The Complete Fantasy Football Glossary

Bestball leagues auto-set your lineup each week by picking your highest-scoring players at each position. There are no waivers, no trades, and no weekly start/sit decisions, so strategy centers entirely on building a depth-filled roster on draft day.

A dynasty league keeps your entire roster from year to year. You draft once to start the league, then replenish your team through rookie drafts and trades forever. Dynasty strategy emphasizes youth, positional value, and long-term asset management.

Half-PPR awards half a point per reception instead of a full point. It is the most popular format in modern fantasy football because it rewards pass-catchers without overvaluing volume-only receivers. DraftCall uses half-PPR as the default scoring for all ranking and comparison content.

IDP leagues let you draft and start individual defensive players (linebackers, defensive backs, and linemen) instead of or in addition to a team defense. Scoring typically rewards tackles, sacks, interceptions, and forced fumbles.

Keeper leagues let you retain a small number of players (usually 1-4) from year to year before starting a fresh draft with everyone else. It is a middle ground between redraft and dynasty.

PPR stands for Points Per Reception. In a full PPR league, every reception a player catches is worth one fantasy point on top of the yards and touchdowns. This format dramatically boosts pass-catching running backs and slot receivers relative to standard scoring.

Redraft leagues start completely fresh every season. Everyone goes into a new draft with no kept players. This is the most common format in casual and office leagues.

Standard scoring awards no bonus points for receptions. Players score only on yards and touchdowns, which heavily favors touchdown-dependent rushers and downfield receivers. Standard is less common today but still used in some legacy leagues.

A Superflex league lets you start a second quarterback in your FLEX slot. QBs become by far the most valuable position in these formats, and getting two starting-caliber quarterbacks in the first five rounds is usually essential to compete.

Tight End Premium leagues give tight ends extra points per reception (usually 0.5 or 1.0 on top of the base PPR). It is designed to close the fantasy gap between the elite TEs and the mid-tier, and it makes top tight ends legitimate round-two draft picks.

Average Draft Position is the average round or pick number at which a player is selected across many mock drafts. ADP helps you gauge when to target a player versus when reaching for him becomes a bad value.

In an auction draft, every manager has a budget (usually $200) and bids on players one at a time. There is no draft order, and any manager can get any player if they are willing to pay for him. Auctions reward managers who are good at valuing scarcity.

A boom-bust player has a wide range of weekly outcomes. He can win you a week single-handedly or score three points in a bad matchup. Boom-bust profiles are best in large tournaments and worst in head-to-head leagues where weekly consistency matters.

A bust is a player whose fantasy production falls meaningfully short of his draft cost. Busts usually come from injury, coaching changes, or unsustainable prior-year efficiency that regresses. Top-tier injury-prone players are the most expensive busts.

A handcuff is the direct backup to one of your starting running backs. If the starter gets hurt, the handcuff inherits his workload and becomes a league-winner. Handcuffing your top RB with his own backup is one of the most underrated late-round moves.

Hero RB is a compromise strategy: grab one elite running back in round one, then skip the position for four to six rounds while loading up on wide receivers. It hedges the injury risk of Zero RB without passing on top-tier RB production entirely.

In single-QB leagues, quarterback is the deepest fantasy position, so late-round QB strategy deliberately waits until rounds 9-14 to draft one. The plan is to stream matchups or start a dual-threat QB whose rushing floor rivals the early picks.

A mock draft is a practice draft run before the real one to test strategies and see how your board breaks. Mock drafts feed the ADP database and are essential prep for any serious league.

A reach is drafting a player meaningfully before his ADP. Reaches are sometimes justified by strong conviction in a sleeper but are usually a leak in your draft process, especially early in the draft where the gap between adjacent picks is small.

A sleeper is a player whose projected fantasy performance exceeds his draft cost by a significant margin. Sleepers are usually buried on a depth chart, coming off a quiet season, or in a new situation the market has not priced in.

A snake draft reverses order each round so the team that picks last in round one picks first in round two. This is the default format for most fantasy leagues and evens out draft position advantages over the full draft.

Tiered drafting groups players into skill tiers instead of just ranking 1 through 200. You draft from the best available tier rather than chasing a specific player, which insulates you from bad picks and rewards drafting from tier breaks.

A value pick is a player who falls in your draft past his ADP. Value is the opposite of a reach: same player, cheaper slot. Collecting three or four value picks in a single draft is usually what separates a winning team from an average one.

Zero RB is a draft strategy that skips running backs entirely in the first two or three rounds, loading up on wide receivers instead. The theory: elite RBs have the highest injury rates and the running back position has more waiver-wire upside than wide receiver. Requires commitment to land.

Every NFL team has one off week during the regular season where they do not play. Any player on that team scores zero fantasy points that week. Managing bye weeks means having roster depth or streaming a waiver replacement.

FAAB is a bidding system for the waiver wire. Each manager starts the season with a budget (usually $100) and bids on available players. Highest bid wins the player and spends that amount of budget. FAAB rewards managers who save for the right moment.

The FLEX slot accepts a running back, wide receiver, or tight end. It gives you lineup flexibility but also creates tough decisions when two strong options at different positions both fit. Most standard leagues run one FLEX slot; PPR leagues often run two.

In fantasy context, a free agent is any unrostered player in your league. Free agents can usually be added instantly once the waiver period clears, on a first-come-first-served basis.

Start/sit is the weekly decision of which players on your roster to put in your starting lineup. Most fantasy weeks are decided by one or two close start/sit calls, which is why matchup-based tools matter so much.

Streaming is picking up a different player each week based on matchup, usually for positions where the top tier is similar in overall production (QB, TE, and defense). Streaming trades long-term roster stability for weekly matchup upside.

The cutoff date after which trades between managers are no longer allowed. Usually falls around Week 10 or 11 of the NFL season. Buyers and sellers should settle their stance well before the deadline rather than scrambling on the last day.

The waiver wire is the pool of all unrostered players in your league. You pick up players off waivers to replace injured starters, chase hot hands, or add depth. Most leagues process waivers once or twice a week in priority order.

Air yards count the total distance a ball travels in the air on pass targets, regardless of whether they are caught. A receiver with lots of air yards is being used downfield, which implies touchdown upside even if his catch rate is modest.

An alpha wide receiver is the clear number-one target on his offense, commanding a target share of 25% or more. Alphas usually profile as WR1 fantasy assets and rarely bust on a given Sunday because their volume floor is so high.

A breakout season is when a player significantly outperforms his prior-year production, usually because of an expanded role, a new offense, or a step forward in efficiency. Breakout candidates are often second-year and third-year pros.

A committee backfield splits carries and receiving work between two or more running backs. Committees create weekly guessing games for fantasy managers because touches can tilt from one back to another based on game script.

A deep threat is a wide receiver who specializes in catching passes 20+ yards downfield. Deep threats are boom-bust by nature because their usage depends on matchups and weekly game-planning.

Game script is how a game flows based on the score. A positive game script means your team is leading, so rushing attempts go up. A negative game script means chasing, so passing attempts go up. Game script determines which players eat on a given Sunday.

Garbage time refers to fantasy production accumulated in blowouts, usually through late-game passing yards and empty-calorie receptions. Garbage time points are real points on the scoreboard, but they are less predictive of future production than actual competitive-game usage.

A goal line back is the running back who comes in for short-yardage and red zone carries. In a committee backfield, the goal line back usually scores more touchdowns but handles fewer snaps than his partner.

A possession receiver specializes in reliable short and intermediate catches. He moves the chains and keeps drives alive but does not add much ceiling unless he sees target share in the 20%+ range.

Points Per Game is a player's average fantasy production per game played. PPG is the baseline number every ranking and projection starts from, and it is the single most important metric on any player page on DraftCall.

Red zone touches are carries and targets inside the opponent's 20-yard line. Players with high red zone usage score more touchdowns because most scoring comes from inside the 20. Red zone volume is the single strongest predictor of touchdown regression.

A slot receiver lines up inside the formation rather than wide, working short and intermediate routes over the middle of the field. Slot receivers usually have high PPR floors because their targets come on high-percentage catches.

Snap share is the percentage of offensive plays a player is on the field for. A 75% snap share is a full-time starter; 50% usually means a time-share. Snap share separates real workloads from empty box scores.

Target share is the percentage of a team's passing targets that go to one receiver. A 25% target share is elite, 20% is strong, and anything under 15% puts real pressure on touchdowns to sustain fantasy value. Target share predicts future production better than raw receptions.

A three-down back plays on every type of offensive snap: rushing downs, passing downs, and third downs. Three-down backs earn passing-game targets that give them a reliable PPR floor even in negative game script.

A workhorse running back handles both early-down carries and passing-game work without splitting touches. Workhorses are the rarest and most valuable fantasy assets because they have both a high floor and a high ceiling every week.

Yards After Catch is how many yards a receiver gains after the reception, compared to the air yards on the target. Elite YAC receivers create fantasy points on short, high-percentage targets that other receivers would not convert.

Expected Fantasy Points is what a player should have scored based on the quality and volume of his opportunities, regardless of the actual outcome. A player consistently scoring more than his xFP is likely to regress; a player scoring less is likely to rebound.

Opportunity share measures the percentage of a team's total valuable opportunities (carries inside the 10, red zone targets, high-leverage routes) that go to one player. It is a cleaner predictor than raw touches because it isolates the touches that actually matter.

Positional scarcity is the idea that some positions have a short supply of fantasy-viable starters. Running back is the scarcest position in modern fantasy because only 12-15 true workhorses exist in a given year, which is why RBs dominate early rounds.

Regression is the statistical tendency for a player to move back toward his expected average after an unusually good or bad stretch. Positive regression candidates have been unlucky and are due for upside; negative regression candidates have been lucky and are due to cool off.

Value Over Replacement measures how much more a player scores than a readily-available replacement at his position. VOR is the mathematical backbone of most positional tier systems and explains why scarce positions (elite RB) are worth reaching for.

WOPR combines a receiver's target share (weighted 1.5x) and air yard share (weighted 0.7x) into one usage metric. High-WOPR receivers are commanding both the volume and the downfield targets — the two things that predict fantasy success.

A bye week planner tracks which of your players are off in each week so you can prepare waiver wire depth or trade strategy in advance. Ignoring bye weeks in the middle of the season is a classic avoidable mistake.

Doubtful on the NFL injury report means a player is unlikely to play, typically 25% chance or less. For fantasy lineups, treat a doubtful player as essentially out and start your backup.

Injured Reserve is an NFL designation that removes a player from the active roster. A player on standard IR misses at least four games; a player on "Designated to Return" IR can be activated after four weeks. Many fantasy leagues have a separate IR slot you can stash him in without using bench space.

Out on the NFL injury report means a player is definitively not playing that week. Check your lineup by Sunday morning and swap any "Out" player for a healthy alternative.

The Physically Unable to Perform list is for players recovering from an offseason or training camp injury. A player on preseason PUP can be activated during camp. A player on regular-season PUP must miss at least the first four games of the season.

Questionable is the most common injury report tag and means the player has about a 50-50 chance of playing. In fantasy terms, questionable players usually suit up but with uncertain effectiveness. Have a backup plan ready on Sunday morning.