The fantasy football season ends as the New Year begins. It’s sort of an awkward feeling, but it’s an annual ritual for owners and smart owners start their planning for the new season sooner rather than later.
Before you move on to 2021, or get too deep into your fantasy playoff leagues for that matter keep in mind some of these tips as you move into the fantasy football offseason.
If you owe money, pay up. Don’t be that guy that keeps winners from getting paid.
There’s nothing worse than winning your league title only to be informed that three guys still haven’t paid their August debt. Fantasy is a leisurely activity. If you can’t afford don’t play. If you play you pay and if you’ve waited this long there aren’t any excuses at this point not to pay EXCEPT YOU SUCK.
Be sure to thank you commish. It is often thankless job.
Being a commissioner is a part-time job that you don’t get paid for. Even if you don’t agree with every decision or thing your league’s commish does, be sure to thank them. Until you’ve been in their shoes you may not understand, but trust me a simple thanks goes a long way.
Start discussion on any potential rule changes sooner rather than later.
This one doesn’t need much explanation. The best time to talk about issues from the year before or ways to improve the league moving forward is right now. If you really want to be taken seriously write your new proposed rule out as it would appear in league rules and e-mail it out to your group. Just be prepared to be rejected though as some people simply resist change, even when it is clearly the right thing to do.
Do your own rankings for next season now.
We know you think it’s too early for this, but this is great to just have as starting point before you’re too influenced by postseason play and way before player moves start happening. Then you adjust monthly accordingly. This will leave you dialed in come draft day. You don’t have to get too crazy right out of the gate. Maybe do your top 15 for quarterbacks and tight ends and top 30 running backs or wide receivers.
Take a good look at the final stats
Sometimes you get dialed out down the stretch of the season and maybe you miss things. Perhaps you just didn’t realize how good a player was. I recommend taking a look at the final stats and fantasy points scored by position. It’s never too early to identify trends and this will help you more accurately rank your players later. One of our favorite websites for this is FFToday.com.
Stay tuned to news flow year round.
The offseason begins annually the day after the season with Black Monday, the day handful of coaches get their walking papers. That starts a domino effect that will take you months to figure out. You don’t have to do it daily, but make it weekly habit to read through the player news on your favorite fantasy website.
Listen to our The GetSportsInfo Podcast with @DanClasgens year round.
