Bench rules???

[Beardown3481]

Our bench on ESPN this year was limited to 4 spots plus 4 IR spots. In order to be eligible for IR the player needed to be declared "out" for the week.

The problem in my league is that some owners want more bench positions to manage players who are on bye or injured but not declared "out". Other owners want to keep it the way it is or have no bench at all because they are frustrated that there are no free agents available when they need to make a transaction. They feel other owners are hoarding players.

Does anyone have any solutions? What do other leagues do?

Thanks.

[flotsamnjetsam]

Our bench on ESPN this year was limited to 4 spots plus 4 IR spots. In order to be eligible for IR the player needed to be declared "out" for the week.

The problem in my league is that some owners want more bench positions to manage players who are on bye or injured but not declared "out". Other owners want to keep it the way it is or have no bench at all because they are frustrated that there are no free agents available when they need to make a transaction. They feel other owners are hoarding players.

Does anyone have any solutions? What do other leagues do?

Thanks.

I never played in a league that had IR spots like that. The leagues that I've played in with IR spots were dynasty and had only 1. It was reserved for someone who actually went on IR for the season. Just a way to clear up a roster spot but still keep the player since it's a dynasty league.

As far as the size of the bench it really depends. I've played in many different types of leagues. Some had very small benches and some had very large benches. Different strategies for each. Obviously the smaller the bench the harder it is to hoard players. The smallest bench I played with this year was 6 and it was tough. Sometimes you had to drop someone you really didn't want to just to get a bye week replacement. Largest bench was a dynasty league that had 15. So you could easily hold on to players and drop players when something good showed up on the WW.

Honestly I think you just have to decide what the rules should be as a league. Find something that everyone agrees on or take a vote between 2 options since sometimes it's hard to get everyone to agree on one option.

[Jimboozie]

I think Flotsam covered most of the bases there.

I personally like to play with large benches, at least 8 spots.

[ForteTuba]

I like smaller benches a little better because you have to work harder to have a great team, and it makes it more likely players will be available for teams that suffer nasty injuries.

[joelamosobadiah]

I like playing with benches that are approximately the same size as your starting spots minus the kicker and defense.

[Kilroy]

I like playing with benches that are approximately the same size as your starting spots minus the kicker and defense.

That sounds about right. Enough spots to give you a little depth, but not so many as to render the wire completely bereft of talent.

[bobbing_headz]

I'd rather have smaller benches. Otherwise some owners will make hundreds of moves every week if their bench is say 8+ spots. Keep it small. People value their bench players more then.

[dgan]

We play with a large bench - 16 spots. You can draft 11 and the other 5 have to be acquired via the waiver wire following the waiver order. This puts a ton more emphasis on getting your depth on draft day. Short benches are fine, but I've found it often renders the draft nearly meaningless because teams that draft the worst and get off to the worst start get first crack at the best breakout players and more easily find replacements after critical injuries. Large benches put the emphasis on strategizing your roster right from the start. For example in my league, the best player picked up off the waiver wire after week 2 this year was probably Hank Baskett.

As far as IR goes, I used to play with it but it causes more problems than it is worth. If the owners want to have more flexibility, just add bench spots. If they want to restrict the holding of players, then reduce bench spots. IR rules just cause a whole bunch of arguing about who and why should be allowed on IR, how long, and every year people try to change the rule. Just go to a set amount of bench spots, eliminate the IR, and your Commish job becomes 10 times easier.

[A Fleshner Fantasy]

This hopefully isn't a dynasty, because 4 IR's enables anyone to pick up a player the second they get hurt, and not get penalized, also to be on it, and i cant emphasize this enough, THE PLAYER NEEDS TO BE ON THE ACTUAL IR

[steelerfan513]

In redraft and keeper, I don't mind a smaller bench with either the same amount of spots as your starters or a couple less to factor in K, D/ST, and possibly TE. In dynasty, however, I will not settle for a bench that doesn't have at least 2 or 4 more spots than starters. This way you can stow away young guys with potential for the future.