FAAB Strategy for 2025 Fantasy Football Season

FAAB, which stands for Free Agent Acquisition Budget, is a waiver wire system that can add a lot of fun and a new level of competition to your league on a weekly basis. Whether you are new to fantasy football or a veteran just looking to shake things up, I’m about to explain not only what FAAB is, but how you can use it to improve your league, and strategies to help you navigate (and game) the system.

How Does FAAB Work?

In a FAAB system, each team is given an equal amount of FAAB dollars at the beginning of the season, which they can in turn use to bid on free agents every week during the waiver wire window. Each manager will put in blind bids for players, and whoever bids the highest signs them. As opposed to a standard waiver wire where priority is typically given to the lowest scoring teams, FAAB systems require managers to put their (fake) money where their mouth is.

FAAB formats can vary slightly, so it is important to make sure you know your league rules before accidentally blowing all of your FAAB. For instance, while most leagues allow you to place a $0 on a player (and thus get them for free if no other teams place a bid), some will make the minimum bid $1 (or whatever the smallest denomination the league uses) so that even the smallest pickups still cost you something. Just like in normal formats, the player with the higher waiver wire priority will win the player in the event of a tie.

Remember, the amount of FAAB that your league uses as the base budget is entirely nominal since every team starts out with the same amount, so when researching FAAB waiver wire pickups, make sure you are looking at the % you should be spending, not the dollar amount.

Other potential variations include whether FAAB can be included as part of a trade and how often the waiver wire runs. In a continuous FAAB system, the waiver wire resets every night throughout the week so that each day there’s a new round of bidding each day, while in a hybrid system, there will only be one round of bidding on the same day each week (typically Wednesday or Thursday) and afterwards any players that have not been claimed are free to acquire for the rest of the week.

Just like with any other league rules or settings, it will take some trial and error to find what works best for your individual league. For those trying out FAAB for the first time, I recommend that you allow $0 bids and FAAB trading and set your schedule to a hybrid system with auctions happening once per week. This setup should offer the most flexibility for last-minute acquisitions and will still feel familiar to players who are used to a regular waiver wire.

FAAB Strategy: Spend or Save?

Just like with real money, how fantasy players spend FAAB can vary widely, adding even more variability and intrigue to your league. Some folks are spenders, who feel that budget burns a hole in their virtual pockets and will spend most, if not all, of their budget right away. Meanwhile, some players are savers, hoarding their FAAB throughout the year, worried that they won’t have enough to bid on a late-season league winner, if and when they show up.

While in real life, with real money, I find myself to be much more of a saver, when it comes to FAAB, I am all about spending and trading. Fantasy football will forever be about placing your bets and planting your flag, so when it comes to using your FAAB, you should be looking for the highest upside that will help you potentially win your league. That’s not to say that I recommend using 100% of your budget in the first few weeks, because late-season injuries can happen, and you don’t want to be left with a glaring roster hole just before the fantasy playoffs.

More often than not, the early-season bets are the ones that can turn into the true difference makers. Just looking back at the past few years, here are some of the biggest waiver wire pickups through the first three weeks, when they were below 35% rostered:

• 2022 had a slow start to the waiver wire, but in the first three weeks you could easily pick up the likes of Jamaal Williams (who would go on to have 17 rushing touchdowns that year), rookie Garrett Wilson on his way to a WR2 finish, and Evan Engram who would finish as the TE #5 in PPR.
• 2023 was probably the biggest year for early-season free agent pickups. There were so many great players out there that I won’t even list their selling points; the names speak for themselves: Kyren Williams, Puka Nacua, Nico Collins, Tank Dell, Raheem Mostert, De’Von Achane, and Sam Laporta were all there for the taking.
• 2024 couldn’t quite match the heights of the previous year, but there were still quite a few notable pickups like Bucky Irving, Chase Brown, J.K. Dobbins, Jordan Mason, and Baker Mayfield, many of which found themselves as starters on championship rosters.

So, how much of your budget would you have spent on Puka in 2023? Is 100% really out of the question? If you had bid just a little more last year, could Chase Brown have brought you home the trophy? Keep in mind that it’s not just how good the players were, but how long they helped your team. Getting these players at the beginning of the season means that they provide much more value than a player who starts a hot streak in Week 12 after you’ve already been eliminated.

We, as fantasy players, spend all offseason ranking players based on perceived narrative, but every year we see that we were wrong on a handful of them during the first few games. Maybe a rookie is more or less involved than we anticipated. Maybe the offense is way more run-heavy than we initially projected. Believe what the teams are telling you with their actions at the start of the season and be ready to take your shot. That’s not to say that every player will end up being a home run, but you can’t hit a homer if you don’t swing for the fences.

That’s why, when it comes to FAAB, I think that it’s completely reasonable to spend up to 75% of your budget in those first few weeks. Again, I still recommend saving just a little bit of your budget for some unforeseen injury or shakeup late in the season, but for the most part, go out and spend big early on!

Other FAAB Considerations

The other big thing to keep in mind is that FAAB requires managers to be a little more invested in the league and to pay attention a bit more. Along with your own FAAB, you need to be monitoring where all of your league mates’ budgets are at. There’s no reason to ever bid $50 on a player if nobody else in your league has that much money remaining. Be shrewd! If your league doesn’t allow $0 bids, don’t make a bunch of $1 bids on role players that you aren’t really sold on or who might only be on your roster for a week, especially if there are multiple players of similar values available. Wait until the auction for the week happens, and then go scoop up one of the leftover freebies.

You’ll notice as the season goes on that fewer and fewer players are bid on every week as managers start holding on to their remaining budget. Know where everyone else stands on budget and their team needs, and you can make much more informed bids. Just like with regular waivers, if there’s a player with a juicy stretch of games that you’re eyeballing, grab him a week or two in advance when the price will be a little cheaper.

Don’t be afraid to trade FAAB either. Sometimes, throwing a few dollars in the trade is all you need to get someone who’s on the fence to hit accept. Maybe there’s a player you plan on dropping. Why not throw out some offers and see if anyone wants to give you $1 for them? I’ve noticed in my FAAB leagues that managers are much more willing to trade. Maybe that’s because a few dollars can help things feel a bit more even. Maybe that’s because managers may not want to spend up for players on the waiver wire. FAAB offers another wrinkle to fantasy trades, and for savvy players, yet another way to separate from the pack.

So, are you ready to try FAAB out? FAAB systems are way more useful than they appear just on the surface, and if you’re ready to take your league to the next level of competition, are probably worth the switch.