K.I.S.S. - keep it simple stupid. i believe that fantasy football should be kept a simple game. not too many scoring categories, not too many modifiers. maybe a few extra points for a long bomb, maybe a few extra points for a "big game (games of 100+ rushing/receiving yards, or 300+ passing)." but no more than that. the fun of fantasy football lies in it's simplicity.
and i believe in balancing out the positions. in all of my leagues, we reward 0.5pts per reception, mostly to help WRs close the gap to their RB peers. another way to help WRs is to give +2 pts or something when a TD is over 50 yards. this rewards deep bombs. but quite honestly, giving a player +2 for long plays that result in a TD is really only adding maybe 8 points to their total over the course of a season. so i don't even bother.
i also eliminate the TE category. while TEs have had a resurgence in recent years, usually there is one top flight TE, a handful of decent ones, and then trash. having a specific TE position inflates the value of a tony gonzalez and really, he's more of a WR than a true TE. it's like requiring a FB position just because it exists on the football field. you'd have one FB who's good and then scrubs that get picked on teams just because you need a FB.
i think you should be able to run-and-shoot. my leagues have the option to go to a one back, four WR/TE set. this reflects what's possible on the actual football field. you can't get 2 RBs, 3 WRs, a TE and another RB/WR in there. i say make the weekly lineups reflect what a real team might look like. does a real team ever play 3 RBs? hell no. that shouldn't even be an option. three RBs. ridiculous.
and don't punish Ks for missing FGs. it's part of the job. no K is perfect. part of the job is to take kicks and miss. Ks score so infrequently anyway that penalizing them is like shooting a child in the foot as they're learning to walk. why do that? i could maybe do with -1 point for a missed gimme, but really, what's the point?
as for D/ST, i think the categories should be basic. i've seen many teams have their D/ST rank as their third or even second best player at the end of a season. think about it, how often will a D/ST record no sacks, no INTs, no points of any kind? very rarely. so don't inflate INTs and sacks to more than what they should be worth -- 2 pts and 1 pt respectively. our leagues usually reward fumble recoveries too, but i could really do away with that category. and don't even get me started on crap categories like "tackles for a loss." are you kidding me?
i don't think a D/ST should be scoring 20+ points on any given week unless they managed a TD or had a really outstanding INT or sack day. a D/ST is guaranteed five to ten points a week just by playing the game, even the average D/STs should get to seven points just by sitting around.
that's better than most of the WRs on your roster. i feel like D/ST should be slightly better than Ks, and not more valuable than three-fourths of your roster. nobody plays fantasy football to live and die every week on the exploits of the Ravens D.
and the last thing that i advocate: 4 pts per passing TD. think about it. rewarding 6 TDs per passing TD is a bit much. an average NFL QB, even a terrible one, will throw 15-20 TDs a year. a really good QB will throw close to 30. find me another position player that will put up even 20 TDs. no player can regularly get 2 TDs per game (aside from Priest when he's healthy). sure, -2 for INTs hurt some, but over the course of a season, 6pts per passing TD seems too much to me. the best QBs will still be the highest scoring players, but by lowering passing TDs, it brings them to earth a little bit. mainly the issue is that any QB, even on a really crappy day, should throw 200 yards. with 1pt per 20/25 yards, a QB is guaranteed to get about ten points when they play. no other position can touch that. all my leagues do have passing TDs at 6pts, because my fellow owners feel that they don't mind a QB's points being slightly better than all other players, to better reflect the prominent position a QB plays on the field. but to me, 4 pts per passing TD works much better.
and um, that is all.
and i believe in balancing out the positions. in all of my leagues, we reward 0.5pts per reception, mostly to help WRs close the gap to their RB peers. another way to help WRs is to give +2 pts or something when a TD is over 50 yards. this rewards deep bombs. but quite honestly, giving a player +2 for long plays that result in a TD is really only adding maybe 8 points to their total over the course of a season. so i don't even bother.
i also eliminate the TE category. while TEs have had a resurgence in recent years, usually there is one top flight TE, a handful of decent ones, and then trash. having a specific TE position inflates the value of a tony gonzalez and really, he's more of a WR than a true TE. it's like requiring a FB position just because it exists on the football field. you'd have one FB who's good and then scrubs that get picked on teams just because you need a FB.
i think you should be able to run-and-shoot. my leagues have the option to go to a one back, four WR/TE set. this reflects what's possible on the actual football field. you can't get 2 RBs, 3 WRs, a TE and another RB/WR in there. i say make the weekly lineups reflect what a real team might look like. does a real team ever play 3 RBs? hell no. that shouldn't even be an option. three RBs. ridiculous.
and don't punish Ks for missing FGs. it's part of the job. no K is perfect. part of the job is to take kicks and miss. Ks score so infrequently anyway that penalizing them is like shooting a child in the foot as they're learning to walk. why do that? i could maybe do with -1 point for a missed gimme, but really, what's the point?
as for D/ST, i think the categories should be basic. i've seen many teams have their D/ST rank as their third or even second best player at the end of a season. think about it, how often will a D/ST record no sacks, no INTs, no points of any kind? very rarely. so don't inflate INTs and sacks to more than what they should be worth -- 2 pts and 1 pt respectively. our leagues usually reward fumble recoveries too, but i could really do away with that category. and don't even get me started on crap categories like "tackles for a loss." are you kidding me?
i don't think a D/ST should be scoring 20+ points on any given week unless they managed a TD or had a really outstanding INT or sack day. a D/ST is guaranteed five to ten points a week just by playing the game, even the average D/STs should get to seven points just by sitting around.
that's better than most of the WRs on your roster. i feel like D/ST should be slightly better than Ks, and not more valuable than three-fourths of your roster. nobody plays fantasy football to live and die every week on the exploits of the Ravens D.
and the last thing that i advocate: 4 pts per passing TD. think about it. rewarding 6 TDs per passing TD is a bit much. an average NFL QB, even a terrible one, will throw 15-20 TDs a year. a really good QB will throw close to 30. find me another position player that will put up even 20 TDs. no player can regularly get 2 TDs per game (aside from Priest when he's healthy). sure, -2 for INTs hurt some, but over the course of a season, 6pts per passing TD seems too much to me. the best QBs will still be the highest scoring players, but by lowering passing TDs, it brings them to earth a little bit. mainly the issue is that any QB, even on a really crappy day, should throw 200 yards. with 1pt per 20/25 yards, a QB is guaranteed to get about ten points when they play. no other position can touch that. all my leagues do have passing TDs at 6pts, because my fellow owners feel that they don't mind a QB's points being slightly better than all other players, to better reflect the prominent position a QB plays on the field. but to me, 4 pts per passing TD works much better.
and um, that is all.