How the Lineup Works
Everything you need to know about building your Starting 11 each week — from how available players work to when your picks lock in.
The Starting 11
Each week you set the best lineup you can from your remaining available players. Once a player is burned — gone for good.
As you set your lineup each week, remember the ENB football season runs 17 weeks. Just like fantasy leagues across the country, nobody wants to play in Week 18 — it's basically a preseason week where most starters rest and chaos takes over.
I'm a lifelong super‑flex truther — been running leagues with it for over 20 years. It still blows my mind that the fantasy world hasn't fully adjusted. Quarterback is the most important position in all of sports, and the only player who touches the ball every single play.
For those who've never played super‑flex, it's a huge part of the Earn N' Burn football identity. In reality, you can — and probably should — start a quarterback in your super‑flex spot almost every week. With 17 weeks in the season, that's 34 quarterbacks, and there are only 32 teams — meaning the bottom of your QB list is going to get uncomfortable fast.
In super‑flex formats, backup quarterbacks who get a surprise start — whether due to injury or benching — get scooped up instantly, and many managers plug them straight into their lineup. Sometimes that works out… and sometimes it absolutely does not.
Back in 2017, I needed a quarterback for a November week and grabbed rookie Nathan Peterman, who was starting in place of Tyrod Taylor for the Bills. It turned into one of the worst QB performances in NFL history: 6/14 for 66 yards, 4 rushing yards, 0 touchdowns, 5 interceptions, and a fumble (not lost). Two of those picks were returned for touchdowns — and all of it happened in the first half before he was benched. Listening to that game on the radio was pure pain. When you plug his stat line into the ENB scoring calculator, he finishes with –18.96 points.
The moral of the story: starting every quarterback who takes the field isn't always the winning move. Sometimes the burn is real.
Navigating the Lineup Page
To get to the Set Your Lineup section, select Lineup (red section) from the navigation bar at the top of any page.
The yellow section shows your burn tracker count — the number of players you have burned so far this season. This number increases every week as 11 players are burned per week. After 5 weeks, for example, 55 players will have been burned from your pool. Within this section you can select the View burn list → link (second image below) to see every player you've burned by position for the entire season.
The blue section shows the current week's NFL schedule (third image below), broken down in order by date, day, and game time — along with each matchup and whether it is a home or away game.
The gray section is where you build your lineup. Use the dropdowns to select a player for each slot. Players are listed from highest to lowest YTD ENB points so your top available options are always at the top. Once you select a player, the green section will update with that player's game time and lock time for the week. Any player that has already been burned from your pool will not appear in any dropdown. Additionally, once a player is selected in one slot — for example Lamar Jackson at QB — he will not appear in your S-FLX dropdown or any other slot. This applies consistently across all positions.
The pink section contains your Save Lineup and Clear Unlocked buttons. You can adjust any player in your lineup up until 5 minutes before their game. If you select Clear Unlocked, all players whose lineup lock has not yet triggered will be removed from your lineup. As an example: Jalen Hurts is showing a lineup lock of 4:20 PM ET on Sunday. You get a news alert that Hurts has been benched. If you can get back into your lineup before 4:20 PM, you can swap him out for another available player who hasn't locked yet.
The last image below shows how the player list appears within each dropdown. Each player entry displays in the following order:
- Player Name (First Last)
- Team
- Opponent
- Game Day
- Game Time (EST)
- ENB points scored for the current year — Week 1 will show the previous year's points
Players who have already been burned will not appear in your dropdown. The list is always sorted in descending order based on YTD ENB points, so your highest-scoring available players are at the top.
