Daily Dr. Roto — July 9, 2018
Superflex Leagues — Strategies to Implement
Today marks the beginning of the eighth annual Scott Fish Bowl draft (#SFB8) which usually gets the drafting juices of the Fantasy Football community flowing. The #SFB8 has 900 teams (including both experts and non-experts) who are spread out into 75 divisions of 12 teams each. What also distinguishes this draft is that it is 22 rounds and no defenses or kickers are selected — only position players including a superflex player.
So, what is a superflex player? A superflex player is an additional player at an offensive position. For example, a team would be able to use three Running Backs instead of two as the third RB would be considered the superflex spot. I predict that as we move forward into the next decade of Fantasy Football, I would expect that many leagues will begin to abandon the kicker position (and possibly defense) and use a superflex position. I totally understand why this would (and could) happen. Who wants their Fantasy Football league decided by whether their kicker hits or misses a 40-yard FG? If Peyton Manning doesn’t respect kickers, why should Fantasy Football owners? In fact, most clever Fantasy Football owners wait until the last two rounds to draft their kicker and defense anyway. Using a superflex position makes league owners have to be smarter with their lineups and know the player pool even more than they do now.
That said, I think there is one dominant strategy that needs to be implemented in all superflex leagues: the superflex position MUST be used on a Quarterback simply because Quarterbacks score more points than any other position.
Here is a good example: This assumes a 6 point per TD pass and ½ point PPR league format
QB Mitch Trubisky throws for 242 yards and 1 TD and rushes for 13 yards. In most leagues, Trubisky would get 6 points for a TD pass, 1.3 yards for rushing yards, and 9.68 (.04 per passing yard) points for passing yards giving him a total of 16.98 points.
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RB Dion Lewis rushes for 46 yards and has 6 receptions for 59 yards.
This would give Lewis 4.6 yards rushing, 5.9 yards receiving, and 3 points in receptions giving him an overall total of 13.5 points. Even if this were a full point PPR, Lewis would only be at 16.5 points which would still be less than Trubisky.
Could Lewis be better on a given week? Yes, but he would HAVE to score a TD to be better than Trubisky.
What if I used a fourth wide receiver instead?
WR Corey Davis catches 7 passes for 90 yards. In PPR formats, Davis would be at 16 points. In a ½ point PPR format, he would be at 12.5 points, which would still be less than Lewis.
The bottom line is this: running backs and wide receivers who are used as superflex players MUST have huge games to supersede the scores of even the 20th-ranked Quarterback. So, if you are going to play in a superflex league, it makes the most sense to use that position on a QB.
With that in mind, the question is now: if you need two quarterbacks to win a superflex league, at what point do you go about drafting them?
This is perhaps the trickiest question. I would argue that you must take your first QB no later than round 3. To compete and win in these types of leagues, you do not need a top 5 QB, but you absolutely cannot win with a bottom 5 QB. This would mean that I would want to take both my quarterbacks no later than round 6 of this type of league. I might even make that round 5 if I don’t want to be stuck with the dregs at the bottom of the barrel, but you won’t normally know that until you see how the draft is going. What I do know is this: I can win a superflex league if I have the #8 and #14 overall quarterbacks, so long as my other few early position players that I drafted are strong. So, while I would never want Andy Dalton as my QB in a high stakes Las Vegas live draft league, I most certainly would consider him a decent player in a superflex league.
As with anything, the more times you play in these types of leagues, the more you understand what it takes to win. Don’t be afraid to embrace change in your fantasy football leagues, as it is always good to experiment with new scoring systems and new positions to keep things fresh for you and your fellow league owners. You can always go back to letting an idiot kicker decide your league next season.
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