What Is Fantasy Football? A Complete Beginner's Guide
Fantasy football turns real NFL games into a season-long contest with your friends. This beginner's guide explains drafts, lineups, scoring, waivers, trades and playoffs in plain terms.
Maybe a coworker has been checking his phone all Sunday afternoon and groaning at a player you have never heard of. Maybe a friend has invited you to join a league, with a draft on Thursday night, and you are not sure what you are agreeing to. Maybe you simply want to understand why millions of people care about a backup running back's snap count.
Fantasy football is a game layered on top of the real one. You and a group of other people each build an imaginary team out of real NFL players, and each week your team earns points based on how those players perform in actual games. You face one of the other teams in your group, and whoever scores more wins the week. Over a season, the best records make a league playoff. This guide explains how all of that works, from the first draft to the championship, and which choices matter most when you are new.
The basic idea
In a fantasy league, you are the general manager of a team. You do not control what the players do on the field. You decide who is on your team, who starts each week and who sits on the bench. The real players do their jobs on Sunday, and their statistics are converted into fantasy points by a scoring system that your league chooses.
A typical league has between eight and fourteen teams, with ten and twelve the most common sizes. A player can be on only one team in a league, which is why fantasy football is a competition for talent as much as a prediction game. If you have a star player, your leaguemates do not. The competition for players begins at the draft and continues all season through waivers and trades.
Leagues are usually run on a website or an app. The platform keeps track of rosters, calculates scores, runs the draft and processes transactions. Many people play with friends, family or coworkers, and many play in public leagues with strangers. Some leagues involve an entry fee or a prize, and whether and how that is allowed depends on where you live, so read your league's rules and your local laws before you put any money on the line.
A short history
Fantasy football is older than the internet. The best-documented origin story begins in 1962 with Wilfred "Bill" Winkenbach, a part-owner of the Oakland Raiders, who created a game in which participants chose real players and scored points from their weekly performance. It was run by hand, with results computed from newspaper box scores, and for years it was played by a small circle of enthusiasts.
The game grew slowly through the 1970s and 1980s, spreading through newsletters and word of mouth. The internet changed it from a niche hobby into a mass pastime. Websites could calculate scores automatically, handle drafts online and let a commissioner run a league without a spreadsheet. A federal law passed in 2006 that targeted online gambling included a carve-out for fantasy sports under certain conditions. Rules for contests that charge a fee continue to vary by state. Today it is one of the most widespread ways fans follow the sport.
The pieces of a league
Every league is built from the same parts. Learning the vocabulary makes everything else easier.
The roster
A roster is the group of players on your team. Most leagues give you a set of starting positions, plus a bench. A common arrangement looks like this.
| Slot | How many | Who can fill it |
|---|---|---|
| Quarterback (QB) | 1 | Quarterbacks |
| Running back (RB) | 2 | Running backs |
| Wide receiver (WR) | 2 | Wide receivers |
| Tight end (TE) | 1 | Tight ends |
| Flex | 1 | A running back, wide receiver or tight end |
| Kicker (K) | 0 or 1 | Kickers |
| Defense/special teams (DEF) | 0 or 1 | A team's defense as a unit |
| Bench | 5 to 7 | Anyone you own |
Leagues vary, and yours may have extra flex spots, a second quarterback slot or individual defensive players. Whatever the setup, you must set your starting lineup before games begin each week. Points from the bench do not count.
The schedule
Your league plays a regular season against a schedule of weekly matchups. In the most common format, head-to-head, you face one opponent each week and earn a win if your score is higher. In a total points format, you are ranked by the points you score, regardless of opponent. Many leagues mix the two. After a set number of weeks, the top teams advance to a playoff. Playoff weeks usually fall near the end of the NFL regular season, and your platform will tell you exactly which weeks your league plays.
The scoring system
Your league's scoring settings translate real statistics into fantasy points. We explain the most common versions in our guide to fantasy scoring systems, but the typical pattern looks like this.
- A touchdown by a rusher or receiver is worth six points.
- A touchdown pass is worth four points in many leagues and six in others.
- Yards convert into fractions of a point: often one point per ten rushing or receiving yards and one point per twenty-five passing yards.
- Turnovers cost points. An interception or a lost fumble commonly costs two points.
- Some leagues award a point for each reception, which is called points per reception, or PPR.
These are common defaults, not rules of the sport. Your commissioner chooses the settings, and the numbers can differ. Always read your league's scoring page before the draft.
The draft
The draft is where your team is built, and it is the event most beginners find most intimidating. In a draft, the league's managers take turns selecting players until every roster is full. Each player can be selected only once.
There are two main formats. In a snake draft, teams pick in order, and the order reverses each round, so the team that picks last in round one picks first in round two. In an auction draft, each manager has a fixed budget of fake money and bids on players. Both formats are covered in depth in our guide to snake and auction drafts.
Preparing for a draft
You do not need to memorize hundreds of names, but a little preparation goes a long way.
- Learn your league's settings. Number of teams, roster slots and scoring all change which players are valuable.
- Find a ranking list. Most platforms provide a default list. Treat it as a starting point rather than gospel.
- Understand the positions. Running backs and wide receivers fill most of your starting lineup, so beginners often focus on those first.
- Do a mock draft. Many sites offer practice drafts. Doing one or two is the fastest way to feel comfortable with the clock and the interface.
- Know your bye weeks. Each NFL team has one week off during the season. If you own three players from the same team, you may have an empty slot that week. Our schedule page lists the weeks.
If you forget to prepare, many platforms offer an auto-draft that chooses for you from a default ranking. That is a perfectly reasonable fallback for a first season, though you may want to adjust your lineup afterward.
Managing your team during the season
Drafting is only the beginning. Over the season, you make three kinds of moves.
Setting your lineup
Each week, you choose which of your players start. This is the decision you will make most often. You want to start the players who are most likely to score points, so you check injury news, matchups and the status of each player before the games begin. Our injury report is a quick way to see who is questionable or out. A player who is ruled out earns no points, so starting him is a mistake you can easily avoid.
Picking up free agents
Players who were not drafted, or who have been dropped, are free agents in your league. Most leagues control who gets them through waivers. A common system is a priority list, in which the team with the worst record gets the first claim. Another is a budget system, often called FAAB, in which you bid a portion of a season-long budget. The weeks after the draft are when a surprising player might emerge, such as a backup who becomes a starter because of an injury. Waiver strategy is a deep topic of its own.
Making trades
You can also trade players with other managers. A trade needs two parties to agree, and some leagues have a review period or a commissioner's approval. A fair trade makes both teams better, because each manager has a surplus at a position where the other has a need.
The league season, week by week
To see how this fits together, imagine a league with twelve teams. The draft takes place the week before the NFL season starts. In week one, you set your lineup and watch your players. You might win by ten points or lose by two. During the week, you look at waivers, check injuries and think about trades. By the middle of the season, the standings begin to take shape. Late in the season, the focus is on the playoffs, and many managers rearrange their teams to peak at the right time.
Most leagues end their fantasy playoffs before the NFL season is over. That avoids a problem in which players on teams that have already clinched a spot are rested in the last game, which is one reason leagues schedule their playoffs where they do. The final week of your league's schedule is set by your commissioner.
Types of leagues
The most common type is a redraft league, in which every team is rebuilt each year. Other formats keep some or all of the roster from year to year, and we describe them in our article on redraft, keeper and dynasty leagues. There are also variations in scoring, roster size and strategy, such as leagues that use individual defensive players or two quarterbacks. If you are just beginning, a standard redraft league with a simple scoring system is the best way to learn.
Common beginner mistakes
Every experienced manager has made these, and knowing them in advance is cheap.
- Forgetting to set your lineup. If a player is on your bench or on a bye, he scores nothing for you. Check your lineup before the first game each week, including Thursday night games.
- Chasing last week's points. A player who scored two touchdowns last week may not do it again. The more useful question is whether his role, such as his share of carries or targets, is likely to continue.
- Ignoring bye weeks. Plan your roster so that you are not caught without a starter.
- Drafting a kicker or defense early. Most managers wait until the final rounds to take these positions because the difference between the best and the average is small.
- Overreacting to one bad game. A single week tells you little. Look at the trend and the playing time.
- Trading out of frustration. Trades made right after a bad week are rarely good ones.
- Not reading the rules. Scoring and roster settings change player values, and a quick read pays off.
A more complete list is in our article on common fantasy mistakes.
What fantasy football is not
It is not a way to make money for most players, and we encourage you to treat it as a hobby. Fantasy football is also not the same as sports betting, which involves wagering on the outcome of real games and is regulated differently. If you ever find that a game is causing you stress or financial worry, step back. In the United States, the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER offers confidential support.
Where to find help on this site
You can look up a player on our player pages, check the league's best performers on the leaders page, see who is hurt on the injury report and read more at our fantasy hub. Use the schedule page to plan around bye weeks. Our blog covers each topic in this guide in more depth.
What to remember
- Fantasy football is a game in which you build a team of real NFL players and score points from their real statistics.
- Most leagues have ten or twelve teams and play head-to-head matchups, followed by a playoff.
- Your league's commissioner sets the scoring and roster rules, so read them before you draft.
- Drafts come in two main formats, snake and auction, and both are manageable with a little practice.
- During the season, you set a lineup each week, pick up free agents through waivers and can trade with other managers.
- Beginners usually do best by joining a simple redraft league, doing a mock draft and checking their lineup before every game.
- Treat fantasy football as entertainment, and seek help if it ever becomes a source of worry.