My Hybrid Keeper/Redraft League

Keeper leagues are great. Redraft leagues are great. However, each of these has some things that make them less than ideal.

A few years ago I took these issues to my owners and I created a hybrid league that attempts to be the best of both worlds. It's a keeper league where it's really hard (but not impossible) to keep the best players, so the draft is always pretty robust. And it's actually pretty simple:

1st rounders - $10
2nd rounders - $9
etc. until the last round which is $1.
Several of the middle rounds repeat - like both the 4th and 5th round picks are $7

And here's where it works: The total salary cap any team is allowed to keep is just $20. This means teams almost certainly have to throw back very good players. But, if you hit on a late round guy, you can keep him for a long time. (I got Nico in the last round a few years ago for $1 and will be keeping him for several more years).

Another big rule that ensures that talent finds its way back into the draft: Any player who is kept at $10 MUST be thrown back the next year. The way this works is let's say you draft Bijan in round 1 this year. His salary is $10. That means you could keep him at $10 in 2026, but if you do so, in 2027 he goes back into the draft.

My first one of these leagues was started in 2017 and I've since created a second one. In our experience, there are a LOT of trades leading up to the trade deadline with the contenders giving up future assets to the non-contenders. There is also a ton of players movement and draft picks traded leading up to the draft, since every team has about $75+ dollars of players they'd like to keep but only a $20 salary cap.

Anyway, I was bored and thought I'd share if anyone was trying to find a way to get the best of both redraft and keeper leagues.