Dynasty Fantasy Football: J.J. McCarthy Value, Breece Hall vs Omarion Hampton, and More
Sam Wallace and Jonathan Fuller break down the latest group of questions submitted from the dynasty fantasy football community in the Fantasy Life Discord.
Jonathan Fuller & Sam Wallace answer a variety of dynasty-related questions from the Fantasy Life Community Discord.
The Fantasy Life Community Discord is the premier hub for all things fantasy football. Active year-round with over 6,200 members, there's something for everyone.
This week, Jonathan and Sam asked our members for their most pressing dynasty questions. Here's what they came up with.
Breece Hall vs. Omarion Hampton
- For a true contender (finished 2nd), Trade 1.02 (pick acquired via an in-season trade and is my only first) for Breece Hall?
- TEP, 1QB league. RBs are Cook, Kamara, ETN.
Jonathan: This is a fair trade, but I would rather have the 1.02 than Breece Hall. If you want to add to your RB room, Omarion Hampton and Breece Hall had the same prospect grade in the Rookie Super Model, but one player is two years younger and tied to a more stable situation with a better QB. Hampton won't project as well as Hall to start the season, but I wouldn't be surprised if he is the player you would be more excited to start in the fantasy playoffs, and that is what really matters.
Breece is set up well for 2025, but he is in the final year of his rookie contract, so there is more potential volatility to his dynasty value than what you get with Hampton. There is also greater team-level risk with the Jets, more likely to just be a bad team. This is reflected in their team win totals, with the line for LAC up at 9.5 and the line for NYJ down at 5.5.
If you have a strong preference for Hall over Hampton as a talent, you wouldn't be crazy to make this trade, but I would at least try to get something on top. A late second or early third-round rookie pick plus Breece would make it easier to click accept on that trade offer.
Should You Trade For J.J. McCarthy?
- Do we trust Kevin O'Connell enough to believe J.J. McCarthy can be a QB1 for fantasy? Sam Darnold did it, and JJM has excellent athleticism, giving him rushing upside as well. Would you move a guy like Kyler Murray for him in dynasty?
Sam: There aren't too many players with this level of uncertainty than J.J. McCarthy. It's not because of anything he's done wrong, we just haven't seen him at this level yet.
We know how successful the KOC/Sam Darnold tandem was last season, and now all eyes are on the Vikings to see if they can repeat that same level of success with their young QB.
While I appreciated the boldness of wanting to get in on this new-look Vikings offense, I would not do it at the expense of Kyler Murray. In our 2025 NFL Player Projections, we have Murray sitting at QB10 and McCarthy down at QB20. Even in my dynasty rankings, I have Murray as the QB10 and McCarthy down at QB17.
In short, while I do think McCarthy has the tools and situation to become a low-end QB1, it's not something I would bank on. It's not because I'm down on him, but there are just so many other quality, proven options that make it tough for him to sneak into the top-12.
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The Best Dynasty League Settings
- What are your favorite settings for a dynasty league? Also, what type of roster setup (2QB, 2TE, TEP, etc) is best for getting the optimal QB & TE importance?
Jonathan: I love this question, so thanks for asking it. I have played in dynasty leagues with a ton of different structures, including some crazy formats with multiple player copies and a World Cup-style tournament every four years.
I don't have one definitive favorite; the variety is part of what makes them fun, but there are a couple of formats I think everyone looking to expand their dynasty experience should try.
The first is an Empire League. If you aren't familiar, Empire Leagues pay out a certain percentage (often 50%) of the entry fees each year, and then the rest go into a rolling pot of money that grows each year and is only paid out when one team in the league complete reaches a specific milestone (i.e. winning the championship three times or winning in back-to-back seasons).
Once that milestone is met, the league essentially resets, and you do a startup draft all over again. What I love about this format is that it adds a fun layer of strategy where all the other managers are trying to prevent whoever is closest to the milestone from reaching it. This can lead to some really wild trades and really change the equation on what is best for building your roster.
The other thing I love about this format is that the stakes get bigger every year. Depending on your buy-in and how long it takes to reach the milestone, the Empire pot can add up to some real cash (extra important to trust your commissioner or hold the funds on a site like LeagueSafe). If you think your dynasty leagues are competitive now, just wait until people have a shot to win 5x the normal prize pool.
The other format I would advocate for when you start to reach the limit of how many dynasty teams you can manage would be to join a dynasty best ball league. These leagues have all the fun of building a roster for the long term, trading all year long, and obsessing over your rookie draft, but you just don't have to set a starting lineup each week during the season. Just like other best ball formats, your highest scoring lineup will automatically be slotted into your starting lineup.
Not only do dynasty best ball leagues require a different type of team building and player evaluation, they also make it possible to add another league without worrying about how in the world you are going to set all your lineups once football season starts.
They also keep matchups competitive throughout the week because any random player on your bench can pop off for a big game and get you back in the mix for that sweet W. And of course, no more feeling like an idiot on Monday looking back at your matchup and just wishing you had made a different start/sit decision.
As for the second question, I would never say any type of roster/scoring settings are wrong, every type of league can be fun, but if your goal is to balance the value of positions here is how I would design the lineup and scoring settings: PPR scoring + TE premium with 1 QB, 1 Superflex, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 TE, 2 FLEX (W/R/T) in the starting lineup. I would also generally recommend a roster size of 30 to allow for enough depth to fill those lineups.
In my experience, that will give you the best balance of positional value, which makes trading easier and weekly matchups the most competitive.
Startup Strategy To Consider
- How do you balance grabbing the best available as opposed to grabbing handcuffs and/or stacks in a startup?
Sam: Dynasty startup drafts are the pinnacle of fantasy football, and you can't tell me otherwise.
Everything is in front of you as you lay the groundwork for your future. It gets even better when you're able to use future picks in trade discussions and further cement your status as a dynasty legend.
During startup drafts, don't focus on filling out your starting lineup. Draft the best players available with attention to WRs. Personally, the RB2 slot is the last spot I'll fill in my starting lineup, and I'll sometimes have a bench player or two selected before that point.
As for stacks, I don't generally chase them, but I let them come to me naturally. I might use them as a tiebreaker if there's a guy I really want.
When it comes to handcuffs, the same logic applies. However, if I have a clear veteran like Alvin Kamara, I'm more inclined to reach for someone like Devin Neal, for example.
How To Trade The 1.01 In Dynasty Rookie Drafts
- What is the line of demarcation for trading 1.01 away? Let's assume it's standard superflex rules and your team finished 1.01 because they just weren't very good. What is the worst kind of offer you'd take to move back later in the draft? What does a floor package look like?
Jonathan: Superflex makes it easier to find a fair and realistic trade because Ashton Jeanty is already being valued as a top-12 player in 1QB dynasty leagues. Having the QBs in play adds another 10-12 potential trade pieces to make a deal work.
For a rebuilding team, I would pretty much always want to get multiple assets in order to trade out of the 1.01. Trading Jeanty away for a single player, even if it is fair value, isn't going to move the needle enough on your rebuild unless it is one of the elite QBs, which is unlikely to happen. I would be willing to entertain offers that involve trading back in order to add a stud RB, WR, or TE to your team. This allows you to add quality talent while still stockpiling rookie talent to help turn your team around. Successful rebuilds often come down to accumulating a bunch of young players in a short period of time and hitting on a handful of breakouts.
A floor offer for me would include a proven young WR (think Brian Thomas, Ladd McConkey, Nico Collins types) plus the 1.08 and 2.08 or some equivalent amount of picks. Jeanty is such a strong prospect that I wouldn’t want to give up the chance to draft him unless I am adding multiple quality pieces to my roster.
Adding To Your League
- How would you go about expanding the number of teams in a league?
Sam: This is an interesting question because there are sure to be lots of opinions on this idea.
Let's say you have a 10-team league and you want to expand it to 12 teams. One option is to temporarily turn your dynasty league into a keeper league. Each of the original 10 teams is only allowed to keep a certain number of players (say 6, for example), and the remaining players are put into a pool where a dispersal draft will take place.
The issue with this is that, in theory, the top-60 players are already off the board, and the two expansion teams won't have the same high-end talent as others.
In my mind, the only fair way to expand a league is to completely tear it down and start over. Any format that allows original teams to keep specific players (un)intentionally skews the balance of power.
I would love to hear more thoughts on this!
Evaluating The Direction of Your Dynasty Team
- At what point do you know it is time to commit to a rebuild vs trying to win now?
Jonathan: Most dynasty managers—myself included—tend to be too optimistic about our teams because they are generally full of players we like. During the summer, it's easy to talk yourself into the idea that this is the year it all comes together.
I’ve developed a few rules of thumb to help overcome this bias. My first test is to just look at where my team has finished over the last three seasons. If I haven’t made the semifinals at least once in that stretch, it is a good sign that it is time to tear things down and go for the rebuild.
Another good test for your dynasty roster (although this one takes a bit longer) is to pull in redraft/best ball ADP for your players. The goal of a dynasty team should be to build a roster that isn’t possible in a redraft league because it has so many players who go in the first five rounds. If that isn’t the case for your team, it is a good sign that you probably don’t have the firepower to win a championship this year.
How To Value The TE Position In Dynasty Fantasy Football
- How would you value TEs in a 16-team league compared to a 10- or 12-team league? Do the Brock Bowers/Trey McBride level TEs become that much more valuable? Or would you try to punt TE and collect a bunch of lower options and play the matchup game each week?
Sam: I'm telling you, our Community Discord is full of sharp, engaged people. These questions are amazing.
In fantasy football, size does matter.
League size, that is.
Your approach to drafting changes if you're in a 10-team league or a 16-team league. Normally, in a shallower league, I value high-end talent as opposed to depth because the pool of players is only spread out across 10 teams. Most teams will be pretty good, so I want upside.
In a deeper league, I want more depth since the pool of players is much more spread out.
With that in mind, I'm probably punting the elite TE options and rolling with a handful of depth players that I can acquire later in the draft. It would hurt to pass on Brock Bower and Trey McBride (if I even had the chance to draft them), but I would focus on bolstering my WR / Flex spots in the earlier rounds.
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