How to make a new dynasty league different?

[Cojo 2020]

So I am trying to start a new dynasty league with a bunch of friends in town. Most are in my other league too...but they all want to know how this league will be different.

The majority has already shot down starting 2 QBs (same as other league), IDP and salary caps. One change that is being made for this league is adding PPR. However, many owners say they want the league to be more unique compared to the other...but they voted down the obvious ones to me. Any other thoughts on how to make this new league different?

[wizo1fan]

Include college players? Or, better yet, if you're all from the same town, include high school players.

[cowboysfan]

The dynasty league I'm in rewards points for return yards. So guys Josh Cribbs and Devin Hester have a little more value.

[cowboysfan]

The dynasty league I'm in rewards points for return yards. So guys like Josh Cribbs and Devin Hester have a little more value.

[MR ROURKE]

I have leagues that are unique for one or more of these reasons:

1. Require top scorer drops... I have leagues that require each team to drop one of their top three scorers from the previous year. This causes turn over on the rosters, gets roster cut down time a lot more interest, and also puts some pretty nice players in a rookie/free agent draft. This also helps teams to rebuild faster and make the league much more competative with the rich giving to the poor. There is an added dimension of trades and WW work to manipulate your roster so you are prepared as possible for the top scorer drops. Trades you wouldn't expect in other leagues happen. Teams are game planning the points scored and trying to trade for a player from another team that scored enough last year to qualify for one of their top drops to hold onto other players. My leagues are IDP and you have to drop 1 of the top 3 offensive and 1 of the top 3 defensive players.

2. Do away with playoffs all together. May the best team actually win your league and do away with allowing that team who only played half a year to steal the pot in a playoff system. The team with the most wins... wins (obviously you'd have tie breakers in case two teams win the same amount). I have 2 $ leagues like this and you would be surprised at how competative the league actually is.

3. Add an offensive flex (assuming you aren't doing IDP, so I'll leave out that part). The thing that makes the flex different is that the home team picks the position that must be played by both teams. My league allows the home team to specify on the league home page what offensive player must be played in the flex spot for that matchup for both teams. The away team gets to chose the IDP, but that's not going to relate to you. The home team can exploit their strength against their opponents perceived weakness. Choices need posted to the league homepage by 8pm Wed or the flex is just a normal flex and any position can be played that week. This requires you to play each team in your division once at home and once away. The out of division games, I just rotate home/away from year to year since they play only once. If a flex choice is posted by 8pm and a team plays the wrong one, the first round pick of the team playing the wrong flex moves 1 spot later each time this occurs. Everyone in my league loved this rule.

4. Add a super flex that allows teams to play QB in a flex spot. Give the option for teams to start 2 QB's, but without the requirement.

[TheOracle]

I have leagues that are unique for one or more of these reasons:

1. Require top scorer drops... I have leagues that require each team to drop one of their top three scorers from the previous year. This causes turn over on the rosters, gets roster cut down time a lot more interest, and also puts some pretty nice players in a rookie/free agent draft. This also helps teams to rebuild faster and make the league much more competative with the rich giving to the poor. There is an added dimension of trades and WW work to manipulate your roster so you are prepared as possible for the top scorer drops. Trades you wouldn't expect in other leagues happen. Teams are game planning the points scored and trying to trade for a player from another team that scored enough last year to qualify for one of their top drops to hold onto other players. My leagues are IDP and you have to drop 1 of the top 3 offensive and 1 of the top 3 defensive players.

2. Do away with playoffs all together. May the best team actually win your league and do away with allowing that team who only played half a year to steal the pot in a playoff system. The team with the most wins... wins (obviously you'd have tie breakers in case two teams win the same amount). I have 2 $ leagues like this and you would be surprised at how competative the league actually is.

3. Add an offensive flex (assuming you aren't doing IDP, so I'll leave out that part). The thing that makes the flex different is that the home team picks the position that must be played by both teams. My league allows the home team to specify on the league home page what offensive player must be played in the flex spot for that matchup for both teams. The away team gets to chose the IDP, but that's not going to relate to you. The home team can exploit their strength against their opponents perceived weakness. Choices need posted to the league homepage by 8pm Wed or the flex is just a normal flex and any position can be played that week. This requires you to play each team in your division once at home and once away. The out of division games, I just rotate home/away from year to year since they play only once. If a flex choice is posted by 8pm and a team plays the wrong one, the first round pick of the team playing the wrong flex moves 1 spot later each time this occurs. Everyone in my league loved this rule.

4. Add a super flex that allows teams to play QB in a flex spot. Give the option for teams to start 2 QB's, but without the requirement.

Love all of those. (Except the super-flex. Unless your league is really deep, I find the option to flex a QB usually means you're starting 2 QBs almost every week>)

With 1, I'd imagine it skyrockets QB value without shifting the scoring toward them. Guys like Cutler or Romo would be very valuable if they allow you to protect your Rodgers/Mathews/Julio core.

My playoff modification (that's been shot down in all of my leagues) is to make the playoffs one 2-week-4-team game. I.E. after week 14, the best four teams would make the playoffs. Then whoever scored the most combined points in Week 15-16 wins. It's not as good at rewarding the best teams as eliminating playoffs altogether, but it's a step in that direction.

[MR ROURKE]

With 1, I'd imagine it skyrockets QB value without shifting the scoring toward them. Guys like Cutler or Romo would be very valuable if they allow you to protect your Rodgers/Mathews/Julio core.

I have three leagues that fit into option 1.

Two of the leagues have a little too much QB scoring, so mid level QB's can get a boost since they can qualify as several teams top drops. That scoring I believe is 4pt TD, 1pt/20 yard passing with typical 1 pt PPR. At the same time, the top QB's also loose some value in these two leagues. Top QB's are seen as only a 1 year rental by many (including me), because there will be several available. This year one of these leagues had Brady, Eli, Ryan, Vick, and Romo available in the rookie/fa draft. The other league with this scoring had Rivers, Vick, Ryan, and Eli available. Both of those leagues would also have guys like Fitzpatrick and Flacco available. It is easier to get a QB in these leagues, because people want to protect their WR's and RB's that are hard to replace. Therefore, you can typically get a QB back in the draft as well with many people dropping QB's. If a team doesn't have a top QB, they will typically drop guys like Fitzpatrick or Flacco into the draft in the hopes that they are going to land a top QB.

The third league is one I set up and I had the luxury of knowing the problems with the other two leagues and fixing that. The scoring in my league is 4pt TD, 1/25 yards, -2 interception with .5 PPR. Simple change in scoring actually makes a huge difference in the top scorers for the teams. The league I set up typically doesn't allow a team to have a backup QB qualify at a top scorer drop. There might be 2 teams that can drop a really good backup QB that will qualify as a top 3 scorer. Otherwise, it's all hard decisions.

[dlf_jacobf]

I sure hope you're eliminating kickers in this league! With that being said, here are a few other "rare" things that I've seen in leagues. I don't love all of them, but I'll throw them out there for your consideration:

1) Mandated kick/punt return slot. This player only gets points for return yardage, but gets it at a 1 point for 10 yards rate instead of the 25/1 or 50/1 that you often see. No one else gets return yardage points.

2) Instead of a rookie draft, have a current college player only draft along with a seperate free agent draft. Only allow 10 people on your 'college squad', which means you will be cutting people from it each year if you have a 5 round draft. Any NFL rookies not on a college squad can only be taken in the free agent draft.

3) Assign home and away teams. Give the home team a 3 point advantage. In the playoffs, the higher seed is the home team.

4) Head coach slot that gets points for wins, successful 4th down conversions, successful onside kicks, three and outs (positive for forcing them, negative for offense having them) and the final point spread.

5) Bonus points for "rare" feats such as long TDs, 10 catches, 30 completions, etc.

[ccj]

5) Bonus points for "rare" feats such as long TDs, 10 catches, 30 completions, etc.

I have a league with this except it's 10 catches and 30 rush attempts that trigger the bonus. Personally I hate the idea. This league actually has a lot of milestone stuff and is ppr so something like 9 catches for 99 yards is 18 points, 10 catches for 100 yards (both milestones being 5 point bonus) is 30 points. Drives me nuts.

I'd rather award on averages (pass, rush, rec) to factor in performance (prorated to avoid balloon scoring) and possibly tweak yardage scoring to maintain performance to TD ratio unless you prefer performance to TDs in which case no adjustment necessary.

[MR ROURKE]

I have always wanted a league with a KR slot.

Head coach slot sucks. I've had it in two leagues like that. It's more of a have's / have's not situation, because there is such a huge difference in coach's. The good teams score great, most coaches score a little or break even, and the bad teams score negative points. My experience with this is that it's doesn't work out as nice as you woudl like. After a year or two, most of the league hated that coach spot and wanted to get rid of it. A handful of coaches will be worth a pretty early pick in the draft and most aren't really even worth drafting until you are picking your kicker. Kickers are worth more then the majority of coaches.