If you are in more than a handful of Dynasty leagues like me, it’s essential to track your portfolio periodically to see what things are working and what aren’t. I’m currently managing 14 Dynasty or Devy teams, and while I know there are plenty of managers out there in five times the leagues I’m in, I would say 14 is a large enough number where I have to take more of a bird’s eye view in terms of self-assessment. This article is my way of doing just that. I’m going to run through my overall regular season performance, top player exposures, and some notable trades. For all you portfolio managers out there, I suggest you do the same; you may learn some lessons you can bring into 2025 and beyond!
Regular Season Finishes
Out of my 14 Dynasty/Devy teams, here’s a breakdown of my finishes:
- 9/14 playoff teams
- 2/14 bye weeks
- Max PF for playoff teams: 1st, 1st, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 5th, 5th, 6th, 6th
General thoughts from these numbers: I’m pretty happy with the playoff numbers overall (64%), but I would have liked to see that bye-week number a bit higher. I had two teams fall out of the bye after Week 14 losses, which I can attribute to being short-handed with Week 14 byes. I don’t love that four of my nine teams were 5th or 6th in max PF; I could have made a better effort of actively trading to make these teams more competitive for the playoffs.
Out of the five non-playoff teams, I have my 2025 first in all these leagues (and three additional 2025 firsts in one league). Here’s where those picks landed:
- 1.02, 1.03, 1.03, 1.05, 1.06
Not great here. I didn’t secure any 1.01s, and two of my non-playoff teams finished middle of the pack. For the most part, those two teams are made up of players with ascending value, but they both have several vets (specifically QBs) who I failed to move off my roster that may have improved my draft position if I sold them early.
Overall grade for regular season finish: I’ll give myself a B-.
Top Player Exposures
Time to take a look at some of my top player exposures in 2024 to see if we’re rostering assets that we are truly excited about for the short-term and long-term.
Bucky Irving – 64% (9/14)
I actually had 10 Bucky shares earlier this season but sold one for Joe Mixon on a contender about a month ago. While Mixon has been very good, it goes without saying that I wish I could take that one back. Overall, though, I couldn’t be happier that my top-owned Dynasty player is the rookie RB who has seen his Dynasty stock skyrocket this season. I targeted him heavily in rookie drafts, and he has been arguably my biggest hit of the season.
Tank Dell – 36% (5/14)
Dell has been a big disappointment this season, sitting at WR52 on the season in PPR formats. Ranked as the WR32 on KeepTradeCut, I wouldn’t consider Dell a buy, but I think we should be holding our current shares. Dell is coming off a broken fibula in December of 2023, followed by an incident in April where he was shot in the leg. I’m remaining cautiously optimistic that the lack of production this season is due to Dell not operating at 100%.
Tyrone Tracy – 36% (5/14)
This was another pretty big hit for me in 2024. You can call it Purdue fandom, but Tracy was a major target of mine in the fourth round of my rookie drafts, and he’s paid off in a big way. I do have him on a couple of non-playoff teams, and I tossed around the idea of selling him, as I’m not sure his job will be safe in 2025 with this incoming RB class.
Jaleel McLaughlin – 36% (5/14)
Jaleel was maybe my biggest miss of the season regarding individual players. Luckily, the cost of entry was minimal, so it didn’t hurt much. I never expected him to become a workhorse, but he was running circles around Javonte Williams in terms of efficiency in 2023, so I was hopeful he could turn into a flex option. Turns out the best Denver RB to own is nobody.
Trade Review
To wrap up my portfolio review, I wanted to look at some of my most notable trades from 2024. Some of these were clear wins, while others were a big swing and a miss. Such is fantasy football.
Receive: Joe Mixon
Sell: Bucky Irving + 2025 3.02
I mentioned this one earlier, but this was an L, even on a contender. Oh well – I still have 64% Bucky exposure, so I can’t be too mad. If Mixon brings me to the promised land, I can tell myself it was worth it.
Receive: Jahmyr Gibbs
Sell: 2025 1.08, Tyjae Spears, Jalen Tolbert
This is my only 1QB league and a 10-teamer. At the time I made this deal, my 2025 first was the 1.03, but I knew my team was good enough to where it would end up being a late first. I was just off to a slow start. I took advantage of this and secured the Dynasty RB2.
Receive: Tyrone Tracy, Tank Dell, Jahan Dotson, Mac Jones
Sell: Rashee Rice, Bo Nix, 2025 Devy 4th
One word to describe this trade: fleeced. This was made very early in the season with DFF analyst @Evan_Kerr_ before Nix emerged as a top talent. I don’t remember if any Devy players were sent my way, but it doesn’t matter. This was an awful trade by me, even when Nix and Rice’s values were at their lowest.
Receive: Russell Wilson, Will Levis, Jerry Jeudy
Sell: Trevor Lawrence, 2026 Devy 3rd
This deal was made recently on a contending team looking to make a playoff push. With Lawrence’s shoulder injury, I was down to Drake Maye and Bryce Young as my only starting QBs. I made a move for some win-now points, including Jerry Jeudy, who has finished as the WR20 or better in each of the last four weeks. Lawrence is clearly the best asset in this trade, but if either Wilson or Levis are starting next year, I don’t think I get blown out of the water here, even if I don’t win this year. TLaw wasn’t ever providing a ton of value over replacement anyway.
Receive: Mike Evans, Ezekiel Elliott
Sell: 2025 1.12
I made this move early in the season (prior to Evans’ injury) on one of my strongest contenders. Mutually beneficial trade here – the rebuilder gets a first, and I get what I hope becomes a league-winner in Mike Evans. Zeke turned into a zero, but I still like this trade. I think Evans has one more season of quality production in him as well.
Conclusion
Overall, I’m pleased with how my portfolio is looking in 2024. There are a couple of teams that will need more attention than others if I hope to climb out of the hole, but I found a good amount of regular-season success in general. I’ll need to come out with two or more championships to be satisfied with the final results. One area I need to improve on is focusing on getting teams out of that 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th spot for max PF. The goal is to have them finish top four or bottom four.
I feel I’ve done a better job of holding onto draft capital and not making rash decisions on contending teams this season. I had some nice rookie hits in Bucky Irving and Tyrone Tracy, but also some misses in Jaylen Wright and Kimani Vidal (although I was out on Vidal when the Dynasty community pushed him into the early third range.) I’ll be looking to improve my process when it comes to rookie analysis, as hitting on late-round gems is the best way to add roster value for minimal cost.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article, and I hope you got some valuable information you can use for your fantasy team! If you’d like additional insight into Dynasty Football news and analysis, please follow me on Twitter at @jim_DFF. Until next time, keep grinding out there, DFF family! #DFFArmy #AlwaysBeBuilding
