When is the best time for a dynasty startup draft?

So let’s say you and your buddies want to start a dynasty league in fantasy football. When is the best time for you to start your initial draft?

If you’ve played fantasy football for a while now, you’re probably familiar with the different kind of drafts you can take part of. The most common one is the much-maligned snake draft, meaning you start each year from a clean slate and then draft picks No. 1 to No. 10 and then the guy picking at No. 10 also picks at No. 11, as the draft “snakes” back to the next person on the clock.

There is also a slightly more sophisticated auction draft. This type of draft has league members starting from scratch and using a theoretical dollar amount assigned to players to build their teams. Everybody has the same amount of money to work with and they pick their teams by way of an auction. It’s more advanced in that you’re not leaving it all to chance like a snake draft is.

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However, if you’ve been a subscriber to the Fantasy Footballers for some time now, you’re probably at least somewhat familiar about what a dynasty league is. This type of fantasy league has you keep your players for as long as you would like. Each year when new players come into the league, you hold a draft to pick them up. But when is the best time to start a dynasty league?

Without debate, the best time to have an initial dynasty league draft is right after an NFL Draft. The reason for this is multi-pronged. First, it’s silly to have a draft before you know where all the rookies are going to end up. Second, the NFL Draft comes after NFL free agency, so all the offseason movement has largely subsided. And third, this is when players’ values end up changing.

Mike Wright brings up a great point to illustrate this using a Jacksonville Jaguars analogy. He says that NFL teams are inherently unpredictable. So if the Jaguars were to use a high-end pick on a running back in a draft, that might mean fewer carries and opportunities for their bell-cow Leonard Fournette. You won’t want to hold a draft until you know whose role will be what.

Ultimately, having an initial dynasty league draft shortly after the NFL draft, or really anytime before the upcoming season after it, is ideal because you will want to give every league participant the fairest shot possible to build up his initial roster. The more complete information you can collect, the better decisions you can make in a dynasty league down the line.