Fantasy football is a funny thing. Depending on whether you play dynasty fantasy football, best ball leagues, regular redraft leagues, or a combination, there really is no NFL offseason. As a football lover, it’s perfect; you get to play fantasy football all year long! As an adult with a job, family, various other priorities, etc., the NFL season can sometimes sneak up on you. There’s an orphan dynasty team here…sure, I’ll take over! Our work friends are starting up an office league…yeah, I’m in! There’s a charity league my favorite analyst is doing…count me in! Before you know it, your fantasy obligations are looming larger than the Jolly Green Giant. 

So how do you manage your fantasy football leagues when you have different days to attack your fantasy football waiver wire pickups, different platforms, different scoring settings, etc.? How do you parse out different 2023 fantasy football rankings and NFL player projections to keep your leagues straight? Sure, the Fantasy Football Draft Guide, the Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet, and current fantasy football ADP are helpful for your fantasy football drafts, but in-season management is another animal. As someone who has stretched herself thin more than once, let’s talk about some tips and tricks I’ve used in the past to keep everything straight and continue a run of fantasy supremacy.

 

2023 Fantasy Football Strategies for Managing Multiple Leagues

Organize, Organize and Organize Some More

The worst thing you can do when you’re trying to manage multiple leagues at a time is get in the weeds and forget when your waiver wire moves and rosters have to be set. When your leagues are spread across different platforms, this gets particularly difficult to keep track of. Do your waivers process Tuesday nights or Wednesday afternoons, do your waivers lock until Saturday, or can you go in and pick up the leftovers? It can all get very overwhelming unless you have a system. A system I found helpful is to pick up a white board (because, yes, I am a nerd), and color code it based on the platform and when waivers are due. Of course, most people utilize their phones and computers these days, so do whatever works for you. The point is, set up some kind of reminder system and grid so that you don’t forget to set your waivers. Find a system that works for you.

I’ve also found that keeping track of who you have submitted a waiver claim for is helpful. There’s nothing worse than thinking you submitted a waiver claim for a player in a particular league only to find out you submitted it in another where you didn’t really need them. Again, I’m a huge fan of old fashioned pen and paper, but excel spreadsheets or Google docs are an excellent way to keep track of this. Just figure out what works best for your learning style and what you will see on a daily basis.

Utilize Fantasy Football League Sync and Other Fantasy Football Tools on Fantasy Alarm

Not to toot our own horn (but I will because we’re amazing), but utilize the League Sync feature we have available on FantasyAlarm.com. League Sync is another extension of keeping track of who is available in your league, who to start or sit on any given week, and how to evaluate trades. It’s another extension of organizing your leagues, and rather than switching between platform to platform on your phone or PC, all of your leagues can be found in one single place. With league sync, you also get all your news and stats in one place to help you kill two proverbial birds with one stone. Why check data for each of your leagues individually when you can check them in a one-stop shop? The time you save with league sync will help you manage your time efficiently, especially when you’re trying to manage 20+ leagues like yours truly.

Diversify Your Fantasy Football Drafts

This one is more of a strategy tip, but there is nothing worse than when you have flag planted so hard on a particular player (or two or three) and they either underperform or, even worse, go down with injury. I’m speaking from experience here. If you put all your eggs in one basket and that player goes down, all your teams can crumble. Example? I was so in on Javonte Williams last year that I went out of my way to get him everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. He did fine the first few weeks, but when he went down, oh man…it was ugly. I’m not saying don’t get your guys, but when you’re in multiple leagues, you want to diversify. Look at players in the same tier and figure out who works best with your build and where you can deviate to insulate yourself from an injury catastrophe. (This is where another shameless plug for the dynamic tiered rankings and cheat sheet come in.)

Play For the Long Haul

When you play in multiple leagues, it can admittedly get exhausting when you’re rostering one player and playing against him in another league. That’s just the nature of fantasy. Some teams are going to excel and some are going to falter. If one of your teams isn’t doing so well, don’t give up. Keep making those waiver moves, keep playing, and keep the competitive spirit alive. Seeing a team give up halfway through the season and giving a non-competitive team a playoff berth when you could have just made a few moves and kept your team alive is infuriating. Take your inner “Field of Dreams” and “go the distance.”

It’s the Little Things

Managing multiple leagues can be a challenge, but in the end, if fantasy football is something that you love, it should be fun. Don’t let the work that goes into it take away from your enjoyment. Take these tips and learn from them. After all, fantasy football is only around for a few precious months out of the year, and when it’s gone, we’ll be begging for next season to start.

 


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