We've talked about Sam Darnold before. Justin Jefferson should be my first receiver then?
Jokes aside, what is with fantasy football? Why are rushing yards 60% more important than passing yards? Why do we have to bend over backwards to pretend RBs are important to the modern game? I've always been a football data grinder, but I've never been a fantasy football guy because it feels so detached from the real game. I did my first fantasy draft ever just a little bit ago (my friends needed a replacement in their league last minute), and watching the league's best QBs go by round after round so I can draft third string RBs just gave me a bad feeling. It feels a lot more 'fantasy' than football.
To me, there must be some way to tweak the formulas to at least get the positional values in the right order (QB first, then WR, then TE, then DEF, then RB, then K). That would do a lot to put the 'football' back in fantasy football. This is more of a sports culture thing, but to me fantasy football has gone so far off unto itself that it drives away football fans that do not already understand the intricacies of what fantasy football is, and why would anybody want that?
To be honest, I don't like the formulas either. I mean, the whole point of the QB position is to pass the ball (Ik there's a running game). You're right about the whole "fantasy" thing too. In real life, we value the QB position so much. We draft QB prospects before we draft any WRs in the NFL draft. In real life, you also pay the QBs A LOT OF MONEY. But in a fantasy football league, we go for the WRs and RBs and all these other positions before touching the QB. I wouldn't rank the runningbacks that low, but I guess that's just because I like the run scheme (Eagles fan here).
But, the whole point of fantasy football is for people to simulate the life of a general manager of a football team for fun. If I could be anything in the sports industry other than a player or writer, I would be a GM, because as a GM you're the one who gets to decide what happens with the team. Fantasy football almost feels like this. So, when we were all kids, and we went into a restaurant or a shop and we see the owner or manager of the store, we used to be like, "oh I want to be a manager! Then I'll get to manage this shop, see where it goes, but most importantly, make a lot of money." That's kind of how fantasy football is. You get to manage your own team with a pool of players that play in the NFL.
Now, the point system is a bit different. Like I said in that unorganized first paragraph, the whole point of the QB position is to throw the ball. That's exactly why rushing yards are 60% more than passing yards. In real life, when a player does good, most of the time, they win the game. In fantasy football, even if the player throws for 400 yards, they would only get 16 points, which is probably 4-10% of the points compared to the whole fantasy football team.
I basically restated the same thing you said, but like yeah... I get what you're saying. If I had power to change how the point system works for everyone, I would definitely, but right now, I can only do that for my leagues.
I think a cool idea would be to draft teams' rush offences (like drafting a defence) instead of their rushing players. That way it would likely move between WRs and TEs on my value ranking (based on the real game), and it would be basically the same as drafting RBs the way its done now in practice, so it wouldn't be too much of a change for everybody.
The inescapable feeling I get from fantasy football is that while yes I'm a GM of a team, I'm a terrible one. The objective is not to draft the best players. The objective is to get players who put up as much empty numbers as possible. I spent my first round pick on Jonathan Taylor in my draft and I wanted to puke, because I know in my heart the majority of those rushing yards are going to be entirely meaningless to the Colts. If I were a real GM, I wouldn't take that Jonathan Taylor contract for free, but in this warped setting it's a first round pick (in a 12 team).
I understand that I'm a football writer, and most people won't look at it this deeply, but my parents (just for a random example) have the exact same criticisms I do. They watch the NFL every weekend, but want no part of that stuff. If it could be tweaked to make it feel more like being a real GM, fantasy football could become a seriously popular game. At least to me, agonizing over the choice between the Baltimore rush offence and the Philadelphia rush offence to compliment my elite pass game seems a lot more engaging than trying to decide whether Jonathan Taylor will get more meaningless rush yards for Indianapolis than Bijan Robinson will get for Atlanta.
Side question: Do you think fantasy football is a part of the reason that casual people still believe RBs (meaning individuals, NOT rush offences in general) still matter, despite all the evidence in the world to the contrary?
I would still draft running backs instead of rush offences, but I get what you're saying with Jonathan Taylor.
I don't want to be critical towards running backs, but yes, anyone who plays fantasy football will consider RBs matter. The point distribution for the runningbacks is 1 point for 10 yards rushing or receiving. The words OR RECEIVING is a huge one there. Obviously, it's a really tough job as a runningback, but when and if you're in a tight situation, in very few cases has the rb position been very beneficial. That's why, when casual fans play fantasy football and watch their players on the big screen, they cheer for the RB position henceforth proving that people value the RB position. (Also, at least 10-20% of the fantasy points people gain are from the RB position.)
'As good/bad as Sam Darnold is to you...'
We've talked about Sam Darnold before. Justin Jefferson should be my first receiver then?
Jokes aside, what is with fantasy football? Why are rushing yards 60% more important than passing yards? Why do we have to bend over backwards to pretend RBs are important to the modern game? I've always been a football data grinder, but I've never been a fantasy football guy because it feels so detached from the real game. I did my first fantasy draft ever just a little bit ago (my friends needed a replacement in their league last minute), and watching the league's best QBs go by round after round so I can draft third string RBs just gave me a bad feeling. It feels a lot more 'fantasy' than football.
To me, there must be some way to tweak the formulas to at least get the positional values in the right order (QB first, then WR, then TE, then DEF, then RB, then K). That would do a lot to put the 'football' back in fantasy football. This is more of a sports culture thing, but to me fantasy football has gone so far off unto itself that it drives away football fans that do not already understand the intricacies of what fantasy football is, and why would anybody want that?
🤣
To be honest, I don't like the formulas either. I mean, the whole point of the QB position is to pass the ball (Ik there's a running game). You're right about the whole "fantasy" thing too. In real life, we value the QB position so much. We draft QB prospects before we draft any WRs in the NFL draft. In real life, you also pay the QBs A LOT OF MONEY. But in a fantasy football league, we go for the WRs and RBs and all these other positions before touching the QB. I wouldn't rank the runningbacks that low, but I guess that's just because I like the run scheme (Eagles fan here).
But, the whole point of fantasy football is for people to simulate the life of a general manager of a football team for fun. If I could be anything in the sports industry other than a player or writer, I would be a GM, because as a GM you're the one who gets to decide what happens with the team. Fantasy football almost feels like this. So, when we were all kids, and we went into a restaurant or a shop and we see the owner or manager of the store, we used to be like, "oh I want to be a manager! Then I'll get to manage this shop, see where it goes, but most importantly, make a lot of money." That's kind of how fantasy football is. You get to manage your own team with a pool of players that play in the NFL.
Now, the point system is a bit different. Like I said in that unorganized first paragraph, the whole point of the QB position is to throw the ball. That's exactly why rushing yards are 60% more than passing yards. In real life, when a player does good, most of the time, they win the game. In fantasy football, even if the player throws for 400 yards, they would only get 16 points, which is probably 4-10% of the points compared to the whole fantasy football team.
I basically restated the same thing you said, but like yeah... I get what you're saying. If I had power to change how the point system works for everyone, I would definitely, but right now, I can only do that for my leagues.
I think a cool idea would be to draft teams' rush offences (like drafting a defence) instead of their rushing players. That way it would likely move between WRs and TEs on my value ranking (based on the real game), and it would be basically the same as drafting RBs the way its done now in practice, so it wouldn't be too much of a change for everybody.
The inescapable feeling I get from fantasy football is that while yes I'm a GM of a team, I'm a terrible one. The objective is not to draft the best players. The objective is to get players who put up as much empty numbers as possible. I spent my first round pick on Jonathan Taylor in my draft and I wanted to puke, because I know in my heart the majority of those rushing yards are going to be entirely meaningless to the Colts. If I were a real GM, I wouldn't take that Jonathan Taylor contract for free, but in this warped setting it's a first round pick (in a 12 team).
I understand that I'm a football writer, and most people won't look at it this deeply, but my parents (just for a random example) have the exact same criticisms I do. They watch the NFL every weekend, but want no part of that stuff. If it could be tweaked to make it feel more like being a real GM, fantasy football could become a seriously popular game. At least to me, agonizing over the choice between the Baltimore rush offence and the Philadelphia rush offence to compliment my elite pass game seems a lot more engaging than trying to decide whether Jonathan Taylor will get more meaningless rush yards for Indianapolis than Bijan Robinson will get for Atlanta.
Side question: Do you think fantasy football is a part of the reason that casual people still believe RBs (meaning individuals, NOT rush offences in general) still matter, despite all the evidence in the world to the contrary?
I would still draft running backs instead of rush offences, but I get what you're saying with Jonathan Taylor.
I don't want to be critical towards running backs, but yes, anyone who plays fantasy football will consider RBs matter. The point distribution for the runningbacks is 1 point for 10 yards rushing or receiving. The words OR RECEIVING is a huge one there. Obviously, it's a really tough job as a runningback, but when and if you're in a tight situation, in very few cases has the rb position been very beneficial. That's why, when casual fans play fantasy football and watch their players on the big screen, they cheer for the RB position henceforth proving that people value the RB position. (Also, at least 10-20% of the fantasy points people gain are from the RB position.)