Thinking about the best settings for a new dynasty fantasy football format can be a bit misleading. Really, everyone who plays fantasy football has a preferred format that seems fun to them. It comes down to personal preference for many different aspects of it. Overall, there is no wrong way of setting up a league or running one as long as all the managers agree and have fun. That being said, one of the hardest parts when it comes to deciding about starting a dynasty fantasy football league is how many league managers you want to have. 

I have been playing dynasty fantasy football for many years now and have played almost every kind thought of. That being said, I’ll be covering some of the settings that best fit my preferences when playing dynasty football. What it comes down to, for the most part, are the lineups, scoring, and rookie drafts. However, it’s always good to get your league’s input to make it all work for everyone.

The flexibility in dynasty leagues is what keeps it fun. If you want to make changes as the years go on, make sure you put it into vote and implement it into the following year. The more interaction you get from everyone, the better. Because of this if you have one bad apple in the group, you have a bad batch. Be flexible, understand others’ views and input, and also just have fun!

Now you can set your league up on any platform. There’s FFPC, MyFantasyLeague, Sleeper, and many more. My favorite and the one I mostly play on is Sleeper. Overall, it is extremely user-friendly with many just about any option you could want. MyFantasyLeague has more customization but is far less user-friendly. 

Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the best settings you can use to create the best dynasty fantasy football league. 

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12 Teams

When setting up leagues there are many challenges to overcome no matter the size of your league. One thing I feel makes it balanced is when you have 12 managers. Depending on the league’s roster depth, this to me feels the most equal compared to shallow or deep leagues.

Looking at shallow leagues, you have eight managers and teams that are just loaded. Additionally, these leagues too have hard lineup decisions as you could be debating one of your three RB1s to start in two running back slots. I’ve had leagues like this and didn’t enjoy it. Not to mention, I’ve also started one of those wrong players to lose a week.

On the flip side, 14-plus leagues get very thin, very fast. You could have Ja’Marr Chase as your WR1, but you could also have D.J. Chark as your next-best wide receiver. Waiver wires in these leagues are also barren and for the vast majority of the time, irrelevant. These bigger leagues tend to force the hand of the managers on which position to draft or trade for.

Subsequently, the number of teams affects draft strategies in dynasty fantasy football leagues. Overall, I find 12-team leagues give you the best balance in allowing flexibility and roster construction without destroying your team in one bad move. 

Superflex 

In 1QB leagues, quarterbacks are devalued as you only need one to start and usually fall to round five at the earliest. Here, the ability to start a second quarterback in a Flex position tends to increase significantly as you can take the positional point advantage. The quarterback position goes from pretty deep to incredibly scarce just by switching the position to Superflex. 

Compared to that of a 2QB league, Superflex leagues give you the option to start more than a quarterback. Here you also have the option to start a running back, wide receiver, or even a tight end. You can load up on a couple of high-end quarterbacks and have a massive advantage in that regard, but your running backs and wide receivers might suffer. This format really lets you get creative with your roster builds. 

Superflex leagues give you a variety of ways to build a winning team. Whether it be with the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Trevor Lawrence you could even have the likes of Mahomes and not a quarterback! You have an elite quarterback and your QB2 is Baker Mayfield and bench him! With this option you could start another running back, wide receiver, or tight end. Just imagine flexing Garrett Wilson or Kenneth Walker. Now that’s what I call true flexibility. 

Positional Settings

Now that you know what kind of league you’re creating, now is time to construct the starting lineup along with bench spots. A good starting point is figuring out how many roster spots to have. In a dynasty league, you want to have a deep enough bench to have players develop.

As for bench spots, I highly recommend utilizing a taxi squad. Usually, 2-3 taxi squad players will work. That way, you can place rookies you draft here and hold them there for no more than two years or whatever your league agrees upon. Some taxi squads just allow one year of eligibility, some up to three or more. 

As for the ideal number of roster spots, I like to use 27. Furthermore, if you can’t fill all 27, which you should be able to, then you can set a league minimum and maximum. 

For positions, I like to go with a quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, two flex spots (running back/ wide receiver and tight end), and the Superflex position. Starting 10 players I feel is optimal while you have 17 bench spots. 17 bench spots may seem like a lot, but in all honesty, it’s just enough as you make trades, add off the waiver wire, and rookies in future drafts. You can do 15 bench spots with two taxi squad spots, giving you 27 total. Finally, if those injuries start taking over your team, you’ll be thankful to have a deep bench.

Scoring Settings

The scoring part of fantasy football leagues is usually the toughest to agree upon. However, with a little flexibility, it can be very simple and you can run multiple leagues with it. Personally, I’ve found having 6 points for passing touchdowns is the best. Why? Because in the actual NFL, all touchdowns count as six points. Why devalue the quarterbacks to four? There’s no reason for this as you can add value to the other positions.

The optimal way to do this is to make your league full PPR (Point Per Reception). This makes not only wide receivers more valuable, but also pass-catching running backs. 

Furthermore, spice it up at the tight end position with a +0.5 and make it a tight end premium league. Outside of the elite options like Travis Kelce and maybe Mark Andrews, the tight end position is just kind of boring and full of the “best of the rest” as I like to call it.

However, with the tight end premium leagues where tight ends score 1.5 points per reception. With that, you now have the flexibility to flex the likes of starting Evan Engram over the likes of James Conner or Mike Williams. Overall, raising the values of lower-end players brings them closer to a middle ground with everyone else. Similar to the Superflex position itself, this allows teams to get creative with their roster builds. 

No IDP, DSTs, or Kickers

I’ve played in all these kinds of leagues before. IDP fantasy football leagues enter a whole new world of fantasy football and add that much more stress to the game. Especially when drafting these players. Drafting players like Nick Bolton and Budda Baker is fun, but if they get double-teamed or not thrown at on coverage it can be a few points for the said week compared to the 12-plus you’ve been seeing before. Overall, IDP adds whole new analytics to the process, but it isn’t for everyone. 

In the same way, I’m also against having DSTs and kickers for similar reasons. The variance is too much and most outside of Justin Tucker at kicker are weekly plays. I don’t mind DSTs or kickers in redraft leagues, but in dynasty leagues, I recommend just removing them altogether. 

While it might be fun to add these additional challenges, it really just comes down to personal preference. Personally, I believe it’s worth it to just go with offensive players and leave all defensive and special teams out of the equation.

Weekly Matchups and Playoffs

When it comes to playing on Sundays, you want to make every week worth bragging rights! Coupled with the trash-talking or having to go against team X next week keeps the league alive and fun! Who doesn’t like talking trash? That’s been one of the best parts of fantasy football as a whole for as long as I can remember. Competing against your friends and proving who is the best. 

As for the fantasy playoffs with settings being for 12 teams, six teams will make the playoffs based on Weeks 1 through 14. The top five teams with the best head-to-head records would advance. After that, the sixth and final spot would not go to the next best head-to-head team. 

While this option gives that team a tough schedule or losing to the top-scoring teams for that week just to be the second-highest-scoring team. It isn’t fun and I’ve been there many times myself. This makes the league a lot more interesting and sometimes that sixth team is the dark horse to win the championship. After all, this is fantasy football, and we all know anything can happen. 

Rookie Drafts and Future Draft Picks

Finally, dynasty leagues are built for continuity and longevity. There are three ways I love to do rookie drafts to start a league. First, you can use kickers as placeholders for picks during your start-up. When that first team selects a kicker, they have the 1.01 and can’t use a kicker again. Once 12 kickers have been selected, the rookie draft order is set. That, or you have 48 kickers available, and each kicker represents one pick, up through four total rounds.

 The next option I like is the reverse order of the draft. If you have the first overall pick, you have pick 1.12. If you have the 12th pick, you hold the 1.01. I think you get the rest.

Finally, a fun one is doing a lottery. Put everyone’s name in a hat and draw from pick 12 down to the first pick.  All three are great methods, and all three usually work one way or another.

While many managers plan to be in the league for a long time, life can hit unexpectedly. Allowing so many years out of trading rookie picks can limit what teams can do. I prefer going no more than two years out.

Right now we have 2023 picks. That means you can only trade for no later than 2025 picks. Uniquely, this makes it more manageable along with keeping teams from completely collapsing.

Additionally to these picks, it’s good to ask everyone if they plan on being back the following season. Don’t wait till the summer, but do it as soon as the fantasy playoffs end and money is distributed to the winners. When doing this, you have plenty of time to find other managers between January and the start of your rookie draft. Be ahead of the game and not chase it or your league could collapse. 

Finally, to help teams from completely tanking, have the following year’s drafts based on maximum points for each team. What do I mean by this? Even if you don’t set the best lineup, your bench and your taxi-squad players who score more points than what you started will be added to your adjusted score.

As a league commissioner, this can be a hassle to do, but if you stay on it on a weekly basis and keep track, it should be easier to maintain. Sleeper has an option for this, which makes it much easier. 

Have a draft coming up? Check out our Dynasty Superflex Startup ADP or our 2023 Rookie ADP.

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