Most everyone would agree on the right base for fantasy scoring.
- 4 points for TD thrown,
- 6 points for TD scored
- -2 for every pick thrown
- 1 point for every 10 yards of rushing/receiving players accumulate on a non-special team play.
Throw in defense and you’re looking at
- 1 point for sacks,
- 2 for picks,
- 6 for TDs.
Additionally, your defense will continuously lose points for the number of yards and points they give up. Kickers also get 3, 4, or 5 points depending on how far their field goal is made and will lose a point for any miss. Almost every single scoring format you can think of is rooted in this base format of scoring. We all know this.
Some leagues like to mix it up and have different base scoring, such as 6 points for a TD thrown or 4 points touchdown scored. I don’t care for these changes because it causes way too much change to the entire league. In a six-point TD league, all starting quarterbacks are almost guaranteed to be picked in the first and second rounds.
Should my league use Standard scoring?
Standard isn’t bad at all, it’s simply the base format with nothing added on. I use to play in standard leagues all the time till a guy in one of my older leagues convinced us to switch to PPR. Standard is just gonna make fantasy way to running back heavy, it essentially guarantees the team with the best running backs to win it all. This thought process birthed the PPR format we know today.
What about PPR?
PPR allows for an additional element of complexity within fantasy football. Acknowledging a reception as a different and more challenging touch than a hand-off enhances the game (anyone who knows football would also tell you it’s harder to catch a football than it is to receive a handoff).
In PPR we see two main differences from standard.
The first is that WRs and TEs immediately become more valuable. Roughly 98% of WRs and TEs never get a handoff in the NFL season, making a reception their primary source of touches in a given game. This is especially true for TEs who, often, get less yardage than WRs, but more touches. Most TEs will see their point total increase fivefold just by getting a point for a catch.
The second main difference PPR offers is receiving Running Backs. Over the last decade, the NFL has seen a huge growth in the number of RBs that play a vital role in the passing game. These are guys who will get 20 handoffs a game but will also add another 7-10 catches. Guys like prime Le’Veon Bell, healthy CMC, and bald Austin Ekeler have proved this design of RB can be league-dominating. It also turns backup RBs into viable flex plays, like Tony Pollard. PPR has made these running backs more valuable than RBs who just get handoffs, like Ezekiel Elliot or James Connor. It adds a justified element to the game.
.5 PPR?
This format just cuts the value of receptions in half. I used to think this format was lame. In the new era of football though, it could actually be really fun. With the rise of receiving RBs, fantasy is reverting back to being dominated by RBs like standard. With .5 PPR it takes away some of the advantages for those RBs and gives it back to WRs and TEs.
I don’t knock any of these formats, they all have their pros and cons. As a fantasy football purist, I think you would be wise to use some type of PPR format compared to standard scoring, but I’m not god, or your father, or your boss, so you don’t have to take it from me.
Was this whole article just a rouge to justify putting this tweet in? We will never know.
(It wasn’t, this video is hilarious tho).
