Dynasty League Football Forum

Hello all -

I'm in year two of my first dynasty league. We have 20 active slots and 5 taxi slots. I have been arguing that taxi slots are restrictive in how someone wants to run their team. If someone wants to roster a ton veterans in slots 21-25 it wouldn't bother me any. My thought is if you need to play the players in slots 21-25 then your team is in trouble anyways.

Please explain to me how taxi squads make dynasty better? All I see are silly roster restrictions.

The only argument for them (instead of just adding additional roster spots) that I find interesting/compelling are when you can poach from other teams' squads by paying a draft pick for the round they were drafted + 1. So you can buy someone drafted in the 3rd on someone's TS for a 2nd. Seems like a fun way to increase trade activity.

Our taxi squad isn't a limited number, it's anyone you had drafted in the previous two year's rookie drafts

This allows those late 5th round picks to have a better chance of developing by the person who drafted them, like a practice squad, rather than becoming waiver wire fodder and then picked back up by someone else a year or two later

It also helps a rebuilding team who can then acquire many multiple draft picks and have 10 or more rookies and sophomores each on their taxi giving them more chances to hit and improve their team quicker

In my league we have a rule for the practice squad we can only put in the 5 spots of the practice squad the rookies and the second year

I'm in my first year of playing dynasty, and I love having a taxi squad. I like the idea that if I watch a lot of college ball/do a bunch of rookie research, and draft a player, then I can hold him long enough to see how he'll pan out in the NFL - especially QBs. Otherwise, it seems like rookie drafts would only be two or three rounds because there isn't much room for unproven players.

We do 23 active, 2 IR, 5 taxi.

They aren't "necessary" any more than devy leagues, dynasty leagues, and keeper leagues are "necessary". A league with a taxi squad is going to be focused more on the draft and have more vets on waivers, a league without a taxi squad is going to roster more vets and be more likely to have late-round rookies available on waivers. It just caters more towards owners with a deep knowledge of rookies and a more long-term view of roster building.

Tsunami wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2017 3:40 pm They aren't "necessary" any more than devy leagues, dynasty leagues, and keeper leagues are "necessary". A league with a taxi squad is going to be focused more on the draft and have more vets on waivers, a league without a taxi squad is going to roster more vets and be more likely to have late-round rookies available on waivers. It just caters more towards owners with a deep knowledge of rookies and a more long-term view of roster building.

Doesn't playing without taxi squads allow you to take either approach though? There will still be guys who love rookies and could reap their rewards while allowing the flexibility to roster a vet or two who is also speculative. Half the challenge of dynasty is weighing value this year against long term potential value right?

I've been in leagues where the taxi squad had nothing unique to it other than being just for rookies. For leagues like that, they are better served eliminating it and expanding rosters.

But if you are in a league that used salaries and caps and the taxi squad didn't count toward that cap, then it makes plenty of sense. Same if you can poach players with draft picks. If I played in leagues such as these, I would expect only rookies allowed. Maybe I can be convinced of a second year player under a special situation (such a spending all of their rookie year on IR).

4-5 guys on taxi squad is sufficient. Unlimited is crazy.

Ours has 4 . I took over a 1-12 all time pathetic roster that looked like they were getting paid to have the most useless roster both current and into the future. Out of an expanded off-season roster of 32 I swapped out 19 guys. Traded best pieces for multiple draft picks and up & comers like Tyreek & D. Parker @WR and Abdullah @ RB plus Rico @ TE. Took nine rookies in draft and waivers right after the NFL draft when we do ours.

Taxi squad allows a horrible team like ours to stash more rookies. We also have two IR spots for players designated as such by their NFL team. We maxed out by putting Rico & C. Kelly there on IR.

Without the taxi squad we wouldn't have been able to keep all of Mixon,Kamara,Mack,Cohen,B.Hill, Golladay,M. Hollins,D. Henderson & Mahomes. Forgot we added G.Kittle too. Added Njoku in trade with Parker for A. Rob .

If it was a straight 24 man roster we would've had to cut six of those guys or never rostered them to begin with. Safe to say that a few would've been snatched up on waivers.

We still have our veteran starting core of Winston,Bradford,Crowell,Abdullah Parker,Tyreek,Britt,Marvin J. ,Rudolph to remain competitive in a 12 team lg. Also picked up a 2nd first rd pick in 2018 .

So you can see how significant having a taxi squad is especially for a rebuilding team. Even for a upper level stacked squad. Mike Williams can sit on the taxi while he rehabs. Mahomes can buy a year w/o hurting your active roster. Next year will be tougher because ours only allows rookies on taxi.Going to have to make a few tough decisions on whom to cut or trade away . Hoping to keep 5-6 draft picks.(We only do 4 rds) so 4 can go to taxi squad while the two first rd selections hopefully will be good enough to put on active roster.

Taxi squad definitely benefits avid scouting report owners. Kittle, Cohen and Golladay were later rd steals due to our scouting and willingness to take risks. Plus adding multiple later picks when trading players or earlier picks. Next year will be the opposite. Then we will be packaging later picks to move up for one higher pick instead of using all six selections we currently own.

I'm trying a taxi squad in a new league this year, and I like the setup. However we set it up couldn't require manual policing by the commish, so I wanted it to be simple.

First, it's a superflex league, so there's a lot of focus on QBs.

Second, the taxi squads only limit is that it locks at week 1 kickoff and unlocks after the season. Anyone can go on it, but they have to be there before it locks and then they're stuck.

The reason I like it is because it allows for a major focus on QB development... much like the real NFL. Teams added actual development guys like McCarron, Garrappolo, and Hundley, along with rookies like Chad Kelly. There are a smattering of other positions too, but I would guess more than half the league's taxi spots are used on QBs.

We could also just have bigger rosters, but that makes it a bit easier to not engage in QB development, and I wanted a league where that was an important focus. If you want player development to be extra important, why limit it to rookies, or to only one year? The real NFL doesn't, and I don't see any particular argument for it.

In my league, we have a two-player taxi squad that we just added this offseason. We can only place rookies on our TS, but once they're on there, they can remain there indefinitely. If you call a player up during the season, that taxi spot is "burned" and you can't put anyone else there until the following offseason. I like it because it adds some roster versatility to our league. A contending team can use it to stash long-shot rookies that probably wouldn't make their active roster, while a rebuilding team can use it to stash high-end rookies so they aren't required to start them and they won't count toward their potential points, giving them a better shot at a high draft pick the following year. I think it also makes it easier to justify drafting a rookie TE or QB, knowing that they won't be fantasy-viable for a couple years.

I've said it for years and nobody will ever convince me otherwise; Taxi Squads are utterly pointless unless you play in a Salary/Contract league.

My thing is it's always a value proposition to roster that rookie over a third string RB or wr4 or wr5. It should up to the individual team owner to decide which is more valuable and adjust their roster accordingly. I think taxi squads actually hurt rebuilding teams because it makes the pool of young players to stash of waivers potentially smaller.

BuckeyeNation wrote: ↑Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:49 am I've said it for years and nobody will ever convince me otherwise; Taxi Squads are utterly pointless unless you play in a Salary/Contract league.

What about devy leagues? I understand your point in standard leagues but in devys they feel necessary to me, especially when you can draft any college eligible player.

Neight wrote: ↑Thu Sep 14, 2017 7:15 am

BuckeyeNation wrote: ↑Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:49 am I've said it for years and nobody will ever convince me otherwise; Taxi Squads are utterly pointless unless you play in a Salary/Contract league.

What about devy leagues? I understand your point in standard leagues but in devys they feel necessary to me, especially when you can draft any college eligible player.

I believe anything that can be accomplished with an expanded roster should be done with a larger roster. So assuming you have 2 TS spots for devy players...is there anything that keeps you from having a roster that is larger by 2 and putting them there? I think this is the crux of the question. I've only ever done one dynasty league that used a taxi squad and every year it came up for vote to eliminate it and expend rosters for this reason. It served no actual purpose.