One of the most frequently asked-about acronyms in fantasy football is BN. If you’re new to fantasy football, you might be overwhelmed by the number of terms and acronyms involved.
Like a real-life sports team, fantasy football has a bench for players who are not included in the starting lineup.
Players on the bench cannot score points for your fantasy team. They remain on your roster and cannot be used by other managers.
Before a game, you can switch a player from your bench to your starting lineup at any time.
There is a link between the number of bench spots on a fantasy football team and the quality of players on the waiver wire. When a league has a large number of bench spots per team, the waiver wire talent will be quite low.
Teams with fewer bench spots will be able to add higher quality players from the wire.
Benefits Of BN In Fantasy Football
With your new knowledge of what BN stands for in fantasy football, let’s take a look at some of the top ways you can use bench space.
Handcuffing
In fantasy football, handcuffing refers to owning a player who will become a starter if their team suffers an injury. Say, you own Saquon Barkley of the New York Giants.
To get his backup, you would place Devontae Booker into one of your BN spots. Booker is Saquon’s backup, so if Saquon gets hurt, Booker would start.
In addition, you can handcuff running backs that you do not own on your fantasy team.
Fantasy teams can benefit from holding onto a backup who will become an immediate starter in the event of an injury.
Breakout Candidates
Breakout candidates are players who have the potential to score a lot of fantasy points and become starters in your lineup.
Since these players have not yet broken out, they are not currently scoring a lot of fantasy points, making them more likely to remain available on waiver wires.
You can keep these players on your bench until they start producing enough to enter the starting lineup by acquiring them before the breakout.
These breakout players are usually rookies or second-year players.
Depth For Bye Weeks
In fantasy football, holding onto depth players can also be beneficial.
Each NFL team will have one bye week throughout the year. This means your starters will be unavailable for at least one week during the season.
With quality backups in your BN spots, you will be able to handle bye weeks with ease.
A few solid depth players on your bench can also help cover these injury-heavy weeks throughout the year.
Most depth players are added during the draft and remain on your roster throughout the season.
Learn what starting percentage is in fantasy football or what opp rank means in our fantasy football guides.