Ideal roster size (1QB league)

[Nflnz]

As per the subject, does anyone feel they have hit on the ideal roster size in a 1QB dynasty?

My home league is currently configured as the following (12 Teams)

1QB
2RB
3WR
1TE (no Prem)
1Flex
2 DL
2DB
2LB

17 BENCH
2 IR
2 Taxi

For the purpose of this, we can ignore the IDP.

Each year we can suggest changes to the league and I feel adding an additional FLX makes sense, and adding a TE Prem of 0.25 or 0.5.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

[TheTroll]

12tm without IDP, start 8…rosters should be around 22 or so. Honestly each league is different depending on how much WE is left out there.

[Bronco Billy]

There’s really no “ideal” size. Your league needs to determine what its player development/injury/acquisition priorities are. Once you’ve hashed those out you can figure out how big rosters ought to be.

Start with Development. Do you want a Practice Squad to add players that you think may be good in the future but that you don’t want accounted for on active rosters. If so, you may want to limit placement of players to rookies or rookies/2nd year players to prevent hoarding vets. The bigger your practice squad the fewer FAs will be available and you won’t need as many active roster spots.

Do you want an Injured Reserve and if so what are the restrictions and how many players can be IR’ed? We’re seeing more NFL players IR’ed because the NFL rules have become much more lenient. If you IR a player, can they return in 4 weeks like the NFL or should they on your list longer up to the remainder of the season? How many IR spots should you have? The more IR spots, the fewer active roster spots that you should need. If there’s no IR you’ll need bigger active rosters to allow keeping hurt players unless you want to force teams in the league to be faced with being less competitive or cut productive players.

Then you need to decide how much trading you want to encourage. Bigger active rosters theoretically force more trading because there are fewer desirable FAs, but it also encourages strong teams to hoard to protect a larger group of productive players. Smaller active rosters theoretically provides a more productive pool of FAs but also can damage teams with bye and injury issues as well as causing teams to trade less due to the availability of productive FAs.

A good place to start IMO is with maybe the number of required starters x 2 and then add another 6 to 8 players. Then if you’re going to have larger Practice Squads (say at least 4) you can start reducing the +6 to 8 by the PS/2. Then if you’re going to have an IR do the same, reduce active rosters by IR/2.

Our start 20 IDP league has 45 active roster spots plus 5 PS and 4 IR. That gives us productive FA availability while providing development of some younger guys and the ability to protect hurt players while the FA pool isn’t so large that teams won’t trade. The PS is restricted to 2nd year players and rooks, our IR allows players to be activated after 4 weeks on the list and to add players must be NFL IR, PUP, or NFI designated.

I will offer up that you will want PS and IR slots well thought out and well defined so that loopholes don’t cause arguments or bad feelings. And always remember that a big part of the fun of dynasty leagues is the longer term ownership/development aspect.

[jordanzs]

If you’re including dst and kickers, I like 24 to 26 active, 2 taxi, 2IR. Without kickers and dst, then it would be 22-24

Also the larger the roster, the less waiver wire decisions you will need to handle, as the waiver wire cupboard will become more and more barren. So if you see a hot pickup who’s actually there, you’re more likely to just blow your wad on him.

[MacDaddy123]

I generally prefer the bench to be 1.5X's the starting lineup, maybe a little more.
You are starting 14 players, so I would want benches to be 21.
IR should be about 6/7, and Taxi how ever many rounds you have in the draft.
4 rounds = 4 Taxi slots.

My two favorite leagues start 22 players each week, 11 offense and 11 IDP.
Small league has a bench size of 30, with the larger league having a bench size of 38.
Both leagues have 10 IR slots.

One league has a 6 round rookie draft, so 6 Taxi slots.
The other league has a 7 round rookie draft, so it has 7 Taxi slots.

I find that these deeper leagues encourage trading, as the waiver wire is thin.
In leagues where the benches are shorter, waivers are deeper, and people seem to trade less, as they can grab a fill in off waivers.

[BradyT]

As big as possible! I love having big rosters. Gives me time annd space to stash and develope players.

[Ruggenater]

As you can see by the varied responses above, it depends on the preferences of your league members. I do think the minimum should be a bench that’s 1.5 times the number of starters, and I think that taxi squads are silly—just expand the roster size if you want more room for rookies.

[MacDaddy123]

As you can see by the varied responses above, it depends on the preferences of your league members. I do think the minimum should be a bench that’s 1.5 times the number of starters, and I think that taxi squads are silly—just expand the roster size if you want more room for rookies.

Well Taxi squads in my league are VERY different from bench slots.
No one can be added to Taxi once week 1 kicks off.
You can take a player off Taxi, but they cannot be put back on Taxi.

Once emptied, the Taxi slot cannot be filled again until the next season rolls over.
This comes into play quite often.
Many times I am tempted to take a player off Taxi to fill in for a bye week or injury.
But then you have to look 2/3 weeks away, and figure out who you would have to cut for that Taxi player to become a bench player.

Most times I just leave that player on Taxi. I will only take them off if a season ending injury opens a bench slot.

[Ruggenater]

As you can see by the varied responses above, it depends on the preferences of your league members. I do think the minimum should be a bench that’s 1.5 times the number of starters, and I think that taxi squads are silly—just expand the roster size if you want more room for rookies.

Well Taxi squads in my league are VERY different from bench slots.
No one can be added to Taxi once week 1 kicks off.
You can take a player off Taxi, but they cannot be put back on Taxi.

Once emptied, the Taxi slot cannot be filled again until the next season rolls over.
This comes into play quite often.
Many times I am tempted to take a player off Taxi to fill in for a bye week or injury.
But then you have to look 2/3 weeks away, and figure out who you would have to cut for that Taxi player to become a bench player.

Most times I just leave that player on Taxi. I will only take them off if a season ending injury opens a bench slot.

I understand how taxi squads work, and your league’s rule is typical. I still think you’re better served just expanding the bench instead. Avoids the headaches of league members getting upset over productive taxi squad players affecting potential points and draft orders, plus provides greater roster flexibility, allowing league members to build their teams as they prefer.