A. Relative Positional Value

So now that you've assigned the various stats you want to incorporate into your scoring system, and assigned them proper values to appropriately identify the best players as measured by the things they do for their team's benefit, you're done, right?  Um, not quite.  Fantasy football is not solely, or even primarily, a method of identifying which players are better than others.  It is a game that requires 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, or more, participants.  As with all games, the quality of a game is dependent on the balance between luck and skill.  And skill in fantasy football is based on a variety of factors, such as talent evaluation, identifying opportunities for players to accumulate stats, and how one applies strategy to the league rules.  If the balance is too one-sided towards luck, it discourages spending much, if any, effort.  If the balance is tipped too far away from luck, then you may as well call it a comparison of spreadsheets or have a scout grade your rosters and declare a winner. 

These articles are not focused on talent evaluation or identifying playing opportunities.  There are myriad, and better, sources of dealing with those two subjects than me.  These articles are about FF league design, which is entirely about setting up how important strategy is in determining the ultimate outcome. And strategy becomes more important, more relevant to who wins and loses, when there are multiple paths towards constructing a competitive roster.  It is my firm belief that the game is enhanced when the different positions have roughly equal importance (with some exceptions).  For example, the best RBs score about the same as the best WRs, and the best TEs.  On the defensive side, the best LBs score about the same as the best DTs, and DEs (yes, separate them rather than the inclusive DL position), as well as the best CBs, and best Ss (yes, again, separate them).  Similarly, the average players score about the same by position, and the replacement level players at each position score about the same.

To best explain why I have found this to be best, let’s return to why PPR was developed in the first place.  About 20 years ago, the feature running back was still king.  The game of football has changed significantly since that time, but back then there were around 15 to 20 running backs each year who were going to rush for over a thousand yards and score at least 7 touchdowns in a given season.  There was then a significant drop-off to the next tier of backs that fell under the dreaded “running back by committee” status, and with so many backs gobbling up all the work, a huge drop-off to all other backs.  The same could not be said for wide receivers or tight ends with receiving stats.  As such, all 15 to 20 of those running backs, as projected at least, would be drafted in the first two rounds of 12-team, start 2 RB leagues.  As draft order was usually determined randomly, it came down primarily to luck on whether or not you got who you believed would be a good running back tandem, or even a superstar RB who could more than make up for the lack of a quality second RB.  This was the biggest factor in determining whether or not your team would have a winning season. 

Going to PPR scoring allowed taking a wide receiver in the first round (or perhaps a truly extraordinary tight end) a viable strategy, i.e., a team would not be penalized for daring to take a non-running back.  Instead, the biggest factor regarding winning is predicting stats (and relatedly, talent evaluation) regardless of position, and gaming out how many and when players of each position would be drafted, thus allowing you to craft the best fantasy team roster overall.  That sounds an awful lot like strategy to me.  And, I would argue, this better serves our overall mission of trying to replicate the GM experience, as football is a team game and, we would hope, the more talented team from the top of the roster to the bottom, should be the one that more often than not wins the game.