Help me with a good league setup

We keep optimising our league, so the last few seasons we have expanded to being a 2QB league, gotten rid of kickers and DST and have introduced some IDPs instead. People don't want a full blown IDP setup, so last year we started 2 DEs and 2 LBs. There were alot of complaints of some IDPs exploding and scoring too much one week and then producing "nothing" for a month, DEs being too inconsistent etc, so this year we switched to 3 IDP flex spots with a tackle heavy scoring system.

This still feels like it needs tweaking. I am going to try to highlight some of the "problems":

1. Tackles are boring when watching a game live. There are too many of them, and difficult to know in game if your guy got the tackle, half tackle etc.

2. Sacks are too unpredictable and inconsistent. The DEs goes 5 weeks with nothing, then racks up 3 sacks when they play Tannehill, and then 3 weeks with nothing etc.

3. With us starting 3 IDP flexes it is too easy to find three random players that can get you 20-30 points any given week.

4. Interceptions are fun but difficult to predict and a really good CB might not even get thrown at.

Any suggestions? I am open to removing all scoring categories except sacks, interceptions etc. Anything that can make IDPs more fun to follow when watching a game, while still being fair. Suggestions right now are starting 2 safeties each, or 1-2 DEs only in a sack heavy scoring system.

Ill say this as nicley as i can. You cant half ass idp and have it be fun too.

you have to understand that defensive lineman suck and are going to vary in scoring. linebackers score the most off of tackles and defensive backs give you tackles from the safety position and less from corners.

the way i have mine set up now mirrors the offense.
offense 1 pt 20 yards pass/ 1 pts 8 yards rev/rush. +4 for 40 yard bonus. +3/+4/+5 for 100/150/200 same for 300/400/500

so a good week of 100 yards and  a td come out to about 22 pts for us.
1 qb 2 rb 3 wr 1 te and a flex 8 spots

defensively you have to be similar
we do 2 pts per tackle, 1 per assist. 6 pts for sacks and interceptions. 4.5 for fumbles and 2.25 for fumble recovery.

a good defensive week is about 8 tackles and one big play. around 22 points.

we run two defensive lineman, three linebackers and three defensive backs. 8 spots

the best league iteration we have done so far since both sides of the ball are pretty every in scoring. you need to have an equalnumber o spots for offense and defense. otherwise you just cherry pick the waiver wire for defense and theyre simply glorified kickers. as you may notice we also dumped them. so my suggestion is to go big and have them be a real part of your league, otherwise you will hust have everyone with three linebackers.

I hear what you are saying, but that's not happening. People are really annoyed that it's a position that is difficult to follow while watching the games, but they still prefer it over kickers and DST. They really dislike that IDPs in total score more than wide receivers on most teams every week, and I agree on that part. I would like IDPs total to be at most 15% of the total team production in most weeks.

I think the correlation between linebackers and tackles is the most trustyworthy stat for IDPs, but it's just no fun to follow. Right now I think we are switching to starting 2 DLs only, and score sacks, tfl and force fumble heavily. That should hopefully make it entertaining.

If you only want to keep it 15%, you sure as fuck should just do defense and special teams. Good IDP is 50/50 when you have a good offensive week 60/40 and vice versa for defensively. Your complaint comes from being unpredictable but doing a big bonus points dl only seems to be the most unpredictable way to do it. Im not telling you what to do, but ive given you a blueprint for how to make it an even game between the offense and defense. As for not knowing the players, who fucking cares. Just like offense, learn their numbers. The more you play with different people, the more familiar you get.

And ill say this with utmost confidence, you want them to score less, then make it so they score less. We did 1.5 and .75 per tckle and assist last year with big plays being worth about 4 points. it kept all the backers in the 12-18 range, dbs in the 9-16 and dl in the 0-10, unless you are jj watt.

if you do only defensive lineman, youre going to short yourself. Go against the trend and make it good.(Not great. ha political satire) I promise once you get the hang of having it down, youll bitch that more sites arent dedicated to idp and are stuck with these guys and fantasy sharks as youre source of info.

First year i did my league, which was six years ago, Everyone knew what we were doing but i got alot of flack cuz who the fuck cares about defense. A few joined other leagues this year for the first time and laugh at the d/st cuz of how archaic it is. One is in a league that has 2 idp and a d/st. You wanted help with a good setup. simply change the stats to score a little lower and you have your league. tell em to deal with it.

and my draft is for 24 roster slots. 8 offense. 8 defense. 8 bench spots. we have 3 keepers yearly so 21 rd draft. it takes a little longer, but its fun. especially when defense and offense are on even keel. Taking a linebacker in rd seemed ridiculous three years ago. Now its common place. GOod luck with your endeavor man. hope it goes well

Ynot - I've played IDP only since 1990 and don't believe you ever will find what you seek regardless of scoring system. IDP is one of those things that you either like or you don't. I think that Chris Conley is right, unless you want it to be a 50/50 proposition, you shouldn't try it.

It IS entirely unpredictable and despite you "seeing Player X make a tackle", it rarely shows up immediately in the stats, if at all! Generally speaking, once a hardcore fantasy player plays in a good IDP league, they will never want to go back to "fake" (i.e. - offense only) league. Many DO find IDP too complicated, boring, and frustrating, I absolutely get that.

I recommend you find a good 50/50 league and invest a season in it. I doubt you'll return to what you've always played ... GOOD LUCK!