I am doing a 16 team league for the first time. I am a seasoned vet when it comes to fantasy, however I want some input on people who have played in 16 team leagues and what seems to work best. We are a PPR league and I intend to keep it that way. My biggest questions are:
How many divisions work best (2 or 4)? - I typically am not a fan of divisions at all but feel like in a 16 team league we need to mix it up somehow.
What is the best roster format? - Right now I have 1 - QB, 2 - RB, 2 - WR, 1 - WR/TE, 1 or 2 - Flex, 1 - DST, 1 -K
What is the best sized bench? - This is a competitive league, but not insanely competitive. I want to keep something on the wire but understand it will be rather diluted. Right now I am between doing 4 and 5 bench spots.
Should I put roster maximums on certain positions? - I typically am not a huge fan of this either, however I feel like RB in particular could get really dicey if we do not cap rosters at 5 spots, thoughts?
Anything else anyone can offer or articles that may help would be greatly appreciated.
I am still experimenting with the best roster format. I am currently using a 12 team league with the following composition: 1-QB, 2-RB, 3-WR, 2-TE, 1-flex, 1-superflex, 1-K, 1-DST, 6-bench, 2-IR. This is all subject to change.
One thing I discovered last year is that too few roster positions leads to too many waiver streaming opportunities. So whatever size league you have, make sure you are taking a good portion of available NFL starters, at least half or all.
The best sized bench allows for one player at each starting position (not counting flex or superflex positions).
I actually prefer leaving positions uncapped. It is a valid strategy to draft more than you need, and trade it later for a position you do need.
It’s kind of hard to imagine someone describing themselves as a “seasoned vet” of fantasy football when they’ve never experienced a 16 team league before. lol
I don’t really get the point of divisions. To just randomly play some teams twice and other teams not at all?
With the expanded NFL schedule, 16 teams is easy–just round robin and play every other team for 15 weeks, top 8 teams play in Week 16, drop the bottom four scorers and the top 4 teams play in Week 17 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Easy peazy, lemon squeezy.
If I’m reading you right, you’re thinking of making TE optional? I wouldn’t do that. Just require a TE, and 1 Flex. That’s enough starters for a 16 teamer. When big leagues start having too many starters, it introduces a lot of annoying variance when teams are forced to start someone like Beanie Wells at RB and he scores 3 TDs or something. You don’t want to devalue the studs in that respect.
Think about punting Ks and Ds, though… they’re really just pretty random, and if you want to discourage streaming, Ks and Ds are your biggest offenders.
Five is probly a good bench size; one backup per position plus a wildcard slot for byes–maybe think about adding at least 1 IR slot for injured/COVID players.