Play in a crazy fun keeper league with rules and limits on keepers. You get 3 keepers + 1 DP (Didn't play) from the year before, usually reserved for rookies and second year guys.
You keep them in the round they were drafted, so if you get the first pick of the draft, and AJ Green was your first rounder, you keep him, but he's your pick. The champ last year gets 12th pick, and kept Julio in that spot. (Basically you wouldn't get a better player than him at 12. Had he been 2nd or 3rd, he might have let him go hopin to upgrade)
I managed to make numerous sell trades last year in a rebuild, kept my 13,14, 15, and DP's automatically fall to 16. (No matter what round you draft them.)
Kept Walford TE 13
Ajayi RB 14
Tre Mason RB 15 (cut bait, just needed a 15)
Winston QB 16
I had the #3 overall pick
1 2nd
2 3rd's
4 4th's
3 5th's
1 6th (at the top of the 6th no less)
Because of players kept in the first five rounds, my LAST pick was #55.
I pulled
Gronk
Shady McCoy
G. Tate, Decker
Jeremy Hill, Derrick Henry (DP), Delanie Walker, Willie Snead
Jimmy Graham, Crabtree, Arizona
Gostkowski
We play 1 RB, and 2 flex, so I'm versatile all year. Can play 3 TE's, or 3 RB's, or 4 WR's, whatever matchups work or whoever gets hot.
If I get in playoffs, and Henry balls, I could play him two games and keep him eligible for DP. If he plays 3 games, I lose that option.
We get 3 years max to keep player, even if he's traded, 3 years total per player.
DP's rise year to year. You draft one now, it's a "free" year. You get his two games this year, then 3 after that at escalating round.
16 year 1
15 year 2
10 year 3
You dont HAVE to keep a DP, but you'd be stupid not to. Keeping 4 players is better than 3, obviously. But every year someone fails to set themselves up with a DP eligible player.
Free Agents that aren't drafted can be picked up via waivers and kept as 14's the next year.