For those just getting into fantasy football, you’ve likely heard the term “Flex” thrown around a lot. If you don’t know what it is, that’s probably quite confusing. But fear not! Here is everything you need to know about the Flex position in fantasy football.
What Is the Flex Position For?
It’s easy for fantasy analysts to get caught up in assuming everyone who plays fantasy football already knows everything about it. I may not be able to remember when the concept of a Flex position was first explained to me (mostly because I’m old), but there was indeed a point at which I didn’t know what it was. For those of you first getting into fantasy, you’ve come to the right place!
Even the most novice fantasy managers know that lineups consist of quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends. In your standard fantasy league, you’re starting one QB, one TE, and at least two each of RBs and WRs.
Starting rosters can be whatever your league wants, but the default on most fantasy platforms involves one QB, two RBs, 2-3 WRs, and 1-2 Flexes. Unless your league decides to remove them, fantasy lineups also contain kickers and defenses, but they are not the subject of anything we’re covering here.
In each designated roster position, you can only start players eligible for that spot. At running back, you can only start running backs. At wide receiver, you can’t start a tight end. As you may have gathered, the Flex spot allows for … you guessed it … flexibility! In a Flex position, you can start players at multiple positions.
The purpose of a Flex position is to allow more variance in how fantasy managers build their rosters. It increases the skill of roster construction and creates more diverse rosters.
Different Flex Types To Choose From
While all leagues can include Flex positions, there are different types of Flexes to choose from. In its purest form, the Flex allows fantasy managers to start a running back, wide receiver, or tight end.
This is what used to be known as a “Full Flex” but is now simply called the Flex. Absent a qualifier to the term “Flex,” you can assume any RB, WR, or TE is eligible.
With that said, there are limitations commissioners can place on what positions are eligible to be placed in the Flex spot. The most common restrictions are WR/RB Flexes and WR/TE Flexes. Just to alleviate any potential confusion, the WR/RB Flex prohibits the inclusion of tight ends, while the WR/TE Flex prevents anyone from starting a running back.
There is another type of Flex spot that has gained traction in fantasy leagues more recently. We’ll get to that in the final section.
Is It Better To Play a RB or WR in Flex?
Unsurprisingly, there is no objectively correct answer to this question. The objectively correct answer is you should start your best players. Whether those end up being running backs or wide receivers depends on how you constructed your roster.
Back when I started playing fantasy football in the early 2000s, the answer was almost always running backs. In fact, Flex spots were largely frowned upon, because there would be a sizable advantage for those teams that were able to secure three bell-cow running backs.
In the modern NFL, there’s no inherent advantage to being able to start three or four running backs in your lineup. Thus, the theory on fantasy lineups has shifted in the opposite direction toward the inclusion of more Flexes, as there are more fantasy-relevant players than ever.
The more important question is whether you should plan to start an RB or WR in the Flex. Of course, as Mike Tyson so eloquently put it, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
Your plan could be to build around running backs, and then the fantasy gods can punch you in the mouth with injuries, forcing you to start wide receivers. You could go into your draft trying to build a WR-heavy roster, but so does everyone else. That might force you to pivot to going RB-heavy.
There’s also the matter of your league’s scoring settings. If they favor one position over the other, that’s the position you should want to put in your Flex. There are even leagues where it’s advantageous to try and draft two tight ends to start every week. Those are called TE premium leagues, and that’s an article for another time.
In non-PPR leagues, you probably want to start as many running backs as you can. In full-PPR leagues, you should look to focus on wide receivers. In half-PPR leagues, I lean toward running backs, but strong wide receivers are still very viable.
Ultimately, there is no objectively correct decision. Even in non-PPR leagues, if you have really good wide receivers and weak running backs, you won’t start players that average fewer fantasy points per game just because of the position they play. Start your best players. Always.