft reboot" of the league. Rather than keep 15 to 20 players, you will only be allowed to keep 13 to 17. When all the cuts are made, the two expansion teams will go back and forth picking from the unrostered veterans in an offline "expansion draft". Once their rosters are at 13 to 17 (it's up to them where they want to stop), they will be added to the Yahoo league, their keepers will be added, and the draft order will be set.
The two new teams will have the #1 and #2 pick in the draft that year, decided by coin flip. So if you finished with the worst record the year before, tough luck. The best you'll be picking is at #3, unless you trade up. I'll be informing everyone of the expansion a year before it happens, to give everyone time to prepare. Also to make things more open for everyone, since no one will be able to get the #1 or #2 pick, the year before we expand, I will expand the playoffs from four teams to six. Hopefully the added playoff spots give the bottom teams more incentive to win, since they can't get the #1 or #2 pick. This change from four to six playoff teams will then carry over for the duration of this league's existence, even if we do end up dropping back to twelve teams at some point in the future.
There will also be a slight format change once we expand. Rosters will still be 25 players and scoring will still be the same, but a second flex spot will be added. Also, all IDP will be condensed from D, DL, DB, and LB to just three D spots. Again, since this is a pretty big change, I'll be giving everyone a whole year's notice in order to adjust their rosters. Everyone will be affected equally.
Sometimes I randomly think of other things I want to change or tweak, but I have to remind myself that they key to running a fun, successful league is being consistent. I don't want to make things too crazy by needlessly shaking things up. Aside from the chaotic year of the expansion draft (whenever that will be), I'll keep everything status quo for the most part. The only change I may make in the near future is that I am softly considering adding return yard points with the new kickoff rules. But we'll monitor this upcoming season to see how returns go before I make any changes. So no one has to worry about 2024. If all of a sudden the new return rules massively impact the actual game of football, I'll almost have no choice but to add scoring bonuses for kick returns in this league somehow for 2025 and beyond. Maybe give an extra three points for a 50+ yard return. So if someone had a 50+ yard return for a TD, it is a nine point play. If they just have a 50+ yard return but do not score a TD, they get three points. Nothing game changing, but it would still slightly acknowledge the importance of the new return rules.
I think that's all I have for now. Please check your texts/emails/Facebook messages/message board inboxes on July 25th, which is when I will be reaching out to ask you if you want to drop any of your keepers. Until then, buh bye.
