Have you ever played fantasy football? Has your brother-in-law, work colleague, or old college buddy been bugging you for years to join his or her league? Have you resisted because you don’t want to learn a new game or are worried it’ll be too big of a time suck?
Let me try to lure you in. I’m the resident fantasy columnist here at Big Blue View and I’ve been playing fantasy football for more than 30 years. I can say from experience that most people who give it a try enjoy it. Some become real enthusiasts and experts. And all of that is true for both men AND women.
Tens of millions of people worldwide play fantasy football, and it’s grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. People have flocked to this pastime for a variety of reasons. It’s a great way to enhance your engagement with and enjoyment of NFL football, and it provides an avenue to stay connected with old and new friends, co-workers, and family members, regardless of geography. It’s also straight-up fun to play, and easy to pick up.
AFC Championship Game: Buffalo Bills v Kansas City Chiefs Josh Allen has been top dog in Fantasy over the last five seasons
Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images
What is Fantasy Football?
Believe it or not, fantasy football has been around since the early 1960s, but has really exploded in the last 10-15 years. Over time a variety of forms of the game have emerged. There are daily fantasy games and contests, which are offered by the major online gaming sites, dynasty and keeper leagues where you retain some or all of your players from year to year, and more.
I’m going to focus on the oldest, simplest, and most straightforward version of the game, which is called season-long redraft, or redraft for short. In a redraft league, the competitors draft brand new teams of NFL players every season (typically in late August), and compete against each other throughout that NFL season, with a league champion usually being crowned at the end of the Week 17 games.
The basics
The basic construct of fantasy football is present in almost all of the varieties mentioned above: You draft a team of actual NFL players across a number of positions, you manage your roster via trades, waiver wire transactions (adds and drops), and weekly lineup decisions, and you compete against your league-mates to determine who has the best team. Points are scored when starting players accumulate statistics. The scoring grids can be customized and vary across leagues, but points typically are awarded when players accumulate yards and catches, or are engaged in scoring plays (touchdowns, two-point conversions, field goals, and extra points).
In most league setups, teams are pitted against each other each week in a head-to-head matchup, and the higher scoring team wins. At the end of the season, the teams with the best records and the otherwise highest-scoring teams make the playoffs, and then face off in two or three rounds of single-elimination play until a champion is crowned.
Here are a few a more odds and ends. Each league typically appoints one manager as League Commissioner to handle the administrative tasks and resolve any disputes. Thanks to modern technology, Commissioners don’t need to do any scorekeeping like they had to in the pre-Internet days. Most leagues collect an entry fee from each team manager, and prizes are awarded to the most successful teams at the end of the season (Champion, Runner-Up, Most total points, etc.). Some leagues impose a penalty or punishment on the last-place team. If you see someone with a really bizarre or embarrassing tattoo, fantasy football could be the cause!
More fun: Participants get to choose their team’s name, and in my experience those can be very funny and/or irreverent. Most leagues have a message board on the hosting platform where you can gripe, brag, take shots at other managers, and generally talk smack. In an engaged league, there can be a lot of extra enjoyment around the edges of the actual games.
NCAA Football: Fiesta Bowl-Penn State at Boise State Ashton Jeanty: The newest Fantasy stud?
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
League size and rosters
One of the great things about fantasy football is that most of the major platforms that host leagues (ESPN, Yahoo, Sleeper, My Fantasy League, and more) are fairly customizable. The main league that I’ve played in for 30+ years has varied our format and rules to a significant extent, and in a future column I’ll discuss some of the rule changes I think all leagues should consider. In any case, what follows are typical league constructs; but again, your mileage may vary depending on what your league-mates want, and how willing your Commissioner is to allow for customization.
The most common league size is 12 teams, followed by 10 or 14 teams, but redraft leagues as small as eight and as large as 16 exist. It’s rare to have an odd number of teams, since most leagues use a head-to-head format for weekly contests.
The most common starting lineup requirements are as follows: 1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, 1 Kicker, 1 Team Defense/Special Team (D/ST), and 1 “Flex”, which can be an RB, WR, or TE. A variation that has become increasingly popular is “Superflex”, where there is a second Flex spot that can be filled with a second QB. A typical bench size is six or seven additional players. Players can only be rostered on one team at a time. D/STs are the full units of an entire NFL team (example: Bills D/ST) and they score points via defensive and special teams TDs, safeties, turnovers, and sacks, with bonuses (or sometimes, negative points) based on points allowed to an opponent.
This all might sound complicated, but it’s actually very simple and easy to follow once the games start.
NFC Wild Card Playoffs: Minnesota Vikings v Los Angeles Rams Justin Jefferson: Perennial first round pick
Photo by Ric Tapia/Getty Images
Annual player draft, waivers, trades
Few things are more fun than a fantasy football draft. OK fine, that’s hyperbole. Still, most fantasy footballers will tell you that they really look forward to their annual drafts. It’s like opening day for your favorite team - Hope springs eternal, and each summer, you get to pick the team that you’ll go to war with for the next 17 weeks, as you attempt to crush he competition. YOU are in charge – not some GM or head coach that’s sitting in a luxury box or patrolling the sidelines on TV. That’s a big part of what makes fantasy football so compelling.
Drafts can be held in person, or on an online platform, which has the advantage of allowing your buddy who moved to London the opportunity to play without having to buy a plane ticket. Most leagues randomly select a draft order and use a “snake” format, for fairness. In a snake, the Round 1 draft order is 1-12, then Round 2 reverses to 12-1, and so forth. Leagues that are more evolved and want to reward skill (sorry, I could not resist) use an auction format, where fantasy managers have a set budget ($200 is typical), and take turns nominating players to bid on, with each player going to the highest bidder.
Squads are selected via this draft process, but you’re not done there! You tinker with your roster throughout the season through trades and waiver wire claims (where you drop a player from your roster while adding a “free agent” player that isn’t on anyone else’s roster). Some leagues have lots of trading, and some have very little. Some leagues require that the Commissioner, or a vote of managers, approve all trades (purportedly, to avoid collusion or patent unfairness).
Most leagues run waivers once per week, and since lots of managers might want the same player(s), a variety of methods are used to process waivers and award players. Some leagues use a rotation system while others use a priority system that is based on record (worst goes first). More advanced leagues (there I go again, I can’t help it) use a free agent acquisition budget ($100 or $200 for the season is typical) and blind bidding, where the highest bid wins the free agent.
That’s pretty much it. Now you’re ready to play fantasy football!
Jacksonville Jaguars v Philadelphia Eagles Yes Big Blue fans: Play fantasy and you can root for this man again...
Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
5 common mistakes made by newbies
You can win at this game right away. I’ve seen it happen more times than I can count. But there are a few pitfalls that often confront new players. Here’s a short list:
Don’t be a Homer . It’s natural to want to stock your fantasy team with players from your favorite NFL team, while avoiding players on that team’s big rivals. Does a Giants fan really want to roster Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels, or CeeDee Lamb? The answer is yes, if you want to win. You have to be as team-agnostic as you can be, to draft for value and maximize the talent on your roster. Learning to deal with the split loyalties that fantasy football requires takes a little time but trust me, you can manage it without losing one ounce of love for your favorite team. Those who find that they can’t, simply stop playing.
Waivers are your friend . A lot of new players don’t grasp how important it is to use the waiver wire to add more talent while getting rid of dead wood. All of the following statements are true, every season: NFL players get injured; NFL players see their roles change; significant fantasy producers come out of nowhere; some rookies start slow and come on in the second half of the season; and every NFL team has a Bye week. You need to use the waiver wire, and use it well, to deal with all of that uncertainty.
Be wary of snake oil salesmen bearing sketchy trade offers . Experienced players often see newbies as easy marks. Be ready to get some of those “three nickels for a quarter” offers for your best players (especially if they start slow – more on that below). A quick rule of thumb for me is that I want to be the one receiving the best player in a deal, not giving him up, absent exigent circumstances. If you receive an offer and aren’t sure if it’s a fair one, run it by someone you trust before hitting the “accept” button on your platform. Also, while it’s fair to assume that everyone in your league is ethical, always check for the latest news on players who are being offered to you in a trade.
Don’t overreact to the start of the season . Even the biggest NFL stars can put up a dud in Week 1. Last season, Joe Burrow had 164 yards and 0 TDs in Week 1, and triple crown winner Ja’Marr Chase had 6 catches for 62 yards and (obviously) no TDs. They both ended up having absolute monster seasons. I can give you dozens of other examples of big stars doing very little over the first few weeks of a season. A common mistake I see newer players making is giving up too quickly (usually via trade) on good players who start slow. There definitely is a time to hit the panic button, but you have to be patient as it’s a long season.
Pay attention and do some homework . One of the big advantages that fantasy football has over fantasy games in other sports is that NFL teams only play once per week. Managing a roster is relatively easy. But that doesn’t absolve you of doing at least a little work to stay on top of things, and this is true for both draft prep and managing your team through the season.
You don’t have to read every one of Adam Schefter’s “breaking news” tweets, nor do you need to read a hundred pre-draft articles, but you do need to know what’s going on so that you can make good decisions. It’s pretty embarrassing when you draft a player who tore his ACL or got cut a couple of days before your draft, or when you have a player in your starting lineup who is on a Bye or is listed as OUT with injury. A little bit of research can keep you in the game, and will be rewarded with better chances to win. The good news is that fantasy football information is readily available. I’ll have a lot of preseason draft content and in-season information right here, and there is a ton more out there, both for free and behind paywalls. Do some research before your draft – the game is more fun when you pick a solid team.
That’s it for today – you now have a basic understanding of fantasy football. So go ahead and tell that annoying brother-in-law that not only are you IN this year, but you’re ready to kick ass and take names.
And now that you’re in…keep it here for lots of pre-draft fantasy content throughout the summer. You can click on my name at the top of the article to see all the preseason content I’ve already written for the 2025 season.