Fantasy Football Draft Tip – Don’t Forget to Check Scoring Settings
As most of us prepare for the upcoming NFL season and the fantasy football drafts that precede it, I wanted to remind everyone just how important it is to verify your individual league’s fantasy scoring settings. While the basic fantasy draft process will remain the same regardless of how the players/teams score points, the amount of points awarded for specific achievements can greatly affect the outcome of your fantasy football matchups.
Here are some irregular fantasy scoring settings that you might need to strategize for prior to drafting your fantasy team:
- Individual Defensive Player leagues (or IDP for short) – Sure, you might know all of the offensive players really well, but do you know which Defensive Backs (DB’s) recorded the most INT/TD’s, the Defensive Lineman (DL’s) who recorded the most Sacks, Fumbles & Tackles? In many IDP fantasy leagues, the defensive players can score the same amount of points as an offensive player. If you overlook doing the preparatory research on these players before the draft, you’ll end up w/ everyone else’s leftovers.
- Completions/Receptions/Rushing Attempts – Most default scoring leagues (e.g. Yahoo, ESPN) do not award points for each individual “successful attempt” that a player makes, but some custom leagues or more advanced leagues will give full (or partial) points for these types of attempt-based statistics. If you were drafting in a fantasy league like this, would you want to draft a running back who is splitting duties w/ one or more other backs? Probably not… You’d want to draft a guy who is going to get a lot of carries (& be successful w/ those carries of course).
- Return Yards – Seems like an odd statistic to award points for, but if you look at a Kick/Punt Returner as an “offensive player”, they move the ball up the field just like the QB, WR & RB’s do, so why shouldn’t they get points for doing so. Exact points vary per league, but 1 point per 10 yds is pretty typical. This is a critical draft consideration, because choosing a dual player can provide you with a lot of extra points without using up a roster slot. For instance, by choosing Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears last year, you could receive points for his long kickoff & punt returns (& scores), as well as his stats as a Wide Receiver.
- Bread & Butter – Some fantasy leagues emphasize a particular position and award them (typically) more points than a player in another position might be awarded. Running Backs and Quarterbacks are typically the most heavily weighted positions in most leagues, but Defense and other positions should also be paid attention closely to in order to avoid drafting the “less” valuable players.
- Defensive Points Allowed – Often times, a defense will get rewarded on how few points they allow the opponent to score. It’s great to get points for team defensive achievements (sacks, interceptions, fumbles, safeties, etc.), but getting bonus points for keeping the scoring down can also determine if you win or lose. An inside joke in our fantasy locker room last year, was that you’d want to pick whichever Defense was matching up w/ the Oakland Raiders for that week – and most often, it worked.
Each fantasy league is different and the league’s manager ultimately has control over the scoring settings, but knowing the settings upfront can mean the difference between winning & losing each week (and over the season as a whole).
Another key element of your scoring settings is the number of fantasy football starters you’ll be able to start each week. Some leagues allow two QB’s, while others only allow one per week, etc. If you don’t know which positions you need to fill, and how many of each to draft, you could end up w/ unneeded players on your bench each week.
Certainly, this isn’t a comprehensive list of every odd fantasy scoring setting out there to watch for, but hopefully this nets you a few extra wins this year in your fantasy league.
Have other tips? Share them via our comments.
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