Fantasy Football Beginners: How to find success even as a rookie

Tip #2: Know the Score

One thing all fantasy football beginners need to do is understand the league that they’re entering. The two main areas you need to know before the draft are league scoring and roster requirements.

Every league has scoring rules. Those rules lay out how your team gets points.

Every play that a player on your roster makes, you get fantasy points, but how those points are assigned is very important to understand.  For example, if Odell Beckham and catches a 45-yard touchdown pass from Eli Manning, whoever owns Beckham and whoever owns Manning will get points. If your league rewards one point for every ten receiving yards and six points per receiving touchdown (standard scoring) than Beckham would get 10.5 points for that catch.  In most scoring systems passing yards and touchdowns are worth a little less since there easier to come by, so Manning could get four points for the touchdown pass and 1.75 points for the 45 yards meaning he would get 5.75 fantasy points for the same play.

Scoring rules are extremely important to understand since they’ll dictate what positions are more valuable.  If your league is a PPR league (point-per-reception), the receiver gets a bonus point for each catch helping them to carry more weight. In some leagues, passing touchdowns are also worth six points which can make quarterbacks more important. A typical “balanced” league will reward one point for every ten yards rushing or receiving and one point for every 25 yards passing.  Four points are typical for passing touchdowns while six points are given for rushing and receiving touchdowns. Some leagues add in wrinkles like bonuses for long touchdown plays or negative points for turnovers as well.

The other area to make sure to check your league’s scoring is the “Team Defense” spot. Most leagues don’t have you draft individual defensive players (sometimes called IDP), but instead you’ll draft a whole team as a whole defense/special teams unit (D/ST). While fantasy football defenses aren’t that important (more on that later), they can be scored a variety of ways. Some leagues reward points for sacks, takeaways, and defensive touchdowns (big plays) while others emphasize holding the opposing team to a low point total or low yardage. Most scoring systems combine the two to give a “full” perspective on defense.

The important thing about scoring systems isn’t that you fully understand every variation possible, but make sure that you are aware of how to get the points in your league.  Make sure the advice you are getting from the internet, whether from here or another site, matches up with your league scoring. For example, following PPR-weighted advice or rankings in a league that doesn’t give that extra point for every catch can create a huge flaw in your strategy.

Since getting points wins you games, you don’t want to be caught off guard by any surprises after the draft.

Next: Tip #3