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Free Agency in Fantasy Football Leagues

What Is the Difference Between the Waiver Wire and Free Agency?

There are two ways to pick up unowned players in DataForce Fantasy Football leagues:

1. Blind bidding waivers, usually just called "waivers," run each Wednesday at 9pm Central time. You use bid money for these players.
2. First-come-first-served (FCFS) free agency opens after waivers finish each week. Free agents cost nothing and can be added at any time until their game starts.

When a player is dropped from a team, he goes on waivers and is available for blind bidding the next Wednesday. DataForce resolves waivers by blind bidding rather than worst-to-first or other options because it is the fairest method.

A few exceptions:

• A player picked up and dropped in the same week skips waivers and goes straight back to free agency (except in Salary Cap leagues).
• A player dropped in the 24 hours before the Wednesday waiver run is not available in that run; he will be up for bidding the following week.
• After week 13, dropped players (other than kickers and defenses) are permanently locked and unavailable for the rest of the season, except in dynasty, legacy and guillotine leagues.

Before waivers run each week, all unowned players can only be acquired by bidding, so you'll find no players at all on this free agency page. Player values can change rapidly over the weekend's games, and when a new prospect rises to the surface, everyone should have an equal chance at him. Use the waivers page to bid.

Free Agency Opens at 9:30pm Central Each Wednesday

About thirty minutes after the weekly blind bids are processed, any players still unowned are free to pick up. These are free agents, and you can add as many as your roster allows, up until their game starts for the week (or Monday night if they don't play this week). When their game starts, they're locked and removed from free agency. (Tin Baby leagues allow only one pickup per week.)

In weeks when the first NFL game is played on a Wednesday, waivers run at 11am Central instead, and free agency opens at 11:30am Central.

Of course, you must drop enough players to make room for the free agents you choose. If you perform adds/drops and don't seem to have gotten all the players you asked for, you probably didn't drop enough players. Just come back to this page and run it again.

Players dropped by other teams during blind bidding, or during adds/drops later in the week, will not land in free agency. They stay on waivers until the next Wednesday bidding, so that everybody gets an equal chance at them.

IMPORTANT: There is no free agency in the preseason! Until the final preseason waiver run before week 1, the only way to acquire players is blind bidding.

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