The Madman is a hypocrite. We admit it.
Anyone who reads us regularly will be familiar with our “football-flavored football” ideology. We want our fantasy games to resemble the real-world product as much as possible.
To wit: The real game doesn’t care if a player obtains the ball by a handoff or a pass, all touches are the same. Why should fantasy be different? Hence, one reason we despise PPR.
Similarly: No real football game has ever ended with a score of, say, 24.3 to 21.7. That’s because partial points don’t exist in real football, so (with the exception of DFS contests) why do they exist in fantasy football?
Or: No team uses two quarterbacks, so why do some fantasy leagues have two?
Uh-oh. … You caught us. This is our weak point, the exposed exhaust port in our fantasy Death Star dogma. Here is where we argue against ourselves, because we also love, love, love superflex leagues.
So yes, we acknowledge this flies in the face of our “football-flavored football” creed. However, counterintuitively, it is our football-flavored desires that fuels this love.
There is a rampant problem across all traditional fantasy formats: The quarterback is drastically undervalued. You can literally punt the most important position in football during your draft and still build a league-winning fantasy football roster. In fact, we would argue this is the best way to build a winner. And that fact is what troubles us.
What changes could make the fantasy game more realistic? Most of the ones we can think of are far too ambitious or cumbersome to manage — from overhauls in QB scoring to fantasy leagues with an obnoxious amount of teams.
Luckily, we don’t have to turn into Dr. Fantasy Frankenstein to find a solution. Something already has been brought to life, and that creature is superflex.
Fantasy Football DVQ Explainer
Hop out of the pool, unpack your vacation suitcase, boot up your laptop and get ready, because fantasy football season is back.
The Fantasy Madman has returned with the latest iteration of his DVQ.
The Draft Value Quotient is a player rating system that assigns one universal number for every player. This value projects the point in the draft at which a player’s projected production will match the estimated draft pick value.
Since there is a wider separation among production at the top, so too is there a wider gap between DVQ values at the top of the rankings.
The player projections takes into account playing time, expected use/touches, coaching tendencies, part performance and injury history. The DVQ measures these projections against a player’s schedule and factors in positional depth and value above replacement.
These ratings are updated regularly.
Superflex leagues — which have a roster spot that allow managers to start a second QB — provide a natural value boost that puts QBs on par with running backs and wide receivers. It doesn’t elevate them above other positions, as in the real game, but at least it gets them on the same level.
Smart superflex managers will be looking to grab three QBs — two they can use every week plus a quality backup. Needless the say, if you’re in a 12-team league, there are not 36 useable QBs to go around. There aren’t even 24 good starting options. So you have to pounce quickly in the draft.
In a traditional league, someone is laughing if you take one in the first five rounds — no matter how good the real-life QB is. In a superflex, no one will look at you funny if your first two picks are both QBs.
No longer can you wait until the middle or late rounds to address the game’s most important position, not in a superflex. Now that position is important in fantasy, too. This fantasy format at least feels and acts more football-flavored, even if its rosters do not look like it.
So, in retrospect, maybe we’re not such hypocrites after all. But in today’s world where nuance is dead, we’re perfectly OK if you want to call us one.
