Fantasy Football Fatigue? Five Ways to Juice Up the Action

Fantasy Football has officially become mainstream. It took a little bit, but over 57 million people in the United States alone played fantasy sports last season. It’s no longer just a game between a bunch of diehard football fans; everyone in your office, at your local water hole, and at the park is playing fantasy football.

But if you’ve been playing fantasy football for a few years now, you know the routine. Most leagues are pretty standard, and even the drafts have become a bit of a chore. That shouldn’t be the case.

There are some easy ways to spice up your league so you can enjoy fantasy football again. And here are some of our personal favorites that you can tweak in your league before the season begins.

1. Superflex Leagues

If your league isn’t ready for big, dramatic changes, consider moving to a superflex league. A superflex league adds one additional flex spot to the starting lineup, allowing managers to play a second quarterback in that spot every week.

Adding just one superflex spot completely changes the strategy when it comes to drafting a team. In most drafts, the first quarterback doesn’t come off the board until Round 3 or Round 4. But in a superflex draft, you’ll often see as many as six quarterbacks drafted in Round 1.

With position scarcity and so few elite options, quarterbacks suddenly become just as valuable as top-end running backs and wide receivers. It’s a slight change for most fantasy managers, but it has a dramatic impact on how you build a winning team.

2. Guillotine Leagues

Guillotine Leagues are very similar to “survivor leagues,” and the concept is simple.

Rather than playing a single team every week, you are battling the entire league. The lowest scorer each week is removed from the league, and all of their players are available on the waiver wire the following week.

This is a great way to make every week, every play, and every moment exciting, since you're trying to survive each week. It’s the ultimate cutthroat experience. It also changes the draft strategy, as teams rarely prioritize rookies or long-term assets. Instead, you are drafting players based on how they perform early in the season.

It’s a completely different strategy, but it’s one of the most enjoyable ways to play fantasy football. Well, that is, unless you need 12 points from your flex player on Monday Night Football to fight off elimination. At that point, guillotine leagues become one of the most stressful ways to play fantasy.

3. Auction Drafts

An easy fix if you feel like your league has become too “boring” is to switch from a snake draft to an auction draft. The concept is relatively simple: you bid on players rather than waiting to draft them.

Auction drafts let league members build their rosters however they choose. Do you want Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs to be on the same team? Now you can! Of course, that means the rest of your starting roster will likely suffer, but the ability to construct any type of team you want is enjoyable.

But the best part of auction drafts is that they can really add some variance in your leagues. For the most part, snake drafts follow the consensus average draft position (ADP), and teams rarely vary much.

But with an auction, player values change every time someone is put up to bid. You could simulate 100 auction drafts with the same 12 managers, and prices would be different every single time for certain players. And that’s what makes it so much fun.

League members get into bidding wars with certain players, and it makes the rivalries even more bitter. Auction drafts keep you in the action throughout the draft, not just when you are on the clock. It’s the best way to draft your fantasy team, and we highly recommend trying it at least once, because you will never go back to a typical snake draft again.

4. Make Your League a Dynasty or Keeper League

One of the best ways to keep interest up is by adding some long-term incentives. Dynasty leagues are growing in popularity, and the concept is relatively simple. The team that you draft, you get to keep forever. If you steal a star in Round 14, he is now on your team for as long as you want.

Dynasty leagues are typically more open to player movement, and they often have more trades. A second-round rookie running back might not be that valuable in a redraft league, but in a dynasty league, he might be worth more than an aging No. 1 receiver.

If dynasty leagues are too in-depth for your league mates, consider making it just a keeper league instead. Every team can keep a set number of players (usually no more than three) for the next season. If you like roster building and betting on long-term talent, this might be the best way to spice up your league.

Plenty of dynasty resources are out there, including websites, podcasts, and YouTube channels that can help explain how to run a dynasty league. But once you start playing in these year-round leagues, you’ll never want to play in a redraft league ever again.

5. Add a Last-Place Punishment

Every league has the same issue. By November, two or three league members have stopped setting their lineups and haven't made a roster move since Week 1. Often, it’s because their team has fallen out of the playoff hunt and they're no longer interested in the league.

These leagues are often referred to as “dead leagues,” where the bottom two or three teams not making moves are suddenly impacting the rest of the league. An easy way to fix that is by adding a last-place punishment.

If you have the worst record in the regular season, the last-place finisher has to complete a punishment decided on by the rest of the league before the year begins. That punishment can be as simple as paying for a dinner for all of the league mates, or as extreme as getting an unflattering tattoo.

Don’t be afraid to get creative with the last-place punishment, as it will surely keep everyone’s focus on the league and all the games throughout the year.