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How To Play Fantasy Football in 2025

Seahawks fantasy insider Scott Engel provides tips on how to play fantasy football and get the most out of the experience.

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Scott Engel is beginning his 14th season as the official fantasy writer and analyst for Seahawks.com. Scott is an inaugural member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association's Hall of Fame. He is a four-time FSWA award winner and 13-time nominee. You can find more of his fantasy analysis on RotoBaller.com, The Athletic, and SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio.

As the Seahawks prepare for the new campaign in training camp, new and experienced fantasy football players have started to plan for their 2025 league drafts. Some first timers will want to ease into their initial season, while veteran participants may be looking for new ways to play.

No matter your level of fandom or desire to compete, we present an ideal guide on how to get started in fantasy football in 2025. Now that August is here, it's time to lock in a spot in a new league, whether it's the first time or one you are adding to 10 others. With so many unique platforms to play on, in various formats, fantasy football has never been as rich as it is now in terms of options. It's just about finding the right league for you and then getting prepared to draft.

Fantasy Football Draft Playbook For The 2025 Season

Find Or Join a League

Chances are that you already know friends, co-workers and family members that are playing fantasy football. If they have an open spot in one of their leagues, don't be intimidated to join. A good amount of preparation can make your first-ever team competitive right away.

You can also form your own league, which is easily accomplished both in person and online. In either scenario, the league will be hosted online on a premier league management site, which does a lot of the heavier work for you statistically. Sites/apps such as NFL.com, CBSSports.com, ESPN.com, Sleeper, RealTime Fantasy Sports, MyFantasyLeague, FanTrax and Fleaflicker are among the most recognizable and trusted league management sites that you can consider.

Compare the league hosting platforms to determine your specific league needs. If you want to keep the process simple, some sites will just allow you to create a league and use their default scoring system. For experienced league commissioners, some of these platforms have more advanced features to handle unique league setups.

Rounding up to 12 people to all draft on the same date will take the most work, whether it's in person or online. An in-person draft is still the most fun type, as it truly builds the sense of community that makes fantasy football so much fun.

Veteran players may choose to go with a "slow draft", where each team gets eight hours to make a pick, and the draft finishes over several days or a week or two, There's less pressure to make an immediate pick, and you have picks to look forward to every day and every few hours rather than the draft simply ending in a few hours.

If you are flying solo as a fantasy player, leagues are easily joined online. Just log onto sites such as Yahoo Sports, NFL.com and ESPN.com to browse leagues and instantly sign up for one. Free and paid leagues are available on various sites, for different levels of singular players. It's a quick process to join a free league on NFL.com within a matter of minutes, and many sites list open leagues for people of similar interests, such as Seahawks fan leagues.

Those who want to move beyond winning their leagues with friends, co-workers and family can test their mettle against some of the best players in the country. Consider higher-stakes leagues such as the National Fantasy Football Championship (NFFC), Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC) and championship contests on RealTime Fantasy Sports.

In leagues that are returning and carrying over from last season, take suggestions from league mates on any needed or desired changes to rosters and scoring. Be sure to review any suggestions from the past season if you are a league manager/commissioner.

Create Your Fantasy Football Team Name

This is one of the most fun parts of joining a fantasy football league. You can name a fantasy team after anything you want, most notably current or former Seahawks players or related franchise references, such as the Kingdome or the Legion of Boom.

If you need some help creating a team name, FantasyPros has a Team Name Tool that can generate suggestions related to the Seahawks. Here are some of the Seahawks-related team names that the tool has produced so far this season:

  • Walker This Way
  • Beverly Hills Kupp
  • Hot Kuppacino
  • American Njigba Warrior
  • Welcome To Jaxonville
  • The Samdalorian
  • Milroe Genuine Draft
  • Arroyo Speedwagon

Learn Your Fantasy Football Scoring System

This is an essential step in the fantasy football preseason process. Carefully review all scoring and roster settings before you join a league. Roster settings can vary, as some leagues might require two starting wide receivers, and others will require three. Scoring can differ in many leagues, such as either four or six points for a TD pass.

Once you are comfortable with the roster and scoring setups, you can consult player rankings based on the system you are playing in. Then you can participate in mock drafts on many of the major platforms listed above, or even use the mock draft tool on RotoBaller to simulate a mock draft within minutes.

Mock drafts are excellent practice exercises, but all drafts are different in their flow of selected players. You will get a general idea of where players are picked by mock drafting but be ready to adjust on the fly at any time when your real draft begins. Don't waste time trying to predict who will be taken ahead of your slot. Just be ready to pick from a few queued players in every round.

Consider Fantasy Football Leagues That Are Unique

The standard fantasy football lineup requirements are for one quarterback, two running backs, two to three wide receivers, a tight end, one RB/WR/TE "flex" player plus a kicker and team defense. But there are other popular ways to play to further test your knowledge and acumen.

Superflex leagues allow you to start another player at a second flex position, and that player can be a QB. This type of format essentially becomes a two-QB format, as players at that position score more than any other. QBs are heavily drafted in the earliest rounds, and the top 4 dual threat QBs (Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels, Jalen Hurts) are among the most highly coveted picks.

In Best Ball leagues, you only draft a team, and then there are no roster moves allowed following the draft. These drafts tend to run deeper than many of the standard 16-round or so types to build the best depth possible. Every week, rather than picking starters, the host site "optimizes" your lineup based on the highest-scoring players.

For instance, if Patrick Mahomes and Sam Darnold are your QBs, and in Week 1, Darnold outscores Mahomes by three points, he will get the starting QB scoring credit for that week. You will be credited for the highest-scoring players at all predetermined roster slots. The player who totals the most points for the season wins the league, and there are no head-to-head matchups.

Best Ball leagues can double as practice for your regular drafts, but you must draft differently, as upside targets become more popular. If Jaxon Smith-Njigba is by far your highest scoring WR for the week, he can help you advance in the standings. Big-play types such as Marquez Valdes-Scantling are viable later-round targets because they can provide some spike weeks in terms of production.

Keeper and Dynasty leagues give you more of a chance to play a general manager role, because you carry over a certain amount of players from season to season. In keeper leagues, very often one to three players will be kept from one year to the next, and you might have to surrender a pick in the round they were originally drafted.

In dynasty leagues, fantasy football players can truly sit in the GM seat, as entire rosters are carried over from season to season, and rookie drafts are held every year to add new players. While performing as a fantasy football version of John Schneider, you will also cut players and make offseason trades, including draft picks.

Individual Defender Leagues (IDP) replace team defensive units with individual defensive linemen, linebackers and defensive backs. Players will accrue points for statistics such as tackles, sacks, interceptions and passes defensed. Linebackers will stack up a lot of points overall, and Ernest Jones IV is a top 12 player at LB.

Tight End Premium Leagues address the thinnest position in fantasy football by adding more points per receptions to TEs. In these type of leagues, a TE may get an extra point per reception, and top players at the position such as Brock Bowers and Trey McBride might be first round draft targets.

Other featured formats include where teams play two matchups per week, and "Survivor" leagues where the lowest scoring team is eliminated every week are growing in popularity. In Survivor leagues, the players from the eliminated roster are added to the waiver wire pool.

Fantasy Football Draft Prep: Information is King

Once you are settled into a league, it's time to start consulting player information and content sites. Review Average Draft Position Reports (ADP) to get a better general feel for where players may be drafted. Take a look at Expert Mock Drafts to see where the most experienced fantasy players are valuing and drafting guys.

Stay on top of recent player news, from sites and apps such as RotoBaller and Sleeper. Set alerts on your mobile device to stay plugged into the latest updates. Find a comfortable source of player rankings, such as mine, which can be found here. Major sites will have full draft kits of content, including articles, audio and video with everything from player outlooks to strategy articles. Also bookmark the Seahawks Fantasy Insider Page to see our newest rankings, articles and more.

Check out photos of the Seahawks active roster during training camp.

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