Reference
Fantasy football glossary
Clear definitions for dynasty, contract, and salary cap fantasy football terms.
Dynasty Fantasy Football
A fantasy football format where teams keep their rosters from year to year, building a team over multiple seasons through drafting, trading, and long-term strategy.
Contract Dynasty
A dynasty fantasy football format that adds salary caps and multi-year contracts. Each player has a salary and contract length, creating GM-style roster management decisions.
Salary Cap
A maximum total salary limit for each team's roster. Teams must manage their player salaries within this cap, creating trade-offs between talent and cost.
Contract Length
The number of seasons a player's contract lasts. When a contract expires, the team must decide whether to extend the player (usually at a higher salary) or let them go.
Contract Extension
Extending a player's contract for additional years, typically at an increased salary. Extensions are used to keep valued players on your roster beyond their current deal.
Franchise Tag
A mechanism to retain a key player whose contract is expiring by placing a franchise tag on them, typically at a premium salary. Franchise tags help teams keep star players but at a significant cap cost. Learn more →
Rookie Option
An option on a rookie contract that allows the team to extend the player's contract for an additional year at a predetermined rate, giving teams flexibility with young talent.
Rookie Contract
A contract given to newly drafted rookies, typically at a lower salary with defined terms. Rookie contracts provide cost-controlled talent that is valuable for team building.
Contract Bidding
A process where teams bid on free agents with both salary amount and contract length. The market determines player value through competitive bidding.
Auction Draft
An auction-style draft where players are nominated and bid on. League Tycoon supports both standard (live) auction drafts where all owners participate in real time, and slow auction drafts that run over days or weeks with multiple players auctioned simultaneously.
Trade Auction
A transparent trade process where a player is put on the block and all interested teams can submit offers. The current winning offer is visible, creating fair price discovery.
Rookie Draft
An annual draft where dynasty league teams select incoming NFL rookies to add to their rosters. Draft order is typically based on the previous season's standings or a lottery.
Draft Lottery
A system for determining draft order that introduces an element of chance, often used to discourage tanking. Teams with worse records have higher odds at top picks.
Cap Space
The difference between a team's salary cap and their current total player salaries. Cap space is used to sign free agents, extend contracts, and absorb salaries in trades.
Dead Cap
Salary cap charges that remain on a team's books after a player is traded or released, typically from guaranteed money remaining on a contract. Learn more →
Keeper League
A fantasy football format where teams can retain a limited number of players from year to year. Dynasty leagues are a more extensive version of this concept.
Redraft League
A fantasy football format where all rosters are cleared and a fresh draft is held each season. No players are kept from year to year.
Graveyard League
A League Tycoon format where you set your lineup each week from the entire player pool, but each player can only start once all season. Lowest-scoring teams are eliminated weekly. Supports 4 to 2,000 teams. No draft required.
Gambit League
A League Tycoon format that adds a twist to traditional fantasy football: draft a coach in round one that changes your scoring rules and strategy. 16 unique coach schemes like Smashmouth (RBs score 60% more), Team Captain (pick a captain whose NFL teammates score more), Spread (QBs and WRs get boosted), and more. 4-16 teams.
Ranked
Competitive ranked play across Gambit, Graveyard, and Weekly Audibles formats. Start at 1,000 rating and climb through six tiers: Rookie, Veteran, Captain, All-Pro, MVP, and Hall of Fame. Entry costs 1 token. Win tokens back through performance.
Practice Squad
A separate roster section in contract dynasty leagues for developing players. Practice squad players have cap implications, allowing teams to stash young talent while managing their salary cap.
FAAB
Free Agent Acquisition Budget. A fixed budget of auction dollars used to bid on free agents throughout the season, ensuring fair access to the waiver wire based on willingness to spend rather than waiver priority.
Trade Block
A list of players that a team has made publicly available for trade. On League Tycoon, players on the trade block can be put up for trade auction.
See these concepts in action
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