Nobody likes weeds. Once they start growing, they take over space and are difficult to get rid of. Next thing you know, they’ve taken over your yard and you’re having to reseed your entire lawn.
Fantasy football scoring formats are in dire need of a proper overhaul, as the weed that is PPR has infested the fantasy world.
It was a terrible idea from the start, born out of a desperate attempt to break the running-back-dominated fantasy drafts of the early 2000s. Instead of tinkering with the roster — adding a wide receiver or removing a running back — someone decided to make catching passes seem more valuable than receiving handoffs.
It doesn’t seem to matter that in the game of football, how you gain yards doesn’t matter, there’s no rational reason to value catches over carries, yet that’s what we as the fantasy community have done.
For some reason, PPR became popular, and the only possible reason for that is “Points! It’s fun!”, and we, the fantasy community, have allowed PPR to take over nearly every area of fantasy football.
Nearly everyone notices the most glaring hypocrisy: A zero-yard catch is worth the same as a 10-yard rush. This paradoxical thinking alone is enough to disqualify PPR as a scoring system for serious fantasy leagues. But it’s worse than that: It can actually drastically change a player’s fantasy value.
Let’s take the 2020 season as an example. Alvin Kamara had a great year. He gained almost 1,700 total yards from scrimmage and scored 21 times. So it’s no surprise that he was the top fantasy running back and scored more fantasy points than any non-quarterback in PPR.
Only…Derrick Henry had one of the top 5 seasons in NFL history that year: Henry recorded over 2,000 rushing yards, nearly 500 more rushing yards than the next best running back, 223 more scrimmage yards than the next best flex player, and scored 17 touchdowns.
Fantasy Football DVQ Commentary
Hop out the pool, open your vacation suitcase, fire up your laptop and get ready: fantasy football season is back.
Fantasy Madman is back with the latest instalment of DVQ.
The Draft Value Index is a player rating system that assigns one universal number to every player that predicts the point in the draft when a player’s projected production will match up with his estimated draft pick value.
Because the disparity between the top production levels is large, the disparity between the top ranked DVQ values is also large.
A player’s projections take into account playing time, expected usage/touches, coaching tendencies, part performance, and injury history. DVQ measures these projections against the player’s schedule and takes into account position depth and replacement value.
These ratings are updated regularly.
By any reasonable standard, both players had great seasons, with Henry being a little better. But PPR is not valid. Kamara caught 83 passes that season, while Henry only caught 19. That artificial 64-point boost was enough to vault Kamara to the top of the running backs. In fact, Dalvin Cook was boosted by 25 points in PPR, pushing him to second place.
So Henry’s best ever football season was the third-best season by a fantasy running back that year, because… PPR.
Can this madness be stopped? Please! Someone?
We know that everyone loves points because, “Points! Fun!” And we also know that removing PPR and going back to old-school standard scoring would create an over-reliance on touchdowns, which are notoriously volatile from week to week and season to season.
There is a solution: replace PPR with what is called FDC (First Down Conversion). Why not score on something that reflects actual performance and contributions on the field, rather than a statistic that has no real-world impact?
First downs sustain drives. Players who get first downs contribute to their real teams in real games. FDC does not discriminate based on how the ball is obtained and scores both rushes and receives fairly.
Do you bet on the NFL?
This is clearly a superior format. More fantasy league websites should offer it. More commissioners should adopt it. More fantasy players should demand it. We, the fantasy community, should work to make this happen.
Please join our campaign and let’s start the effort to change the league to a first-down conversion scoring system.
