What to do against the Goliaths of your league?

[Prison_Mike]

This could probably fall under the category of Team Advice, but I'm also curious about what you all do in your leagues with juggernaut/borderline-unbeatable teams?

League 1 in my signature - (12tm | PPR | 1QB) - there's a team in my league that went undefeated this year, averaged 43 points more than the next highest scoring team, and beat me by 30 in the playoffs while accidentally starting an inactive player (Zeke). And the team doesn't appear to have any weaknesses for the next several years. Some of this dominance comes from a few lopsided trades, and obviously just some solid drafting/team management

Some of you probably ARE these teams, but I'm asking from the perspective of someone who's facing a team like that.

I know things change fast in the NFL, but it kinda makes the season(s) feel pointless because you know you have no shot at a title. And I say that as a pretty solid team (a top 3 roster in the league this year before injuries, but still didn't matter)

Wait it out? Blow your team up? Suggest an empire league? lol - Do y'all have teams like this in your leagues? What do you do?

EDIT: some have asked to see the team from my league - I'll list it below:

(12tm | Half-PPR | 1QB)
Start: 1QB, 2RB, 2WR, 1TE, 3FLX
QB: Rodgers, Herbert, Winston
RB: Kamara, Cook, Zeke, A.Jones, J.Robinson J.Williams, Gallman, Scott, Edwards
WR: Thomas, Metcalf, Diggs, Sutton, P.Williams, Fitz, S.Miller, Duvernay
TE: Waller, Goedert, Schulz, Albert O.

Only has a 4th in 2021 and doesn't have a 1st in 2022, but I don't think it really matters with this team lol

[ThunderTung]

Salary cap lol. You don't want to punish good team management, but you also want to keep parity. However one guy getting lucky and building an unbeatable roster isn't fun for anyone else. Gotta find that happy medium

[Pac_Eddy]

In your specific league, you have to ride it out. Build your team as best as you can, take your chances even if the odds are not in your favor. Try not to "gang up" on that guy, start making agreements to not trade with him, etc. That gets toxic real quick. As you mention, things can change quickly.

I'm in one Empire league. It's pretty fun. This is our 10th season I think. I don't think the previous year champion has been in the finals the next season even once. No team has been a huge juggernaut either.

Post that guy's team. I'm interested in how dominant he is.

[Prison_Mike]

Salary cap lol. You don't want to punish good team management, but you also want to keep parity. However one guy getting lucky and building an unbeatable roster isn't fun for anyone else. Gotta find that happy medium

Salary cap is a good idea I hadn't considered; Would probably difficult to institute before a startup though right?

[Cameron Giles]

Wait it out. It's normal to see stacked teams become vulnerable within 3 years. A lot changes quickly on top of the random nature of football games and injuries.

[ThunderTung]

Salary cap lol. You don't want to punish good team management, but you also want to keep parity. However one guy getting lucky and building an unbeatable roster isn't fun for anyone else. Gotta find that happy medium

Salary cap is a good idea I hadn't considered; Would probably difficult to institute before a startup though right?

Our league agreed to no salary cap initially to see if it was necessary and right off the bat it was haha. We instituted it, but because rosters were already set we made the cap larger than designed initially and have slowly lowered it each season so the 2 mega teams didn't have to completely blow up their rosters and could slowly sell off their more expensive assets.

Its worked well for us, The aforementioned juggernauts have competed every year still, but we have had no repeat champions as of yet

[CGW]

Its dynasty, this happens. We had a team built like this a few years ago. He finished undefeated and won the league easily twice. Fast forward 2 years later (he got 2nd in 2018, 5th 2019, and 3rd/4th this year), and his squad barely squeaked into the playoffs. The NFL changes fast. I know you see it everywhere, the advice to sell high... But it's really hard to sell studs high before they fall off when you are a dominant team. Bell, Gurley, Gordon, OBJ, AB, MT, the list goes on forever.

My biggest mistake was trying to compete that 1st year he won it. I got beat by 75 in the semi finals. My team was ok, but aging. I should have started selling sooner...I had zero chance those 2 years. The second year, I got smarter and sold all of my aging players and all of my RBs. I missed the playoffs this year due to brutal injury luck, but finished 2nd in scoring. I have a super young team, so now it could be my turn to have that true dynasty.

Sometimes, the rebuilding phase is just as much fun as being a dominant team. Know how to truly assess your team. You say you are 3rd, but are you a true competitor? If not, keep making smart moves to improve. His team will fall. Injuries, trades, crazy people (ab, mt), etc will happen.

[Prison_Mike]

In your specific league, you have to ride it out. Build your team as best as you can, take your chances even if the odds are not in your favor. Try not to "gang up" on that guy, start making agreements to not trade with him, etc. That gets toxic real quick. As you mention, things can change quickly.

I'm in one Empire league. It's pretty fun. This is our 10th season I think. I don't think the previous year champion has been in the finals the next season even once. No team has been a huge juggernaut either.

Post that guy's team. I'm interested in how dominant he is.

Haha definitely won't gang up on him, we've got a good group despite being (mostly) reddit strangers. I actually made a trade with him that I think benefitted us both equally while also hopefully weakening his long-term outlook - Maybe that's a way to rush the process lol. (I traded him Zeke & a late 2nd for Miles Sanders + AJB + a late 1st at the beginning of the season)

I think imposing an empire rule might be the only thing we could do at this point, and it does sound fun. ThunderTung had the good idea of a salary cap, but I don't know how we'd go about instituting that with teams already intact.

I'll edit the original post with his team

[bjd5211]

Nothing. Just keep playing your game and building your team, they will eventually regress or have the breaks go against them and give way to another top team. That's just the life cycle of a typical league, with maybe a couple owners who are just better than everyone else and are usually in the playoff mix every year.

[CGW]

I really dont think adding a salary cap would be that easy to add mid league. Adding an empire rule and starting over could be an option. It still rewards the guy for dominating, but allows a reset when he does. Maybe say going forward, if anyone wins back to back it'll pay out the pot (like some of the safeleagues) and start over.

It would need to be unanimous for me to make any significant change like that.

[Prison_Mike]

Its dynasty, this happens. We had a team built like this a few years ago. He finished undefeated and won the league easily twice. Fast forward 2 years later (he got 2nd in 2018, 5th 2019, and 3rd/4th this year), and his squad barely squeaked into the playoffs. The NFL changes fast. I know you see it everywhere, the advice to sell high... But it's really hard to sell studs high before they fall off when you are a dominant team. Bell, Gurley, Gordon, OBJ, AB, MT, the list goes on forever.

My biggest mistake was trying to compete that 1st year he won it. I got beat by 75 in the semi finals. My team was ok, but aging. I should have started selling sooner...I had zero chance those 2 years. The second year, I got smarter and sold all of my aging players and all of my RBs. I missed the playoffs this year due to brutal injury luck, but finished 2nd in scoring. I have a super young team, so now it could be my turn to have that true dynasty.

Sometimes, the rebuilding phase is just as much fun as being a dominant team. Know how to truly assess your team. You say you are 3rd, but are you a true competitor? If not, keep making smart moves to improve. His team will fall. Injuries, trades, crazy people (ab, mt), etc will happen.

Appreciate the feedback, good to see how it's played out for others.

I think I am, I just lost 3 of my top 5 guys to IR this season - Saquon, OBJ, Dak (also was missing Sanders & Mostert for a stretch).
The commissioners (he's one of them) pay for a league evaluation at the beginning of every year where a podcast (RateMyLeague) grades each team. They ranked me 3rd in 2019 and 2nd this year - (just mentioning to show an unbiased view of my team compared to the league)

[Prison_Mike]

I really dont think adding a salary cap would be that easy to add mid league. Adding an empire rule and starting over could be an option. It still rewards the guy for dominating, but allows a reset when he does. Maybe say going forward, if anyone wins back to back it'll pay out the pot (like some of the safeleagues) and start over.

It would need to be unanimous for me to make any significant change like that.

Agree about the salary cap.

Good point that it would need to be unanimous, I'm not sure if it would be or not. There has been one team each of the first two seasons that sold everything for 1sts, so I'd imagine those teams would feel they've wasted the past 2 years if we did a reset too soon. Might have to be a reset only after a 3-peat

[hoos89]

Also those teams will often fall off faster than you expect. The top team in league 2 in my sig had peak Gurley, Hunt and Mixon plus Nuk, Kelce, TY Hilton, Golladay. Still a strong team (added JRob and Waller in the last year or two) but not really a death star squad anymore. Finished 11-2, 2nd in points and lost to me in the semis.

[DLF3000]

Wait it out. It's normal to see stacked teams become vulnerable within 3 years. A lot changes quickly on top of the random nature of football games and injuries.

Exactly, this is perfect. It's so hard to stay stacked once you get there - one year does not make a dynasty and things change quickly in the NFL. Like the "goliaths," you just gotta focus on your team.

[Shankopotamus]

In your specific league, you have to ride it out. Build your team as best as you can, take your chances even if the odds are not in your favor. Try not to "gang up" on that guy, start making agreements to not trade with him, etc. That gets toxic real quick. As you mention, things can change quickly.

I'm in one Empire league. It's pretty fun. This is our 10th season I think. I don't think the previous year champion has been in the finals the next season even once. No team has been a huge juggernaut either.

Post that guy's team. I'm interested in how dominant he is.

The guy in our league with an unbeatable roster just got spanked in the semi-finals. His defense didn't show up and he was missing Kittle.

You just gotta sack up and build a comparable roster.