Fantasy Football is Outdated, here's how I'd Fix it.

I go through the flaws in Fantasy Football scoring and what can be done to improve the format for all kinds of users, both casuals and diehards.

Fantasy Football is a very unifying and inclusive way to watch football, and it’s insanely popular. People get roped into watching the NFL through fantasy leagues organized by friends, colleagues, or family. For a game this popular and versatile, you’d think the format would evolve over the years, but it largely hasn’t. You see some cool formats like Guillotine or Dynasty leagues, and sometimes people will have some funny custom scoring like 100 points per QB tackle, but there isn’t much more creativity done on a game with so much room for experimentation.

The Issues

The traditional Fantasy Football ruleset has the issue that it’s too misrepresentative of on-field quality, as in the good fantasy players aren’t always the players who stand out on the field, which makes it harder for newer fans to use fantasy football to better understand the sport. One might think that Patrick Mahomes, 3-time Super Bowl Champion, should be a first round pick. However, he got taken outside of the first five rounds in most leagues, despite being one of the greatest players ever.

Super-flex, a format where you start two Quarterbacks instead of one every week, is the only real alternative to standard redraft. Players like Mahomes will go in one of the first three rounds, which is closer to his appropriate value as a football player, but still not high enough. This format tackles some of the issues the format has, but even within QBs, scoring is deeply unbalanced.

There are some other issues that I have with Fantasy Football as a more dedicated football fan that have to do with competitive balance. Mid-game injuries are killer, matchups can punish you with a loss even if your team thrived, and PPR (1 point per reception) scoring inflates receivers like Wan’Dale Robinson, who routinely make 6-yard catches that don’t meaningfully help his offense.

Even for casual fans, I think there are some issues. The structure of a fantasy league is pretty rigid, as you can only have an even number of managers, and it’s really challenging to start mid-season. Also, teams often get super killed by injuries and have no incentive to try if comeback potential isn’t weighed in.

With that out of the way, here is a list of 6 changes I’d propose to add to Fantasy leagues, ranked from what I’m most passionate to least passionate about.

1. Quarterbacks shouldn’t get more points for Rushing than Passing.

In most formats, each rushing yard is 0.1 points, as opposed to passing yards, which are 0.04 or 0.05. Rushing Touchdowns also give 6 points, while most leagues only give 4 for Passing Touchdowns. Players like Matthew Stafford, who is my 6th ranked QB in the league based on quality of play, almost never make it onto Fantasy teams, largely due to him having zero rushing output. The fact that a player like Matthew Stafford can greatly outplay his opponent, throw for 300 yards and 1 TD (16 points), gets outscored by a QB with 150 pass yards, and rush for 50 yards and 1 TD (17 points), is very flawed.

While Quarterbacks like Stafford are very disrespected by Fantasy scoring, there are many examples on the other end. The most egregious example is Justin Fields, who had a poor season in 2022, but he was among the 5 highest scoring QBs in Points Per Game. He logged tons of rushing yards and rushing touchdowns, which count for nearly twice as much as passing yards and touchdowns.

My Proposal: scale down ALL QB Yards and Touchdowns by the same multiplier. I think it’s more appropriate to have the players who are statistically involved in the most plays to have their scoring scaled down, or else the position would be so disproportionately impactful towards the results of a week.

2. Points should be Awarded for First Downs, not Receptions.

I’m not the first person to suggest this, but I think it’s a much better representation of success on the field. In our current scoring system, these two plays are worth the same.

I think this is flawed, and often rewards low-impact plays. Awarding a point for each first down, in my eyes, would remove a point from plays that largely do not deserve one, while adding one for plays that do. It would also sort of “offset” the QB points scale-down, as passing first downs wouldn’t count, but rushing would (in the same way that an Anytime-TD bet only cashes on rushing or receiving TDs).

In addition, I would also maintain 0.5 points per reception. Doing this would ensure that wide receivers and tight ends aren’t falling too far behind, and would make touchdowns volatility less impactful, as without 0.5ppr added to this system, fantasy points would be deflated due to there being about 2 more receptions than first downs in the average game in 2025 (though both numbers are around 30-35).

3. Matchups should still exist, but Overall Points should matter too.

Head-to-head matchups are objectively fun, even though they’re not balanced. Each week, you play one opponent, and in some leagues, a lot of the fun is trash-talking your opponent and rooting against their players. However, there are some cases where a matchup robs you of a win you deserve, with zero control over your opponent’s team.

Have you ever scored the third-most points in a week, but your opponent had the 38-point running back and 32-point quarterback? Well I certainly have. In those scenarios, you 100% deserve to win in that week over someone else in your league who you probably outscored by 30, but they passed you in the standings on the ~5% chance that they played the worst team while you played the best.

So, while matchups are fun, there should be alternatives. The most logical alternative is just to measure on points scored all season, but that makes the first 80% of the season feel so meaningless. My proposal: placement-based scoring. The idea behind this would be to award managers for their placement within the league that week. For example, the team that scores the most points in a week may get 15 points on the week, 2nd may get 12, 3rd 10, 4th 9, etc. There are a few scales that could work, but I think that generally rewarding top weeks more than punishing poor ones is a good process. I’d like to even see a boost come in the final week or two of the regular season, just to keep losing teams from being completely eliminated too early on. This system, however, would disappear for the postseason in weeks 15-17.

Another benefit to this system is that it enables you to create leagues with an odd number of participants. You can play with 9 people and eliminate matchups, and still function as a league without bye weeks. This will eliminate some groups not starting a league because they have an awkward number of players, and make the experience smoother overall.

4. Normalize FAAB (Free Agent Auction Budget)

When I first started playing fantasy football about ten years ago, I struggled to understand the waiver system. The idea of having a waiver claim where on only some days you fall down the order while on others you can do it for free brings up several problems. You almost always have to check on Wednesday and pick up the defense you want immediately, because you don’t want to use your waiver spot but you really want one specific replacement to play because your defense is on its bye week.

FAAB is way simpler. Every manager gets a certain budget to bid, and twice a week, the league gathers up the bids on every player, and the highest bidder wins the player. That manager subtracts the cost of the winning bid from their overall budget permanently, while everyone else keeps their budget. I think the idea of a budget that is unaffected by the actions of others is much simpler than a waiver order that constantly changes based on the actions of others is much easier to understand, and easier to play with (re: defenses point).

Also, while we’re at it, release waiver results midday instead of when everyone’s asleep. It makes everything more fun, as you can possibly watch the waiver results release together with your league-mates.

5. Add Some New Positions

While I like the current format, I think there could be more intrigue to fantasy football. After all, fantasy is mostly a way to get to know and attach to people in the NFL, so there could be some additions. The main two ideas I had were Punter and Head Coach.

For Punters, they should get points for two things: longest punt, and number of pins. I’m not sure of the exact scoring yet, but it should score below kickers (who themselves score too high as is). For head coaches, they should get points for winning, and maybe more for more impressive wins (like divisional wins). I think this would add some good variety to fantasy football.

6. Add Penalty Points

Have you ever had a receiver miss a catch, but the team gets the yardage anyways due to a penalty call? Well, the player receives zero fantasy points for that play where they functionally won and deserved many. I think this rule (or lack thereof) is very frustrating and could do with a change. My proposal: have positive penalty yards count the same as receiving yards, but give no credit for the reception or first down. Penalties inherently give guaranteed yardage to non-guaranteed receptions, so I think not giving the entire value of the catch but the vast majority is fair.

The main roadblock for this rule is the data collection, as most traditional scorecards of NFL games don’t keep track of the victim of a penalty. This, however, would be a very good change if implemented.

Another random scoring quirk I might include would be that a QB gets +6 instead of +4 for a TD in the final 2 minutes that involves a lead-change. It’d be a cool way to reward clutch plays. Also, as a parody of the funny 100 point QB tackle league, I think it’d be cool to give a point for an offensive player getting a tackle, which shouldn’t happen more than once a game.

My Ideal Scoring

Quarterback Scoring

• Pass and Rush Yards: 0.05 points per yard (penalty yardage included)

• Pass and Rush TD: 4 points

• 1st down (rushing/receiving): 1 point*

• Turnover: -2 points*

• 300+ Total Yards: 1.5 points

• 400+ Total Yards: 2 points (3.5 total)

• 500+ Total Yards: 2.5 points (6 total)
  

Running Back, Wide Receiver, and Tight End Scoring

• All Yards: 0.1 points per yard (including penalty yards)

• Any TD: 6 points

• Reception: 0.5 points

• 1st down (rushing/receiving): 1 point*

• Turnover: -2 points*

• 100+ Total Yards: 1.5 points

• 150+ Total Yards: 2 points (3.5 total)

• 200+ Total Yards: 2.5 points (6 total)

Kicker Scoring

• Longest kick: 0.1 points per yard

• PAT made: 0.5 points

• PAT missed: -1.5 points

• 20-54 yard FG made: 1 point (no points for sub-20 yard FGs, that’s cowardly coaching)

• 20-54 yard FG missed: -1 point

• 55+ yard FG made: 1.5 points

• 55+ yard FG missed: -0.5 points

Ex: a kicker who made a 55yd, 35yd, 3XPs, and missed a 45yd would earn 5.5+1+1.5-1 = 7 points. Most kickers should get under 10 points under this system, which is good considering punters will also be included.

Punter Scoring

• Longest punt: 0.1 points per yard

• Punt puts opponent behind their 20 yard line: 1 point

• Punt puts opponent behind their 10 yard line: 1 point (2 total)

• Successful fake punt: 3 points

• Unsuccessful fake punt: -1 point
  

Head Coach Scoring

• Win by 17 points or more: 9 points

• Win by 9-16 points: 7 points

• Win by 1-8 points: 6 points

• Tie: 4 points

• Lose by 1-8 points: 3 points

• Lose by 9-16 points: 2 points

• Lose by 17 points or more: 0 points

• Divisional win: 1 point
  

Weekly Scoring

• 8 team league: Matchup win = 4 points (customizable)

  • 1st - 10 points / 2nd - 8 / 3rd - 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

• 10 team league: Matchup win = 5 points (customizable)

  • 1st - 12 points / 2nd - 10 / 3rd - 8 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 0

• 12 team league: Matchup win = 6 points (customizable)

  • 1st - 15 points / 2nd - 12 / 3rd - 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

• 14 team league: Matchup win = 7 points (customizable)

  • 1st - 17 points / 2nd - 14 / 3rd - 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2

• 16 team league: Matchup win = 8 points (customizable)

  • 1st - 20 points / 2nd - 17 / 3rd - 15 / 13 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

• Any odd number of teams: no matchups.

Would you want to see one of the major fantasy football platforms adopt this as an alternate game-mode?