Is your fantasy football league boring? Or is it Year 1, and you want to start with a bang? Go against the grain of regular fantasy game rules and use these tips to freshen up the competition.
1. Eliminate head-to-head. Go with total points or all-play.
I get it. You want your league to resemble the NFL as much as possible, and that comes with the drama and trash talk related to competing with friends every Thursday through Monday.
But for fantasy, head-to-head doesn’t always tell the right story — a freak injury or strategy flaw in real-life play can ruin your week or season.
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Playing your entire league every weekend (using head-to-head record or straight point totals) gives a clearer reflection of the best and worst squads. In this setup, the highest-scoring clubs will not miss the playoffs. (How often has that happened to you?)
You could even skip the traditional playoff format and just play this way through the final weekend, the way that other football does in the English Premier League.
2. Eliminate the kicker.
3. Add at least one extra flex (running back-wide receiver-tight end) position.
4. Perhaps a superflex, adding a quarterback.
I enjoyed the first two being used in the recent Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio Independence Day Invitational, which took things to the extreme with no kicker, no team defense, an extra tight end and an extra RB-WR-TE flex.
These three alterations would throw an electrifying wrench into an ever-evolving player pool. Kickers were already frustrating, and with the revised extra-point rules, it’s Stephen Gostkowski, Justin Tucker, or … dart board.
Why not get more fantasy fun out of a roster spot? Especially when you institute the wild card of the option to start another QB. Heck, go nuts, make it a two-QB lineup.
5. Use incentives to keep lower-ranked teams competitive late into the year.
Make the No. 1 pick next year the highest-ranked non-playoff team. Put money aside for weekly contests (most receiving yards, etc.) so teams can win even if they’re not going to take the full-year crown.
Force the last-place team to pay for a league dinner or perform an embarrassing dare (viral video? tattoo? viral video of the loser getting a Justin Bieber tattoo?).
Let’s stretch the boundaries further with these final three suggestions:
6. Install at least two spots for individual defensive players.
IDPs bring a new vision of fantasy — who’s going to make the most plays on the other side of the ball? It’ll help improve your league’s overall knowledge of football even more than your basic league does.
7. Award a bonus if an owner’s quarterback throws a touchdown to a teammate also on that fantasy club.
It’d be cool to find a software that could deploy a Stack Bonus, if you will. Nailing a stat-sheet-stuffing QB-WR connection is one of the most rewarding feelings in daily fantasy football, so why not embrace the thrill of Ben Roethlisberger-to-Antonio Brown every week?
You can just about throw average draft position out the window if that happens — another dynamic twist.
8. Hold a live free-agent auction every Tuesday or Wednesday night.
OK, probably a pipe dream. But imagine how high that Week 1 wonder’s price can climb in Week 2.
Blind bids are cool, but not as fun as an active bidding war. Limit it to one or two rounds, then kick off first-come, first-serve pickups the morning after.
But would fantasy league widows allow this?
Any other suggestions?