How to Rebuild in Dynasty Fantasy Football

Dynasty fantasy football is a bit of an art. Managers claim it’s a long-term game, but then when a player is in a bad situation and doesn’t perform immediately they plummet down the rankings. This guide will help players with the big question: how do you rebuild in dynasty fantasy football?

How to Trade in Dynasty Fantasy Football

How to Rebuild in Dynasty Fantasy Football

When to Rebuild

Sometimes it’s just not your year. There are some powerhouse teams around the NFL, and the same is true in dynasty fantasy football. The earlier a manager notices their team isn’t a true playoff competitor, the better. Whether it’s fluky wins carrying a team to a middling record, or a group of devastating injuries (J.K. Dobbins and Mike Williams hit some rosters hard) once a team isn’t serious about winning they should aim for the following year. Unless you’re confident you’re a top-four team around Week 7, it’s probably not your year.

Disclaimer: Make sure to trade for or ensure you have your own first-round pick for the next two years before beginning a full rebuild.

Which Players to Sell

The easiest way to explain this is to identify the players that either don’t have the longevity to help your team next year (looking at you Adam Thielen and Derrick Henry) or players that are only scoring points because of situation, not necessarily talent (Kyren Williams no shade intended). Even better, if there’s a player that is exceeding expectations, selling them high can help. Once the sell options are established, next up is finding the right time and price to sell them for.

Sell High / Rebuilding Tips

How to Find the Right Price

There are a million trade calculators out there. None of them matter, unless your fellow managers use them. The most important part of making a trade is having and maintaining a good relationship with your league mates. It should be common sense, but people don’t want to trade with the manager always sending bad trade offers or being a weirdo in the league chat. If your fellow league mates use something like keeptradecut, use it to your advantage. Players after a spike week shoot up in value. Picks two years out are always suppressed in value. Once you’ve found a couple of trade partners, there are two avenues to take.

Trade Within and Around Tiers

Breaking players down into tiers makes trading easier. Take the 2023 Wide Receiver Rankings for example. There are some older players who have been super valuable for competing teams (Stefon Diggs and Tyreek Hill) in the same tier as some younger WRs who will be useful later in their careers (Drake London and Chris Olave). By moving in the same tier, and hopefully getting draft capital added on top, your roster is able to gain value and shed age at the same time. Draft picks only gain value over time, until the rookie draft hits. This leads to the next option:

Full Teardown of the Roster

Shed all the points to make sure your draft picks are as high as possible. Any running back over 25 flipped for picks. Any receiver over 29 flipped for picks. Every player worth anything flipped for picks. This works if you take into account the life cycle of draft picks.

Draft Picks Life Cycle

Without fail, every single year, even the most savvy players fall into a cycle of draft picks. Starting the moment the season is over, rookie picks get a slight bump up. We’ll say rookie fever hits a 6/10. This slowly and slowly climbs until a league’s rookie draft takes place when that season’s rookie picks are worth a 10/10. During the draft, rookie picks can be flipped for multiple future picks (which don’t lose value as players might). Then the season kicks off, and rookie picks the next year drop down to a 4/10. Then as the season goes on the picks get less and less valuable to the competing teams, until the trade deadline when they’re at their cheapest.

Veteran players follow the exact opposite lifecycle, and sharp players who notice this and take advantage can get a jumpstart on their rebuild. For example, this is Tyreek Hill’s dynasty value on keeptradecut. In the last year, he took a huge dip in the offseason. Then once the season started, and managers remembered that Tyreek is a cheat code in fantasy, he skyrocketed back up.

Last Word on Rebuilding in Dynasty Fantasy Football

Set a target year to compete, and stick to the plan. It’s easy to get discouraged rolling out Quentin Johnston and Baker Mayfield waiting for picks to come to fruition, but getting impatient won’t help. Build around young wide receivers, and young quarterbacks in Superflex, and be fluid with running backs and running back rankings. Follow the lifecycle, accumulate picks and young players, and then when it’s time to compete push all the chips in.