Dynasty Bench Strategy: 5 Steps So You Don’t Fart Around This Summer

Yeah, you’ve done it. I’ve done it. We’ve all done our fair share of farting around over the years.

For the uneducated, uncultured, and frankly unsophisticated, we can define this phrase:

Fart around:

• Merriam Webster– to waste time : to spend time doing activities that have no serious purpose
• Cambridge– a rude phrase meaning to waste time doing silly or unnecessary things
• Collins– to spend time idly, foolishly, etc.
• Urban– The act or process of wandering aimlessly with no particular goal; delaying something unnecessarily by dawdling, and slacking off

The Oxford English Dictionary‘s earliest attestation is from 1900, although instead of farting around, it’s farting about, from the English Dialect Dictionary: “Go bon tha! thoo’s allus farten aboot, thoo’s warse ner a hen wi’ egg.”

For fantasy football purposes, let’s gather some of that language and focus our attention on dynasty leagues offering five steps to take with your current bench.

Editors Note: For more dynasty-related resources, check out Andy, Mike, and Jason’s exclusive rookie rankings and production profiles found only in the Dynasty Pass, part of the UDK+ for 2024.

Dynasty Bench Strategy

In dynasty leagues, you are building out depth for both the short-term and long run. This summer, instead of aimlessly going about your business and biding your time until September 5th’s kickoff, I want to be proactive. I want to form a plan to strengthen my team and assess where my non-starters currently are at. Chances are 2-3 guys you currently do not have in a starting roster spot will be a significant contributor for your team at some point, for better or worse. That screenshot you share with your buddies of your dynasty squad usually doesn’t include your bench, does it?

There are a couple of simple tents worth mentioning early to keep in mind.

Do not confuse overactivity from certain managers with productivity or forward-thinking.

Many frantically chase every trending name on Sleeper trying to find any solution possible like a piece of FLEX seal tape. You need a plan and somewhat of a fluid structure in place (especially at the RB position) to field a resilient bench. We want to hopefully get stronger as the season progresses and I’ll share some of those steps below.

Passivity does not work in this format.

On the other end, you might be saying to yourself “I’m not ready to make up my mind” on a bench player. Not making a decision is a decision in itself, especially in a game environment such as fantasy football. The NFL is not held within a vacuum and your opponents in your dynasty leagues are not without their opinions. Don’t make a knee-jerk reaction but also recognize that nothing remains static in a league with turnover at the coaching, management, and player levels.

Seeing the future is foolish.

Hosting our dynasty podcast is an honor and often I laugh to myself talking out NFL situations knowing how bad we (as a fantasy community) are in assigning valuations over multiple years. The format allows you to hold onto to scratcher lottery tickets and backups knowing the NFL changes on a dime more than you might realize. I bring up this statistic a lot but the turnover at the QB position is way more than you might realize. On average, 11 teams per year have a change in their Week 1 starting QB year-to-year. That is by no means a perfect metric to highlight with some glaring exceptions but it does give you some perspective of the most important position in sports and a zoomed-out view over the last six years.

If you are in a SuperFlex league, the bench should be littered with QBs taking a shotgun approach as we mentioned recently on the Dynasty Podcast.

Maximizing your bench looks different for every league.

I want to focus more on how to maximize your roster spots in dynasty leagues knowing there are roughly 12-15+ spots you are working with as non-starters. Keep in mind that every league is structured different and every league has a unique combination of player mixes from the juggernaut that has Drake London as his WR6 or the person trying to survive with Zach Charbonnet as their RB2. Your bench might be robust but in normal 10 or 12 player leagues, most of us are trying to squeeze a FLEX week out of guys like Demario Douglas or Tyler Boyd types.

How many TOTAL roster spots* does your main dynasty league have?

(*Do not include taxi squads and IR)

— Kyle Borgognoni (@kyle_borg) June 20, 2024

Five Steps to Shape Your Dynasty Bench

1. Know Your Season.

Heck, this is a deep thought not just for fantasy football but for life. Seasonality is a great way to view many things in your life noticing the series of times and predictable changes within a calendar year. (Bonus: highly recommend Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity as an offseason read on this concept.)

Knowing the season of your league gives you context for the players on your bench. Is it the off-season? Are depth charts still fluid in the NFL? Don’t drop that RB just yet knowing he could easily slide to 2nd in the backfield. Kyren Williams was a perfect example from two years ago. Are your rookie drafts approaching? Everyone in your league has rookie fever and you might see some egregious drops with managers trying to make room for prospects who have yet to touch the NFL field. Is your league’s trade deadline approaching? Draft picks only gain value closer to April while players (both veterans and rookies) only gain value as they get closer to your league’s trade deadline.

For your team, are you rebuilding? Are you a contender? Does it make sense to hoard a 27-year-old WR on his 4th team on your bench knowing your bench lacks any upside? Van Jefferson might have a shot to be the WR2 for Pittsburgh. However, he isn’t helping your team at all. Dropping players is often a fear-based game (“you can’t cut that guy!”) while recognizing 85% of your roster while be turned over within 3-4 years.

Have conviction and a plan in place. Getting into the playoffs can be the springboard for your team making an awesome playoff run. Ask someone in our Discord to evaluate your team and see if you are seeing your team in the right light. You might think you need to rebuild when the assets are there for your team to go for one more championship run. All you might need is another bench piece or two to take your team over the top!

2. Gather a Range of Outcomes & Expectations.

This is a phrase we mention often: a range of outcomes.

Following the NFL Draft, our own Marvin Elequin penned a range of outcomes article on each of the major positions (2024 RBs, WRs, and TEs) using college production metrics to “bucket” the prospects with other players. I took a historical approach mixing in some of our projections in the Ultimate Draft Kit examining Jayden Daniels and recent dynasty history.

There isn’t a perfect method but we are trying to set expectations regarding the possible results of a player while also recognizing there are so many more variables at play in football outside of our control. Whether it is off-the-field issues or issues with the coaching staff, each player also has

Ask yourself the following questions trying to write down anything from generalized reactions to actual counting fantasy numbers.

• What is the most likely outcome?
• What is the best case scenario?
• What are you counting on for your team?

After gathering your short list together, ask a non-biased source to compare with you. Ok, let’s be honest: all of us are biased about dynasty. We bring in our pre-conceived notions and priors about talent evaluation and our experience rostering a player.

For example, Jahan Dotson was a player I liked heading into Year 2. I could give you the statistics to justify why he should’ve broken out in a system that led the NFL in total pass attempts. “The opportunity was there!” I exclaimed and failed to consider the absolute downside of one of the least efficient offenses in the NFL led by Sam Howell. Dotson’s range of outcomes needed to include a bull case but the bear said he wasn’t a lock to be a difference-maker for my squad. I was counting on him to be a 2nd FLEX/WR4 on my roster. Despite running the 6th most routes in the NFL, Dotson airballed in Year 2 and his dynasty value took a massive hit.

3. Clean House of the “Dusties”

Depending on your personality, this can be a painful or invigorating process. You look at your roster and you look at the waiver wire in your dynasty league. The tension mounts. It is a standoff only Michael Scott, Dwight Schrute, and Andy Bernard could rival. Can I really move on from this player? Maybe you are like me and you’ve faced these same questions:

• Is your blind optimism still causing you to hold onto a player?
• Is their NFL Draft capital or college highlights ringing in your mind?
• Did that one quote from the head coach that one time stay with you?
• Are you still hot and bothered by that one training camp puff piece by that one beat reporter whose name is escaping you at the moment?
• Is their a chart you maybe saw one time scrolling through Twitter but you can’t seem to find it anymore?
• Are you terrified of them going off on someone else’s team?

I get it. The emotional turmoil all of us undergo for a person we not only personally do not know but also likely will not be involved in the consciousness of fantasy football within 2-3 years is downright maddening (and stupid). I’ve tried to find the right word to describe this level of

I wrote a rather lengthy article entitled Dynasty WR Thresholds That Matter identifying a few thresholds for WRs finishing Year 1 & Year 2 in the NFL. I focused on routes-based data and compare them to their peers in the 2024 Dynasty Pass. It is so easy to experience #takelock with any prospect but instead of burying our heads in the sand, a year or two gives us data to work with and some semblance of reality.

I went through and looked at some of the “dusty” WRs rostered in our main Ballers Dynasty league heading into late June 2024. These are not MUST drops but they all fall in the category of WRs who are not necessary to rosters and thus can be dropped without the futility of assuming things will turn around.

• Skyy Moore, Kadarius Toney (KC)
• Tyquan Thornton, Kayshon Boutte (NE)
• Rondale Moore (ATL)
• Tutu Atwell (LAR)
• Alec Pierce (IND)
• Van Jefferson (PIT)
• Juju Smith-Schuster, KJ Osborn (NE)
• D.J. Chark Jr. (LAC)
• MVS, Chase Claypool, Mack Hollins (BUF)
• Michael Gallup (LV)
• Allen Lazard (NYJ)
• Tim Patrick (DEN)
• Robert Woods, Noah Brown (HOU)
• Mecole Hardman (KC)
• Donovan Peoples-Jones (DET)

4.  You Don’t Have Enough RBs.

This problem isn’t exclusive just to dynasty. Most leagues start two RBs and given the scarcity of the position and the injury rates, we know it is a position that begs for depth. Actually, this is more than begging because dynasty managers will do desperate things just to find anyone to plug into an RB2 spot.

For your bench, you want to be overweight (in comparison to QBs & TEs) with a mix of stand alone RBs, young insurance and lottery tickets.

• Stand alone– Can you FLEX this guy? It sounds simple but if you don’t have at least two stand alone options heading into the season, you will be plain out of luck when bye weeks or injuries ensue. Jaylen Warren & Tyjae Spears were perfect examples last year who could’ve started every single week. Were they RB2 material? Not really. But a weekly FLEX option at the RB position is hard to come by and their pass-catching work provided a somewhat safe floor. For 2024, guys like Antonio Gibson, Jaleel McLaughlin, and Chuba Hubbard likely will be startable assets.
• Young, Insurance Backs– It is NOT necessary to use your resources to acquire insurance for your own stud RBs. Braelon Allen might be nice to have as the Breece Hall manager as safety in case something were to happen to the Jets star RB. Perhaps the more valuable (and higher upside) game theory move is rostering someone else’s insurance back. Your team gets stronger while another . You can dangle as a trade piece as the season progresses knowing teams get desperate closer to the trade deadline. I want at least 2-3 of these on my rosters knowing that injuries occur and at some point, guys like MarShawn Lloyd or Chase Brown could break through into a bigger role if the older lead back becomes inefficient.
• Lottery Tickets– Unfortunately, we chase these way too often. If you have a taxi squad, feel free to go to town. When RBs like this hit, we feel invincible. For every James Robinson and Phillip Lindsay we picked up off the waiver wire randomly in the middle of June, there are names like DeWayne McBride, Tony Jones Jr., Trayveon Williams, and a whole list of guys you and I probably can’t remember shuffling through our dynasty waiver wires. I want players like Baltimore’s Rasheen Ali or the Colts’ Evan Hull at the end of my bench at this point of the off-season. Some of their college production intrigued me and if I squint my eyes, I can find a scenario where they get some run in the near future. However, I am not counting on these types of players. If they hit, my team is even stronger. The likelihood is that one of these players turns into Isiah Pacheco is next to none. But, I will keep scratching those tickets! Depending on your league’s roster size and your taxi squad availability, rostering more than two of these is probably a fool’s errand unless you currently also don’t have any insurance or stand alone backs. In that case, [insert laughter].

Take last year as an example: Veteran RB D’Onta Foreman suddenly became a viable starter in Week 7 last year and someone we touted as a strong start despite only touching the ball a total of 23 times in the first six weeks of the season. What did he do in Week 7? Oh, he was the RB1 overall!

5. Get Your Head on Straight: Training Camp Hype

The fringe players that you are sorting through on your bench rise and fall often from the farts and whistles (bringing it back to the title!) from beat writers.

I wrote an article last off-season that might help frame some of summer bench moves in dynasty entitled How to Not Lose Your Mind: Training Camp News & Fluff Pieces. For those who hate reading (what are you doing this far down this article?) or need a TLDR version, here ya go!

Go a Step Further

Take the headline you see on X/Twitter and investigate. Who said it? What is their source? Do they have connections with the team? Have you read the source or just a random quote? What was the context? Going a step further is so valuable to moving from a headline on Twitter to forming an actual opinion that takes root.  Certain sites omit details for click bait reasons. Keep in mind that fantasy-related spins are speculative in nature. But if they confirm your priors, feel free to send it to your league mate 🙂

Negative Nancy

Apologies to Nancy if she is your mother or spouse, but it matters more to me if a coach or beat writer is consistently sharing negative news about a player. Every coach shares glowing remarks about guys wanting to win over the locker room and give the fans hope for the upcoming season. There is a enough puff pieces to fill an encyclopedia Britannica every summer. There are some great resources out there including Coachspeak Index that parcels through the fart clouds and what you should pay attention to.

What Are They NOT Saying?

Call it investigative or just downright skeptical when someone makes a claim but you can flip any bold statement or reporting by teams by pausing and asking the question: what is not currently being said or brought up that would further clarify the situation? Are they running with the 1s because one of the star players is holding out in a contract dispute?

For more on player injuries and updates, Matthew Betz updates our Injury Report section of the Ultimate Draft Kit detailing the recovery process and what someone’s actual timeline could look like when we get real intel, not just tweets (or posts if that’s what we call them now).

Slow Down & Reflect

We don’t know what we don’t know. Comforting, yes I know. But admitting that on the front end is helpful in a number of ways. Having strong convictions about player projections is part of the puzzle. But on the other end, “staying water” is an old Footballers adage that is essential in having a clearer end in mind for players and their situations. Be open to the fact that we don’t know everything. The problem with sorting out depth charts and draft picks is that this isn’t a linear process. There are so many ebbs and flows to sort out. I offer these five principles as starting places for figuring out how to forecast offenses. For more on that topic, I wrote Forecasting 101: How to Project Offenses Knowing You Could Be Wrong a couple of years ago as a primer.

Who Are You Listening To?

The best prescription might be filtering to sources that report actual news and plugged into teams. I try to stay away from accounts that use “quotations” more than two times in a tweet. Find the right beat writers, not just RT accounts.