The short version
Four settings decide how your waiver wire behaves: which SYSTEM resolves competing claims, how big the BUDGET is if it is FAAB, whether there is a MINIMUM BID, and WHEN claims process. Everything else in the waivers section is detail. All four are commissioner-only, all four live in the same part of the league settings on every major platform, and the first one is usually locked once the season starts.
This page explains what each value does rather than which button to press, because the buttons move every off-season and the meanings do not. Each platform section links its own support page for the current steps. If you want the strategy rather than the setup, the FAAB strategy guide is the one you want.
Start here
The four settings that actually matter
Every platform words these differently and buries them in a slightly different place, but underneath they are the same four decisions. Get these right and the rest of the waivers section can stay on its defaults forever.
1. The waiver system
- Rolling priority
- A queue. The manager highest in the order wins any claim they enter, and winning drops them to the bottom. Priority is a resource you spend.
- Reverse standings
- The queue is rebuilt from the table every week, so the worst team is first every time. Using it costs nothing, which means there is no reason ever to hold it back.
- FAAB
- A blind auction. Everyone has a season budget, the highest bid wins, and losing costs nothing. The queue only comes back to break ties.
Why it matters. This is the one that changes how the whole season is played, and it is the one you usually cannot change once it has started. Rolling priority rewards patience, reverse standings rewards nobody in particular, and FAAB rewards knowing what a player is worth.
2. The budget
- $100
- The usual default. Round, easy to think in percentages, and the number most published advice assumes.
- $1,000
- Common in high-stakes and chopped leagues. It is the same game with two extra digits, but the finer granularity genuinely does reduce ties.
Why it matters. Less than people think. A $100 league and a $1,000 league make identical decisions, because everything is a share of the budget. What it does change is tie frequency: at $100, a lot of claims land on the same round number.
3. The minimum bid
- $0
- The common default. An uncontested claim is free, which is how most waiver adds happen.
- $1 or more
- Every claim costs something. Stops daily churn of the wire and makes each add a small decision.
Why it matters. A quiet setting with a loud effect on league culture. At zero, an active manager can cycle five players a week for nothing. At a dollar, they think about it.
4. When claims process
- Weekly, Wednesday morning
- The default nearly everywhere. Everyone gets the same window to think after Sunday and Monday.
- Daily
- A rolling window on every dropped player. Keeps the wire live all week and rewards attention over planning.
Why it matters. It sets the real deadline, which is the evening before the run rather than the morning of it. It also decides whether your league has one weekly decision point or seven small ones.
Key idea
The system is a preseason decision you probably cannot undo. The budget, the minimum and the timing are all adjustable and none of them are worth arguing about for long.
Platform 1 of 4
Sleeper
Sleeper puts all of this in the league settings under waivers, and it is the platform most likely to be on FAAB already: a lot of its league templates ship with a budget rather than a queue, which is part of why Sleeper leagues argue about bidding more than ESPN leagues do.
- Waiver type is the dropdown that chooses between a rolling priority queue, a reverse-standings queue and FAAB.
- Waiver budget is the season allowance per team when the type is FAAB. It does not refill.
- Minimum bid sets the floor under a claim. Leave it at zero and free adds stay free.
- Waiver clear day and time is when claims process. Wednesday early morning is the common setting; plenty of leagues move it to Tuesday night so the week starts sooner.
- Waiver period on dropped players decides how long somebody sits on waivers after being cut before becoming a free agent anybody can take.
Sleeper is also the platform this site can read. Connect a Sleeper league to League Pulse and every waiver claim in its history comes with what it actually cost, which turns the guesswork about what your specific league pays into a number.
Current steps and defaults: Sleeper's own waivers article, opens in a new tab.
Platform 2 of 4
Yahoo
Yahoo is the platform people search settings questions about most, and the reason is its waiver TYPE menu: it offers three genuinely different systems under names that do not obviously explain themselves. Knowing which one your league is on is the single most useful thing on this page for a Yahoo manager.
The three waiver types, in plain terms
- Continual rolling list. A queue that persists. Win a claim and you go to the back of it. Your position only improves when other managers use theirs, so priority is a currency and the question is always whether this player is worth spending it.
- Reverse order of standings. The queue is rebuilt from the table on a schedule, so a struggling team is near the front every week and winning a claim does not push them back for long. In this mode there is very little reason to sit on your priority.
- FAAB. The queue is replaced by a blind auction from a season budget. The queue survives only as the tiebreaker when two managers bid the same amount, which is exactly why odd numbers win claims that round numbers lose.
Yahoo leagues are not on FAAB unless somebody turned it on, so if you have never checked, assume you are on a queue. The budget and any minimum bid appear alongside the type once FAAB is selected.
Key idea
If you take one thing from the Yahoo section: find out whether your league is on a continual rolling list or on reverse standings. The right strategy in one is the wrong strategy in the other, and most managers have never looked.
Yahoo also runs a waiver period on newly dropped players, so a cut player is not instantly free. That is the setting behind the common complaint that somebody "could not add" a player who was clearly available: he was on waivers, not in free agency, and the claim had to wait for the next run.
Current steps and defaults: Yahoo's fantasy football waivers help page, opens in a new tab.
Platform 3 of 4
ESPN
ESPN leagues default to a waiver order rather than a budget, and its FAAB option is an alternative to that order rather than something layered on top. A league is on one or the other, never both.
- Waiver order is the queue, set initially from the reverse of the draft order or the standings depending on the league, with options for whether winning a claim sends you to the back.
- Acquisition budget is ESPN's name for FAAB. Turning it on replaces the order for the purpose of awarding claims; $100 is the usual starting figure.
- Acquisition limits are a separate setting worth knowing about: some ESPN leagues cap the total number of adds per team per season or per week, which is a constraint FAAB does not replace.
The acquisition limit catches people out more than the budget does. A manager who has hit their season cap cannot add anybody at any price, and the waiver page does not always make the reason obvious.
Current steps and defaults: ESPN's waivers support article, opens in a new tab.
Platform 4 of 4
NFL.com
NFL.com leagues default to a reverse-standings priority that resets rather than rolls, which is the mode where holding priority back buys you the least. FAAB is available as an alternative in the same settings area.
Because the order resets, a team near the bottom of the table is repeatedly first in line, and a team at the top is repeatedly last. That is a much bigger competitive effect than it sounds like over a full season, and it is the main argument for a league on this platform switching to a budget.
Current steps and defaults: NFL.com's fantasy support, opens in a new tab.
The awkward part
Changing it mid-season
The short answer is that you should not, and on most platforms you largely cannot. The waiver SYSTEM is generally locked once the season is under way, for the good reason that managers have been making decisions on the assumption it would not change. Somebody who spent their priority in week two on the understanding that it was a rolling queue has been robbed if it becomes reverse standings in week seven.
The budget is the messier case. Where a platform allows it to be changed, the change usually applies to the remaining balance in a way nobody predicts, and it always advantages whoever has spent least. If a league genuinely needs to change it, changing it between seasons is the only version of that decision nobody can complain about.
Key idea
Treat the waiver system like the scoring settings. It is part of the contract everyone joined under, and the right time to argue about it is the week before the draft.
If you run a league
A commissioner's short list
Setting up a new league, in the order that matters, with an opinion attached to each because a list of options with no recommendation is not much help.
- Use FAAB. It is more work to learn and it produces a fairer league. A queue hands the best available player to whoever happens to be at the front rather than to whoever wants him most.
- $100, unless your league is experienced. The extra granularity of $1,000 only helps people who are already bidding carefully.
- Set the minimum bid to $1. It costs nobody anything real and it stops the wire being churned for free.
- Keep the run on Wednesday morning. Everybody already expects it, and a league that moves it will spend the season reminding people.
- Write the tiebreaker down. Whatever your platform does with two identical bids, tell the league before it happens rather than after somebody loses a claim to it.
Where to go from here
- How the waiver wire works for the mechanics, plus this week's pickups.
- FAAB strategy for how much to bid once the settings are sorted.
- IDP fantasy football if your league also starts defensive players.
- The FAAB calculator to price a claim against your own roster.
FAQ
Questions, answered
How do I turn on FAAB in my league?
It is a league setting rather than a per-team one, so only the commissioner can do it, and on every major platform it lives in the waivers section of the league settings. On Sleeper the waiver type is a dropdown and FAAB is one of its values. On Yahoo and ESPN the league is on a waiver priority queue unless somebody switches it to a budget. Most platforms will not let you change the waiver system once the season is under way, so this is a preseason decision.
How do I change the FAAB budget?
The budget is a separate setting from the waiver type, in the same part of the league settings, and $100 is the usual default. Changing it mid-season is the part that varies: some platforms allow it and apply the change to everybody's remaining balance in a way that is rarely what anybody expected, and some lock it once claims have been processed. If your league wants a different number, agree it before the draft.
What is a FAAB minimum bid?
A floor under what a claim can cost. With a minimum of zero, which is the common default, an uncontested claim is free. Set it to one dollar and every claim costs at least a dollar, which stops a manager churning the wire daily at no cost. Some leagues set it higher deliberately to make every add a real decision. It is a small setting with a large effect on how busy your waiver wire is.
What are Yahoo's waiver types?
Three of them. A continual rolling list is a queue where winning a claim drops you to the bottom, so priority is a resource you spend. Reverse order of standings rebuilds the queue every week from the table, so the worst team is always first and using it costs nothing. FAAB replaces the queue with a blind auction from a season budget. The three lead to completely different strategies, which is why it is worth knowing which one your league is on before you lose a claim.
Does ESPN support FAAB?
Yes, as an alternative to its waiver order rather than alongside it. An ESPN league runs on a waiver priority order by default, and a commissioner can switch it to an acquisition budget instead, usually $100. The two are exclusive: a league is on one or the other.
What happens to leftover FAAB at the end of the season?
Nothing. It is not carried forward and it is not worth anything, which is the single most useful fact about the whole system. In a dynasty league the budget almost always resets each season while the roster does not, so hoarding is a mistake there too.
Can I see what my league has actually been paying?
Yes, if it is a Sleeper league. Connect it to League Pulse and the transactions feed shows every waiver claim with what it cost, and the FAAB calculator prices new claims against your league's own history rather than against a generic curve.