The startup draft is the most important event in a dynasty league, as it sets the foundation for your team’s future success. A poor draft can create a multi-year hole that’s difficult to climb out of. Unlike redraft leagues, where you can start fresh each season, a dynasty team is a long-term commitment.
If you’re unhappy with your roster, your only option is to painstakingly trade and build your way back to contention. This guide will outline different startup draft strategies, explain which ones to avoid and the reasoning behind each approach.
- Dynasty Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- Dynasty Rookie Draft Simulator
- DBro’s Dynasty Rookie Draft Primers
- Dynasty Fantasy Football Rankings
Dynasty Startup Draft Strategies
Win Now
The win-now strategy leads to the immediate dopamine rush; the “screenshot-worthy” roster that you show off to all your friends following the draft. This strategy often requires trading one or more first-round rookie picks, leveraging your future for the chance to run the tables in Year 1.
While this strategy can be fun at the time, it’s a slippery slope. I can tell you from experience, one or two major injuries to your roster can suddenly take your team out of contention, and things can turn south in a hurry. You’re stuck staring at a roster full of depreciating assets, wondering when you’ll have to jump ship and begin rebuilding from the ground up.
The only time I would recommend considering a win-now strategy is if the majority of your league mates are looking to “tank” right out of the gates, or are building for the future. If you have fewer teams looking to compete right away than in the future, you’ll have more leverage in trade negotiations during the startup draft, which could lead to some clear value wins.
That said, in the nearly 20 dynasty startup drafts I’ve been in throughout my fantasy career, I’ve been in maybe one or two where the majority of the league was looking to trade back in the draft and pick up future draft capital. It’s just not as popular a strategy because it requires patience and delayed gratification.
In short, I generally won’t advocate for the win-now strategy; at least the one where we are firing off our future first-round rookie picks left and right to acquire veteran players. Remember: Those rookie picks are going to continue increasing in value until the rookie draft, because the pick is not tied to a particular player.
Build for the Future
The “build for the future” strategy is the safest way to guarantee relevance and longevity for your dynasty team in the long term. While it may feel like you’re throwing away your entry fee for the first season, the work you put in during the startup should pay dividends in future seasons.
Rookie picks are never cheaper than they are in startup drafts. At any given pick, there could be multiple teams looking to trade up and draft in your spot. This opens up the opportunity to increase your roster value substantially via acquiring rookie picks or a package of later-round startup picks.
From my experience, when I’ve adopted this strategy, I’m typically competing by Year 2. As long as you’re taking your time in trade negotiations and not jumping on the first offer that comes your way, the strategy is fairly foolproof. Don’t be afraid to trade for future first-round picks multiple years out, either.
In general, you’ll find that first-round rookie picks multiple years out can be acquired for about 80 cents on the dollar in comparison to the following year’s rookie picks. In the case of 2025 startups, I’m a big fan of targeting 2027 rookie picks. The 2027 draft class is shaping up to be an elite class, while the 2026 class looks uninspiring thus far.
If you’re playing with some sharp league mates who are dialed into the college football scene, you may not be able to get a discount on the 2027 firsts, but in most cases, you should be able to.
Hybrid Strategy
The hybrid, or “balanced” startup strategy, is the one I most often adopt and the one I would recommend to new dynasty players. Taking the “best player available” is a recipe for success in dynasty leagues. You can always trade for positional needs; the focus should be on accruing the most roster value you possibly can. I would also highly recommend using rankings that categorize players into tiers, like the dynasty rankings on FantasyPros.
If you are on the clock and all the players you are considering are in the same tier, see if you can trade back a few spots and get some added value on top. Maybe you’re drafting at the end of the second round in a startup, and you feel this is the beginning of a long, flat tier of players. Can you trade back to the middle or the end of the third round? Maybe another league mate is eyeing a particular player at your draft spot and is willing to pay up. See if you can get a mid-round startup pick on top, or a couple of future rookie picks.
The hybrid strategy is a flexible one where you can always pivot to a rebuild or a win-now if the opportunity presents itself. If I’m on the clock early in a startup and between multiple players, I’ll almost always lean towards the young, ascending asset to keep my flexibility and avoid boxing myself into a specific build. For instance, if I’m on the clock and the best players available in my ranks are Garrett Wilson, A.J. Brown and Saquon Barkley, I’m going to lean with Wilson. He has the most value insulation of the group, given his age and perceived longevity.
Conclusion
In summary, if I could point you towards one particular draft strategy, I would recommend the “hybrid” strategy. It gives you the enjoyment of drafting real players now, doesn’t over-leverage your team and keeps the door open for contending right away.
Always remember to stay flexible in your drafts, use FantasyPros’ dynasty expert consensus ranks (ECR) to help guide you through each round and pay attention to tier breaks. If you have any questions about your dynasty, devy or C2C drafts, I can be reached on X @jim_DFF.
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