NFL Schedule Release, Thanks NFL :( + #SFB11 Kicker Scoring
Hey all!
It’s that time again for our weekly newsletter! Remember a month or two ago when we told you we were planning to do anything with our schedules in our personal leagues for year 1 of the new 18 week schedule… well the NFL decided to put four teams on bye in week 14…
There are still debates arising. I know commissioners who are standing firm and having people deal with four teams on bye for a first week of the playoffs. There are those who have chosen to adjust to a 14 game schedule with the playoffs in 15-17. Personally, I’m adjusting. It’s just too big of a hit in my opinion. I have zero problem with people standing firm. For me, the hit of four teams on bye outweighs the unknown of how the NFL teams will treat week 17. The assumption is it wouldn’t be much different than Week 16 in previous years, but we don’t know for sure yet.
If you are not adjusting, here are things I have seen. You can allow the average of those players on bye to be used in week 1 of the playoffs. I have also discussed, and do this in some of my leagues anyway — using the regular season average and adding that to the score from the first week of the fantasy playoffs (week 14 score). This eliminates bad beats to a degree in the first place… but might be an even better solution for this year if you are trying to keep the 16 game schedule. The truth is, whatever you do is fine. People will be fine with it. Until the playoffs when that decision made them lose. Then you’ll hear about it. ;)
#SFB11 Kicker Scoring!
I set up what I believed to be pretty fair kicker scoring and mostly what I used to use the last time I had a league with kickers well over a decade ago. I reached out to some well known kicker enthusiests in the fantasy industry to get their opinion. Turns out, I was pretty dead on to what is still used today.
Field Goal Made: 0.1 points per yard (ex. a 41 yarder is 4.1 points, a 55 yarder is 5.5 points)
Field Goal Miss: -3 points each
Extra Point Made: 1 point each
Extra Point Miss: -1 point each
First, kicker scoring probably should be decimal in this day in age. We started doing that nearly two decades ago. Simply doing 3 points for all field goals at this point feels very 90s. I know, I know… ban kickers! This is for those who like kickers in their league, okay.
So when I first checked this scoring above out (read: crunched the numbers), I had the misses tiered. Meaning if you miss a short field goal, you were docked more points than a long field goal. This was done in tiers of 0-20, 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51+. I checked the scoring against the top 22 kickers. When I changed it to a simple -3 for any missed field goal instead of using tiers… the data basically didn’t budge. There was almost no change. Sure a game here or there might be more volatile if a kicker had a weird week… but over the course of the season, it evened out.
This is one of those instances where I was getting too cute, and complicated, for no reason. This happens a lot when setting up things in a league. It logically makes sense. If a guy misses long, he shouldn’t be penalized as much as missing short. I also dislike arbitrary cutoffs. It’s why I don’t like tiered scoring or back in the day bonus scoring. So you’re telling me a guy getting 99 yards gets nothing and a guy getting ONE more yard gets 3 bonus points? Same with… if a kicker makes a 50 yarder he gets 2 extra points, but he hits a 49 yarder he gets nothing? I’m not a fan of arbitrary cutoffs for point variable changes.
The move to test a simple -3 per missed field goal came from one of the kicker analysts in the industry. I think he knew what was coming. It’s simpler for members of the league to understand. Easier to make sense of while watching. Easier to check in a gamecenter. Also, for something like #SFB11… much easier to describe on podcasts, radio, articles, etc. I was trying to be too cute. As Ryan would say “consider the why.” I did that. I felt I had a good reason… But you also have to take a good hard look at what the setting actually does versus your intent for it and whether or not it’s worth it. If you like the tiers on misses, I think it’s a fun add to each game because I can imagine the tension with certain length kicks. Go for it! However in this case, it’s just not needed and complex overkill for what I needed. Just a note for when you look at certain settings for your league.
All in all… I put kicker scoring in a place where, based on last year’s scoring, there are 11 kickers who would have finished as 99-150 over all. There were 11 more who would have finished in the 151-200 overall range. So if you are in SFB, this puts them very flex-worthy and makes them matter somewhat in a league where there are a lot of flexes / starters.
Speaking of SFB…
#SFB11 Winner Time!
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Our winner this week is: Matthew Edwards! Congratulations!
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