If you’re reading this article, you’ve found the first article in DFF’s brand new Devy section. Today is part one of your introduction to Devy and our aim is to introduce you to the Devy league format. In the near future, we’ll debut part two of your introduction to Devy titled: Scouting 101. We will also host mock drafts, publish offensive and defensive player profiles, all in an effort to help put those lesser known college players on your radar. After all, how many times can you read about Leonard Fournette and Nick Chubb?
Let’s jump right into Devy leagues, the different ways to acquire Devy players and even how to introduce your existing league to the Devy experience.
What is Devy?
Developmental leagues – we’ll call them Devy for short – are specialized dynasty leagues that allow owners to acquire players that are, more often than not, still on college rosters. Once drafted, these players are carried on a dynasty Taxi Squad or Practice Squad until they are drafted by an NFL team. At that point, owners in a Devy league usually have the option to leave the player on their Taxi Squad during their rookie season, promote the player to their active roster or cut the player and move on. It’s important to remember, that players acquired as “Devy’s” will not be part of the normal rookie draft pool.
Why should I play Devy?
The majority of my fantasy football leagues are Devy leagues. I could sit here and list all of the reasons that I play Devy, but I thought it would be more appropriate to get as many different opinions as possible so, I polled some of my league mates and here is what they had to say when asked what they like best about Devy leagues:
John said,“I’m a huge college football fan and I enjoy being able to get in early on some of my favorite college players.”
Stephen said,“What hooked me was the natural progression from redraft to keeper to dynasty, followed by the hunger for even more realism with salary/contract leagues. Something was still missing though, then I found Devy leagues and it brought a whole new aspect to the game.”
Logan said, “I feel like it creates a larger discrepancy between good owners and bad owners by rewarding those who put in the extra work. Plus, you can’t just type in rookie rankings and pick the top player available.”
Ret said,“I was drawn in because there is more competition and it requires me to use a different approach to rookie drafts.”
For me, it’s a combination of my love for college football and scouting. I discovered Devy leagues at the same time I discovered dynasty leagues and never looked back.
Are you a college football fan? Are you looking for a new strategy or approach to the fantasy football experience? Are you looking for a deeper, more complete way to play fantasy football? If so, Devy leagues might be for you.
What kind of Devy leagues are out there?
Since Devy leagues are an extension of dynasty leagues, most function just like your current dynasty leagues, except for the added element of drafting and stashing college football players. You can also find Devy leagues with IDP players. You can even find Devy leagues that feature a full-scoring college league format.
How many different ways are there to create a new Devy league?
Devy league ideas are nearly endless. Once you’ve determined your league size, starting positions and roster size, you need to decide how many Devy players you want to be drafted each season. From there, create a Taxi Squad, with the same number of spots as rounds in your annual Devy draft. Next, you’ll need to decide how long Devy players will be allowed to remain on the Taxi Squad. I run a Devy league where there isn’t a limit on how long Devy players can stay on the Taxi Squad. However, I’m in another league where they can only stay on the Taxi Squad for 2 years. For example, if you draft a college freshman, you will have to move him to your active roster for his junior and senior seasons. Once you decide how many Devy players each team can roster at once and how long they can be carried on the Taxi Squad, you need to decide which college players are eligible for your Devy draft. You basically have three choices:
- Allow all college players to be eligible for the Devy draft
- Allow only players who are ineligible for next year’s NFL Draft
- Allow only players who are eligible for next year’s NFL Draft
These decisions are important because your choices will determine how depleted your rookie drafts will be.
One more thing to think about when setting up a new Devy league, you need to decide if Devy players will be included in the startup draft or if you’ll have a separate Devy draft or Auction. Personally, I prefer to hold a separate Devy draft after the startup draft, but including Devy players in the startup requires owners to make some interesting decisions.
I want to add the Devy aspect to an existing league. What would you suggest?
When introducing Devy players into an existing league, you should ease into it slowly. Once the league approves the move to include Devy players, you need to establish the By-Laws before doing anything else. Here are a couple of things to consider:
Just like creating a new league, you’ll need to decide how many Devy players can be rostered by an owner at any one time. One, two, three, four, etc. Again, this decision is important because it determines the number of rookies available for the Rookie Draft. Based on your decision above, you need to correlate the number of Taxi Squad spots with the number of rounds in the annual Devy draft. Let’s say you ultimately decide to have a 2 round Devy draft each year.
The first year, the draft should be one round with one accompanying Taxi Squad spot. The second year, the draft should be two rounds and you increase the number of Taxi Squad spots to two. Going further, if you decide to max out at the Devy draft at three rounds, then the first two years should be the same as above and in the third year, introduce the third round and the third Taxi Squad spot.Finally, decide whether or not to allow owners to trade Devy draft picks. I highly suggest allowing this because owners who might not be on board have the option to get something in return for their pick. In my experience, Devy picks carry a pretty decent value during the draft similar to rookie draft picks once rookie fever sets in.
What else do I need to consider?
I’m glad you asked because there are a few other important things to decide.
- First, you need to decide if you are going to hold a Draft or Auction. If you go with a standard of “worst to first” draft, awarding the first overall pick in both the rookie and Devy drafts to the owner with the worst record will give that owner a fair chance to turn around their team. If you choose to hold a Devy Auction instead, every owner will be allowed the chance to acquire any player eligible for the draft. Additionally, should you choose to establish a Devy Auction, you would just divvy up auction dollars in whatever ratio that you see fit, based on order of finish, with the worst team getting the most and the league champion getting the least. If you go this route, consider allowing owners to trade Devy auction dollars as well. It’s more difficult to determine the value of an auction dollar, especially in the early stages, but this allows an owner to opt out of the auction and still receive some kind of return.
- Now that you’ve decided to add the Devy format to your league and you’ve determined how you’ll add these players to rosters, it’s time to decide when you’ll hold your Draft/Auction event. Here are several things to keep in mind:
- If you hold your draft before college football’s National Signing Day, you will know which underclassmen have declared for the NFL Draft, but you probably won’t be able to include incoming college freshman because a lot of the top players still haven’t chosen their college.
- If you hold your draft event after college football’s National Signing Day, you will be able to include incoming college freshmen who have enrolled early and are participating in spring practice. If you hold your draft any time after June 1st, you will be able to include all incoming freshman because they should be enrolled in summer classes by then.
- Speaking of drafting freshman, if you choose to allow this option, keep in mind that there will be a much wider range of hits and misses.
- Some leagues restrict their Devy player pool to players eligible for the upcoming NFL Draft. On the flip side, other leagues allow only players ineligible for the next NFL draft to be drafted in a Devy draft. For instance, Christian McCaffrey would not be eligible for a Devy draft in 2016 because he’s eligible for the 2017 NFL Draft. This helps keep more talent in the rookie draft pool.
- There you have it, folks! If you didn’t know what a Devy league was, you do now. You’ve seen why people who play in Devy leagues enjoy it so much. Now you know everything you need to consider before starting your own Devy league or adding the format to your existing league.
