Regular season
Weekly matchups, waivers, FAAB, and in-season roster management as flexible standards.
The regular season is the main stretch of the year after the draft. Franchises compete in weekly head-to-head matchups during the NFL season while owners manage lineups, free agents, trades, and optional future contracts.
Matchups and record
Each week, starter points decide the matchup. Higher score wins; equal scores tie. Regular-season record is usually the primary factor for playoff eligibility and seeding, with points scored as a common tiebreaker.
Schedule length and matchup generation depend on league size and platform settings.
Waivers
Most leagues place temporary holds on free agents so every owner has time to claim them. A common standard: dropped players receive a short waiver period, and free agents may also go on waivers at the start of a scoring week. Unclaimed players then become freely available.
Waiver priority often starts in reverse draft order and resets periodically (for example weekly) to reverse standings. A successful claim may drop that franchise to the bottom of the list. Many leagues freeze or stop resetting priority in the playoffs.
FAAB
Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB) is an optional but popular standard for mid-season adds. Each franchise receives a FAAB budget for the season and can attach bids to waiver claims. Highest bid wins; spent FAAB is typically gone whether the claim succeeds or fails. Tied bids usually fall back to waiver priority.
When FAAB is enabled, it generally overrides plain waiver priority for deciding the winning claim. Budget size and bid rules are league settings.
Season waivers and FAAB are separate from the signature end-of-cycle free agency period that runs before the next draft.