There are a number of factors you’ll want to consider before creating your fantasy team for the new season, but it’s important not to overlook the simple ones such as the length of your draft.

Before you dive headfirst into a fantasy football league, there are some core aspects you need to understand. First and foremost, you’ll want to know the scoring system and the league and roster formats, as those will dictate positional values and your draft strategy. And while this may seem basic and simple, you’ll also want to know how long your draft is.

The structure of your draft determines how many players you’ll be selecting, and based on how many rounds your draft goes, you’ll decide how you want to allocate those roster spots. Do you have the leeway to go super heavy on wide receivers? Or should you use the finite space for depth that’s more balanced across the board? 

These are all things to consider as you draft your squads and gear up for a long season.

Rounds Per Fantasy Football League Type

The number of rounds depends on a series of factors, but the most important and telling one is roster size. In its simplest equation, the number of starting slots plus the number of bench places set by your commissioner equals the number of rounds in your fantasy draft. 

It isn’t always that straightforward and simple, though, and with more variations of fantasy football bursting through into the mainstream, it’s important to know what you’re getting into for each kind of league.

Redraft

There are two predominant kinds of drafts when it comes to redraft leagues – leagues where there’s no full-team continuity from year to year and every manager is effectively starting from scratch. There are snake drafts and salary cap/auction drafts.

In snake drafts, there are a set number of rounds. Standard roster settings include nine starting places (one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, one flex, one kicker, one defense/special teams unit) and six or seven bench places. That all adds up to a 15- or 16-round draft. 

In the cases where there are keeper rules in place in your redraft league (meaning you can keep select players from your previous year’s team in exchange for specific draft picks), you may have one or two of your picks already spoken for. 

Since roster settings are customizable — especially on Sleeper — and some leagues are 2-QB leagues (meaning you start two quarterbacks), that number could grow beyond 16. One thing to keep in mind if you’re a commissioner mulling over team sizes: the larger the roster, the thinner the waiver wire and free agent pool. 

In auctions, there aren’t rounds in the traditional sense. Every manager does take a turn in some sort of preset order nominating players for bidding, but the draft goes until each team’s roster is full. 

Dynasty League

In dynasty leagues, you are carrying your roster over from the previous season, and rookies are the only new players up for grabs that need to be dispersed in a preseason draft.

If you are starting a new dynasty league, then the draft will be vast, as full rosters will need to be filled out. And since this league is a long-term proposition, squads are deeper and drafts can go as long as 25 or even 30 rounds.

If you are continuing a preexisting dynasty league, then the draft process will be less intensive. Since the vast majority of your roster spots are already claimed, you’re looking at a commitment ranging from three to eight rounds, and depending on how well-positioned your team is, you may wind up trading your draft picks for more win-now-friendly assets.

Best Ball League

Best ball rosters are static from the start of the season to the end of the season. There are no weekly moves, no tinkering, no waiver wire battles, no trades and no add-drops. You draft your team and then on a weekly basis, the players who score the most points automatically ascend to the starting positions on your roster to account for your tally.

Since there are no moves and no ability to cover for injuries and bye weeks, rosters in this format are a bit more robust. It’s common for best ball leagues to go as deep as 18-20 players, with kickers and defense/special teams units often not being part of the selection. That means you’ll exclusively target QBs, RBs, WRs and TEs, with enough depth to give you a shot at striking it big with the occasional out-of-nowhere boom play.

Guillotine League

Guillotine leagues are a more recent trend, and they’re unique in the sense that after the preseason draft there is a dispersal bidding process for the eliminated team’s roster every week. So it’s entirely possible that you can bid your way into adding first-round talent to your team multiple weeks into the season. 

As for the draft itself, it typically lasts 14 rounds, though that could differ if your league’s roster settings expand to account for more flex places or a second QB. No matter what, you’re still going to be targeting high-floor, less-volatile players in your draft, as avoiding a last-place finish on a weekly basis is your chief objective.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best position order to draft in fantasy football?

If only there were a handy guide to help spell this all out 😏

Again, though, it all boils down to your roster and scoring settings. If QBs are valued high due to it being a superflex or 2-QB league, you’ll want to land your QB1 early. If not, then you’ll look to start with elite receivers or running backs to build your team’s nucleus, likely for the first four or five rounds, before turning your attention elsewhere.

When should I draft a kicker or defense in fantasy?

Typically speaking, if your league incorporates kickers and defense, they should be the last two picks you make. That doesn’t mean you’re necessarily wrong for filling those slots earlier, but you’d actively be choosing the variance and unpredictability of kickers and defense over stocking your depth at the skill positions, where your league is most likely to be won or lost.

How long, in hours, is a fantasy football draft?

As with everything, it’s all dependent on other factors and settings. A typical redraft snake draft or auction should take a couple of hours. But if your commissioner is not a fan of long, thought-out decisions, then a speedier clock will make for a faster draft.

If you’re old school, you’ll conduct your draft offline, and that’s a process that could last literal days. Between the different formats and league types and the customization potential in all of them, the answer to the main question is that there’s a wide range.

But typically speaking, if you’re drafting a new fantasy football team, expect to spend, at the very least, around two hours of your time doing so.

Turn to Sleeper for All Your Fantasy Draft Needs

Now that you have a better idea of what a fantasy football draft entails, try it out by playing in Sleeper’s free season-long leagues. You can join by signing up on the website or downloading the app, and from there, you have options aplenty. 

You can set your league specifications with Sleeper’s customization tools and then mock draft before the real thing all in the user-friendly, ad-free app.

And if daily fantasy sports (DFS) is more your pace, then try Sleeper Picks, where you can boost your winnings with the more selections you make regarding whether players exceed or fall short of their stat projections.