What is Devy Fantasy Football?
Devy is short for developmental. It’s a growing format of fantasy football in which you draft college players that act as an extension of your fantasy football team. These players do not accrue points for your parent squad, but they do hopefully accrue value. Think of it as a farm system or pipeline of upcoming talent for your fantasy team.
An important element to keep in mind is that these players are tradeable assets. They can be used as currency in your leagues. You will have windows to capitalize in value fluctuations. Devy assets don’t have to be viewed solely as “futures” or long-term assets.
Three tips to help navigate Devy drafts and get a leg up on your league mates.
1. Avoid Quarterback and Tight End Early!
As with all rules, there are always exceptions. In this case, his name is Caleb Williams! As someone who has the USC signal caller as his No. 1 overall player in the format, I can’t fault anyone for calling his name with an early draft pick. Quarterback is a notoriously difficult position to evaluate, even for the professionals, so that’s a major contributing factor behind this theory.
For every Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields – high-end quarterback recruits who have lived up to the billing – there have been countless prospects over the years that have not. It’s just an unnecessary risk that I’m not willing to take with premium draft capital.
That brings us to tight end. The flat out unpredictability of the position itself is enough to deter me from wanting to spend big here. We saw this play out in April when blue chip prospect Michael Mayer was the third TE off the board in the 2023 NFL Draft. A former Devy favorite, and long thought to be head and shoulders above any other player at the position in the class, Mayer is a perfect example of the unpredictability of the position.
2. Do Not Draft for Team Needs
One of the biggest mistakes I see new players to the format make, is thinking that they can supplement a positional group on their NFL roster just by addressing it on the Devy side.
Often done in the start up draft, new players believe they can ‘punt’ a position to gain an advantage in another area. The depth of the format, drafting players years out from being impact players on your roster, is part of what makes the format so interesting. It’s also what makes it so incredibly difficult.
Even the professional scouts miss on evaluations with regularity. It’s incredibly naive to think you’ll excel at it, no matter the level of experience you have in other formats.
3. Be Aggressive!
This is one of the more fascinating things I’ve come across in the Devy landscape. A lot of players are risk averse. When I first got into the format I assumed managers playing in this deep of a format would be far more aggressive. The ‘fast and loose’ type of players. But that’s not always the case. This is where I like to strategically take advantage.
One of those strategies is to be the first manager to draft a player from a particular draft class. One pattern I’ve noticed is that people tend to draft secondary, and tertiary options from position groups of players who are closer to draft eligibility. The thinking there is some sort of value increase or security in that investment – because that player is closer to being on your parent team and scoring points.
We’ve seen with former highly regarded recruits like Kayshon Boutte and Zach Evans, for instance, that it isn’t always the case. In fact, you can make the argument that it is potentially riskier. These prospects are in a ‘make or break’ type of scenario. Whereas a sophomore or freshman has multiple seasons to gain value, sometimes exponentially.
That is why I suggest it’s often advantageous to target your highest rated players in the draft classes further away. Doing this instead of selecting your third, fourth or fifth option from the current draft class only benefits your fantasy team.
The preferred way of doing that myself is by targeting my highest rated wide receivers from those future classes. These players carry less injury risk., They require very little early career production to maintain or even increase in value, and NFL teams are much more willing to spend premium draft capital on them in recent years.
Over the last five NFL drafts we’ve seen 23 wide receivers selected in the first round, compared to just six running backs.
We’ve seen the league shift towards a more pass happy approach over the years. With the basic extinction of the ‘bellcow’ running back and the increase in career longevity in wide receiver vs running backs in the NFL, it’s clear to see how this can be a winning formula.
Of course all of this information is rendered useless if you don’t abide by the one fundamental principle of all fantasy football.
Draft good players!
