The Eagles victory of the Chiefs is already a distant memory and the 2025 NFL draft is upon us. So much to do - so little time!

There are several steps I go through to prepare for my draft.

Cutdowns by Drops and Trades

One step is roster cutdowns which can be accomplished by a combination of drops and trades. Trades are always better if you can do them. Our league has changed its schedule to move our draft up soon after the NFL draft. I used to have more time to work trades for roster cutdowns, and last year I wrote Who To Drop And How To Sell, which I believe is a fun and helpful read.

Draft Pick Value vs ADP

I also do my annual analysis on the value of draft picks versus ADP based on historical draft success. I do the analysis for each position, QB, RB, WR and TE, and then write a final conclusion article. Here is the final article I wrote for 2024: The Ultimate Dynasty Draft Strategy. I plan to update this analysis for 2025.

Review of Previous Year

And finally we get to the point of this article. Each year I review how I did to see what I can learn and improve on.

In 2024, I went into the semi-finals with a competitive playoff team, but Jalen Hurts (QB, Phi) got injured early in the 1st quarter, causing my team to lose by less than 20 fantasy points. I had Bo Nix (QB, Ind) on the bench, which gave me the depth to win if Hurts would have been out before the start of the game. No one can control the worst fantasy football event of all - their quarterback getting injured early in the first quarter - so that wasn't a management issue. The point is, I managed my team to put it in position to go to the championship game.

In fact, I have been to the playoffs the last five years in a row, coming in 6th, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd and 4th from 2020 to 2024 respectively. And I am going into the 2025 rookie draft with the following picks: 1.02, 1.09, 2.02, 3.02, 3.03, 3.09, 3.11 and 3.12. I also have a large arsenal of 2026 draft picks: three 1sts and five 3rds.

I believe I have a competitive roster, the core of which is:

QB: Jalen Hurts (Phi), Bo Nix (Ind)

RB: Joe Mixon (Cle), Jordan Mason (SF), Brian Robinson (Wsh)

WR: Tee Higgins (Cin), Brian Robinson Jr. (Jax), Courtland Sutton (Den)

TE: George Kittle (SF), Evan Engram (Jax)

So how did I get my team into this position?

I followed the strategy I had set out to follow at the beginning of the NFL season - be very efficient with draft picks - and get just enough to make the playoffs. And then as the playoffs get close spend some picks (what I call "playoff super boost afterburners") to make my team competitive enough to go all the way.

Drafting a player is always a dart throw, but draft picks always have appreciating value. Players might have appreciating value in their first three years, then generally have flat or declining value after that. By keeping a healthy arsenal of draft picks, my team has above average appreciating value. Selling the older players while they still have value can be painful, but keeping the long term view in mind, trade away an asset that will depreciate for one that will appreciate is very efficient and has the overall best long term effect.

You don't win your league's championship in the draft, especially in dynasty leagues. If you are an experienced fantasy football player, you know that your roster will look quite different at the end of the year than that sparkling shiny group of players you had at Week 1. The goals of your dynasty draft are twofold:

• Give your team enough ammo to be a playoff contender - nothing more
• Maximize the overall appreciating value of your team and draft picks

Over the season I made 21 trades from 12 months ago until now. I made six different types of trades. I color-code them according to the following legend:

And here are the trades:

From the color coding, you can see that I was focused on draft pick efficiency in the beginning of the season, heading into the draft and just before Week 1.

Draft picks are never more valuable than during the draft. Shortly after the NFL draft our league has an email draft  that takes about two weeks. This is the best time to move your draft picks up in the draft just using time value. For example, it is often possible to trade a high 2nd or 3rd round pick for a low 1st or 2nd round a year or two later. Or, as I did last year, trade a single 1st round pick for two future 1st round picks (see the trades I made on June 9 and June 10). The person I traded with drafted Jonathan Brooks (RB, Car) with that 1.06 pick - ouch! He had bought into the rookie hype, perhaps not thinking that this year and next year there will be equally good rookies to draft. This type of trade adds amazing appreciating value to my team, but can only be done when the draft is live and the hype is high. It takes a lot of patience to let go of a pick that you have a perfectly good rookie candidate for (I wanted Trey Benson - RB Ari or Ladd McConkey - WR, LAC) . However, if you do it consistently, and only actually draft a player when you are not able to pull-off that type of trade, you end up getting a lot of free 1st round draft picks.

In season, my team was a tad above average, winning just enough to earn a playoff seed.

Then as the playoffs neared, I burned a lot of draft capital to make my team competitive. With Jordan Mason and Evan Engram on IR, Joe Mixon and George Kittle gave me some much needed boost for the playoffs.

Also my WR corps was failing me. Tyreek Hill and Deebo Samuel were fading and I had traded away Mike Evans early in the season because I had an offer too good to refuse. So the additions of Tee Higgins, Courtland Sutton and Jayden Reed were intended to fortify my WR corps along with a great rookie season by Brian Thomas Jr.

I practically replaced my entire team right before the playoffs. The only position that was solid was QB (or so I thought). I guess that was the omen I missed since Hurts Week 16 injury is the reason I missed getting into the championship game. (I don't know - I don't think a QB that let's his fantasy owners down in the playoffs should win the Super Bowl MVP! Shouldn't there be a rule against that?)

Anyway, we now get to the final part of this evaluation - the trade balance sheet! To really see how I did with my trades, I create a balance sheet. I do this by crossing out all the items that match or are near matches between the in and out column. Then I can see the overall impact all my trades had.

Here is my trade balance sheet for the last 12 months:

I tried to break it into three sections, high value, medium value and low value assets, although it is hard to really classify Isaac Guerendo, Tyreek Hill and Dalton Kincaid as high value. I really only let go of one solid dynasty player, James Cook, and that has left a bit of a whole in my RB corps. But 2025 is looking like a deep RB class and if I can get another year out of Joe Mixon I will be fine. I think overall I did very well, and if I can get another year out of George Kittle, I will have done extremely well.

One thing that stood out to me when I did this analysis is that I traded away many more players than I took in. Where did all these players come from? It is because of my keen attention to the waiver wire. I am constantly identifying players a little earlier than others in the league because I write the weekly Streamers for the Desperate articles for ASL, which are based on the principles I describe in How To Own Your League's Waiver Wire.

When you look at each individual trade, it's difficult to see the big picture. However, the balance sheet is where the strategy behind what I am doing pops-out. Will I win the league in 2025? I have no idea. But my team seems to be a contender once again, with a good mix of young and old players and a lot of appreciating draft picks.

I hope that this article is interesting and that by sharing my strategy for success it helps you with your dynasty leagues.

Stay tuned for more as the NFL draft approaches!