Cutline Rules Suggestions

[eliasond]

The Cutline is one of my favorite contests, but while the fantasy season is still fresh in our minds it is a perfect opportunity to discuss some possible rule tweaks.

Currently the first round of the cutline playoffs includes Weeks 11-13, while the second round of the playoffs is Week 14 by itself. The problem is that all 4 of these weeks contain bye weeks. This creates a disproportionate penalty for those fantasy teams that have Week 14 bye week players.

My suggestion is to adjust the playoff week groupings so that the first round of the playoffs consists of Weeks 11-12, and the second round is Weeks 13-14. This would dampen the impact of any one bye week on the cutline fantasy playoffs.

Full disclosure... my best cutline team this year had Jonathon Taylor on it, and as luck would have it I was eliminated in Week 14. I also had Bourne on my roster who may have been useful that week. In any event I missed the Wild Card survival cutline that week by about 30 pts, so maybe it wouldn't have mattered, but it would have been nice to have my full compliment of players available for a 1-week elimination situation.

This may seem like a random owner crying over spilled milk, but if you check back in the message board archives, I did make a similar suggestion for the Cutline contest last offseason, before I drafted Jonathon Taylor.

[Greg Ambrosius]

It's not a bad suggestion. We certainly didn't know that the NFL would have byes in Week 14 when we created the contests as they don't usually go that far out with byes. But it's a worthy suggestion either way.

[BLACKHAND]

I do not see any downside with this suggestion. Think it's a good idea

[Sandman62]

Good idea.

Also, how about considering a 12-team Cutline contest? And/or some 12-team standalone satellite leagues, with optimal scoring during the regular season and lineup setting during playoffs?

IOW, is the real draw of the current Cutline that it's 10 teams or the optimal scoring for reg. season + minimal FAAB?

Thanks.

[Greg Ambrosius]

One other slight change for 2022 that I'd like to address is reducing the number of rounds in the NFBC Draft Champions National Championship. I heard from several veterans in Las Vegas that 35 rounds drags on over the last 5 rounds or so. There were still a few good players taken in those final rounds - D'Ernest Jackson, D'Onta Foreman, among them -- but I'm in favor of reducing the number of rounds slightly in 2022.

We actually should have an even-number of rounds so that Teams 1 and 12 start the same number of rounds. I'm not sure why I chose 35 right away anyway. Certainly moving to 34 rounds wouldn't be a factor.

Give me some feedback for 2022 NFBC Draft Champions Leagues:

a) 32 Rounds?
b) 33 Rounds?
c) 34 Rounds?

Thanks and we'll implement right away in 2022.

[eliasond]

I'm in favor of keeping it at 35 or even increasing it, even in a normal non-covid year. So my preference would be 36, 38, or 40 if you want even-numbered suggestions.

Here are some players I drafted in Rounds 31-35 of DCs this year -- KJ Osborn, Foster Morneau, Jaret Patterson, Ke'Shawn Vaughn (twice), Carlos Hyde, Devin Duvernay, Colt McCoy, Tyler Conklin, Quez Watkins, Tony Jones, Isaiah McKenzie (also once in Rd 30), Ja'Mycal Hasty, Nick Foles. All of these players proved useful for at least 1 week during the season in the DC format.

My pet peeve in a DC is having enough injuries or covid during a week, combined with a bye or 2, that I have to take a zero at 1 or more positions. At those times I always wish we would have had a few more rounds in the draft.

I am also a big handcuff guy in the later rounds of DCs, even for WR and TE and including backup QBs, and those later rounds are where I do that damage.

If you have enough support from others to reduce it and those are are only options then I would vote for 34 rounds.

[eliasond]

Greg, what is the status of possibly making the first 2 rounds of the cutline playoffs to be Weeks 11-12 combined and Weeks 13-14 combined, respectively, instead of Weeks 11-13 combined and then Week 14 by itself? I see the rules still show it as the latter. Drafting a player that ends up with a Week 14 bye week is a tough hardship (i.e. Jonathon Taylor last year). I'm thinking you still have time to make the change since the NFL hasn't released their schedule and bye weeks yet.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Greg, what is the status of possibly making the first 2 rounds of the cutline playoffs to be Weeks 11-12 combined and Weeks 13-14 combined, respectively, instead of Weeks 11-13 combined and then Week 14 by itself? I see the rules still show it as the latter. Drafting a player that ends up with a Week 14 bye week is a tough hardship (i.e. Jonathon Taylor last year). I'm thinking you still have time to make the change since the NFL hasn't released their schedule and bye weeks yet.

We made that change and it should be reflected in the rules. Playoffs are Weeks 11-12 and 13-14, followed by single weeks in Weeks 15, 16 and 17. If the text isn't updated yet, I'll make sure we do that today, but yes this change has been made. Thanks for the suggestion.

[eliasond]

Excellent!