In Draft PL Fantasy Football leagues, post-draft transfers are a nightmare scenario fraught with stress and uncertainty. Which fantasy manager should get the privilege of adding the shiny new "real-life" player to his or her fantasy roster? Is there a fair way to decide who gets that honor? Read on as we give you 5 different ways to determine how to fairly distribute post-draft transfers. Plus, we grade each method from A to F. Be sure to sort this before your league drafts to set yourselves up for a worry-free August. Check out our 24/25 Draft Kit and Pricing Plans to get full access to this article and the rest of our most extensive Draft Kit ever!
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Post-Draft Transfers Create Headaches in Draft PL
POV: It’s late July. Your league has already drafted. Transfer news has been swirling around several Premier League teams all summer with no end in sight. Until… it’s announced 3 days after your draft that Newcastle have bought a new midfield maestro who is far more talented than those who currently occupy the Tyneside engine room. He’s going to walk right into the XI. How should your league work out which fantasy manager in your league should get the opportunity to snap up this juicy newfound fantasy asset? Is there a fair way to dole out post-draft transfers such as this?
This problem inevitably plagues most fantasy leagues because the transfer window closes after the season kicks off. There are almost always at least a couple of big-money moves in the month of August, and those players (as fantasy assets) figure to have a major impact on fantasy football leagues. Below, we have broken down 4 ways that your league can decide on a process for how managers can fairly acquire these newcomers, along with a grade for each.
Include Incoming Transfers in the Original Draft
Method 1
Grade: A
This strategy is the one that we widely consider the most equitable way to place new transfers onto fantasy rosters. How does it work? In a nutshell, the new transfers are drafted just like any other player.
When planning for your draft, ensure that your league knows that they can draft incoming transfers as well during the draft. And rather than drafting any prospective transfer by name (which would be a massive gamble), managers instead draft “Incoming Transfer 1”, “Incoming Transfer 2”, “Incoming Transfer 3”, and so forth. So, for example, in round 3 of the draft you might opt to draft “Incoming Transfer # 1” rather than taking any of the players on the draft board. This means that whenever any player transfers into the Premier League after your draft, you will have the first opportunity to add them to your team. That player technically ends up being your 3rd round draft pick. So, there’s risk accompanied by a potential huge reward to this method if big name players make August transfers.
If it’s easier to comprehend, think of it as drafting a voucher. Instead of taking a player during the draft, you’re taking a voucher, which can be used on any incoming transfer after draft day. It’s up to you to choose which new Premier League player will be your new stud fantasy football asset.
So generally, when any transfer is confirmed by a Premier League club, the person who drafted “Incoming Transfer 1” has first dibs on said player. If they choose not to use their pick on that particular player, the manager who drafted “Incoming Transfer 2” has the next opportunity to sign the player. If everyone who drafted an incoming transfer passes, that player falls to the waiver wire as any other player would after the draft or after a gameweek.
As every manager has an equal chance to take an incoming transfer during the draft, this strategy is very fair with few drawbacks. Though, there are some. If only one or two people draft incoming transfer slots during the draft, there is still the potential that a high-dollar player transfers in, resulting in chaos. However, provided at least 3 people draft IT slots, that’s usually enough to make sure that the real impact players are spoken for.
Pro Tip: If you’re drafting online, you can use back up goalkeepers as Incoming Transfer 1, 2, 3, etc. The first manager to draft a back up keeper intentionally has just claimed IT # 1. Simple.
Method 2
Grade: B+
There is another version of this strategy that is a bit more straightforward, but also not quite as effective. Your league can also choose a specific player who is already in the game (but has no chance of being drafted) to represent a known incoming transfer. This only applies to transfers that are all but confirmed, or that player is not yet in the fantasy game. In this case, you would draft the known incoming transfer by drafting a previously agreed upon proxy player.
For example, many leagues used this strategy when Romelu Lukaku transferred to Chelsea on August 12, 2021. The transfer was all but confirmed when most leagues were drafting in late July or early August. Many leagues designated a little-known Chelsea forward (at the time) named Armando Broja as a proxy for Lukaku. In other words, during the draft, when you drafted Broja, you were really drafting Lukaku. Then, the commissioner simply needs to make the change manually once the new transfer is added to the game.
This method is highly effective for known transfers, but leaves leagues scrambling to deal with how to claim other, more under-the-radar, transfers. When it comes to those, you’re left with the very conundrum that inspired this article in the first place. For that reason, we prefer the voucher system explained in Method 1. However, this is a great second-best option.
Use Free Agent Budget (FAB)
Grade: B
If your league already utilizes FAB (Free Agent Budget) instead of waiver priority to decide who gets which players off of the waiver wire week to week, this will be very easy to implement. Simply let the new incoming transfer go through the same waiver process that every player does post-draft (or after any given gameweek).
Managers will then use their Free Agent Budget to bid on these players. The new transfer goes to the highest bidder. Easy, right? There are, however, a couple of things to keep in mind regarding the early-season use of such vast amounts of FAB.
The reason that using FAB to decide which managers get post-draft transfers gets the grade of B rather than an A is two-fold:
FAB Inequality - When a particularly high-value transfer comes in, managers will not hesitate to spend their entire FAB budget. This is completely up to them if they choose this tactic. However, it does affect league dynamics when certain managers are either completely out of FAB or nearly out. This can create an imbalance, which can negatively impact league parity going forward and paves the way for a FAB Monopoly situation, which completely alters waiver wire dynamics for the rest of the season. No one (aside from the person with the monopoly) likes that.
The Great FAB Wars of 2022 - After most leagues drafted in 2022, there were several notable transfers including Antony, Alexander Isak, and Lucas Paqueta. In leagues that use FAB to award new fantasy assets to the highest bidder, this inspired a frenzy not often seen in fantasy leagues. Many decided that their full FAB budget wouldn’t be enough and that they needed to resort to extreme measures to secure more FAB. This led to some trades that, in hindsight, were regrettable. Fantasy managers ended up trading away 2nd, 3rd, or 4th round picks for more FAB, which (long story short) upended the balance of their team irreparably. Again, no one forced these fantasy managers to engage in these behaviors, which is why this is still a fully valid and fair method of awarding new fantasy assets. However, it also leaves the door open for leagues to become imbalanced just as the season kicks off.
Hold a Supplemental Draft
Grade: C
Another way to handle post-draft Premier League transfers is to literally hold a second draft. This comes with a few glaring issues, but let’s start with the positives. A supplemental draft is an orderly way to dole out new transfers and a relatively fair one as well, so long as you can figure out the draft order in a way that doesn’t overtly benefit one or two managers over the rest of the league. But therein lies the problem: there are usually only a small handful of post-draft fantasy assets worth picking up. So, those at the end of the order in the supplemental draft are left with scraps. Plus, the fact that the draft snakes (meaning 12th pick in the 1st round would be 1st pick in the 2nd round) is little help, because the caliber of player falls off so steeply after the first 4 or 5 picks in round 1. So, here are the top 3 ways to decide the draft order for the supplemental draft from best to worst.
Base it on Previous League Results: Give a leg up to the managers who usually struggle in your league. Take an average of every managers’ league finishing position over the last 1 to 3 seasons (depending on your preference). Then award the first pick in the supplemental draft to the manager who has fared the worst, second pick to the second worst, and so on. This will only help league parity and will ensure that the rich don’t just get richer.
Do a Random Draw: This is another decent way to decide supplemental draft order. However, you do run the risk that the manager who already had the strongest draft (or the manager who has won the league for 3 years running) gets the first pick and creates an unstoppable team. In this case, though, you can blame it on random chance. That won’t do much to address your now-unbalanced league, though.
Use Reverse Draft Order: Some may think that using the reverse order of your initial draft is an easy way to decide supplemental draft order. However, the very nature of a snake draft is designed to create balance in the league, hence why the last pick in the 1st round also gets the first pick in the 2nd round. So, given the scarcity of valuable assets post-draft due to the relatively few impactful transfers, you’re simply ensuring that the managers who drafted late in the original draft also come away with some post-draft studs.
Use Reverse Draft Order
Grade: D
Literally, copy and paste my comments from above regarding using reverse draft order in a supplemental draft and… actually, hold on… “Some may think that using the reverse order of your draft is an easy way to decide [waiver priority for incoming transfers]. However, the very nature of a snake draft is designed to create balance in the league, hence why the last pick in the 1st round also gets the first pick in the 2nd round. So, given the scarcity of valuable assets post-draft due to the relatively few impactful transfers, you’re simply ensuring that the managers who drafted late in the original draft also come away with some post-draft studs.” There we go!
It’s for this same reason that we also recommend using Free Agent Budget (FAB) to determine waiver wire additions in-season. Just because someone picked last in the draft should not imply that they had the greatest difficulty when drafting. By default, snake drafts address this inherently.
Whichever method you choose, ensure that your league-mates are fully aware of the intricacies of the system. Make sure that seasoned fantasy managers do not have an advantage over newer managers simply because of their understanding of waiver procedures or loopholes. League parity is the main contributor to season-long engagement from every manager in your league. If you want to establish a successful league that will stand the test of time, do everything in your power as a commissioner (or seasoned fantasy manager) to keep the playing field as level as possible.
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