It's important, when talking about fantasy football, to reference the league format you play in. Many a pointless debate on player rankings is ends only after folks realize they play under different league settings. Here's my preferred format with a little explanation thrown in.
Teams: 12
Every team has the opportunity to be well balanced and competitive. With 10 teams you get one or two seriously stacked teams and with 14 teams you get one or two really terrible rosters irrespective of a manager's drafting skills. Never understood the fun of playing in 14+ team leagues. It's like playing a Super Bowl in New York...
Defense: Individual Defensive Players
I think team defenses are one of the stupidest and lazy elements of mainstream fantasy football. Team defenses are about as predictable as kickers and thus about as valuable. On top of that, team defenses, on a week to week basis, score about as much as a kicker. It's called fantasy football, not fantasy offensive football! Step up and challenge yourself if you haven't tried an IDP league. It's a lot of fun!
Roster Format: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, W/T, W/T,R, K, LB, LB, D, D, D, DB, DB
Why these positions? Because these are the ones that have enough predictability and variability to support a league of 12 teams where all managers have a shot at building a competitive team. My belief is that every manager should have a shot at drafting competitive players at every position. Teams shouldn't be required to have a TE because there aren't 12 TE's in the NFL that accumulate significant and/or consistent fantasy stats, hence the two flex positions. Why aren't there defensive lineman? Because defensive lineman, the really really good ones, average 2 tackles and maybe 1 sack a game. Not consistent scorers and not enough guys put up those stats. The NFL is about yards, scoring td's, tackling, and getting turnovers...and maybe kicking too.
PPR: Yes please!
You know how valuable Wes Welker is, or was rather, to the Patriots, but do you know how valuable Darren Sproles' 67 catches were? Or how about how special Trent Richardson's 51 catches were? Or why defenses hate playing LeSean McCoy? These guys move chains and it's often on 3rd and less than 7. Those plays are huge and that type of value is largely lost when you only count the number of yards a player gains on his catches. Of course you've got to find the right number of points to assign receptions. Personally I like 0.5pts rather than a full point.
Passing TDs: 6 points
Why the hell would they be different? QBs are the most valuable players in football and thus should be the most valuable in fantasy. A touchdown pass isn't worth 4 points in the actual games so why change it just to devalue QBs? I get changing the points if one is in a 16 team league where only half of your offensive players will be good, but, well I've already address how I feel about that.
Return Yards: Absolutely
Return yards are huge in football and players that earn a ton are very valuable to their teams. Including this stat really makes flex players interesting. Devin Hester, Jacoby Jones, and others like them are game changers, but in standard leagues they're almost worthless unless they score. Giving points for return TDs isn't enough. If a guy returns a kickoff for 70 yards, that's at least 50 yards the offense doesn't have to travel to score. Kick return yards equal field goals and punts downed inside the 10. Returners should be a part of fantasy football.
Waivers: Hell No!
Call me a laisse-faire fantasy footballer, but I think having a pecking order of who can pick up players is like socialism gone bad. Let the invisible hand of your league play it's part. If you keep getting clobbered in your league because you don't pay enough attention to what's happening in The League (not the show) to pick up good players then that's a "you problem". I know waivers exist in real football, and I'm sure the really good teams would probably get rid of it if they could while the bad teams wouldn't. Go figure.
Championship Game: Week 16
If you need an explanation for playing the final game in week 16 instead of week 17 then this blog is over your head (and that's sad). Stop reading.
Keepers: Nope, but...
I've got no beef with keeper leagues. The iterations of different types can get complicated, but if I were to play in a keeper league I'd opt for keeping no more than 4 total players (2 on offense and 2 on defense). More than that it I think it becomes difficult for teams to improve as no one lets go of the really good players.
Okay, now you know where I stand on league structure. There are other details, but that's the basics. If you like what you're reading stay tuned, I'll begin to talk about my thoughts on players next week!
Teams: 12
Every team has the opportunity to be well balanced and competitive. With 10 teams you get one or two seriously stacked teams and with 14 teams you get one or two really terrible rosters irrespective of a manager's drafting skills. Never understood the fun of playing in 14+ team leagues. It's like playing a Super Bowl in New York...
Defense: Individual Defensive Players
I think team defenses are one of the stupidest and lazy elements of mainstream fantasy football. Team defenses are about as predictable as kickers and thus about as valuable. On top of that, team defenses, on a week to week basis, score about as much as a kicker. It's called fantasy football, not fantasy offensive football! Step up and challenge yourself if you haven't tried an IDP league. It's a lot of fun!
Roster Format: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, W/T, W/T,R, K, LB, LB, D, D, D, DB, DB
Why these positions? Because these are the ones that have enough predictability and variability to support a league of 12 teams where all managers have a shot at building a competitive team. My belief is that every manager should have a shot at drafting competitive players at every position. Teams shouldn't be required to have a TE because there aren't 12 TE's in the NFL that accumulate significant and/or consistent fantasy stats, hence the two flex positions. Why aren't there defensive lineman? Because defensive lineman, the really really good ones, average 2 tackles and maybe 1 sack a game. Not consistent scorers and not enough guys put up those stats. The NFL is about yards, scoring td's, tackling, and getting turnovers...and maybe kicking too.
PPR: Yes please!
You know how valuable Wes Welker is, or was rather, to the Patriots, but do you know how valuable Darren Sproles' 67 catches were? Or how about how special Trent Richardson's 51 catches were? Or why defenses hate playing LeSean McCoy? These guys move chains and it's often on 3rd and less than 7. Those plays are huge and that type of value is largely lost when you only count the number of yards a player gains on his catches. Of course you've got to find the right number of points to assign receptions. Personally I like 0.5pts rather than a full point.
Passing TDs: 6 points
Why the hell would they be different? QBs are the most valuable players in football and thus should be the most valuable in fantasy. A touchdown pass isn't worth 4 points in the actual games so why change it just to devalue QBs? I get changing the points if one is in a 16 team league where only half of your offensive players will be good, but, well I've already address how I feel about that.
Return Yards: Absolutely
Return yards are huge in football and players that earn a ton are very valuable to their teams. Including this stat really makes flex players interesting. Devin Hester, Jacoby Jones, and others like them are game changers, but in standard leagues they're almost worthless unless they score. Giving points for return TDs isn't enough. If a guy returns a kickoff for 70 yards, that's at least 50 yards the offense doesn't have to travel to score. Kick return yards equal field goals and punts downed inside the 10. Returners should be a part of fantasy football.
Waivers: Hell No!
Call me a laisse-faire fantasy footballer, but I think having a pecking order of who can pick up players is like socialism gone bad. Let the invisible hand of your league play it's part. If you keep getting clobbered in your league because you don't pay enough attention to what's happening in The League (not the show) to pick up good players then that's a "you problem". I know waivers exist in real football, and I'm sure the really good teams would probably get rid of it if they could while the bad teams wouldn't. Go figure.
Championship Game: Week 16
If you need an explanation for playing the final game in week 16 instead of week 17 then this blog is over your head (and that's sad). Stop reading.
Keepers: Nope, but...
I've got no beef with keeper leagues. The iterations of different types can get complicated, but if I were to play in a keeper league I'd opt for keeping no more than 4 total players (2 on offense and 2 on defense). More than that it I think it becomes difficult for teams to improve as no one lets go of the really good players.
Okay, now you know where I stand on league structure. There are other details, but that's the basics. If you like what you're reading stay tuned, I'll begin to talk about my thoughts on players next week!
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