Making the Most of Your Taxi Squad in Dynasty Football

Throughout my years of playing dynasty, I have tried to figure out the best strategy for taxi squads. Through much trial and error, I believe I have found the best solution. I will outline the three main strategies I have explored, and finally, give you my preferred option.

What is a Taxi Squad?

A taxi squad is the dynasty version of an NFL practice squad. Taxi squads allow you time to have rookies develop without having to take up space in your active roster. Typically taxi squads are reserved for rookies, with a maximum time on the taxi squad of two to three years.

However, players placed on your taxi squad cannot contribute to your starting lineup unless you choose to promote them to the active roster. Once a rookie has been promoted to the active roster – they cannot return to the taxi squad.

Once you have promoted a rookie, you will have to cut a player from your roster to make space for the incoming rookie.

These are the basics of the taxi squad, so let’s dive in and discuss the best strategy.

Strategy #1

Tight Ends:

The first strategy to consider when approaching your taxi squad is to load up on tight ends. This option is best used when you don’t have picks in a rookie draft. Most rookie drafts will only see a handful of tight ends drafted, which allows talented players to go undrafted.

Tight ends will rarely be fantasy relevant in their rookie season, which makes them a perfect taxi squad candidate. However, truly elite tight ends typically break out by their 2nd year. If it hasn’t happened by then – they likely won’t be a top tight end. Examples include:

• George Kittle
• Rob Gronkowski
• Kyle Pitts
• Mark Andrews
• Travis Kelce
• Darren Waller (unique case)

I like to roster as many athletic tight ends as possible and place them on my taxi squad. Let those players develop on your roster for 2-3 years and pray to Tony Gonzalez that one of them ends up breaking out. I don’t typically use this strategy because I tend to punt the tight end position – but if you don’t have better options it is a decent solution.

Strategy #2

Late-Round Flyers:

These are the players you grab in the 4th round or off of waivers following the rookie draft. Usually, it ends up being a player that had some hype before the NFL draft and ended up plummeting when they were drafted later than expected (or undrafted). This strategy usually applies to quarterbacks, running back, wide receivers, and tight ends. This is the strategy I used when I first started dynasty leagues, because it made the most sense to me.

NFL teams put players on the practice squad who are going to need time to develop, and they don’t need immediate contribution. However, for dynasty, this strategy doesn’t make sense and I’ve moved away from it. For example, the draft community was excited about Tyler Johnson (WR, Tampa Bay) as a prospect in 2020. Many thought he would go earlier than he did in the NFL Draft, but he ended up going in the 5th round. The community was then able to paint the narrative that he is on a roster trying to win a championship with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin ahead of him. That meant that Tom Brady wouldn’t utilize him as a rookie, but after that, he would get his opportunity.

2022 is Johnson’s third season, and his best year statistically was 36 receptions, 360 yards, and 0 touchdowns. Per KeepTradeCut, Johnson is currently the WR111 going behind Jauan Jennings. If you had held onto Johnson for 3 years, you have been wasting a roster spot on the WR111 when you could have been rostering someone else.

Strategy #3

Studs:

That brings us to the final taxi squad strategy and my personal favorite. I place my highly drafted rookie quarterbacks, wide receivers, and tight ends on the taxi squad. The reason for this is you should not be drafting a rookie (other than running back) with the expectations that they will produce immediately for your team. This strategy applies to rebuilders, pretenders, and contenders.

Rebuilders

You have no need for production on your active roster. You should put your best rookies (QB/WR/TE) on the taxi squad to allow yourself more roster space to churn the waiver wire and take chances on fliers. These fliers give you the opportunity to flip players for profit or hold onto them if you find a diamond in the rough. If you had a highly drafted rookie on your active roster you are burning a spot that could be used for another flier.

Pretenders

If you draft a rookie (QB/WR/TE) and think they are the last missing piece to make your roster a contender – you’re not a contender. You need to have a realistic outlook on your team and understand the rookie you just drafted likely won’t be shattering records in their first season. Put them on your taxi squad and if they start breaking out – great, move them to your active roster and take a shot at the championship.

Contenders

Your team is top-four in the league. You have no need to move a rookie into your starting lineup as your roster is good enough to win without them. Place that rookie on your taxi squad to allow more space for veteran players to fill in for injury and bye weeks.

The final reason I like to use this strategy is it adds security in the event of an injury. If my top rookie gets injured halfway through the season it doesn’t matter because they can sit on my taxi squad until next season when they have fully recovered.

If you aren’t placing your highly drafted rookies on your taxi squad you’re doing your dynasty roster a disservice.

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