Rebuilders Anonymous- 4 Strategies to Retool for Future Success

A rebuilding team by definition is not contending anytime soon. There are “one year punts” where a team sacrifices a year to compete the next and the more “nuclear rebuilds” where a team sacrifices 2-3 years, overhauls his roster starts to compete once his young players mature into stars. Here are a few strategies I’ve utilized to rebuild a few of my dynasty teams from the ashes.

1. Swing for Younger Player Ceiling:

Players with high floors but no real ceiling outcome are of little utility to rebuilders because current year production is irrelevant. We want to acquire lasting value over short-term-guaranteed production. The lasting value will come from the WR and QB positions because they have the longest windows of fantasy relevancy. Someone offered me Mike Evans for my rebuilding team… that does nothing for me. An older, and historically consistent asset like Evans offers great value for a contender seeking to plug a WR hole, but Evans’ age limited years of production make him devoid of value for rebuilders. Jayden Higgins on the other hand has an unknown ceiling and he may not produce at all this year but he is ~10 years younger than Evans and could become a WR2 in time.

2. Wait for Value Spikes:

Everyone knows you should sell high… in stocks, crypto, real estate and dynasty fantasy football. Identifying the right moment to sell a financial investment is very difficult, but with dynasty fantasy football rebuilding squad it is much easier. Push to sell after spike weeks.

Tyreek Hill and Cooper Kupp reside on my rebuilding squad. Two 31+ year old WRs who have had historic past production but have tailed off recently. Right now, I’d be lucky to get a 2nd for each… but in redraft Hill is a top 20 WR (17th at the time of this article) and Kupp has a underdog rank of WR48 in Underdog redraft .

Assuming Tua is healthy and Darnold is competent, I’m betting each will have a spike week early in the 2025 season in which they score 20+ fantasy points. In my mind, Kupp and Tyreek both have a pedigree - in the form of elite past production. A desperate contender that gets off to a rocky start will likely pay up to plug a hole in their lineup. If Tyreek sets the world on fire in the first 3 weeks of the season I would absolutely flip him for 2 firsts to a contender and profit handsomely.

Is there a possibility that he continues to ball out and be a WR1 in that scenario? Yes… but if you are a true rebuilder you don’t need his short term elite production in any capacity. Sell when the value bump occurs and do not look back.

3. Build out and then Up:

I stole this from Dynasty Dad from the Smash Accept Podcast but this concept is so powerful for rebuilders I had to include it. This is my own variation of the idea that you should not be rostering top 10 assets if the rest of your team is trash. Do not park a Lamborghini in a trailer park. If you have a superstar asset on a rebuilding team you should 9 times out of 10 trade him rather than label him untouchable and struggle to put pieces around him. Let’s say you have Justin Jefferson and someone offers you Bryce Young and 3 firsts… I’m doing that all day. Some might say the 3 firsts might not hit and you are better off with the top 5 asset and WR1/2 overall in Jefferson. But this view naively overlooks the power of the optionality of having 3 first round picks. Those 3 picks are value insulated… they will grow in value until the rookie draft occurs and there is always the possibility that one of them ends up being the 1.01 or a top 5 pick in a loaded rookie class. You can package those picks to get a more proven young asset, stick and pick, or trade back and add even more value. The possibilities are endless and having a smattering of picks allows you to recoup the value you need to be competitive later on. After you’ve sufficiently built out your value, then you can trade some of it for the proven superstar assets later on and start competing for championships.

4. Stick Around Even if you have to Suck for a few years:

There’s nothing worse than being in a league where someone leaves shortly after the league starts. Perhaps, only when that person trades all their future picks to royally screw over the owner who ends up taking over their team. Taking a long term view and strategically rebuilding is the classy move. Plus rebuilding is fun! Seeing your hard work of trading and drafting players over the span of a few years come to fruition in the form of playoff births and championships is incredibly rewarding.

Of course, if you want to track your rebuilding trade journey then there is no better tool than my sleeper trade tracking web app. See where your traded rookie picks ended up and document your rebuild the easy way. Happy rebuilding!

Stay Amped,

John

fantasyamp.com/streamlit

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