Should The NFL Abolish Extra Points?

[The Franchise]

Has anyone asked head coaches if they like this idea?? They will be second-guessed to death on such a play. "Why did you go for the extra point when we could have won with just 7 points?!!!" Imagine the number of plays they'd have to devise. When they score first, do they take a 7-0 lead or go for the extra point?? These head coaches will never win with this new rule.

Right now, they can go for two points after every touchdown if they want. All head coaches take the more conservative route of the "extra point." It might be ingenious from Goodell's standpoint, but it will be a nightmare for head coaches and is addressing an area of the game that isn't a pressing problem.

Deal with kickoffs again and make that more meaningful. Is there anything more meaningless in the NFL right now than the kickoff as most every kicker can put it through the uprights from the 35? What a stupid play that's become under Goodell's watch.

I'm not following, how would this change even slightly affect what coaches do (both you and Nelson mentioned this so I'm assuming there's something I'm missing)? Don't coaches always go for 7 now instead of risking a point for 8? The only difference is the physical act of kicking the point is removed. I don't follow how this change would affect how the decision to take 7 or "go for 8" is made in the slightest.

My bad. I read the rules correctly, but I was thinking something different.

I was thinking that a teams scores a TD and gets 6 pts. Then the teams HAS to go for a 2 pt conversion. If they convert they get 8 pts, but if they miss they get 7 pts. So no matter what the team gets 7 pts on a TD, but has a chance for 8 pts on every TD. That's why I was thinking it would be exciting for every TD. At the very least the coach can rest easy that his team is getting 7 pts even if he misses on the 2 pt conversion.

[BillyWaz]

Yea, this really doesn't change the game at all.

Everytime a team scores a TD, we assume it is 7 points.

When a team NEEDS to go for 2, they do. If they get it, it is it, if not, it is 6.

Now in fantasy, this WOULD change a bit with the kickers and you would REALLY be rooting for teams to stall, and not score. So kickers on teams who score a boatload of TD's would be hurt by this rule. My general rule of selecting kickers is pick a kicker on a good offense.......not so much the case now (if this happens).

Replacement kickers are always easy to find on the wire wire, and dare I say this will make kickers LESS important than they already are in fantasy?

[chriseibl]

Billy,

I agree that this rule change would make kickers even less important. Kickers are obviously already unpredictable on a week to week basis but the one real trend you see from year to year is that top kickers come from top scoring offenses (yes, there are exceptions). Right now, if you pick a kicker from a top offense and he has bad luck on a given week and doesn't get any opportunities, you at least have a high volume of extra points to fall back on.

I still think the best way to pick a kicker will be to simply pick a team that gets a lot of scoring opportunities but losing those extra points makes them wildly unpredictable. Sure, you want a kicker with a lot of scoring opportunities but that could backfire if his offense lights it up for 6 touchdowns and you're left with nothing. I will, on rare occasion, take a kicker before the last couple of rounds but don't think I would do so if this rule change were to go down.

[BillyWaz]

Billy,

I agree that this rule change would make kickers even less important. Kickers are obviously already unpredictable on a week to week basis but the one real trend you see from year to year is that top kickers come from top scoring offenses (yes, there are exceptions). Right now, if you pick a kicker from a top offense and he has bad luck on a given week and doesn't get any opportunities, you at least have a high volume of extra points to fall back on.

I still think the best way to pick a kicker will be to simply pick a team that gets a lot of scoring opportunities but losing those extra points makes them wildly unpredictable. Sure, you want a kicker with a lot of scoring opportunities but that could backfire if his offense lights it up for 6 touchdowns and you're left with nothing. I will, on rare occasion, take a kicker before the last couple of rounds but don't think I would do so if this rule change were to go down.

Exactly Chris!

[moyer1313]

The interesting side effect will be changing fantasy TDs from 6 to 7 points ... and to a lesser extent, the high-TD scoring team kickers will lose relative value.

KJ,

I think God worded things poorly in his explanation when he said something like, "A touchdown will be worth 7 points. If you go for 2 and make it you will get 8 points, but if you don't make it, then you go back to 6 points."

That is a very loose paraphasing of what he actually said.

If they really are serious about this, and they are not just creating a smoke screen to cover up the poor officiating, then I think when they do come out with something official it will read more like, "A touchdown is worth 6 points. The scoring team can then decide to accept the automatic 1 point for the extra point, without actually having to attempt the kick, or they can decline the automatic 1 point for the extra point and try for the 2-point conversion."

I think that they will want touchdowns to remain at 6 points so that Johnny U's scoring records are easily comparable to Peyton's scoring records because a passing TD has been and, hopefully, always will be worth 6 points.

You are absolutely right about the Kickers and that will be more fuel for the fire for the people that want to eliminate the Kicker position from fantasy football.

Mark
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[Tom Kessenich]

Here's a technical question: If the team scores 7 points, goes for the 8th and fails and ends up with 6 who is the point subtracted from? Every scoring play is associated with a player in some fashion so how will that be done? From a fantasy perspective this seems like a rather huge potential issue.

Let's say Aaron Rodgers throws a TD pass to Jordy Nelson. That's 7 points. In our scoring let's say 6 for Rodgers and 7 for Nelson. The Packers then go for the 8th point but an Eddie Lacy run falls short of the end zone. Does the point get subtracted from Rodgers' total, Nelson's total, both?

[kjduke]

Here's a technical question: If the team scores 7 points, goes for the 8th and fails and ends up with 6 who is the point subtracted from? Every scoring play is associated with a player in some fashion so how will that be done? From a fantasy perspective this seems like a rather huge potential issue.

Let's say Aaron Rodgers throws a TD pass to Jordy Nelson. That's 7 points. In our scoring let's say 6 for Rodgers and 7 for Nelson. The Packers then go for the 8th point but an Eddie Lacy run falls short of the end zone. Does the point get subtracted from Rodgers' total, Nelson's total, both?

Mark may have it right above, the TD still is worth 6, then the ??tooth fairy?? bequeaths a free point that is credited to ??the coach?? for electing to not go for 2, and the team magically has 7 pts. In this way, TDs remain 6 and 2-point convertsions remain 2-pts.

[Tom Kessenich]

Here's a technical question: If the team scores 7 points, goes for the 8th and fails and ends up with 6 who is the point subtracted from? Every scoring play is associated with a player in some fashion so how will that be done? From a fantasy perspective this seems like a rather huge potential issue.

Let's say Aaron Rodgers throws a TD pass to Jordy Nelson. That's 7 points. In our scoring let's say 6 for Rodgers and 7 for Nelson. The Packers then go for the 8th point but an Eddie Lacy run falls short of the end zone. Does the point get subtracted from Rodgers' total, Nelson's total, both?

Mark may have it right above, the TD still is worth 6, then the ??tooth fairy?? bequeaths a free point that is credited to ??the coach?? for electing to not go for 2, and the team magically has 7 pts. In this way, TDs remain 6 and 2-point convertsions remain 2-pts.

I'm not sure we can magically program points, KJ. The points have to be assigned somewhere. All NFL points are assigned in some fashion. I think this is a rather big question that needs to be addressed and certainly one that could have potentially huge fantasy ramifications.

[Sandman62]

I agree with kj and would prefer not to see TD points increased for any positions. The pass-happy NFL already has so much scoring that there are wild scoring swings by our fantasy rosters. IMO, there's no reason to attempt to account for every NFL point scored in fantasy scoring. For example, ESPN leagues (and others) already award only 4 points per passing TD.

Therefore, a missed 2-pt conversion doesn't subtract 1 point from anyone, IMO.

[Tom Kessenich]

I agree with kj and would prefer not to see TD points increased for any positions. The pass-happy NFL already has so much scoring that there are wild scoring swings by our fantasy rosters. IMO, there's no reason to attempt to account for every NFL point scored in fantasy scoring. For example, ESPN leagues (and others) already award only 4 points per passing TD.

Therefore, a missed 2-pt conversion doesn't subtract 1 point from anyone, IMO.

Every NFL point is assigned to someone, though. I'm not sure we can just arbitrarily ignore point totals in a game. I'll be very interested to see how the subtracted point would be factored into the scoring.