Setting Rosters
In each of the fantasy sports, your goal is to draft a team full of players that make up your roster, and to be able to add, drop, and trade players to make your team better, to ultimately win your league. It is very important to understand how to effectively do all of these.
Your roster is first set upon the completion of your league’s draft. This, however, will most likely not be the way your roster looks at the end of the season. This is due to the fact that you will need to add, drop, and trade players to make sure your team can win. Initially you drafted a team that consisted of players that seemed to be the best fit for your team at the time. However, lots of times you may have overlooked a player, or a position, and you will need to re-evaluate your initial draft decisions.
If you decide at any point that you want to add a player to your roster, you can do so by signing a free agent. To do so, you may view a list of all available free agents in your league to determine who you want. From this list, you can add players to your team. Before you can add a player, you will need to either have a roster spot available, or you will need to drop one of your current players (your team can only be made up of a certain number of players, which is dependent on what the league settings are.) So if you have an available roster spot, then there is no problem, but if you don’t, then you will have to drop one of the players you own. Any player may be added or dropped concurrently. For example, you can drop a wide receiver and pick up a running back.  You don’t have to drop a running back to pick up a running back.  Your bench spots can be made up of any players you decide.
If you lose one of your players to the disabled list (DL), you will need to replace him in your lineup. You can place these players into the designated DL slot on your roster, and you will be able to add another player without having to drop anyone. (Each team gets a certain number of DL slots to use, usually 2, and you can place anybody who gets injured into these slots.)
Adding and dropping players is very important to your team because you can’t continue to keep players who are not playing well, and you have to add players that are playing well. However, sometimes you won’t be able to add players to your roster right away. Some leagues have a waiver wire that you have to deal with. This waiver setting allows people who have a higher waiver priority a better chance at getting a player that is on the waiver list. So if a player is on waivers, and you try to add him, you won’t be able to right away. Basically you are submitting your request to add that player, and you have to allow a certain amount of time to go by before the league will let you add that player. The amount of time you have to wait is determined by the league settings. So for example, let’s say you have a waiver priority that is lower than another owner in your league. You try to add a player, but he is on waivers, so then you have to wait 2 days for him to clear waivers and be placed on your roster. In the mean time, that other owner tries to add him to his roster a day later. When the player finally clears waivers, he will end up on the other owner’s roster instead of yours because he had a higher waiver priority.  Read more about how the waiver wire works here.
Picking up hot players is one of the most important aspects to doing well in a fantasy league. If you do not keep up with what is happening across the league, you won’t be able to make timely pick-ups, and your team will not improve. You have to remain active, both with what is happening in the NFL and what is happening in your league, so that your team continuously gets better as the year goes along.
Sometimes, however, the free agent list isn’t full of good players that you want to add to your roster. So you will sometimes need to trade to get players that will help your team. Making trades can pay huge dividends, but sometimes it may also backfire.
If you really want to get a certain player because he will fit your team very well, you may make a trade offer to the other owner to see if he is willing to part with him. He may either accept your offer, reject your offer, or make you a counter-offer. In his counter-offer, he will make a different offer to you that he thinks is more fair, or he thinks will help his team better. These types of offers may go back and forth a few times before it works out for both teams. But in the end, you have to make sure that you are getting a player that you need, and giving up players that you don’t.
You may also update your trading block if you want to make a trade. There are a few things that you can do with the trading blocks. You can list specific players that you are willing to trade, list positions that you are willing to trade, and list certain positions that you are in need of. This way you can allow other owners in the league to see your trading block, and have them offer trades for your players. It is good to get these out there so that you can make sure the other owners know that you are willing to trade, and what you are looking for.
When it is all said and done, the teams that come out on top usually are the ones that were the most active throughout the season. Owners that remain active and consistently pick up the best players will generally prosper. Keeping rosters updated and full of high-quality and high-value players is a tremendous way of allowing your team the best chance to win.
