RB Premium?

[Anteaters]

Long ago, losing fantasy managers got tired of being repeatedly punished for their inability to draft quality RBs and PPR was created to make WRs more relevant -- and to be a grading curve for casual owners. Later, bonus scoring was created for TEs to make them more relevant for fantasy. Are there any leagues that use a RB Premium for scoring? Whether there is or is not, I think it's about time we had a RBPremium scoring system.

Now that so many NFL teams are using RBBC (sometimes with three RBs getting significant slices of the pie) are some leagues now using something like yards-times-1.3 or something. So far, the way to avoid lower RB scoring has been to target receiving RBs, but I think we ought to be able to continue to rely upon that 20-carry/gm RB. It's just that today, that guy gets 15 carries and 70 yards.

If 15 carries is the now what 20 carries once was, should we be able to target the RBs who do that? I'd like to think so. I miss the good old days when RBs dominated the entire 1st round and often much of the 2nd. Now it's not uncommon for managers to not draft RBs until rounds 5 and 6 because only 3-5 are dependable enough. And if you miss those, it's not the worst idea to wait.

[DLF3000]

In my first home league, we had PPC forever. Years ago, it was a way to help give the big backs who didn't catch the ball much a bit more value, especially the low end ones.

Now RB has also changed a lot in the past couple decades - so many less workhorses, mainly - so PPC started to lose its appeal and purpose over time.

Like any other premium position scoring though, that's the theory, that they help everybody, especially the low end players at that position - in practice, the reality is it not only makes the whole position better, yes, but it makes the great players even greater, which may or may not be a great experience.

For a related comparison, my newest league does TE super premium: start 2TE required, 2 PPR and 8pt TDs. I thought it was cool at first, but much like my example above, going into year 3 it still ultimately feels like the great players at the position just become (monstrously) greater more than really helping your low-end guys or dart throws.

So to me, premium scoring for any position is a preference far more than being any sort of position pool and scoring solution.

[Straycatz2]

If wanting to boost a specific position and make it more relevant I find just requiring an extra player at the position works best. Don't need to change scoring options.

If start 2RB, make it start 3RB
If start 1TE, make it start 2TE

It doesn't turn existing studs into monsters but makes low end guys relevant and boosting the trade value of all the guys in the position a bit.

2TE, 2PPR, 8pt TD for TE from DLF3000 would make Kelce unbeatable

[DLF3000]

If wanting to boost a specific position and make it more relevant I find just requiring an extra player at the position works best. Don't need to change scoring options.

If start 2RB, make it start 3RB
If start 1TE, make it start 2TE

It doesn't turn existing studs into monsters but makes low end guys relevant and boosting the trade value of all the guys in the position a bit.

2TE, 2PPR, 8pt TD for TE from DLF3000 would make Kelce unbeatable

Makes sense - more starters is the better option.

And yep, I believe every team with Kelce the first two years was easily in the playoffs - no matter how good or bad the rest of their team was!

[Bronco Billy]

We use 0.5 ppr for RBs but we also give 0.2 pts/carry. This was set up to reward the workhorse RBs and not to overly reward the guys who essentially are receivers but thrive on mismatches when LBs are assigned to cover them.

It’s worked nicely for us on getting the kind of balance we want.

[Bronco Billy]

If wanting to boost a specific position and make it more relevant I find just requiring an extra player at the position works best. Don't need to change scoring options.

If start 2RB, make it start 3RB
If start 1TE, make it start 2TE

It doesn't turn existing studs into monsters but makes low end guys relevant and boosting the trade value of all the guys in the position a bit.

2TE, 2PPR, 8pt TD for TE from DLF3000 would make Kelce unbeatable

I get the idea, but it does actually increase the value of the top guys significantly by lowering the starters’ positional baseline. Not a knock - TEs need the extra help because of the scope of their responsibilities on the field.

[Anteaters]

If wanting to boost a specific position and make it more relevant I find just requiring an extra player at the position works best. Don't need to change scoring options.

If start 2RB, make it start 3RB
If start 1TE, make it start 2TE

It doesn't turn existing studs into monsters but makes low end guys relevant and boosting the trade value of all the guys in the position a bit.

2TE, 2PPR, 8pt TD for TE from DLF3000 would make Kelce unbeatable

That is a very simple and effective solution.

[Jakno7dnls]

I’m in a 12 team 40 man roster ppr league that starts 1QB 3RBs 3WR 1TE (along with 8IDPs). RBs are what set the championship contenders apart from the other competitive teams. Rookie drafts RB gets overdrafted big time every year. If a back sniffs playing time it will cost you a 1st rounder to trade for him.

[ericanadian]

My main league is still on standard scoring with 6 pt passing TDs. If you’re talking RB premium, why not just revert to standard? The reason standard was abandoned was that it overinflated RB values. If the argument is that split carries are devaluing RBs, then standard seems like the simplest answer. Constantly realigning scoring to try to even things out creates more problems than it solves in my opinion. I’m fine with whatever, but once a scoring system is set, future tweaks should be minor.

[MacDaddy123]

PPC leagues help RB's out by giving them bonus points per carry, even a 2 yard loss is a carry.
Also PFFD (Points For First Downs) tend to favor RB's over TE's and WR's.

VERY important to understand ALL league scoring before the draft.
I am currently in a 12 team SF TEP PPR startup draft, as TEP seems to be all the rage these days.
Funny enough, many still do not seem to understand how this format works.
It magnifies the difference between TE1 and TE10.

People in this league were grabbing RB's and WR's like it was a normal league, and ignoring TE's.
I wound up with Kelce, Andrews, and Hockenson.
In 2022, Kelce outscored Justin Jefferson (WR1) in this format.
Hockenson would have been WR9 in 2022.

Andrews was injured in 2022, but only JT and Kupp outscored Andrews in this format in 2021.
All of these TE's are easily flex options, they all have top 10 WR PPR scoring potential.

Sorry for the side bar, just trying to remind folks that with all of these funky scoring options, it is very important to understand how your league scoring will affect the draft values of certain position groups.

[murphysxm]

my longest running league is start 3 RB. Certainly rewards depth at the position

[Lumps]

I have had an issue with PPR in general since the passing game has exploded. I’d probably argue that the full PPR for WRs should be toned down. I loathe the notion someone could score positively on a 5 yard loss hitch route.

Likewise PPC seems like a similarly poor work around. What are we gonna do points for passing attempts too?

I have toyed with the idea of point(s) for first down. To me that seems more indicative of NFL value, at least theoretically.

[Bronco Billy]

I have had an issue with PPR in general since the passing game has exploded. I’d probably argue that the full PPR for WRs should be toned down. I loathe the notion someone could score positively on a 5 yard loss hitch route.

Likewise PPC seems like a similarly poor work around. What are we gonna do points for passing attempts too?

I have toyed with the idea of point(s) for first down. To me that seems more indicative of NFL value, at least theoretically.

We reward completions and penalize incompletions. QBs also are penalized for sacks taken and sack yardage. There’s nothing wrong with some creative scoring if you are on a platform that supports it.

[DLF3000]

I have had an issue with PPR in general since the passing game has exploded. I’d probably argue that the full PPR for WRs should be toned down. I loathe the notion someone could score positively on a 5 yard loss hitch route.

Likewise PPC seems like a similarly poor work around. What are we gonna do points for passing attempts too?

I have toyed with the idea of point(s) for first down. To me that seems more indicative of NFL value, at least theoretically.

Agree, full PPR might not work well anymore either - that's why some leagues are dialing back to .5 PPR. Though that's probably not sophisticated enough between RB and WR, never mind TE.

Maybe RB/WR/TE all need different PPR scoring within leagues as a standard going forward - while it's technically doable in league platforms, it's just not popular enough yet. Seems most leagues stop at TE receptions being valued differently - if even that.

That said, I again like the earlier idea of more starters instead of and/or alongside multiple positional PPR adjustments, just so the low-end players and dart throws actually have at least a bit of value if you need to start them.

[Valhalla]

My main league is still on standard scoring with 6 pt passing TDs. If you’re talking RB premium, why not just revert to standard? The reason standard was abandoned was that it overinflated RB values. If the argument is that split carries are devaluing RBs, then standard seems like the simplest answer. Constantly realigning scoring to try to even things out creates more problems than it solves in my opinion. I’m fine with whatever, but once a scoring system is set, future tweaks should be minor.

By "standard" you are talking non-ppr, I presume? That used to be what was meant in fantasy when people said "standard." There was standard, and there was ppr.
Now what is "standard" is ppr. So there's now standard and non-ppr.

If you meant standard=non-ppr, I agree with you. The easiest way to bring the RB value back up is not to complicate things further by bonusing their carries, but simply to stop handing out all these points to receivers for their receptions. PPR was created to bring WR value up to RBs. Get rid of PPR and the RB value rises.