Time to consider re-thinking QB fantasy scoring?

(Editor’s note: Every Sunday, we’ll wrap up the week on PFF Fantasy with some topic one of our writers has been thinking about of late, and recap the features, columns, and podcasts you could find on the site that week.)

I don’t know if this idea is good. It came to me a couple days ago, and I know there are some problems with it, but I’m going to pitch it here and we’ll see what people think.

See, one of the things fantasy analysts have to deal with every year is exactly when to draft quarterbacks. Rookie fantasy players look at raw point totals and see that hey, quarterbacks put up massive point totals compared to every other position, let’s take that position early.

All points count the same in fantasy, but because every team starts the same number of quarterbacks, they aren’t worth as much as their raw totals might suggest, and as such, we have to step back and wonder where to bother with the position. It’s complicated and unwieldy and, to me, only exists because we settled on a scoring system once upon a time and haven’t been willing to change.

Here’s my suggestion.

I’m going to be discussing the majority of leagues here. If yours is creative and has already solved this problem, well hey, good job, scroll down to the links at the bottom. But for most leagues, as it stands now, quarterbacks get 0.04 points per passing yard, translating to 1 point per 25 yards. That’s 10 points for 250 yards, and it moves up or down from there based on other production. But doesn’t that overrate yards? A 10-point game from a skill player — scoring aside — is 100 yards, a monster game. A 10-point game from a quarterback is 250 yards, only slightly above “pedestrian.”

So cut it in half. 0.02 points per passing yard. One point per 50 yards. Yes, that means a quarterback has to get 500 yards for 10 points — exceedingly rare — but these guys make their bones on touchdown passes anyway. To help them make up the difference in PPR leagues, they get 0.1 points per completion.

How would that change things? Well, here are the 2017 top 30 finishers by this scoring system, rounded to the nearest whole number because I’m lazy:

Other recent years yield similarly pleasing (to me) ranking systems. Logically, doesn’t this make sense? The top 30 yields 10 running backs, 10 wide receivers, 9 quarterbacks, and a tight end. Yes, we could work a little on getting tight ends in there, but otherwise, isn’t that aesthetically pleasing as hell? It certainly pleases my aesthetics.

Obvious caveat here: Yes, this would further overrate rushing QBs like Cam Newton. I don’t have a good solution for that. But absent that, I feel like this is a scoring system we should consider.

• The PFF Fantasy team observed “2018 Storylines Week.” Each day, a different writer offered up his thoughts on what might be one of the biggest fantasy storylines of the season to come.
  • Tyler Loechner: The resurgence of the fantasy wide receiver
  • Tyler Buecher: The soon-to-be star rookie, Saquon Barkley
  • Walton Spurlin: The rise of the DL position in IDP leagues
  • Michael Moore: Jimmy Garoppolo living up to the hype
  • Daniel Kelley: Cleveland Browns, fantasy-relevant
  • George Kritikos: Patrick Mahomes, top-tier fantasy QB
  • Dan Clasgens: The fate of the Raiders
• The combine is coming! With the biggest look at all the draft prospects in one place starting Tuesday, George Kritikos looked at what we want to know from a fantasy perspective heading into the event.
• We wrapped up our offseason wish list series with the last group of teams, ending up with what we’d like to see Washington do this offseason.
• We finished our first offseason mock draft, with 12 staffers taking a PPR league. Todd Gurley went first, but you’d be surprised how far in the first round Ezekiel Elliott fell. Tyler Loechner recaps.
• What’s this RPO thing everyone has been talking about? And how does it impact fantasy strategy? Jeff Ratcliffe examined RPO usage around the league in 2017 from a fantasy perspective.
• Scott Barrett’s Metrics that Matter series centered around the passing game this week, with a look at how the fantasy world is already underrating JuJu Smith-Schuster and an attempt at explaining the dominance of the Vikings receiver duo. He also looked across the line of scrimmage at Marcus Peters, the cornerback just dealt from the Chiefs to the Rams, to determine just how good he actually is.
• Daniel Kelley looked at some unique participants in the running game: LeGarrette Blount, who has managed to be productive despite virtually no involvement in the passing game, and Austin Ekeler, who was a poor man’s Alvin Kamara in 2017 to almost no fanfare.

Podcasts

• What the heck is an RPO?
  
• Franchise tag bonanza!
  
• Pre-combine top 5 rookie RBs