Who Can You Safely Draft?
Hey guys, it's March already! Feeling fantasy football withdrawals yet? Of course you are! We've got you covered with our early-season Tin Baby leagues, and here's some advice on who to draft. These are cheap, fun early drafts to start honing your draft skills for the upcoming season.
Fantasy Sports writer Matthew Hill published today! See his latest article, Pre-Free Agency Draft Targets, to get a feel for which veteran players are safe to select ahead of the NFL draft. Learn the criteria to look for when drafting early!
Matthew just published updated player rankings today as well.
DataForce has several leagues "in the red" in the lobby, both Tin Babies and Dynasties. These leagues will begin drafting as soon as they are filled.
Survey Closes Next Week
DataForce's off-season survey closes on March 10! This is your chance to provide feedback and ideas.
Please do take a few minutes and let us know what direction you want to see DataForce Fantasy Football go! The survey discusses possible rule changes, software enhancements, and new league types, and we'd really, really like your input.
Respond only once, please! Duplicate entries will be discarded.
The Newbie Corner: Early Season Trading
Renewals of dynasty and keeper teams are in full swing, so let's use the Newbie Corner this newsletter to discuss trade etiquette and features.
Who Can Trade: As soon as you buy an orphan off the marketplace, or renew your multi-year team, you can start sending and accepting trade offers. You can trade players and/or picks with anybody else who has paid for their team.
Trading Future-Year Picks: We hate to take all the fun away from the swindlers, but for our newbies, here's a word of caution about trading 2026 or 2027 picks. The value of those picks depends on the strength of the team they are coming from.
This is because DataForce uses a potential points calculation at the end of each season to estimate the strength of each team (rather than its win/loss record) to determine the pick order for the coming season. Worse teams get the best picks.
That means if you trade for a good team's future-year pick, it's not going to be near as valuable as if you trade for a bad team's pick! And here's the deal: experienced owners sometimes like to trade 2026 picks for 2025 picks, or 2026 picks for strong players. Why? Because they figure having a strong team in 2025 will make their picks in 2026 worth much less, so they may as well be traded. It's the bird-in-the-hand theory: build a winning team this year by passing off your worthless picks for next year. It's all part of the fun, but don't fall for it!
Blocking Trade Offers: Several people have already asked about how to stop spurrious trade offers. It's easy, but well-hidden. Just head over to your Talk->BlockMessages page, where you can block communications of all types from selected users, including trade offers.
Hint to new players: Repeated one-sided offers do tend to annoy others, so when you find yourself blocked from offering trades by another user, that means it's time for a quick apology via Talk->Messages, and a promise to offer more equitable trades if they'll remove the trade block. 😇
The Trade Bar: We now have somewhat reliable player rankings from our sources, so the DataForce trade bar is back! When you send or receive a trade offer, the trade bar shows red, yellow or green, depending upon how it perceives the trade. But this is not a trade evaluator! Instead, its purpose is to estimate public opinion, by looking at combined expert rankings and other accepted trades.
DataForce's trade bar should not be trusted as a trade evaluator! Always consult a trusted trade evaluator and then consider the special circumstances of your own league and team before pulling the trigger!
