Draft a full sixteen-man roster against the room, then play the whole year — fourteen weeks head to head, bye weeks covered off your own bench, then the playoffs. Run it once for the story, or a hundred times to find out how often that draft actually wins anything.
Sixteen rounds · nine starters (QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, FLEX, K, D/ST) and seven on the bench · regular season weeks 1–14 · playoffs weeks 15–17, six teams, byes for the top two seeds.
Standard rules: sixteen-man rosters, nine starters, seven bench. Weeks 1–14 are the regular season; playoffs run 15–17 with six teams and byes for the top two seeds. Week 18 is skipped, the way most leagues skip it, because real teams rest starters. Bye weeks are real — a starter on his bye scores nothing and the best eligible man on your bench takes the slot. Injuries are deliberately left out so the result is a verdict on your draft rather than on luck. Practise the draft itself in the Mock Draft, or check the board on The Big Board.