Writing a Dynasty Fantasy Football League Newsletter
A simple guide
Overview
In this post, I provide a template for a Dynasty League Newsletter with sections and content examples, a power rankings spreadsheet template, and a basic content timeline. This is a living document and will be updated through time. Send suggestions!
I check in on Dynasty Reddit intermittently, and a topic I often come across is some iteration of “How do I keep/get my league engaged?”. In the responses to almost all of these threads, someone comments some iteration of “I write a newsletter for my league, and it’s been great!” So, it seems that we have a clear question (how do I stoke engagement?), and a clear answer (a newsletter is a great place to start). Okay, easy enough. However, across most of these threads, almost nobody provides a clear framework for how to write a newsletter that helps others get started. That’s what I’m going to lay out here.
Background
I started a dynasty league with college friends in 2021, most of whom had never played dynasty (including myself). In the first season, there was a clear engagement schism. A few teams were really active; however, many managers were relatively inactive, not really engaging with the chat or trading. As a commissioner, I was worried that people would lose interest and the league would slowly dissolve. So, beginning in August 2022, I started writing a newsletter after seeing some version of the aforementioned Reddit interaction.
Like most people, I didn’t really know where to start, so I ended up making my newsletter using Google Slides and then converting the file to a PDF to share (photos below). It was relatively crude but simple and to the point, acting as both a recap of the previous week and stirring the pot a little for the upcoming week.
Despite being a little rough around the edges, the newsletter slowly increased engagement. More managers began to chirp in the chat, and we had double the amount of trades that we had in our first season.
In early 2023, I transitioned our newsletter to Substack (check it out here), tinkered with the format, segments, and style, and (I think) produced a better product. Now that I’ve sorted it out and have a process, I hope others can use it as a framework to start their own newsletters.
Starting the Newsletter
Find a league member(s) interested in writing a newsletter
You don’t have to be the commissioner of your league to start a newsletter. Being commissioner doesn’t give you access to any information that other league members don’t have. If you’re reading this as a commissioner and don’t want to write the newsletter but like the idea, throw it out in your league chat or approach a specific manager who you think would do a good job.
Choose a medium for writing your newsletter
I strongly recommend creating a Substack to write your newsletter. It’s free, simple, flexible, and attractive. You can work on/view posts on your computer or on your phone, and you don’t need to go through a series of convoluted steps to get it into a distributable form. Simply write your post, publish it, and share the link in your league chat. You can even edit posts after you publish them if you notice an error after the fact. You can find all my posts in my Substack to use as examples.
Decide when to start
You don’t need to wait for the start of a new season to start a newsletter. If you’re reading this, consider starting now!
Newsletter Contents
Over the past few years, I’ve tinkered with including different kinds of content, but I’ve always kept the content broken out into sections covering specific topics. Below, I’ll describe all the different sections I’ve tried and what they entail.
Box Seat Observations: This section includes a few subsections and acts as a league overview during the week-to-week grind.
Kick it off with a hot topic: I start off with a subsection titled “The Overview,” where I hit on what I think are the most funny/interesting storylines in the league from the previous week. That might be a dispute between two managers, a big trade, a team name change, a massive upset, or someone setting a new league high-scoring record. This section will be easy if you know the people in your league relatively well, but even if you don’t, you can use it as a place to stir the pot and generate both rivalry and camaraderie.
After hitting on the key storylines of the week, I typically do a quick overview of the results from that week’s matchups. Who under/overperformed? Who made a bad start/sit decision?
An example of the first portion of “The Overview” Review the matchup of the week: In my league, I choose one matchup that I think will be competitive as a “Matchup of the Week” (detailed below). I then send out a poll on Sleeper where each manager can back one of their league-mates that week, Pick’em style. I keep track of everyone’s Pick’em records in a Google Sheet (template here) and then post the leaderboard in the newsletter. A correct prediction is 3 points, incorrect is 1 point, and non-participants get 0 points. The winner gets a small reward at the end of the season.
Example league Pick’em results Review trades that took place since the last newsletter: In a subsection predictably titled “Trades” I lay out recent trades and do a brief analysis of the potential motivations for the trade. I try not to judge the “quality” of the trade or roast people for making what I might consider a bad trade since the goal of the newsletter is to encourage managers to be more active.
Example trade recap Recap impactful injuries: I typically do a quick lay of the land on major injuries in a subsection titled “Injuries”, highlighting which managers are most negatively affected by injury and how it impacts the state of their team.
Power Rankings: Power rankings are one of the key components of many newsletters. They give the league something to talk about and help to highlight which managers have been unlucky/lucky, etc. I use a customized Google Sheet to track our league’s information and generate power rankings, and I’ve made a template copy with instructions that can be found HERE, and here is a live example. You’ll have to make a copy to edit the file. Most of the columns auto-populate with the input of just a few pieces of information each week. The Power Score is a modified version of the OIL Power Rankings System, and takes into account average weekly score, average score over the past three weeks, Win %, and All-Play win%. You can modify it as you please, but I find this to be a pretty useful power score formula. Here is an example of what the power rankings look like on any given week (the Power Score and Standings don’t usually perfectly match up):
Penalty Flags: The Penalty Flags section is fun and easy to write and is exactly what it sounds like- a place to throw penalty flags at your league-mates, NFL players, etc. for their actions over the previous week. You can use real events, dramatize trivial interactions, or make things up. It’s also great to encourage submissions from the league. Here’s an example of a Penalty Flags section:
Seen on
TwitterX: If you’re on “Fantasy Twitter,” you know there’s a lot of good content out there every week. I use this as an area to share funny tweets from the week. A great feature of Substack is the ability to add a Gallery, which organizes a collection of photos into an array that people can click through. This is another place where you can encourage submissions from other league members.
Example “Seen on Twitter” section Matchup of the Week: This section is a place to highlight one of the matchups on the slate for the coming week as the Matchup of the Week. I typically try to pick a matchup that a) I anticipate will be very close or b) is an interesting rivalry (championship rematch, etc.). I typically try to hype up the match and emphasize why its interesting, including details like the outcomes of previous matchups or (sometimes made up) personal history between the two. This is the matchup that the league will vote on in the Pick’em.
Example Matchup of the Week Parting Shots: The parting shots section is typically brief, and the content ranges widely. I’ve posted videos about dynasty strategy, “If your Dynasty Teams were NFL franchises,” comparisons, and compliments to the league for being active and engaged.
OPTIONAL/SPORADIC SECTIONS: In addition to the newsletter's staples, I throw in additional segments a few times a year that don’t warrant weekly inclusion.
Manager interviews: Every 3-4 weeks during the season, I interview one of the managers in the league for the newsletter. This means I typically find someone who wants to be interviewed and then send them 4-6 questions to answer however they choose. Here are some example questions:
As a rebuilding team, you're likely looking to move a few more players. Who are you selling, and what kind of returns are you looking for? Have you had any difficulties in trade negotiations with certain managers?
Who do you think is the most fraudulent "contender" in the league currently? No explanation is necessary. Let them stew on it.
Who would you consider your league nemesis? Any words for them?
Prior to week X, you made a blockbuster trade, sending away aging but productive players for picks and youth. Can you explain your decision to shift into a rebuild rather than try to run it back in 2023? Do you have any regrets?
Red Tape Reminders: I typically use this section once per season to remind the league of the trade deadline, payout structure, upcoming rule changes, and other boring things that commissioners need to keep track of.
In-season transaction trends: Use this section to highlight how many trades have been made so far this season vs last season a few weeks before the trade deadline. It can spur a little trade activity.
What’s a rookie pick worth?: I wrote up a short synopsis to help my league better understand what the range of outcomes for rookie picks typically are (using information from here and here).
Bench blunders: (suggested by reddit user InvestigatorIcy3299): “a bit of Monday morning quarterbacking to highlight bad lineup decisions with pure hindsight, and swaps that would’ve changed the outcome of the game".”
Starting out: a few simple Dos and Don’ts
Do:
Include a lot of pictures and GIFs in my newsletter. They help break things up and can speak louder than words.
Use a reasonable combination of snark and actual analysis/review. Don’t try too hard to be funny; the content usually comes organically, and some weeks are better than others.
Use the newsletter as a chance to hype teams up. Did someone make a great decision? Is someone crushing it? Highlight it.
Don’t:
Don't push your point of view onto other teams and their transactions/activities too strongly. You don’t want to make teams scared of making moves.
Don’t make the newsletter just about making fun of people.
Don’t start by doing a full-scale newsletter. Start small and build as you feel more comfortable writing. Pick a few sections: for example, start with a short Weekly Review, Power Rankings, and a Matchup of the Week, and build from there. My longest posts still aren’t that long, and Substack assesses most of them as 3- to 6-minute reads.
A Basic Yearly Newsletter Timeline
March: After giving the league a few months of space, do a review of the previous season. I include things like all-time standings, key trades from the previous season, a review of how the previous year’s rookie picks have panned out so far, a look at the age structure of each team (using tools like dynastyassistant.com and dynasty-daddy.com), and who has what picks in the upcoming rookie draft.
July: Post Way-too-Early Power Rankings for the upcoming season. This gets the league thinking about the upcoming season, and might motivate some trades as the season approaches. I suggest being fully speculative and making some bold predictions to stir the pot.
August - December: Post a weekly newsletter using the structure described above (there’s also a template at the end of this article). Come the playoffs, you can shift to in-depth matchup previews. I’ve done obituaries for teams that lose in the playoffs, as well as matchup previews with WWE comps for each team with “things to watch for.”
2022 Championship promo (Brock Lesnar vs The Rock as WWE comp)
A Full Newsletter Template
You’ve made it to the end. Below this line is the full basic template, including sections and subsections. Revisit the details above (as well as some of my real posts) for ideas of what to put into each section.
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