Fantasy football keeper league rules, explained
In a keeper league, some players carry over from one season to the next instead of going back into the draft pool. The rule that decides what a kept player costs is what makes or breaks a keeper league — here's how the common versions work.
The basic idea
Each owner may keep a limited number of players. Keeping a player costs a draft pick — usually in the round they were drafted, adjusted by a rule. That cost is what stops a league from just keeping its best players forever for free.
Round decay (1 round cheaper each year)
A kept player costs one round earlier for each year you keep them. The longer you hold a player, the more of a bargain they get — until the cost would pass Round 1, when they can no longer be kept.
Example: drafted in Round 8. Kept once: Round 7. Kept twice: Round 6. Kept three times: Round 5. A Round 2 pick can be kept once (Round 1), then that's it.
Round decay by 2
Same idea, twice as fast. It rewards holding a player even more, and it also ends eligibility sooner.
Example: drafted in Round 8. Kept once: Round 6. Twice: Round 4. Three times: Round 2.
Flat cost (no decay)
A kept player always costs the round they were originally drafted in. Nothing changes year to year, so keeping a player never gets cheaper — it's simple and hard to argue about.
Example: drafted in Round 8 means Round 8 every year they're kept.
Fixed round
Every keeper costs the same round, whoever the player is — for example, always Round 5. It makes keepers a straight choice: is this player worth a Round 5 pick?
Limits that go with any rule
- Max keepers per team — how many players each owner can keep in a season.
- Max consecutive years — a cap on how many seasons in a row one player can be kept, so a league doesn't end up with the same core for a decade.
Choosing a rule for your league
- Want to reward good drafting and patience? Round decay does that, but a league needs a max-years cap or players get too cheap.
- Want zero arguments over the math? Flat or fixed round are the easiest to explain to a new owner.
- Worried about early-round picks being kept every year? Use a longer cap plus decay so high picks age out on their own.
Whatever you pick, write it down and apply it the same way to every team. Most keeper-league fights come from a rule that was never pinned down, or was applied differently to different owners.
Try it on your own league
Let KeeperSync track every team's keepers and costs automatically, computed the same way as the examples above. It's free for the rest of this season.