My First Dynasty Rookie Draft

What a rough time of year for fantasy football. The league group chats are quiet and mock draft after mock draft is being shoved down our throats. The NFL draft provided some momentary relief but there won’t be any NFL games until September. As a fantasy football degenerate, I felt it was time to be involved in something year round after mostly focusing on yearly redraft leagues which leave so much empty time in between seasons. I had never played dynasty before but gave it a shot last year. Thankfully, I managed to join a startup with some guys I found on X and it looks like we are all set for year 2. Having never participated in a rookie draft, it was a unique experience that I thought I would share. 

The league itself is a 12 team .5 PPR league with 1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, 2 FLEX spots, 1  K and a D/ST. For context, this was my team heading into the rookie draft:

At the end of our first season I finished 7th overall and barely missed out on the playoffs. Overall, I feel pretty good about my team. I am pretty set at QB with Josh Allen and I have some excellent depth at  wide receiver with some young guys that will hopefully develop into solid contributors. I don’t have a superstar at tight end but Jake Ferguson is a great option in my opinion and I have a lot of hope for Ja’Tavion Sanders. The glaring weakness is my abysmal running back room. The way the startup draft went for me, I focused more on the value that was available to me at my pick when I should have maybe reached for a running back a bit early. I also drafted way too high on Jonathan Brooks which didn’t help my case at all. You can’t always get what you want so I’m glad I’m solid at the rest of the positions. It’s important to note that I traded for Najee Harris earlier in the season in a desperate attempt to get over the hump and make a playoff push.

Received:

• Najee Harris
• 2025 3rd Round (Would turn into the 3.02)

Sent: 

• Jameson Williams
• 2025 2nd Round (Would turn into the 2.06)

That clearly did not pay off and in all reality, I think I only got one really good week out of Najee before he bottomed out for the year. Jameson Williams on the other hand had a nice end of year performance. I’ll put it on the record here that this trade wasn’t my best ever. But hey, we live and we learn. Draft picks wise, that left me with the:

• 1.06
• 3.02 (Part of the Najee Trade)
• 3.06
• 4.06

The rookie draft itself was surprising for me in a lot of ways. The first was how fun it was to haggle with other players when draft picks are involved. The second was that I found it so much easier to get deals done compared to normal redraft leagues where it always seems like nothing can be accomplished without one side “losing” the trade. Draft picks make it so much easier to balance trades and with different players focusing on a rebuild or pushing for a championship, there are ways for both sides to come away happy. The long term outlook of it all is a nice touch. Lastly, the amount of trades surprised me. If players didn’t get their guy or didn’t like what was available, they were willing to trade back which happened quite a bit.

I mentioned my horrendous set of RBs earlier so that was clearly my focus headed into the draft. At the 1.06, I was skeptical of my chances to land the RB I wanted. The first pick off the board immediately to no one’s surprise was Ashton Jeanty. The guy in the second slot was willing to trade back so I tried to make a move up to the second pick to get Omarion Hampton. Unfortunately, I got beat out and Hampton was selected. After that, the two rookie RBs I liked were Quinshon Judkins and RJ harvey. The person ahead of me was all about Judkins so it looked like Harvey might be my guy at 1.06. However, the way the board fell (Ashton Jeanty, Omarion Hampton, TreVeyon Henderson, Tetairroa McMillan, Quinshon Judkins), Travis Hunter was still sitting there. The possible upside made it hard for me not to select Hunter with the sixth pick but I still needed a RB. Thankfully, I was able to make a trade for Bucky Irving without moving off of my first round pick.

Received:

• Bucky Irving

Sent: 

• Michael Pittman
• 2025 3rd round (3.02)
• 2025 4th round (4.06)

There were some disgruntled messages in the league chat but the guy I traded with was really thin at wide receiver which made this possible. So I was able to get out of the first round with Travis Hunter and Bucky Irving which is huge long term. With no second round pick, I had to wait a bit. I will publicly say again and again that slow drafts are the bane of my existence and everyone seems to conveniently decide to turn off their draft notifications as soon as they start. Anyways, at the 3.06 I decided to go with DJ Giddens to further bolster my RB group. Since I gave up my fourth rounder in the Irving trade, that concluded my first rookie draft. I tried for Will Howard on the waivers but got outbid. I did end up snagging rookie TE Gunnar Helm to replace Jared Wiley. 

Overall, my first rookie draft was a cool experience and I’m glad it went as well as it did! It is certainly a unique aspect to dynasty leagues that regular redraft misses out on. I’ve heard plenty of people say they do a ton of dynasty leagues but I have no idea how they can do them all at once. With that being said though, I’m willing to take on a couple more!

If you thought this was a good read feel free to follow me on X at @The_FFGenius. I post weekly waiver wire targets during the regular season to help you win your league!