IDP Scoring

Over the years, my 12 team league has started 5 IDPs (any position) and has had pretty standard scoring (i.e. 1 tackle, .5 assist, 3 sack, 1 PD, ff 1, fr 1, safety 2, etc.) We recently changed to a more traditional yahoo/espn offensive scoring system going from a point for every 20 RB/WR yards to a point for every 10, and from a point for every 50 passing yard to a point for every 25.  While offense has always been the focal point, I do not want our IDPs to get diluted and am thinking about trying to proportionally increase points for IDPs and adding tackles for loss.  While I want to keep IDP relevant, I also do not want to overvalue IDP in comparison to the offense.

Any suggestions for:

Tackles
Assists
Interception
Fumble Force
Fumble Recovery
Defensive Touchdown
Safety
Pass Defended
Block Kick Tackles for Loss
Turnover Return Yards

Many thanks.
-Mous

There are a few important things that need to be known before this question can be answered accurately.  Do you have 4 or 6 points for passing TD's, and is your league PPR?

If you have 6 points per passing TD, then doubling points for yards is increasing QB scoring about 30%.  But if you do 4 points per pass TD, it's closer to 40%.  And for RBs, WRs, & TEs if you are PPR, you are increasing their scoring about 30%, but if you are not PPR you could be increasing it as much as 50%.  

So if you have 6 points per pass TD and you are PPR, you can probably increase defensive scoring by 30% (multiply every stat by 1.3).  This way every position will have the same relative value, but yards will have a bigger impact on scoring.  

But if this isn't the case, things get much more complicated.  For instance, if you have 6 per pass TD but no PPR, quarterbacks are going to drop in value because they only increase 30% while RB, WR, and TE increase their scoring by 50%.

I hope this helps.  

Matt:

That does help and certainly makes sense.  Since posting my question a few days ago, I approached it from a much less technical perspective than you described and started playing with various point variations and comparing them to the offense/defense disparity from the old scoring system.  Though I did not apply a set percentage increase across the board, I found that the following scoring system might be a good way to account for the increase in points per yard for passing/rushing/receiving while achieving a comparable offense/defense disparity.

Tackles 1.5
Assists .75
Interception 3
Sack 3
Fumble Force 2
Fumble Recovery 2
Defensive Touchdown 6
Safety 3
Pass Defended 1.5
Block Kick 2
Tackles for Loss 1.5
Turnover Return Yards 25 per point

While not exactly the same in how they get there, this may lend itself to similar overall results as your calculations, which is keep the overall weight and importance of defense under the new system as close as possible as it was under the old system.  We do 4 points per passing td, 6 per rushing/receiving td, and no ppr.

Thoughts?
- Mouse

There is nothing particularly wrong with this, but increasing the points for tackles by 50% and not increasing turnovers will make your system very tackle heavy.  Plus, on some sites (I know they do this on Yahoo), tackles for a loss are included in the calculation of a sack.  So a sack would be worth 6 (tackle + TFL + sack) and an interception would only be worth 4.5 (pass defended + INT).  And a fumble force & recovery is 5.5.

So tackles and sacks would be everything in this format that you suggested.  That's fine for some people.  But I know I prefer something that has turnovers highest and sacks not far behind.  I would suggest something closer to this to be more balanced and give you something close to a 40% overall increase in scoring over most default systems.  (This assumes that TFL's are included in sacks, and PD's are included in INTs.)

Tackle:  1.3
Assist:  0.65
TFL:  1.2
PD:  1.5
Sack:  2.5
INT:  4.5
FF:  2.7
FR:  2
Block Kick:  3
Safety:  3
Return Yds:  1 per 25 yards
TD:  6

this way...
TFL = 2.5
sacks = 5
ints = 6
fum force & recovery = 6
The slightly raised value for sacks (your 4.5 to my 5) and passes defended (now 0.2 higher than solo tackles) make DL's and DB's a little less lame.

I know it doesn't have nice and pretty round numbers, but it gets the job done.  Like I said, there is nothing wrong with what you suggested, and some people won't like a more complicated system that isn't clear at first glance.  

-Matt

Matt:

Very good and thoughtful analysis.  It certainly gives me something to think about and work with.

Our league is on Yahoo.  What keeps this IDP scoring confusing when trying to plan is the way they add up stats like you said instead of just being clear how much one event if for, such as tackle + TFL + sack; pass defended + INT); ff & fr & tackle.  It would be much simpler if the points assigned is what was ultimately received. What you see is what you get.  For instance, if you wanted to have a sack be a total of 3, you would assisgn that number instead of trying to worry about tack, sack, and tackle for a loss.  The scoring would inherently recognize what went into the sack.  The same thing for INT or Ff.

- Mous
 
 



 

Matt:

In a Yahoo league, would your scoring produce 11 points for a sack that results in a force fumble and fumble recovery?

sack (tackle+tfl+sack)= 5
fum force & recovery(tackle+ff+fr) = 6


- Mous.

No, not quite.  Saying that a force fumble and recovery is 6 includes the original tackle, which was already counted in the sack.  

(tackle) + (TFL) + (sack) + (FF) + (FR) = 9.7 total points