Read Your League Rules!

I'm a geek and a nerd. I participate in mock football drafts over at Mock Draft Central. I recently participated in a 10 team draft and upon looking at the rules I noticed a bit of a quirk. Instead of the regular QB TD being worth 4 or 5 points and the RB/WR/TE TDs being worth 6 points each, QB TDs were worth 10 points and RB/WR/TE TDs were worth 8 points. I don't know why, but this scoring system suddenly puts a much greater emphasis on the QB spot. I picked up the 3rd pick in the draft and the first pick was LT2, the second was Steven Jackson and it gets to me at three. Without hesitation, and for the first time I ever, I select Peyton Manning. And of course out come the boo birds. "What a horrible pick!" "Wow....what a noob!" and "I just don't understand how anybody could pass on Larry Johnson or Frank Gore for a QB." When the draft was over and done with and we voted on each team's draft, I got horrible marks and my Peyton Manning pick was voted as the worst pick of my draft.

Too bad this wasn't a real league. The thing people forget is to read their league rules. If it's not a standard, public league....read your freaking scoring rules. Sometimes a sneaky commish will put in all sorts of bonus points on defence, creating an inflated value on defence. Other times, there might be an inflated or deflated value on QB. Same as with kickers...sometimes length of field goals can create huge bonus points. Other times kick and punt returns give you points, adding value to a player like Maurice Jones-Drew or Devin Hester. Any sort of different rule can drastically change how you rank players....sometimes making those fancy player rankings you find in a magazine almost useless. Such was this league.

The reason why RB is such a premiere postion in fantasy football is, besides from the frequency of injuries causing everyone to carry as much depth as possible, is that most scoring systems favor the back. Most points systems give more points per RB TD than QB TD. Many points system award points per reception, making pass catching RBs extremely valuable. The fact is, RBs touch the ball more than WRs, so they tend to score more and consistently gain 80-100 yards. And since the RB TD is worth more than the QB TD, there is a greater emphasis on getting premiere running backs. But back to my league.....my league rewards QB TDs MORE than RB TDs. It doesn't reward RBs for receptions or touches in anyway. In fact, it even had a bit better reward for passing yardage than most standard leagues. After looking at the rules, I quickly decided I was drafting the top QB on the board in the first round, no matter what my pick. It was just too good not to. So I went with the safest, most consistent, and simply dominating QB available in Peyton Manning. It was clear the rest of those competing in the draft did not read the rules, as the 2nd QB taken wasn't picked until the 4th round (Carson Palmer.....extremely good value...though likely by fluke). Did I draft Manning too early? No...as he probably doesn't fall to me in the 2nd round. Regardless, Manning should be ranked the top player according to these rules, Carson Palmer 2nd and then probably LT2. Tom Brady and Marc Bulger should be legitimate 1st/2nd round picks in this format.

That's my fantasy rant for the day.