Think about this, Fantasy Enthusiasts

When you assemble your lineup on a weekly basis, you are trying to maximize points at every position.  There are certain positions in your weekly lineup where there is absolutely no way to correctly prognosticate an expected point total, and the most troublesome spot in the weekly lineup is the kicker spot. You can do all the research in the world and still end up with an inexplicable 5 points or less.  If you pick up a kicker who plays for a team that scores 5 TDs in a game, you're only getting 5 lousy points.  Their team succeeded greatly, and you got the raw end of the deal.  If you play in a public league, there isn't much you can do about this.  You just have to draft or pick up the best possible option and hope that the offense they are tied to stalls repeatedly on the right side of the 50.  Many of us, however, play in customized private leagues, where scoring is determined by your league's commissioner and can be toggled to add points per reception, bonus points for 100 yard performances, etc.  These leagues also tend to be our most important as far as bragging rights, competition and usually have a cash prize or trophy handed to the winner at the end of the season.

Last week (between Weeks 14 & 15), as I have done every season since starting my league of record, I ask the other owners in my league if there are any changes they would like to see made to improve the quality of our league.  Thus far, in 5 seasons, we hadn't changed any of the formatting in our league.  I posed this question to my fellow owners and put the issue to a vote: would you like to eliminate the kicker position and add another position player (WR/TE flex)?  I told the owners that the majority would win and the first 5 owners who got back to me were in favor of making this change.  Here's why I proposed the change: With only 8 owners and 15 total roster spots, I wanted to find a way to add depth to the league without adding other owners.  We all agreed before the season that we would be extending our rosters to 16 spots for the 2013 season.  I felt that if you're going to get a 5 or 6 point performance on your roster, wouldn't you prefer to have some percentage of a chance that the player could also score a TD?  Also, kickers in our league cannot score negative points like the regular position players or defenses.  So we made it official...next season our league expands to 16 roster spots from 15 and the Kicker position is eliminated with a WR/TE flex position to be added.  Here are some ways to customize your league that I think commissioners should consider:

1) Eliminating Kickers

In standard format leagues where kickers are awarded 3 points for FGs of 39 yards or less, 4 points for FGs of 40-49 yards, 5 points for FGs of 50+ yards and 1 point for PATs, the top kicker is Stephen Gostkowski at 150 points.  In 14 games, that works out to an average of  10.71 ppg.  The separation in points from the Top Ranked Kicker to the 20th Ranked Kicker is 45 points, or 3.21 ppg over 14 games.  To offer some comparison, there are no TEs who have scored over 136 fantasy points, which means every player in the group averages less than 10 ppg, but in the Top 20, 19 of the 20 players have scored 3 TDs or more with the exception being Jason Witten, who makes up for his lack of TDs by leading the position with 923 receiving yards.  8 WRs, 13 RBs, & 25 QBs have amassed 150 fantasy points in standard scoring leagues.  The point is this: in fantasy football, who the heck wants to cheer for FGs?  We're out there cheering for TDs, yardage and big plays.  Cheering for drives to stall should be limited to defenses.  I also feel that the Kicker position is way too highly streamable.  In 14 weeks of play, I used 13 different kickers in my league of record.  There are owners that only use 1-2 kickers in a season, but I prefer to scrutinize the performance of each position and Kicker is the only spot you can change on a weekly basis and have the same percentage of success week to week.  Eliminating the hours of research on a position we are prepared to accept 7-8 points from is hours that could be used finding better sleepers and using our roster space for players who can score more points with a chance at scoring TDs.

2) Toggle your Defensive Scoring

In most standard scoring leagues, defenses earn 10 points for a shutout, 7 points for allowing 1-6 points, 4 points for allowing 7-13 points, 1 point for allowing 14-20 points, 0 points for allowing 21-27 points, -1 point for allowing 28-34 points & -4 points for allowing 35 or more points.  The best scoring defenses in the NFL (San Francisco & Seattle) allow 15.6 ppg (1 fantasy point) and the worst scoring defenses in the NFL (Buffalo & Oakland) allow 28.7 ppg (-1 fantasy points).  I feel two specific things need to change with this scoring: teams need to be rewarded with more fantasy points for allowing less points and the ranges need to be changed by 1 point.  For example, when a team gives up an offensive TD, their defensive score goes from 10 to 7 to 4 on the completion of the PAT.  If a team goes out and wins 35-7 and the TD they gave up was a garbage time TD at the end of the game, why is the defense punished by losing 6 points?  Sacks, Fumbles, INTs, Blocked Kicks and Defensive TDs (while scored fairly) are so difficult to accumulate at the professional level that holding your opponent to 20 or less points should make up some of that difference.  I think the scoring ranges should be Shutout, 1-7, 8-14, 15-21, 22-28 & 29+.  If there are ways to toggle your scoring ranges, think about doing it.  It will change the way defenses are drafted and streamed.

3) Play in a League with some sort of Flex

By now, most custom leagues have a flex of some sort, whether it's RB/WR, WR/TE, or RB/WR/TE.  It gives you the flexibility to play the extra player that might have been causing you some distress from the Sit/Start standpoint and also emphasizes the need for roster depth and stability.  With a flex as part of your lineup, you have to build a full roster that is strong enough to navigate the bye weeks and ultra stressful playoff weeks rather than assembling just a weekly starting lineup.  Also, a flex position cannot and should not be some throw away guy.  I hear too many "Experts" say things like "I would use him, but only in a flex" as if the starting roster spot wasn't as important as the rest.  The flex position allows you to draft the extra RB in the early rounds because you know you're going to get to play him on a weekly basis.  It allows you to stash players that you might want to use as a 1-week matchup start that doesn't affect your core 3 WR, 2 RB groupings.  If you have a flex that allows you to play a 2nd TE, owners who were savvy enough to own Jimmy Graham and Rob Gronkowski last year before they individually blew up had the ability to play both without making that tricky roster decision.  The point is this: if you're playing in a league with a standard offensive set-up (1 QB, 3 WR, 2 RB, 1 TE) and you're drafting 16-18 roster spots, you're wasting a lot of space with stash players and you're forced to make overly difficult decisions every week.

Follow me on Twitter @BernacK6