You won’t believe me when I tell you that guillotine leagues will forever change the way you play fantasy football.

Granted, my history is littered with hyperbole (“Severance is the best show ever!” and “Zack Moss doesn’t suck, Buffalo, just use him!”), but trust me, you’ll freak out when you play in a guillotine league.

The core concept is simple. It’s the implications that will blow your mind.

Here’s how a guillotine league works: You start with 18 teams, because there are 18 weeks in an NFL season. There are no head-to-head matchups. Instead, each week the low-scoring team gets chopped from the league and their roster goes to the waiver wire. The last team standing wins.

At this stage of the discussion, usually a ton of questions start popping into peoples’ minds. So, let’s answer some ahead of the 2024 fantasy football season.

Guillotine League FAQs for 2024

Question: Whoa, that could be me getting chopped in Week 1. I’m scared! Hold me!
Answer: You didn’t phrase that as a question, but yes, it could be you. But if you keep reading this guide, it probably won’t be you. This guide will give you a massive advantage over people who haven’t learned the nuances of guillotine leagues.

Question: I promise to try harder to phrase these as questions. An entire roster of players will hit free agency after Week 1?
Answer:  Yes. All 14 players on the chopped team’s roster will hit free agency. The remaining owners will blind bid to acquire those players. 

Question: So that means Christian McCaffrey could be a free agent after Week 1?
Answer: If the team with CMC’s flops badly in Week 1, yes. He could be on your team in Week 2.

Question: How does blind bidding work?
Answer: The waiver system uses blind bidding with a season-long $1000 FAAB. So, if McCaffrey is available after Week 1, you’ll need to decide how much of your $1000 you’ll want to throw at him, knowing that you’ll need that cash throughout the rest of the year. Fantasy Life+ offers specific bidding advice for those tricky decisions. 

Question: For those of us who survive into November, what do our rosters look like then?
Answer: In a word, stacked! By November, you’ll have replaced half your roster with better players. And by December, you’ll be contemplating whether to bench Justin Jefferson or A.J. Brown.

Question: Can I play with fewer than 18 teams? 
Answer: For sure. The only difference is that your season will end earlier.

Question: Can I win the entire league by finishing second to last every single week?
Answer: Yeah! Kinda mind-blowing, right?

At this point, you know how a guillotine league works, and you know the last team standing wins. So, how in the world are you going to win this thing?

Step one: Unlearn everything you think you know about fantasy football.

OK, not everything. You’ll want to retain a firm understanding of the dangers of drafting Patriots wide receivers.

In every other format you’ve ever played, you need to be the very best of 10 or 12 teams. To be the best of the best, you need to take big swings on some of your biggest hunches. And then, those hunches need to pan out. 

But in a guillotine league, you're not trying to finish first. You're trying to not be last in any week.

Access all of my 2024 Guillotine Player Rankings here!

The Guillotine League Mindset

Just Stay Alive

As an example, in Week 1, finishing 17th out of 18 teams is a win! There is no difference between the team that finished first and the team that finished 17th. You're all safe. And further, just because you finished 17th last week doesn't necessarily mean that you're in trouble next week. Everyone has seen their fantasy teams flip-flop weekly performances. Again, the only thing that matters is not getting cut. 

Another major shift in mindset is the importance of your draft. You'll be shocked at how quickly you can recover from a bad guillotine draft — faster than any other format. That's because a whole roster of free agents hits the waiver wire every week. 

As a personal (and somewhat humiliating) example, last year I was really optimistic about Dameon Pierce leading the Texans' backfield. I drafted him in one of my guillotine leagues as a starter.

Obviously, that backfired, but two weeks into the season, I was able to win a bid for Isiah Pacheco, who ended up on the waiver wire after his team got chopped. Pierce got kicked to the curb and Pacheco helped power my team for the rest of the season.

Focus on the present

But the biggest mindset change you'll need to make is your field of vision. Anything that might happen a month from now doesn't matter at all. That's because next month your roster is going to be very different (and better!) than it is now.

Worried that you've got six players on bye during the Week 12 byepocalypse? Don't sweat it! Three or four of those six won't be on your roster by then.

Worried that Miami WR Jaylen Waddle has a brutal end-of-season stretch featuring games against the Jets Niners, and Browns? Don't sweat that either! As good as Waddle is, by that time, second-tier receivers are usually on your bench — your roster will be bulging with superstars like Justin Jefferson, Ja'Marr Chase, and others of their caliber.

The Guide to Guillotine Leagues Fantasy Football