If your are stuck, or having an issue with the site, here are the answers to some common questions. If you can't find the answer to your question here, please feel free to contact us.
An orphan team is a dynasty fantasy football roster that has been abandoned or left without an owner, usually because the previous manager quit the league. League commissioners list these available teams so new managers can take them over and keep the league competitive.
At the end of the last dynasty year, I was looking for a handful of managers to fill some orphans in my Sleeper dynasty leagues. I had a lot of interest in the teams and wanted a good way to compare these available managers and see who might be a good fit. I wanted someone with some dynasty experience under their belt and a lot of trade activity. The Manager Lookup was born as my way of getting a quick look at the type of manager they are. This site was my first jump into the Sleeper API and is a passion project born out of that, and over time I realized it could possibly be of use to others beyond myself.
In the future, if there were enough interest in the site supporting other platforms, I would look into the possibility. You're always welcome to send a passionate request about that, or anything else, using the contact form.
Account registration is not necessary to user the Manager Lookup or to browse the orphan listings. However, if you do sign up for a free account, you will be able to list your available orphans and express interest in available orphans with a single click. When you are logged into the website, you will see a new button on the orphan listings that says "I'm Interested". You can toggle this on and off with a single click. When you do that, the owner of the orphan team can see your Sleeper username in their dashboard and send you a DM through Sleeper about the team so you can discuss further.
From your account dashboard, you can see the managers interested your teams in a table. Clicking their username will take you to the Manager Lookup page with their name already populated in the data field ready to look them up with a single click. If you like what you see, we recommend sending them a DM through Sleeper to discuss further. All communication between users is handled off-site.
Once you have filled the spot, please delete the listing from the website so others know it is no longer available. You can delete the listing from your account dashboard in the table showing all of your orphan listings.
Fantasy Orphans is a matchmaking and listing platform designed to help connect Sleeper users who are looking to join or fill fantasy football leagues. We do not operate, manage, escrow, or guarantee any leagues, teams, buy-ins, payouts, or agreements between users.
All transactions, league invites, payments, and team transfers take place directly between users and are handled outside of Fantasy Orphans. We are not responsible for the actions, conduct, or agreements of any users on the platform.
For your protection, we strongly recommend using LeagueSafe or another trusted third-party escrow service when exchanging money with people you do not personally know. Never send buy-ins or payments directly to another user without proper protections in place.
By using this site, you acknowledge that you participate in leagues and financial arrangements at your own risk.
Dynasty fantasy football is a multi-year format where managers keep their players from season to season rather than redrafting every year. Building through the rookie draft is a key strategy, making ADP data and draft analysis especially valuable.
A startup draft is how a new dynasty league begins — all players are available and managers draft full rosters from scratch. Unlike redraft leagues, startup drafts set the foundation of a roster for years to come.
TEP stands for Tight End Premium — a scoring format that awards tight ends bonus points per reception, making them more valuable relative to other positions.
Superflex is a roster format that allows a second quarterback to be started in a flex spot, significantly increasing QB value compared to traditional 1QB formats.
All ADP data on Fantasy Orphans comes from real completed Sleeper drafts — not mocks or projections. We calculate average draft position from the most recent drafts matching your selected format and league size, so the numbers reflect where players are actually being taken by real managers.