CommishRx: Commissioners Should Allow Full Usage of Dual Eligibility for Jaylen Samuels

Currently, there’s a little fantasy uproar from an assortment of folks who are upset that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Jaylen Samuels has the RB/TE designation in Yahoo!

Some of them seem to be upset that they have to face an opponent that may decide to play Jaylen Samuels in the TE slot. This group loves using words on Twitter like, “unfair” and “cheating.”

Yahoo! Fantasy made an official announcement that they were not going to change the designation:

That was the correct call on their part – more Twitter crying and moaning ensued.

Before I address this from a fantasy perspective, I’m going to focus on fantasy commissioners using Yahoo!, who may have to deal with this. The short take: nothing changes.

Commissioners do not change the rules once the season has started. For example, you don’t change the scoring, you don’t change how you’ll seed the playoff or alter waiver rules. Members of your league have already acted on expectations based on the established rules.

Yahoo! listed Samuels as a RB/TE eight months ago.

Yahoo! timed the start of their fantasy football season with the NFL draft.

This is Week 14.

Folks in your league may be pushing you to modify how Jaylen Samuels is used in some way. I recommend that you don’t do it.

Exhibit A

I came across a post on Twitter from a commissioner who said that he was banning league members from using Jaylen Samuels as a tight end. I told him it was my opinion that he was overreaching as a commissioner. In a later post he admitted he made the decision himself without talking to the league. Instead, he informed them of his decision afterward. According to him, they agreed with him.

That’s great that it worked out for him this time, but why not talk to them about it first? Did he assume that there wouldn’t be a disagreement, or did he hope there wouldn’t be? Remember Rule #3: Be Transparent? What if there were some members who didn’t agree with his decision? What would he have done then?

A lot of fantasy commissioners have the power to make decisions on their own. However, if you have the opportunity to address your league first about a significant move you’re planning, you should.

Pittsburgh doesn’t play until the weekend. There was no need to single-handedly make the decision on their own carrying out some faux benevolent crusade as a lone wolf saving the league from collapse.

Talking to league members first would’ve been an easy (and self-protective) first step to make.

That which we call a mid-season rule change,
By any other word would smell as just as rancid – Juliet Capulet

The aforementioned commissioner agreed that mid-season changes shouldn’t happen. He actually thought that folks in other leagues should take advantage of playing Samuels in the TE slot. Curiously however, he didn’t think that option should be available to the owners in his league.

He felt his move to alter the rules was okay because the Yahoo! position on Samuels was as he put it, “blatantly stupid” and “a very unique situation.”

The “blatantly stupid” description can certainly be placed elsewhere, but not in Yahoo!’s lap. Let’s be clear, disregarding the Yahoo! policy on dual eligibility by disallowing owners from playing Jaylen Samuels how they want, is exactly what most of us would call a rule change.

One could argue it’s okay if his league voted on it, but that didn’t happen:

• The commissioner made the decision without league input.
• Fellow league members looking out for their own self-interest (similar to what happens when owners get to vote on trades) could easily penalize the Samuels owner who perhaps rostered him specifically because of his dual-eligibility.

Additionally, this silly fantasy crisis for some folks isn’t close to being a “unique situation.”

Been There, Done That

Yahoo! will often have hybrid designations for some players during their first year. I’m sure someone reading this has played fantasy football long enough to remember Marques Colston (TE/WR) and Joe Webb (QB/WR).

They both also had a dual-position tag their first year.

They caused a bit of commotion back then too, especially Colston. Despite the fact that everyone had the same chance to acquire Colston, the complainers thought that the person with him was getting an unfair advantage by using him in the TE slot instead of WR. Some Colston owners were called “cheaters” too.

The other players had the same opportunity to do their own player research. They could’ve looked specifically for dual-position players before the draft (like a lot of us do), but somehow this person was wrong for having and playing him. Same story, different year.

Players who put in the time studying depth charts, researching teams, or yes, in some cases just getting lucky, and acquire a player that has dual eligibility, deserve to benefit from their decision. Moreover, hysterical Johnny-come-latelies should not get to come along and cry foul and commissioners shouldn’t enable that behavior by facilitating the hijacking of established rules.

Why Jaylen? Why?

Why do some players get a hybrid tag? Generally, the dual tags are based on the predominate role players had in college and on how a NFL club claims they’re going to use the player as a pro. In some instances, a player will have played one position in college, but the NFL team that drafts them makes it known that they’re going to”convert” that player to another position.

Here’s the low-down on Jaylen Samuels:

• He was primarily an H-Back for N.C. State, which simplistically speaking, is a fullback/tight end hybrid or “F,” who will often line up in the slot. He was listed as such on their roster. He actually lined up all over the field for them primarily as a receiver and even played quarterback in their wild cat formation.

• He was a Mackey Award semi-finalist, given each year to the top collegiate tight end.
• He tested in the combine as a tight end.
• According to Samuels, it wasn’t his decision to group with the running backs at the Senior Bowl, but ultimately he didn’t have a problem with it.

If he was given just the TE tag [Draft Fantasy actually has him listed as such], then one could accuse Yahoo! via Stats Inc., of ignoring his status at the Senior Bowl. Conversely, listing Samuels solely as a RB going into his first pro season would’ve been flat-out wrong. That wasn’t his primary role in college. He averaged less than four carries per game.

Samuels will likely lose dual eligibility next season. In the meantime, Yahoo! giving him his current designation as a RB/TE is about as close to H-Back as you can get, and appropriately reflected his status going into the NFL Draft.

Who’s Next?

This year the Saints’ Dan Arnold is listed as a WR/TE. Arnold was a wide receiver at Wisconsin-Platteville, and listed as such on their roster, in the same way Samuels was listed as an H-Back on NC State’s roster. During camp, Sean Payton announced they were going to convert Arnold to tight end. Yahoo! gave him the dual WR/TE tag.

He’s been used sparingly this season. Last week in the game against Dallas, Arnold played only 23% of the offensive snaps.

Obviously there isn’t an outcry over Arnold. Yet, using the logic of some commissioners as our guide, shouldn’t they ban the use of Arnold as a wide receiver? Or, do they not care because he doesn’t have any fantasy value so they just ignore that he exists?

How about folks in IDP leagues? Byron Jones is tagged as a S/CB. In leagues with non-flex slots, Jones can be played in both. Is that okay? Is that fair? It actually is a great play if you can find a safety that you can play in a CB slot. Safeties tend to have higher tackle numbers than corners.

Are Jones owners cheating? Is it unfair that they can take advantage of the dual tag? Is it unfair that they drafted/picked Jones up before the other members of their league could?

What isn’t fair, is for a commissioner to wait until someone becomes fantasy relevant to suddenly determine whether their dual designation actually matters. You can’t cherry pick how a player qualifies after the season has started.

Deal or no Deal

There are a lot of players who will never rise to fantasy prominence. However, every season there are players who are not on the collective’s radar who will break out playing above all expectations. Some of these players will have dual eligibility.

Either you ban the use of all dual-eligibility players at the start of the season or you don’t. Either you publicly present the list of all players to your league with dual eligibility before the season begins, and declare which position you are not going to honor for each, or you don’t.

If you are a commissioner who thinks it’s perfectly okay with four weeks left in the fantasy season, to suddenly limit Jaylen Samuels’ usage, I’d love to know what your approach is going to be going forward.

• Are you going to create a new rule where all hybrid players will lose half of their designation? Or, are you going to decide on a case-by-case basis? If so, what criteria will you use to decide who gets the scarlet letter from the almighty commissioner?
• Will you apply the “Hybrid Ban” before the draft, or during the season only after a player becomes fantasy relevant?
• Will you simply ban all dual-eligibility players from being drafted and rostered altogether? After all, you have to be sure, right? You’ll never know which one of those players will break out. That means no one would have been able to use Jaylen Samuels this year.  No more fantasy league angst to worry about. Great, right?

• Are you going  to clearly announce to your league in the offseason that you get to disregard a college player’s statistics and track record,  Stats. Inc. and the personnel decisions made by NFL coaching staffs, and may decide at anytime during the season, even with four weeks left, that you can eliminate one of the designations?

Sounds crazy, right? Good luck with that.