Anatomy of Championship teams

[Londondynasty]

I have 2 this year and thought I would analyse them to see what worked for me and the best moves on each team. It is team 1 and 2 in my sig below.

Team 1 is a standard scoring league. Start 1 qb, 2 rb, 3 wr, 1 flex, k, 1 db, 1 lb, 1 edr/il, 1 flex. 20 keepers, 25 man rosters

I won the league the first year in 2017 and made the playoffs in 18 and 19.

Pre draft, my team looked like this:

QB: Prescott, Rodgers
RB: Gurley, Ingram, Carson, Drake, Rojo, Lindsay, Pollard, Jackson, Samuels
WR: Hilton, Evans, Watkins, Perriman, P.Williams, Boykin
TE: Kelce, Everett
LB: Leonard

Main moves:

1. I traded Hilton and OBJ for my first which was 1.7.
2. I traded Drake for Diontae Johnson and 1.6, from which I traded Swift
3. I traded my 2021 first for Landry and a 2021 2nd (down 6 spots in the end)
4. I drafted Dillon at 2.4 and then traded 2.7 and 4.7 to get Gibson at 2.5
5. My main draft ended up being Swift, Dillon, Gibson and Bryan Edwards.
6. I then traded Lindsay for Guice straight up. This was somehow followed by Guice for A.Jones straight up at the peak of Guice hype
7. I traded Ingram and P.Williams for DJ Moore relatively early on when Williams was looking good and Moore not so much
8. I traded Carson and Ahmed for Akers and Shenault in week 10. That was a bit of a gamble for a competing team, but I thought I had the depth to cope with it.
9. Picked up Gaskin off waivers in week 2


Pretty much every move I made has worked out. Arguably OBJ for Hilton plus a first wasnt ideal though. The guy ended up picking Jeudy so we will how that goes in the future.

I ended up as top scorer and no.1 seed and won it all.

Team now is:
QB: Prescott, Rodgers, Hurts
RB: Jones, Swift, Gibson, Akers, Dillon, Gaskin, Rojo, Pollard, Gurley, Penny
WR: Evans, OBJ, D.Johnson, DJ Moore, Landry, Shenault, Antonio Brown
TE: Kelce, Hurst

I feel like my team is now set to win now and to compete for a few years, as it is nicely balanced with a good blend of youth and experience.

Pretty pleased that I basically rebuilt whilst competing. I'm at the stage where I may even not keep Gurley next year and he was starting for me for much of this season.

I have no first but 3 seconds next year.

My main lesson learned is you dont need to tear it down to rebuild. You can compete whilst getting younger and better incrementally. Obviously it helps to hit on 2 starting RBs in the draft without top picks.


Team 2 to follow

[Londondynasty]

Team 2. Superflex. 10 team. Start 1 qb, 2 rb, 2 wr, 3 flex, 1 superflex

Again this is the 4th year of the league. I won it in year 1 and made the playoffs the last 2 years. I was on the verge of rebuilding this year. I tried to sell Hopkins and a number of QBs but couldnt get any value for them, so held on. Again, main lesson here is you don't need a complete rebuild/tank to compete a lot of the time.

Best moves for me this year:

1. In the draft, I had no first or third. Just a 2nd.
2. On the clock, I traded my 2nd (he picked Pittman), a 2021 2nd, 2021 3rd and Drew Lock, for Josh Allen, Guice, Corey Davis and JJAW
3. Allen was fantastic for me and Davis was actually a great flex.
4. I picked up Gabriel davis in the 4th, JRob in the 5th and Mooney in the 6th. As my first 3 picks being so late, they all played for me this year.
5.The other best thing for me was not selling Dhop.
6. The best move in the nfl for me was Diggs moving to Buffalo.
7. Turning down a third for David Johnson. I had paid big for him a couple of years ago and he ended up helping me win it this year.
8. The advantage of Kelce and Waller is difficult to overstate.
9. I got lucky with injuries.

This is one where I feel I can continue to compete but need to hit on my first this year. The team is in my sig below. i need to get a bit younger at WR particularly and could do with another RB.

I ended up with 3 of the top 5 WRs, 2 of the top 5 QBs, TE1. It shows zero RB can still work!

My key theme from the year is that if you get unlucky with injuries one year you dont need to tear the whole thing down. Incremental building can work. Future picks dont score you points.

[CGW]

Congrats. Looks like a combo of good drafting, not a lot of injuries, several good trades by you, and several really bad trades by your league.

[JJRules]

Serendipitous transactions all around. Well done!

[zoster80]

This is for Zo Nasty below.

I won back to back in ‘17 and ‘18, but had a down year in 2019. I went 7-6, Gurley, Hopkins, K Allen l, Rodgers and Connor all had down years and I was going to go for it one last year, but I was prepared to blow it up if my team wasn’t doing well mid season.

1- Sold Connor + Pitt Def for late 2021 1st + 2.10 + 2.12.
2- Sent 2.12 for DJ + Breida
3- Was on the clock at 1.09, was not feeling Vaughn or Ruggs, so I move back to 2.03(took Moss) and aquired Ingram + 3.04(Hebert)
4- Took D Evans at 2.12. Also took T Johnson, G Davis in draft.
5- Kept Gaskins, which was on my bubble.
6- Sent my 2021 1st + Brieda for Ekeler, during his IR stint
7- Sent Brees for 3rd
8- Sent 3rd for Colts Def
9- Kelce is a beast
10- Rodgers rejuvenated and had his best year in like 5 years
11- DHop, K Allen, M Evans, Juju all had solid comeback seasons
12- Gaskin and Hebert were nice surprises.

Very similar theme as LondonDynasty, sometimes you work through a bad year and stick with guys.

I’m also a fan of the Zero RB. You can still win if you have the top guys at the other positions.

[Londondynasty]

This is for Zo Nasty below.

I won back to back in ‘17 and ‘18, but had a down year in 2019. I went 7-6, Gurley, Hopkins, K Allen l, Rodgers and Connor all had down years and I was going to go for it one last year, but I was prepared to blow it up if my team wasn’t doing well mid season.

1- Sold Connor + Pitt Def for late 2021 1st + 2.10 + 2.12.
2- Sent 2.12 for DJ + Breida
3- Was on the clock at 1.09, was not feeling Vaughn or Ruggs, so I move back to 2.03(took Moss) and aquired Ingram + 3.04(Hebert)
4- Took D Evans at 2.12. Also took T Johnson, G Davis in draft.
5- Kept Gaskins, which was on my bubble.
6- Sent my 2021 1st + Brieda for Ekeler, during his IR stint
7- Sent Brees for 3rd
8- Sent 3rd for Colts Def
9- Kelce is a beast
10- Rodgers rejuvenated and had his best year in like 5 years
11- DHop, K Allen, M Evans, Juju all had solid comeback seasons
12- Gaskin and Hebert were nice surprises.

Very similar theme as LondonDynasty, sometimes you work through a bad year and stick with guys.

I’m also a fan of the Zero RB. You can still win if you have the top guys at the other positions.

Let's hope we're not in the same leagues! Nice one!

[Jigga94]

Team 1. I won my league in 2018 with virtually 0 RB. Then came 2nd to last in 2019. Gladly took JT at 1.02. Also traded Minshew and Julio for Josh Allen before the season. Those 2 moves were basically the only major moves I made, along with key RB pickups (Gaskin, Wilson, McKissic) that led to my 2nd ship in 3 years

[VinegarStrokes]

I’ve won ours 4 of the first 7 years including this year.

Draft-
1.8 drafted Jefferson over Ruggs and Reagor.
2.7 traded up one spot to get Ayuik.
3.7 also part of the trade grabbed Herbert
3.11 Van Jefferson

Pick ups-
Grabbed James Robinson right before Fournette was released.

Grabbed Logan Thomas preseason

Grabbed Darnell Mooney and Taysom Hill

Trades-
Traded Davante Adams and Le’Veon Bell for Kyler, Dobbins and what was the 1.1 at the time.

Traded my 2021 1st (1.12), Mac’s owners 2021 1st (1.5), my 2021 and 2022 2nds, and Darnell Mooney for Mcaffrey.

Overall I got lucky hitting all picks in the draft, and getting Robinson.

Had a hard time pulling the trigger on the Adams trade, but needed a qb upgrade (pre Herbert dominance) and rb upgrade.

I think I’m in a good position for next years super duper bowl which is a double payout for winning.

[PTW32]

I have 2 this year and thought I would analyse them to see what worked for me and the best moves on each team. It is team 1 and 2 in my sig below.

Team 1 is a standard scoring league. Start 1 qb, 2 rb, 3 wr, 1 flex, k, 1 db, 1 lb, 1 edr/il, 1 flex. 20 keepers, 25 man rosters

I won the league the first year in 2017 and made the playoffs in 18 and 19.

Pre draft, my team looked like this:

QB: Prescott, Rodgers
RB: Gurley, Ingram, Carson, Drake, Rojo, Lindsay, Pollard, Jackson, Samuels
WR: Hilton, Evans, Watkins, Perriman, P.Williams, Boykin
TE: Kelce, Everett
LB: Leonard

Main moves:

1. I traded Hilton and OBJ for my first which was 1.7.
2. I traded Drake for Diontae Johnson and 1.6, from which I traded Swift
3. I traded my 2021 first for Landry and a 2021 2nd (down 6 spots in the end)
4. I drafted Dillon at 2.4 and then traded 2.7 and 4.7 to get Gibson at 2.5
5. My main draft ended up being Swift, Dillon, Gibson and Bryan Edwards.
6. I then traded Lindsay for Guice straight up. This was somehow followed by Guice for A.Jones straight up at the peak of Guice hype
7. I traded Ingram and P.Williams for DJ Moore relatively early on when Williams was looking good and Moore not so much
8. I traded Carson and Ahmed for Akers and Shenault in week 10. That was a bit of a gamble for a competing team, but I thought I had the depth to cope with it.
9. Picked up Gaskin off waivers in week 2


Pretty much every move I made has worked out. Arguably OBJ for Hilton plus a first wasnt ideal though. The guy ended up picking Jeudy so we will how that goes in the future.

I ended up as top scorer and no.1 seed and won it all.

Team now is:
QB: Prescott, Rodgers, Hurts
RB: Jones, Swift, Gibson, Akers, Dillon, Gaskin, Rojo, Pollard, Gurley, Penny
WR: Evans, OBJ, D.Johnson, DJ Moore, Landry, Shenault, Antonio Brown
TE: Kelce, Hurst

I feel like my team is now set to win now and to compete for a few years, as it is nicely balanced with a good blend of youth and experience.

Pretty pleased that I basically rebuilt whilst competing. I'm at the stage where I may even not keep Gurley next year and he was starting for me for much of this season.

I have no first but 3 seconds next year.

My main lesson learned is you dont need to tear it down to rebuild. You can compete whilst getting younger and better incrementally. Obviously it helps to hit on 2 starting RBs in the draft without top picks.


Team 2 to follow

Lots of good moves but that Guice for Aaron Jones trade is insane. Then to make it even better you drafted Guices replacement with a nothing pick and go all the production you could have hoped for from Guice.

[DLF3000]

Congrats. Looks like a combo of good drafting, not a lot of injuries, several good trades by you, and several really bad trades by your league.

All true. There's a lot to it, but one underrated part of winning fantasy playoff weeks is injuries - every team in the playoffs is good, so it's about guys being healthy going in and not getting hurt. Especially your studs. (Thanks Golladay and Allen.)

This is where the luck part comes in. You need a big dose of luck in the injury department - just like real NFL teams - to win it all. Those short ~2 weeks of critical playoff games, you gotta be almost or actually injury-free to have a chance.

That's really the only thing that upsets me if I lose in the playoffs because it's so swingy and a lame way to lose. Obviously if you're starting significant bench depth... it's still your bench depth, so even if it's quality, you're usually screwed.

Oh and unbeatable starts like 60-point RBs and 40-point WRs also upset me. (Thanks Kamara and Adams.)

Three straight Superbowls, won it in '18 though couldn't get past Jackson's explosion in '19 and Kamara's and Adams' in '20 - though I had far, far more injuries in '20.

Is it 2021 yet?

[PTW32]

I'll throw mine out there as well

Team 1. Orphan take over 3 years ago and my 1st foray into dynasty. Tanked year 1. Came in 2nd year 2. Championship year 3. I wasnt happy with this team and was super close to blowing it up mid season.

Some roster moves
1. Picked up McKissic early in the season for 5 faab. (Ended up being big)

2. Traded my 2nd round pick (2.10) for John Brown and Logan Thomas. (Thought i was a contender at this point and Brown would be good depth, Thomas was just a throw in bc im obsessed with stashing every TE)

3. Traded Schultz for Damien Williams, Cohen, 2022 2nd, 2022 3rd, 2021 4th. (At this point i wasnt happy with my team especially at RB and looking to gwt some peices for the future for a TE that i didnt see having long term value)

4. Engram for 2021 2nd and 4th. Lottery pending but 2nd projects to be 1.02/pick 12. (This maybe be alittle low in a 2TE league but as a Giants fan I was sick of watchinghim try to catch with those feet he calls hands)

5. Trey Burton and 2021 5th for Fulgham (got a few decent weeks out of Fulgham, figured why not its not like i was trading Mike Evans for him)

6. OBJ + my 2021st (1.10) for early 1st and 2nd (project to be 1.03 and 2.03) was sick of OBJ and wanted a peice of the early part of this draft)

7. Traded my 2022 2nd (2.10) for Agholor and Gallman (decided if i was going to be a playoff team i might as well go for it, i didnt have my own first so i wanted them to be as late as possible)

I'm glad I didnt bail and go back to rebuilding. All you need to do is get in the playoffs and you have a shot.

Now i get to spend all offseason deciding if I should blow it up bexause I still dont really like the team.

[JJRules]

I made two trades which ultimately did the trick for the team in my sig, as I wanted to make a big push with my already-contending roster.

Sent Herbert/Swift for Tua/Kamara in week 7
Sent Tua/Mixon for Murray/Moss in week 8

Murray didn't do anything in the championship game, but he got me through the semis where I faced Josh Allen's point explosion. Kamara obviously did Kamara things in the big dance.

[olmansmith]

1 QB, 2 WR, 2 RB, 1 TE, 2 Flex
Start of season roster (in the order that I liked them for this year)
QB: Dak, Josh Allen
RB: Mixon, Sanders, Bell, Mack, Kerryon, Royce Freeman, Vaughn, Lamical Perine
WR: Adams, Kupp, Parker, Pittman, Beasley, Crowder, Ruggs, Bryan Edwards, Djacks, Conley, JJAW, Steven Sims
TE: Waller, Higbee, Sternberger

Trades and key waiver pick ups:
1. In the draft, traded 1.8 (jeudy) for 1.12 (vaughn), 2.2 (ruggs), lev bell
2. In the draft, traded 4.11 (hasty) and 4.08 (coulter) for 4.1 (l. perine)
3. 9/16 Picked up Gaskin for $27
4. 10/14 Picked up Fulgham for $14
5. 10/25 Picked up Jeff Wilson for $1
6. 11/13 Traded Djacks, Beasley, Fulgham for T. Pope, B. Scott, J. Jackson, 2021 2nd
7. 12/20 Picked up Chad Hansen for $9

End of season roster (championship starters in bold, IR in italics)
QB: Josh Allen, Dak
RB: Jeff Wilson, Gaskin, Miles Sanders, Bell, Ballage, Kerryon, Boston Scott, J. Jackson, Mixon, Mack, Taxi: Vaughn, Perine
WR: Adams, Kupp, Crowder, Hansen, Ruggs, Pittman, Parker, Taxi: Edwards
TE: Waller, Higbee, Schultz

Honestly just think I got extraordinarily lucky. My trades ended up being pretty useless - every player on both sides seemed to lose value after the trades. My waiver pickups were essential - I had no RBs for a lot of the season between sanders/mixon/mack being hurt and bell being cut so getting gaskin/jeff wilson and even starting guys like kyle juszczyk when needed got me to where I am. though i sold fulgham and beasley high but ended up getting pope and jackson who were useless lol. oh well, alls well that ends well

[Londondynasty]

[

Lots of good moves but that Guice for Aaron Jones trade is insane. Then to make it even better you drafted Guices replacement with a nothing pick and go all the production you could have hoped for from Guice.

Bizarrely, the trade initially involved more pieces and then out of nowhere he just offered me that. Couldnt hit accept fast enough. He won the ship last year on the back of Zeke, Chubb and Jones and I think he was getting concerned about Jones's age and last year of contact etc. Still my 'best' trade of the year I think, although in another league my pre draft trade of Watkins (off the back of his superbowl performance) for Rojo worked out pretty well

[Mike from Canada]

I have 2 this year and thought I would analyse them to see what worked for me and the best moves on each team. It is team 1 and 2 in my sig below.

Team 1 is a standard scoring league. Start 1 qb, 2 rb, 3 wr, 1 flex, k, 1 db, 1 lb, 1 edr/il, 1 flex. 20 keepers, 25 man rosters

I won the league the first year in 2017 and made the playoffs in 18 and 19.

Pre draft, my team looked like this:

QB: Prescott, Rodgers
RB: Gurley, Ingram, Carson, Drake, Rojo, Lindsay, Pollard, Jackson, Samuels
WR: Hilton, Evans, Watkins, Perriman, P.Williams, Boykin
TE: Kelce, Everett
LB: Leonard

Main moves:

1. I traded Hilton and OBJ for my first which was 1.7.
2. I traded Drake for Diontae Johnson and 1.6, from which I traded Swift
3. I traded my 2021 first for Landry and a 2021 2nd (down 6 spots in the end)
4. I drafted Dillon at 2.4 and then traded 2.7 and 4.7 to get Gibson at 2.5
5. My main draft ended up being Swift, Dillon, Gibson and Bryan Edwards.
6. I then traded Lindsay for Guice straight up. This was somehow followed by Guice for A.Jones straight up at the peak of Guice hype
7. I traded Ingram and P.Williams for DJ Moore relatively early on when Williams was looking good and Moore not so much
8. I traded Carson and Ahmed for Akers and Shenault in week 10. That was a bit of a gamble for a competing team, but I thought I had the depth to cope with it.
9. Picked up Gaskin off waivers in week 2


Pretty much every move I made has worked out. Arguably OBJ for Hilton plus a first wasnt ideal though. The guy ended up picking Jeudy so we will how that goes in the future.

I ended up as top scorer and no.1 seed and won it all.

Team now is:
QB: Prescott, Rodgers, Hurts
RB: Jones, Swift, Gibson, Akers, Dillon, Gaskin, Rojo, Pollard, Gurley, Penny
WR: Evans, OBJ, D.Johnson, DJ Moore, Landry, Shenault, Antonio Brown
TE: Kelce, Hurst

I feel like my team is now set to win now and to compete for a few years, as it is nicely balanced with a good blend of youth and experience.

Pretty pleased that I basically rebuilt whilst competing. I'm at the stage where I may even not keep Gurley next year and he was starting for me for much of this season.

I have no first but 3 seconds next year.

My main lesson learned is you dont need to tear it down to rebuild. You can compete whilst getting younger and better incrementally. Obviously it helps to hit on 2 starting RBs in the draft without top picks.


Team 2 to follow

6 through 9 is insane. I couldn't even get a 2nd for Preston and I've been trying for years to get DJ and he wants my house for him. Insane.