If someone approached you this off-season with the simple question of whether you'd draft Brandon Jacobs or Reggie Bush, you'd reply with a simple one word answer of either "Jacobs" or "Bush," depending on your preferences. Right? Wrong, while a novice fantasy football owner might be inclined to answer this way, the veteran owner knows that more information is needed to ensure the right answer is given. Mainly, whether or not the league in question is a points per reception league?
You see, a league's settings and quirks will influence the way you manage your fantasy football team greatly from draft day on. To help make sure you're in tuned with your league and have a solid strategy, which revolves around your league's set-up, on draft day, take heed of the Bruno Boys following Draft Day Advice - Knowing Your League!
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STANDARD SCORING
Aww, good ol' plain oatmeal. It's not the most exotic of dishes, but it'll fill you up. That my friends is the standard scoring league, which awards points in the following manner:
Passing TD = 4 points
Passing Yards = 1 point for every 25 yards
Interceptions = - 2 points
Rushing/Receiving TDs = 6 points
Rushing/Receiving Yards = 1 point for every 10 yards
Fumbles Lost = -2 points
0-39 Yard Field Goal = 3 points
40-49 Yard Field Goal = 4 points
50+ Yard Field Goal = 5 points
Extra Point = 1 point
Sack = 1 point
Safety = 2 points
Defensive Interception / Fumble Recovery = 2 points
Defensive TD / Special Teams TD = 6 points
0 Points Allowed = 10 points
2-6 Points Allowed = 7 points
7-13 Points Allowed = 4 points
14-17 Points Allowed = 1 point
The biggest key to dominating a draft in a standard scoring system is to take mental note of the difference in points awarded for passing statistics compared to those awarded for rushing and receiving statistics. While quarterbacks only receive 4 points for slinging the ball across the goal-line, running backs and wide receivers get 6 for finding paydirt. Technically, that means a quarterback must find the end-zone three times to match just two scores by their running back and wide receiver counterparts. Additionally, while a running back or wide receiver gets 1 point for every 10 yards they accumulate, a quarterback gets just 1 for every 25 passing yards they tally. This gives greater value to the running back and wide receiver positions, which is why the Bruno Boys suggest stocking up on these two positions before using a draft selection on your single caller.
Also, note that this difference in points benefits scrambling quarterbacks a bit more than traditional pocket passers. So, if you're debating between Vince Young and Philip Rivers, and really feel no preference for either, give Young the nod.
Finally, note that the standard scoring system is used by the Bruno Boys and most other fantasy experts when compiling their rankings.
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PASS HEAVY LEAGUES
Quarterbacks, though, don't always get the shaft. In fact, it's not unusual to find yourself in a league that awards 6 points per passing TD and 1 point for every 20 yards passing. This significantly increases the value of quarterbacks, and the draft should reflect that. In leagues such as this, QBs will fly off the board just as quickly as their running back and wide receiver counterparts, with Tom Brady leading the way as a top 3 selection. So, rather than ignoring the quarterback position and focusing solely on running backs and wide receivers in these leagues, take the best player on the board at any of these three positions when it's your selection.
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INTERCEPTION FREE
While standard scoring punishes those quarterbacks that have a tendency to throw the ball to the guy in the wrong jersey, some leagues allow interceptions to go without a 2 point deduction. These leagues tend to favor the gunslingers. Case and point, the 2005 NFL season. Brett Favre, then a member of the Green Bay Packers, posted a respectable 20 TDs; however, he also hurled a whopping 29 interceptions. In a standard scoring league, that's a killer -58 points. In interception free leagues, it means nothing. Target quarterbacks with high TD totals in these leagues no matter their tendency to throw interceptions.
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POINTS PER RECEPTION
Points per reception leagues are really catching fire, and why wouldn't they. It's just one more statistical category to throw into the mix, and we all know we fantasy football owners love getting as much statistics as we can. Points per reception leagues award players for catching those passes thrown their way. The points awarded can vary, but usually fall in the .1 to 1 range. The initial reasoning behind the point per reception league was to even the playing field a bit more between running backs who were getting 25+ opportunities a game to collect fantasy points and wide receivers, who would be lucky to haul in 6-8 passes in a game. And, while they have done that, making it equally important to draft both running backs and wide receivers early, they also had an unintended consequence as they significantly raised the value of those running backs who involve themselves in the passing game. In these types of leagues, it's best to stay away from pure runners like Rudi Johnson and focus on grabbing guys like Reggie Bush.
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TD ONLY LEAGUES
A TD only league is pretty self explanatory, points are awarded solely for TDs. As such you want to target those players that will be doing the most end-zone dances. For running backs, be sure to target those backs that will be getting the goal-line carries. Guys like Mike Alstott and Jerome Bettis at the end of his career were made for these types of leagues.
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THE LONGER, THE BETTER
Some leagues like to award bonus points for longer touchdowns. After all, the excitement value of a 50 yard TD run is much greater than a 5 yard run and much more difficult to accomplish. To award that, these leagues will give bonuses for TDs over a certain distance. With that being the case, big time playmakers like Adrian Peterson, who broke off five 40+ runs in 2007 get a big advantage over the likes of runners like Brandon Jacobs who had just 4 runs over 20 yards in 2007.
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INDIVIDUAL DEFENSIVE PLAYERS (IDPs)
While the standard in fantasy football is to merely select a whole team's defensive unit for your squad's defense, there are those fantasy owners out there that really want to be like the real general managers in the NFL, and for them, the creation of IDPs. Now, there are two things to take note of before your draft if you find yourself involved in a league like this. First, you'll need to double your preparation time as you will now be selecting individuals on both sides of the ball. Secondly, you need to figure out how much impact a defensive player can have. Trust us, the Bruno Boys have heard of leagues that award an outrageous number of points to defensive players, making them even more valuable than the offensive guys, so make sure you know where they fit in in your league.
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Remember, not only is important to know your rankings and study your cheat sheets, but to be truly successful and raise that fantasy football championship trophy, you need to make sure you have a firm grasp on your league's settings.
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Position by Position BUST Rankings (click to view)
Bring out the Pepto (Bust) Rankings - Quarterbacks
Bring out the Pepto (Bust) Rankings - Running Backs
Bring out the Pepto (Bust) Rankings - Wide Receivers
Bring out the Pepto (Bust) Rankings - Tight Ends
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Position by Position Sleeper Rankings (click to view)
Snooze Alarm (Sleeper) Rankings - Quarterbacks
Snooze Alarm (Sleeper) Rankings - Running Backs
Snooze Alarm (Sleeper) Rankings - Wide Receivers
Snooze Alarm (Sleeper) Rankings - Tight Ends
Snooze Alarm (Sleeper) Rankings - Kickers
Snooze Alarm (Sleeper) Rankings - Team Defenses
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