And we back.
At long last, we have returned to bring you the self-proclaimed, stellarly-written TLM articles. To which, of course, I must now, for obvious reasons, be the bearer of great news, and even worse news. The great news is that draft season is upon us, meaning I would recommend two things. The first being turning off notifications from Zack and myself. The second thing would be to remember the feeling of drafting a pitiful player in last year’s draft and promising not to make the same mistake twice.
The bad news is that due to time constraints due to these so called “Full-Time Job” shenanigans, expect articles once every three weeks during the season. Maybe weekly, who knows, but just quick recaps in between the big ones. I had a blast writing them and producing the short videos. But it was too time consuming, and I refuse to get burnt out for the entertainment of league members I hardly respect.
With that being said, our first order of business and the purpose of this article is to provide insightful arguments about the upcoming league changes voting (Which will take place right before draft day.)
“If you don’t evolve, you die” - A lot of people on Google
Without further ado, Zack has written some brief summaries of the changes. Heery and I have
taken stances on either side. And whether we agree or disagree on the topics we argued for or
against. We want all the cards to be on the table for this important moment that will affect the
future of the league.
Rule Change 1 - KICKERS
Current Rule: We have kickers on our rosters, incorporating special teams skills into fantasy football. Having a random kicker score 20+ points to steal you a win is a fun (but lucky) thing that is nearly impossible to predict, adding some luck into a game of skill. It may be difficult to just erase the advantage that teams with a good and consistent kicker gives, but is there actually such thing as a good, consistent kicker?
Proposed Change: Kickers aren’t real football players. These protected losers just kick a ball.
Why do we need points for that, especially since it feels like everyone has lost a game to a
random kicker explosion from a significantly worse team?” – Zack
Keep: In 2019, despite the drop in FGs in 2018, the top ten fantasy kickers averaged just
over 148 fantasy points for the season. The top kicker, Harrison Butker had 166 points.
To put that into perspective, that put Butker just a point or so behind Alvin Kamara and
ahead of Kenyan Drake. Those 166 points were better than allbut ten WRs. Butker had
more points than A.J. Brown, Keenan Allen, and Allen Robinson. And tight end? Butker had more fantasy points than any tight end. It means that for any random Kansas City game, you were better off having Butker than Travis Kelce in 2019. In standard leagues especially, kickers become another piece of the puzzle and their points matter significantly. Just as the place-kicker is a necessary position on the field, they can have a huge footprint on weekly scoring for fantasy, too.
Kickers also don’t tend to have injuries plague their season as other skilled positions do, and therefore have a bit more playing time consistency. A double-digit fantasy week from a kicker can be a very important benchmark on a championship team, especially in leagues where scoring is a bit tougher to come by.
Change: I initially planned on pulling up about 400 different statistics to detail why kickers have become obsolete in fantasy football. And If you want to see them, the evidence is blatantly clear that the position is unneeded in fantasy football. However, I have chosen to take a different approach in this matter… In 1865, the United States of America was engaged in one of the most brutal wars in human history. The reason for brutality? The evolution of firearms, and the refusal to adopt military tactics that evolved with the technology. Instead, thousands of men stood in straight lines and fired continuous rounds at each other, as was accustom in the “gentlemanly” style of fighting known as “Napoleonic tactics”. Until one day, soldiers opened their eyes and realized the advantage they would undoubtedly receive by methods of both flanking maneuvers, and some measures of guerilla warfare. The point being, Kickers are the Napoleonic tactics. Tradition? Yes. Part of the game? Yes. However, their value is most likely less than a 4th rounder (Blankenship aside), and to watch as teams and owners lose to players that have seemingly no value is stupid. Very stupid. It’s time we as a league evolved beyond the position. And before you have the thought “well, having a good kicker is a huge advantage.” That’s statistically inaccurate, and data can be found on that in a vast number of fantasy football studies (which is somehow a thing). Look, I know we all love a good kicker, and enjoy having our kicker score 15-18 to beat our opponent. However, it’s time we accept that the position is not important in any measure, and across the fantasy community the position is being removed at a rampant pace. And I know Austin will inevitably pull out the “Kickers score just as many points as X player”, but how come we still wouldn’t trade a 3rd for a kicker? Tradition is important, but so is the need to move forward. #KickersArePeopleButShouldntBeInFantasyFootball
Rule Change 2 - DEFENSE
Current Rule: Defense is an important part of football, and teams with strong defenses should
be rewarded. Defenses are fun to have, as elite ones can gain you consistent points every week,
while playing the matchup lottery has a chance to give you some negative points, which may
add some additional strategy (hat tip to Zach for preemptively benching his defense in a close
win over me).
Proposed Change: Remove defenses because this is a dynasty league of individual players. We draft, add, or trade for players we like and hope for situations, but banking on team defenses with so many factors doesn’t really make sense.
Keep: Defenses are our best way of implanting the rest of the NFL game into Fantasy Football. And, it does require skill. Knowledge of a team’s defense, which of course includes current players and rookies that could change how they perform, as well as coaching change all affects how a defense might perform. It may have some luck from time to time, however, we tend to know what defenses will perform well. It isn’t like any other position doesn’t have wildcards that show up from week to week to perform at high levels. Top defenses have value to contenders and serve as solid trade ammunition as well. Even if it’s just icing on top of an established trade cake.
Change: I think the idea of defenses in fantasy is a great way to involve an entire side of the ball. The problem arises when you participate in a dynasty league, where teams’ defenses vary so greatly, and waiver defenses with good matchups can be picked up on a whim and score enough points to decrease any value they might have. The last defense to be traded was the Chiefs for a 3rd . And even then, the trade itself seemed pretty pointless. A dynasty league should be about identifying future talent and/or bringing in proven talent. Not roster churning defenses that mostly rely on matchups to perform well. There are a few outliers, but no rule should ever be made just because of outliers.
Rule Change 3 - ADDING FLEX
Current Rule: two Flex spots gives you lots of flexibility for additional running backs, wide
receivers, or if you’re really desperate, a tight end. We start 8 offensive players (plus a kicker
and defense), making it important to have elite players since only 8 players start.
Proposed Change: Adding an additional flex spots gives more value to depth and could force some fun lineups during bye weeks. Adding an additional flex spot puts more of a premium on having solid players available and could increase trading and adding players during the season that are capable of filling in.
Keep: The issue with adding a flex spot is that some teams already have their rosters built around the current settings, and making a drastic change of this measure could affect top-heavy teams more than teams with solid depth. The idea that having more room for lesser-known players to make an impact is great and allows for owners to sift through “under-the-radar guys”, but to do so during an established dynasty league is tougher than a start-up.
Change: If Kickers are eliminated I think this one is a no-brainer. Adding another player to make
depth more valuable would be awesome. It gives more room for sleepers and under-the-radar
guys to play a role. It would also create a larger disparity in the top team and bottom team
(which I’m not sure if that’s good or bad). Either way, the more the merrier.
Rule Change 4 - FREE AGENT AUCTION BIDDING VS. WAIVERS
Current Rule: Waivers are a classic fantasy football rule that rewards patience if you want to get backup running backs after the guy in front of them gets hurt. That’s basically 95% of the value in free agency during the season (except Taysom Hill leading me to wins while Reagan starts
backup QBS). Stay traditional here.
Proposed Change: FAAB gives you a budget that lets you gamble and outbid others for players
you want. You can be aggressive and spend your entire FAAB budget on a single player you like,
or spend it slowly and keep enough for a big splash later in the season. This is the route most
leagues are going, so we should definitely bring it up to see what people think. In our league, I
think a $100 budget would be good, making it easy to see the percentage of a budget you
would spend. Also, this budget is tradeable.
Waiver: The Waiver system works well as it gives team towards the bottom a needed boost as they attempt to build their way to the top. Zack did a great job moving some of those pieces for future picks, and it’s helped him in his rebuild. I think using a FAAB would only help the teams towards the top, taking away another advantage of the teams fighting to become relevant again.
FAAB: This seems to be the future of Fantasy Football, and it means a little more involvement on a week-to-week basis. However, it also adds an exciting bidding war element, that could have large ramifications for teams that are willing to go all-in on a player they believe in. Imagine if James Robinson was won by a dollar or two higher bid last year. That’s a game changer. Everyone has the opportunity at any free agent (like real football). And their responsibility is to be willing to spend money to get that player.
Rule Change 5 - BUY-IN
Current Rule: $25 buy in. Keep it lower, but enough that you do win something. Keeps the league fun and easy. $185 1st place, $90 2nd place, $25 3rd place payouts.
Proposed Change: Increase buy-in (separate vote). Rumors are the buy-in is too low, and with all of us grown men and the amount of inconvenience that me and Reagan cause, being the best is worth throwing in some extra money. The time spent on this means the buy in should be higher, maybe in the $35-$50 range?
Keep: Fantasy Football is about fun, not the money. The buy-in is just a fun way to show commitment, and add a little reward for the winner. If anything, let’s add a loser’s “Prize”
Change: This league has an entire blog and website dedicated to it. This is no longer your run-of-the-mill league. Ante up. I promise I’ll spend my extra winnings wisely.
Rule Change 6 - CONSOLATION PICK
Current Rule: Winner of consolation means absolutely nothing. People have begun playing joke players for fun (sorry Heery but Will Grier sucks). Honestly, I wish I could delete the consolation tournament, but having it there keeps the people able to check their rosters, I guess.
Proposed Change: Some leagues have begun offering a pick at the end of the second round in
the rookie draft for the winner of the consolation. This can help keep teams competitive and active, as well as give a slight bonus to teams who do not make the playoffs but aren’t actively tanking. Pick 25 is enough of a consolation to give you a small prize, but it isn't game-changing. Let these bottom 6 losers fight for the scraps.
Keep: In theory, it makes sense adding an element of reward to a meaningless game. However
there is a huge problem with this system. The first is that the 7th best team would receive
compensation, while 4-6 get nothing. Which not only seems kind of silly, but also makes being
7th a lot better than making playoff long-term, since you get more picks. I think there might be a
better way to go about rewarding a consolation winner. What that is, I don’t know.
Change: Giving value to 3 weeks of meaningless games would make the league a little bit more
interesting. My only gripe is that a late 2nd is kind of heavy, and maybe a late 3rd would be better
suited.
Rule Change 7 - RIVALRY WEEK
Current Rule: Yahoo random scheduling. I made a rivalry week a couple year ago, but didn’t really want to mess with it and mess with competitive balance the last couple years. This keeps scheduling fair.
Proposed Change: RIVALRY WEEKS. Everyone would play once, but there is two free weeks that
I could set 2 rivals. John vs. Bryce is the one everyone wants to see twice a year, but there are a
lot of options. Corey brought Tom, Jordan and Zach, brother matchups, Bama rivalries, Hope
rivalries, and more.
No: The concept of rivalry weeks are a lot of fun. And I’d say we have enough rivalry in the league to warrant the change. The only concern is that it makes some schedules imbalances, which kind of happens anyways. It’s really a toss-up for me.
Yes: RIVALRY!!!! There are already a few established rivalries. And with Zack and Reagan
continuing to bicker over nonsense for the majority of the season, why not give rivals a
guaranteed 2 games against each other?
Rule Change 8 - QB POINTS
Current Rule:
QB Touchdowns: 6 points
QB Interceptions: -2 points
QB yards: 20 yards per point
The original thought behind going above the standard points in Touchdowns (standard is 4) and yards (standard is 25 yards per point) was to give quarterbacks additional value to separate the stars since you can only start 1. This gives quarterbacks more value as the most important position in the sport.
Proposed Change:
QB Touchdowns: 6 points
QB Interceptions: -3 points
QB yards: 25 yards per point
This keeps quarterbacks’ value higher than standard leagues, but adds a potential penalty to gunslingers. The slight decrease in yardage points also limits garbage time points where it feels like losing quarterbacks can pick up a few throws and gain multiple points when the game is already over. This keeps the importance of separating good and great quarterbacks’, but adds some fun with a couple more potential negative points and limits garbage time points, getting a little closer to standard fantasy leagues.
Keep: Not only does our current system allow for Quarterbacks to change the course of a game drastically, it is already cemented in the roster makeup of a lot of teams. And a change could harm some teams more than others. Similar to adding another flex spot
Change: I love high scoring Quarterbacks. What I don’t like is when sub-par quarterbacks have a mediocre day in the league, and that translates to inflated scoring in Fantasy Football. I think this rule does a great job of decreasing yardage points by 2-3 points a game. And penalizes turnovers, which are obviously crucial in the real game. It also makes so even huge Quarterback days can be overcome with a good performance from the opponents RB/WR/TE, and their performances aren’t drown out by a single players stats.
You have some time to let the ideas simmer, so don’t make up your mind quite yet. Use our arguments as a baseline and make decisions on what you think helps THE LEAGUE over what helps you personally. Because, the league will stay, your team will change.
Reagan Cotton.
Recovering Bubly addict.
Slightly more tan.
Still motivated by the innate desire to rub my championship in Zack’s face.
Can’t wait for this new season to start— ur #1 fan