Fantasy 101: • Fab's favorite scoring system | Why you should play in a PPR league | How to use ADP to your advantage | Beginner's guide to winning a championship
When I was a kid back in the 1980s, we had a lot of slang terms to describe things around us. If you were “rad,” that meant you were cool or "hip" (a slang word from the previous generation). In the Northeast, we liked to use the term “wicked” to describe something that was really rad or cool. Oddly enough, being called “bad” was actually good, and you addressed everyone as “dude."
Of course, times have changed. Nowadays, it's not dude, it's "bro." You’re no longer rad … you’re "fire." If you’re at a fun event like a party, that party is “lit." Something that’s mediocre is now “mid,” and someone who has game with the ladies has “rizz.” (I guess I never had rizz!)
In the world of fantasy football, there are also plenty of words and terms, slang or otherwise, that we all use to describe different things. So if you’re a newbie to our great game, settle in and absorb my list of fantasy terms you should know … I promise it’s fire and not cringe.
ADP (Average Draft Position): A list of players listed based on where they’re being drafted, on average. This is a great tool for determining whereabouts a player should be drafted, helping a fantasy manager avoid taking a player way too soon or losing somebody they wanted too late.
Auction Draft: A fantasy draft in which owners bid on players to build their roster. Each manager is given a certain amount of money to spend on players, and each player goes to the highest bidder. Owners take turns nominating players until all the rosters are filled.
Bench Players: Players who are not in your starting lineup in a given week. These also can be called reserve players. Obviously, you receive no fantasy points for players on your bench.
Boom-or-Bust: A term that describes a player who could either perform at a high level or fail to reach expectations. This type of player also can be described as “risk/reward” type. This term fits a player like 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey to a tee. That’s because he has a chance to put up huge numbers again, but he’s also an older player who has been prone to injuries.
Breakout: This term describes a player who produces a high-end statistical season for the first time in his NFL career. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, Bengals running back Chase Brown and Cardinals wide receiver Michael Wilson are examples of breakouts in 2025.
Bust: A player who does not live up to his statistical expectations. Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving, Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson and Jaguars wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. were considered the biggest busts (or disappointments) in fantasy football last season.
Buy: This term is used to describe the act of trading for a player in a fantasy league.
Bye Week: A week that an NFL team and its players are off/don’t play. Each team has one bye week per season, playing in 17 of the 18 regular-season weeks.
Byemageddon: This term defines a week when six NFL teams are on a bye. Typically, bye weeks consist of either two or four teams being off, so a byemageddon is tougher for fantasy managers to navigate due to the absence of more players who might otherwise be in starting lineups.
Ceiling: This describes the height of a player’s talent, statistical production and value. Highly talented = high ceiling.
Cheat Sheet: This is a draft tool that includes player rankings, overall and per position, to make it easier to keep tabs on players who have already been drafted or are still available. Managers often cross off players as they’re drafted.
Collusion: This term refers to a situation in which two fantasy managers get in cahoots and make questionable moves that benefit one or both teams. It’s usually considered cheating and will have to be dealt with by the commissioner. Make sure rules are in place for potential collusion before the regular season starts to avoid problems if it does occur.
Commissioner: The person (or persons) responsible for overseeing a fantasy league. He/she enforces the rules, scoring system, lineup requirements, etc., and is also in charge of collecting league fees and settling any disputes within the league.
Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS): These types of leagues don’t last for a full season but are instead contests that are played based on the stats for either a day or a week/weekend.
Deep League: This is a fantasy football league with more than 12 managers.
Depth Chart: Each NFL team has a depth chart for every position, ranking players from starters down to each level of backup. For example, Saquon Barkley is first on the Eagles’ running back depth chart and Tank Bigsby is second.
Draft: The event, usually held before the start of the NFL’s regular season, in which managers build their teams. Drafts are usually a snake (serpentine) format or an auction.
Draft Order: The order in which each team will make its draft picks, from 1-10 in a 10-team league or 1-12 in a 12-team league. Draft orders can be determined based on random selection by the commissioner, a fun competition (maybe the player who scores the best in a round of golf gets the first pick, for example) or based on a platform’s picks.
Drop: This term describes the act of dropping a player from your fantasy roster. This is also known as a cut or release. Dropped players often go to the league’s free-agent list, though there could be a waiver process.
D/ST: This is the abbreviation used for a defense/special teams unit in fantasy leagues.
Dynasty League: A league in which you have one draft that includes all NFL players and subsequent drafts that include rookies or rookies and free agents. In a dynasty league, you keep your entire roster from one season to the next. It’s a long-term commitment and the closest fantasy league you’ll find that resembles an actual NFL team and franchise.
Fantasy Postseason: In most leagues, the fantasy postseason (or playoffs) lasts for three weeks, beginning in Week 15 and ending in Week 17. Six teams make the postseason in this format. Some leagues start their postseason in Week 16 and last only two weeks.
Featured Running Back: This describes a starting running back who sees the majority of his team’s carries and touches during the season. Atlanta’s Bijan Robinson, Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs and Baltimore’s Derrick Henry are perfect examples of a featured running back.
Flex: A spot or spots in your starting lineup that allows you to use more than one position to fill. Typically, a flex spot allows a manager to use a running back, wide receiver or tight end.
Flier: A term that describes a player, typically drafted in the late rounds, who is considered worth a “roll of the dice.” This player doesn’t have high fantasy value at that time, but he’s considered a player to take a chance on, hoping for a best-case scenario.
Floor: This describes the bottom of a player’s talent level, statistical production and value.
Free Agent: A player who is not on any of the teams in your fantasy football league. They are available to be added to any roster via the waiver wire or a FAAB bid. Once this act occurs, that player is no longer a free agent but instead becomes a starter or reserve.
FAAB (Free Agent Acquisition Budget): A popular method of adding free agents in which each manager is given a budget for the season that is used to bid on available players.
Hero-RB Strategy: This is a draft strategy that is predicated on a fantasy manager drafting only one running back in the early rounds (1-5). All of the picks in these rounds would be a mix of wide receivers (mostly), a single tight end or a single quarterback. Additional running backs aren’t drafted until the middle to late rounds (Round 6 and beyond).
Half-Point PPR (Point Per Reception): This term describes a league that uses a scoring system that awards half a point for each time a player catches a pass. For example, a player who catches six passes in a game would receive three points for those catches.
Handcuff: This term describes the act of drafting the immediate backup of an NFL starting running back. This is an insurance policy of sorts. For example, Cardinals running back Tyler Allgeier would be the “handcuff” for the manager who drafts Jeremiyah Love, so if Love should fall prey to an injury, his/her manager will have Allgeier to plug in in his absence.
IDP (Individual Defensive Player): This term describes using actual defensive players instead of a defense/special teams (D/ST) unit. In these leagues, each owner starts a predetermined number of defensive linemen (DL), linebackers (LB) and defensive backs (DB). Defensive backs include cornerbacks and safeties. Some IDP leagues also have an Edge position.
IR (Injured Reserve): In the NFL, each team has the option of placing an injured player on IR. In fantasy football, this is a roster spot that doesn’t use a spot in a starting lineup or a reserve (bench) spot. Requirements for which players are allowed to be placed in an IR spot depend on the commissioner’s rules or the platform’s (ESPN, Yahoo!, etc.) guidelines.
Keeper League: A type of league in which managers can keep a predetermined number of players on their roster from one season to the next. For example, if a manager labels Bills QB Josh Allen as his/her keeper, Allen is not available to be drafted by anyone else in the league.
League Winner: This term describes a non-elite fantasy option who scores an elite level of fantasy points down the stretch of the regular season and into the fantasy postseason. For example, Cardinals wide receiver Michael Wilson scored at least 16.4 points in all but one of his final eight games of last season, including two games with 33-plus. Due to his sudden production spike, which came out of nowhere, many of Wilson’s managers won their league.
Manager: The person or people who run a fantasy football team. A manager is responsible for drafting the team, setting weekly lineups, making trades and adding/dropping players.
Matchup: This term describes two fantasy teams playing against one another in a given week, and it also defines a player’s upcoming game against that week’s new opponent.
Mock Draft: If you follow the actual NFL Draft, then you’ve heard the term “mock draft.” It’s basically a fake draft used to predict the actual draft. Managers can also do mock drafts in an effort to practice and prepare themselves for their actual fantasy drafts.
Out (O): This is a designation set by an NFL team for a player who will not play in a given week. Players who are designated as out can sometimes be eligible to be placed in an IR spot, but that player must be removed from IR once his designation has been updated.
Perimeter Receiver: This term describes a receiver who runs most of his routes on the outside (closer to the sidelines) on either side of the field. Many of the best fantasy wide receivers, like Dallas’ George Pickens, for example, run most of his routes on the perimeter. If you hear a player lines up “out wide,” this is the same thing as a perimeter receiver.
PPR (Point Per Reception): This term describes a league that uses a scoring system that awards one point for each time a player catches a pass. For example, a player who catches six passes in a game would receive six points for those catches.
Projections: These are statistical predictions and can be based on a full season, a week, or a game. Projections are often used to help a fantasy manager draft a successful team and decide which players to start based on the weekly matchups during the regular season.
QB1: This abbreviation describes a starting quarterback in a traditional fantasy league. So that would be the top 10 quarterbacks in a 10-team league or the top 12 quarterbacks in a 12-team league, all based on the number of points each player has scored to that point in the season. In terms of NFL depth charts, this describes the team’s starting quarterback.
QB2: This abbreviation describes a backup quarterback in a traditional fantasy league. So that would be quarterbacks 11-20 in a 10-team league or quarterbacks 13-24 in a 12-team league, all based on the number of points each player has scored to that point in the season. In terms of NFL depth charts, this describes the team’s backup quarterback.
Queue: This is a list of players a manager selects during a draft who are considered most desirable. For example, if Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens is available and you want to pick him next, you can add him to your queue as a reminder he’s still on the board.
Questionable (Q): There is about a 50 percent chance that this player will play this week.
RB1: This abbreviation describes a starting running back in a traditional fantasy league. So, that would be the top 10 runners in a 10-team league or the top 12 runners in a 12-team league, all based on the number of points each player has scored to that point in the season. On NFL depth charts, this denotes the team’s starting (No. 1) running back.
RB2: This abbreviation describes a second starting running back in a traditional fantasy league. So, that would be runners 11-20 in a 10-team league or 13-24 in a 12-team league, all based on the number of points each player has scored to that point in the season. On NFL depth charts, this denotes the team’s immediate backup running back (like the Rams’ Blake Corum).
RBBC (Running Back by Committee): The term describes an NFL offense that doesn’t employ just one running back in its backfield. Instead, it uses at least two backs, each with a different skill set. For example, the Pittsburgh Steelers used Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell in prominent, yet different roles in their offense during the 2025 season.
Sell: This term is used to describe the act of trading away a player in a fantasy league.
Sniped: This is the term used to describe a situation when, during a draft, the manager ahead of you selects the player you had next on your list. For example, if you have DeVonta Smith ready to be drafted (queued) but the team ahead of you drafts him, then you have been sniped.
Standard Scoring: In this type of fantasy league, offensive skill position players receive points for yardage gained and touchdowns, but not for receptions. This used to be the most popular fantasy format, but it has now been replaced by PPR and Half-PPR leagues.
Superflex: In this format, which is growing in popularity across the industry, a manager can start a second quarterback in a superflex spot. You can also start a running back, wide receiver, or tight end in this spot, but quarterbacks are the most attractive superflex options, since they’re the position that typically scores the most points each week.
Snake Draft: Also called a “serpentine draft,” this begins in Round 1 with the first overall pick and ends with the 10th or 12th overall pick (depending on league size). In Round 2, the draft order “snakes,” where the manager with the 10th or 12th (last) overall pick gets to make a selection at the top of that round and all other even-numbered rounds. So, the manager with the first pick of the draft gets the last pick in Round 2 and the first pick of Round 3.
Sleeper: A player who has not recorded a fantasy-relevant season who suddenly emerges into a viable starter. These players are not typically drafted very highly based on ADP data, or in some cases, they’re not drafted at all. Last season, Jaguars wide receiver Parker Washington was a late-round pick or waiver-wire add who became a fantasy starter for the first time in his career. That made him a fantasy sleeper. Once a player has been labeled a sleeper and exceeds his expectations, I don’t think that label applies again in his career.
Slot Receiver: This term describes a receiver who runs most of his routes in the slot, or close to the offensive line and tight end. Titans wideout Wan’Dale Robinson is an example.
Starters: These players are those who are active and in a starting fantasy lineup in a given week. For example, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is a high-end fantasy starter.
Streamers: If a fantasy manager doesn’t have a set starter at a particular position, he/she can use a player based on that week’s matchup. That player is called a streamer. This is a popular term used in defense contexts, as many managers don’t have an elite unit and instead “stream” different defenses each week based on matchups. The same goes for fantasy kickers.
Stud: This term describes a player who produces at a high-end level on a regular basis and holds a lot of fantasy value. A player who is considered a stud going into this season is Lions running back Jamyr Gibbs, who is considered a surefire top-five overall pick.
Team Defense: While many leagues have eliminated this position, it’s still a requirement to start a team defense in most traditional leagues. This is the lone fantasy position that is not an individual player but is instead the culmination of points scored by an entire unit. So if you started the Ravens defense and they combined for five sacks, two interceptions, and a defensive touchdown, you would receive the points tied to each of those categories.
Team QB: Some leagues don’t start an individual quarterback; instead, they start a Team QB. This prevents points from being lost when a player gets hurt or is benched. So, if you have the 49ers Team QB and Brock Purdy gets hurt during a given week, you’ll then get the points his backup, Mac Jones, scores in his absence. This isn’t a very common format.
Third-Round Reversal: This term is easy to define. In a traditional snake/serpentine draft, the team with the last pick in the second round gets the first pick in the third round. But in a third-round reversal scenario, that team would get the last pick in the second round and the last pick in the third round (so, as it’s defined, the third-round order is reversed). Once the third round is over, the draft snakes back into its original order for the rest of the draft.
Trade: Simply put, this is the act of trading a player or players to another team in exchange for another player or players. For example, you can trade CeeDee Lamb for A.J. Brown and Xavier Worthy or Patrick Mahomes for Brock Bowers. Once you trade away a player, he is no longer on your team and is replaced by the player(s) you acquire as a result of the deal.
Transaction: The NFL has a transaction list and so do fantasy leagues. It’s a running list of players who have been added, dropped, traded, etc., during the week and throughout the year.
Undroppable: Many fantasy platforms will label elite players as undroppable in order to keep there from being any shenanigans. For example, there is never a reason to drop a healthy Josh Allen … unless a manager colludes with another manager to grab him off the waiver wire or bid FAAB on him. It’s a way to keep people from cheating or to keep novice fantasy players from making an uneducated and foolish decision that makes little sense based on stats.
Value-Based Drafting (VBD): This is a fantasy football draft approach that helps determine a player’s value by comparing their projections to the position’s baseline total. This sort of strategy pushes managers to draft players with the most value relative to others at their position, rather than simply focusing on the players who scored the most points the previous season.
Waiver Wire: This term refers to a list of players not on any fantasy rosters who are available to be added based on predetermined guidelines. That might be first-come, first-served (whoever picks up the player first gets him), waiver priority (whoever is at the top of the priority list gets first dibs on a player), or FAAB (highest bid gets the player).
Waiver Order: When a player is dropped from a fantasy roster, he goes on waivers (see above). That player is then available to be added based on the league’s waiver order. So, if I have the second spot on the waiver order and put in a claim for Vikings running back Demond Claiborne, I would add him to my roster unless the player with the first spot claims him.
WR1: This abbreviation describes a starting wideout in a traditional fantasy league. So, that would be the top 10 receivers in a 10-team league or the top 12 receivers in a 12-team league, all based on the number of points each player has scored to that point in the season. In terms of NFL depth charts, this term describes the team’s best wide receiver.
WR2: This abbreviation describes a No. 2 wideout in a traditional fantasy league. So, that would be receivers 11-20 in a 10-team league or receivers 13-24 in a 12-team league, all based on the number of points each player has scored to that point in the season. In terms of NFL depth charts, this describes the team’s second-best starting wide receiver.
WR3: This abbreviation describes a No. 3 wideout in a traditional fantasy league. So, that would be receivers 21-30 in a 10-team league or receivers 24-36 in a 12-team league, all based on the number of points each player has scored to that point in the season. In terms of NFL depth charts, this describes the team’s third-best starting or slot wide receiver.
Zero-RB Strategy: This is a draft strategy that suggests a fantasy manager does not draft a running back in the early rounds (1-5). All of the picks in these rounds would be a mix of wide receivers (mostly), a single tight end, or a single quarterback. The manager would then focus on drafting running backs starting in the sixth round, hoping to find a few hidden gems. It is a strategy that is growing in popularity in leagues that reward points for catches (favoring wide receivers and tight ends), but it also carries significant risk if your RB picks don’t pan out.
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MICHAEL FABIANO
Michael Fabiano is a fantasy football analyst for Sports Illustrated. His weekly rankings and Start 'Em, Sit 'Em articles are must-reads for fantasy players. He is also the co-host of the Fantasy Dirt Podcast on SI. Before joining SI in August 2020, he worked for CBS Sports, NFL Network and SiriusXM. He also contributes to Westwood One Radio. Fabiano was the first fantasy analyst to appear on one of the four major TV networks and is a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.
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