6 Quick Fixes to Improve Your Fantasy League

Some things are hard to fix - Fantasy Football isn’t one of them

(Published June 20, 2023)

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Hello, readers! Summer officially starts tomorrow, and that means most fantasy drafts in season-long leagues are about 2 months away. Giddyup! We’ll be posting a lot of great predraft content over the next 10 weeks, including our redraft rankings, players to avoid and target at ADP, drafting tips and checklists, and more. So please keep it here, and check back regularly for new content.

But that will all have to wait - today is soapbox day here at The Pigskin Papers. When I started writing this blog, I committed that a regular feature of my content would be to challenge conventional wisdom, where warranted. So if you’ll indulge me, that’s what I plan to do today. I’ll once again examine some of the biggest flaws in fantasy football’s standard rules and format, and provide some easy fixes. I’ve written on this topic several times before. Since lots of leagues update rules in June and July, hopefully this is timely, and if just one league takes just one suggestion from this piece and makes it a reality, I’ll be happy. A prior piece on rule changes, from 2021, can be found here: https://www.thepigskinpapers.com/posts-1/lets-fix-fantasy-football .

     Fantasy football has been around for more than 3 of the NFL’s 10 decades. It’s grown into a billion-dollar industry, with tens of millions of people playing across a variety of daily, dynasty, and season-long formats. Over time, a fairly “standard” version of the season-long game has taken hold, and most players just accept the format and rules as they are. But fantasy managers control their leagues and can change league rules and settings to suit them. Leagues that are willing to be thoughtful and creative can find ways to improve the basic setup, making it more fun, fair, and rewarding for all. Many hosting websites (like My Fantasy League (MFL), for example) are flexible when it comes to settings and scoring. 

     For more than 25 years, I’ve played in a 14 team redraft league that’s evolved into a structure that’s definitely not “standard”. We’ve tried to identify flaws and fix them, with the main objectives being fairness, competitiveness, and merit-based outcomes. We’ve questioned things that don’t make a lot of sense, and replaced them with what does. Our league isn’t alone - I’m aware of plenty of leagues that have devised rule and format changes aimed at improving the fantasy football experience. I’m always interested in hearing about these variations. If your league has some unique rules or features, please share them in the comments section at the end of the article, or email me at: pigskinpapers@gmail.com.

     Resistance to change is natural. But hear me out. You’re playing a great game with some dumb rules. So let’s get into it.

Why is the NFL’s Best QB a Late 2nd Round Pick?

(1) Superflex It!

More and more leagues are moving to a Superflex (SF) format, and that’s a good thing. But there are still way too many 8, 10, and 12 team leagues out there where only one QB is permitted in the starting lineup. In a SF league, one of the flex spots can be a QB, and the vast majority of teams in a SF start 2 QBs each week.

QB is the most important position in the game (and maybe in all of sports), QBs are the highest-paid players in the NFL, and QBs are the highest-scoring players in fantasy. But due to a lack of positional scarcity, QB has been greatly devalued in fantasy, to the point that in one-QB leagues, it’s typical for no QBs to go in the first 15 or so picks. Right now, Patrick Mahomes has the highest Average Draft Position (ADP) of any QB, at #19. Plenty of excellent fantasy QBs are available well into the middle rounds. QB10 Dak Prescott has an ADP of 82 (late 7th round in a 12-teamer). By doubling the number of starting QBs across a league, SF market-corrects the positional scarcity. It realigns QB value (which you can measure by ADP) so that it’s closer to actual fantasy scoring value. As an added bonus, SF increases the options for early-round draft strategies. In a SF draft, you can expect more than half of the first round picks to be QBs, and many more come off the board in subsequent early rounds. Shouldn’t the highest fantasy scorers be drafted early?

Again, this is about positional scarcity. Think of it this way - in a 12-team league that starts 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, and one Flex, about 40-45 WRs will be in starting lineups each week, or about 1.3 per NFL team. In that same league, only 12 QBs can start each week, which is just .375 per NFL team. Yes, many NFL teams have 2 or in a few cases even 3 WRs that are fantasy-worthy, but still, that roughly 4:1 ratio of starting WRs to starting QBs is a big imbalance, in terms of getting the most productive fantasy players into lineups. Aaron Rodgers finished last season as the QB13, which made him at best a borderline starter. But he was also the overall player 25 in points scored in Half PPR. In a single QB league, multiple QBs who are top 30 scorers are riding the bench every week.

While I think moving to SF is a no-brainer, the exception I’d make is leagues with 14 or more teams. In those cases, you can start to run too thin at the position. But for everyone else, if you aren’t already there, you should seriously consider the SF format.

(2) Get Rid of Head-to-Head Play

     Yes, this is controversial, and I’ve already spilled too much ink over this in past articles (see the link above if you want more), so I’ll distill the premise: In head-to-head, your weekly Win/Loss outcome is way too dependent on something you have zero control over - who your opponent is and how his or her random collection of NFL players happens to perform. Also, due to the random allocation of bye weeks, injuries, and more, strength of schedule varies wildly across a league. Do you really want the highest scoring teams in your league to miss the playoffs? Well, it happens plenty.

     There’s an easy fix. Let’s say you’ve got a 12 team league. Each week, the top 6 scoring teams get a win, and the bottom 6 get a loss. In this system, every point counts, you’re playing against every team every week, and strength of schedule evens out. Over the course of a season, the best teams almost always end up with the best W-L records. Nobody gets jobbed by the schedule, bye weeks, or a random player having a career day. If you build a great team, you’ll have a great season. If your team is crappy, see you next year. Call me crazy, but when I’m in any kind of competition, that’s the kind of level playing field I want.

     I get that this one is a sacred cow for some. If you really want to keep head-to-head, you can at least make things fairer by using a hybrid approach where each team plays 2 games per week - one head to head against another team, and one using either the top 6/bottom 6 concept, or a game vs. the weekly scoring average of the league. That’s how they do it in the Scott Fish Bowl (the largest fantasy football league on the planet), and that second weekly game vs. the average score helps to ensure some meritocracy in the standings.

In snake drafts, only a few teams get a shot at JJ

(3) Snakes Are Evil - Use an Auction Draft

     Want Austin Ekeler or Justin Jefferson this year? CMC? Sure! Who wouldn’t? Well, if your league has 12 teams and uses a snake draft, then going in, you’ve probably got about a 25-30% chance of even having an opportunity to draft ANY of these 3. That in and of itself is a major indictment of snake drafts, and it goes beyond the first 3 or 4 picks, as throughout the draft, there will be players that you won’t be able to consider taking without either majorly reaching, or getting very lucky.

     I get the appeal of a snake draft - it’s easy, fast, convenient, not very stressful, and players within a certain range just kind of fall to you each time it’s your turn. Yes, there’s plenty of strategy and some skill, but if you really want to enhance the experience, then an auction draft is the way to go. 

     The advantages of an auction draft are many. In a nutshell, there’s more strategy and skill involved, it’s 100% egalitarian with no preset advantages or disadvantages based on draft slot, you’re never blocked from getting certain players, it’s more fun, and it’s more gratifying if you’re able to construct a strong team. Draft night comes just once per year - why rush it? And if need be, it can be done remotely. If you've never tried an auction draft, give it a shot this year. You’ll never go back.

(4) Full Point PPR is Too Much PPR

     One thing that’s changed in fantasy football over the years is the emergence of full or partial points per reception (PPR) scoring, which has coincided with the NFL getting more and more pass-happy. When I started playing fantasy in the mid 90s, almost all leagues used standard scoring, with maybe some catch bonuses. But now, most leagues feature some form of PPR scoring. I’m not against the concept of PPR, but I think Full PPR awards too many points, which in turn skews skill position player scoring and impacts the fantasy values of some players too much. Leagues usually don’t award any points for rushing attempts, which begs the question: why are so many points awarded for catches? 

     In today’s NFL, lots of teams use short passes and screens as a substitute for running. What’s more valuable to an NFL team - a 10 yard run, or a screen pass that gets snuffed out for no gain? Well, in Full PPR they count exactly the same (1 point). That makes little sense, and over the course of a season all those extra points for worthless dump-offs add up, and account for too much of a scoring impact than they should. My league awards a third of a point per catch and I’m fine with anything up to half a point. If you don’t like removing all of those points, consider coupling that reduction from Full PPR with awarding something for first downs gained, which are generally more impactful to an NFL offense than catches. Or award fractional points for carries.

Waivers Matter - Make it Fair

(5) Fix Waivers

     I have absolutely no idea why the vast majority of fantasy leagues process waivers on Tuesday night at midnight. At that time, almost every NFL team has yet to practice and information about player availability for the upcoming week is limited. Waivers should be no earlier than Wednesday midnight, and Thursday afternoon is even better. Why not give owners as much information as possible before they have to make decisions on drops and pickups? Seriously, I’m dying for someone to tell me why Tuesday waivers isn’t one of the dumbest things out there. And while we’re here, any league that still allows open waivers on a first come-first served basis (before league-wide waivers are processed for everyone) should be shut down by the Fantasy Police. I’m not done - if you’re still using priority waivers, that’s dumb too, so get rid of that. OK, I might need to calm down and have a drink. The best system, which many leagues now use, is a free agent acquisition budget (FAAB), where teams start the year with a set amount to spend on free agents for the season ($100 or $200 is typical) and blind bids are used to process weekly free agent claims. If you change nothing else, at least make the acquisition of free agents a fair process.

(6) Play IDPs instead of a D/ST

     I don’t have a lot to say about this one except that it’s a lot less random and flukey than D/ST, it’s consistent with the concept of starting specific offensive players and getting points for their stats, and it’s more fun because you’ve got more players in your lineup each week. A variety of scoring systems exist but typically, players are divided into 3 positions (DL, LB, DB), you start anywhere from 3-5 players (usually with some positional requirements), and you get points for stats such as sacks, tackles, interceptions, forced fumbles, fumble recoveries, and TDs.

Yes, you can be the guy (or gal) who suggests some of these changes and makes your league better, fairer and more competitive this season. You can be a fantasy hero! It’s all about being willing to question the status quo. 

That’s it for now. Check back soon for more preseason content.

DH

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