NFFC Rules Changes Proposed For 2019; Let's Discuss

[RedRyder]

I know you don't like the Team Kicker rule Wayne, but as we launch the site in February and give folks confidence in drafting so early I think it makes sense for the DCs. You can still use your Kickers research and strategies for FAAB leagues and KICK ASS!! Let's see if this helps the DCs grow even more this year and take some of the frustration away from this position.

I HATE, HATE, HATE the TEAM KICKER!!!!!!! YUCK!!!!!!!!!!! And I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE DCs...make that past tense, LOVED

We certainly understand that Team Kicker is not going to be loved by everyone for the DCs. But let's look at some facts to understand why this is being done ONLY in this format and then discuss.

We are now opening the DCs in February and we know the Kicker position is a crapshoot in May and June, so it will really be a crapshoot before then. Team Kicker should make it easier to draft a DC team in February, March and April.

But more importantly, to back up this position you need at least 3 and maybe 4 potential kickers in the DCs if you draft early. Guess how many Kickers were drafted last year? Any idea?

FIFTY-FOUR!!!!!

That's two full rounds of drafting Kickers. In fact, during Rounds 28 to 35, there were 34 different Kickers being drafted. Only 20 kickers have an ADP in the first 27 rounds, so if this is such an important position, WHY AREN'T PEOPLE DRAFTING THEM EARLIER?

This isn't a skilled finish to the DC, it's a CRAPSHOOT to back up ONE POSITION. With Team Kicker and with staying at 35 rounds, we could have 22 more skill-position players being drafted in Rounds 28-35. Isn't that good for the game?

I'm not a fan of Team Kicker. Tom and Darik aren't fans of Team Kicker. I never thought we'd add it to any NFFC contest. I will say, I don't see us ever adding this to FAAB leagues. But in this format where you can't replace an injured kicker or can't pick up a starting kicker who came out of nowhere, this position change makes sense. And it will likely make the game better as we spend most of our early off-season prep time on the skill position players. Hope this data helps.

Here's the list of Kickers from 2018 NFFC and their ADPs:

1  Zuerlein, Greg LA K 166.61
2  Tucker, Justin BAL K 174.11
3  Gostkowski, Stephen NE K 174.94
4  Lutz, Wil NO K 196.99
5  Butker, Harrison KC K 197.12
6  Bryant, Matt ATL K 210.33
7  Prater, Matt DET K 214.24
8  Elliott, Jake PHI K 214.37
9  Boswell, Chris PIT K 216.55
10  Gould, Robbie SF K 218.84
11  Gano, Graham CAR K 262.95
12  Crosby, Mason GB K 267.4
13  Succop, Ryan TEN K 270.38
14  Bailey, Dan MIN K 283.29
15  Vinatieri, Adam IND K 285.21
16  McManus, Brandon DEN K 288.79
17  Carlson, Daniel OAK K 291.33
18  Lambo, Josh JAX K 301.76
19  Hopkins, Dustin WAS K 324.88
20  Fairbairn, Ka'imi HOU K 326.99
21  Sturgis, Caleb LAC K 339.75
22  Parkey, Cody CHI K 343.08
23  Janikowski, Sebastian SEA K 347.4
24  Forbath, Kai JAX K 350.69
25  Hauschka, Stephen BUF K 352.27
26  Dawson, Phil ARZ K 353.94
27  Catanzaro, Chandler CAR K 357.21
28  Gonzalez, Zane ARZ K 362.34
29  Rosas, Aldrick NYG K 368.07
30  Bullock, Randy CIN K 375.96
31  Sanders, Jason MIA K 385.55
32  Santos, Cairo TB K 389.09
33  Tavecchio, Giorgio ATL K 392.29
34  Pineiro, Eddy OAK K 396.07
35  Maher, Brett DAL K 410.24
36  Nugent, Mike OAK K 410.95
37  Aguayo, Roberto LAC K 411.89
38  Myers, Jason NYJ K 412.03
39  Walsh, Blair SEA K 414.8
40  Novak, Nick LAC K 417.5
41  Bertolet, Taylor NYJ K 418.12
42  Barth, Connor CHI K 419.17
43  Ficken, Sam LA K 419.83
44  Murray, Patrick TB K 420.15
45  Rose, Nick HOU K 420.2
46  Martin, Ross CLE K 420.52
47  Joseph, Greg CLE K 420.65
48  Moore, Trevor TB K 420.75
49  Brown, Jonathan CIN K 420.76
50  Koehn, Marshall NYG K 420.8
51  Koo, Younghoe LAC K 420.87
52  Folk, Nick TB K 420.9
53  Coons, Travis LAC K 420.91
54  McCrane, Matt PIT K 420.92

Do you like any of those last 22 kickers? Did the gamble pay off?

Not sure why you keep referencing early drafts, are not ALL DCs going to be TEAM KICKER? Maybe I am missing something.

CRAPSHOOT? Kicker was never a crapshoot in my book and in many others, except when drafting the last remaining. I always found it a skill about which Kicker to take, how early in these DCs to take them, how many to take, etc.

ADP is nice and can be used at any positions, but how many DC leagues did you run? And out of those DC leagues, how many times was Roberto Aguayo drafted? Trevor Moore, how many times was he drafted? Instead of ADP, I would like to see the % or number of times the bottom rung Kickers were drafted. I would also like the names of those that drafted them, so if inclined to play in these DCs, I can look for there names on the sign-up thread

Last question, if you, Tom and Darik all dislike Team Kicker, who is the power that does? And please don't tell me your customers, seemed pretty split in the quick read thru of this spread.

I've said in in years past and I'll say it again, nothing like a survey to ALL that played in your contests (Survey Monkey) to get a solid reaction to questions. Those that privately e-mail you and post on the boards aren't that many. Heck, I only came on the boards yesterday because of the Silver Bullet.

[chriseibl]

Was new to the draft champions format last year but would definitely vote for individual kickers if it's still on the table.

To Wayne's point, there's value in understanding each kicker's contract situation, whether they were facing camp competition, and how many doinks they were away from being cut (Kai Forbath is an example of a guy who kept going high in earlier drafts, and strangely high in some later drafts, but appeared to have a lot of risk). That stuff wouldn't matter in a FAAB league because you can switch your kicker at any time. There was added strategy in ensuring you got a couple safe kickers and riding the line of how late you could take them.

I don't think anyone was drafting those last 22 kickers (even in 35 round DCs). Maybe 1-2 "backup" kickers at most got chosen per 35 round draft.

The rest of the changes look great, and I'm happy the idea of letting a consolation round team make the championship round was shut down.

[Coltsfan]

I think that if you take a kicker early then you are safe. If you roll the dice and gamble at kicker then you get what you deserve. It's like every other position in FF. The exact same arguement can be made for every starting position when you draft early. I do lots of early FFPC drafts since they are up and running early and kicker is never a problem unless you wait and roll the dice.


Wayne

[TR]

Do you like any of those last 22 kickers? Did the gamble pay off?
[/quote]

Not sure why you keep referencing early drafts, are not ALL DCs going to be TEAM KICKER? Maybe I am missing something.

CRAPSHOOT? Kicker was never a crapshoot in my book and in many others, except when drafting the last remaining. I always found it a skill about which Kicker to take, how early in these DCs to take them, how many to take, etc.

ADP is nice and can be used at any positions, but how many DC leagues did you run? And out of those DC leagues, how many times was Roberto Aguayo drafted? Trevor Moore, how many times was he drafted? Instead of ADP, I would like to see the % or number of times the bottom rung Kickers were drafted. I would also like the names of those that drafted them, so if inclined to play in these DCs, I can look for there names on the sign-up thread

Last question, if you, Tom and Darik all dislike Team Kicker, who is the power that does? And please don't tell me your customers, seemed pretty split in the quick read thru of this spread.

I've said in in years past and I'll say it again, nothing like a survey to ALL that played in your contests (Survey Monkey) to get a solid reaction to questions. Those that privately e-mail you and post on the boards aren't that many. Heck, I only came on the boards yesterday because of the Silver Bullet.
[/quote]

I'm wondering the same..who is the power that liked team kicker and making these rule changes. A survey to ALL that played sure would be nice.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Jules, we had 146 NFFC Draft Champions leagues last year (not counting the $50 and $25 private leagues). Of that total, 27 kickers were drafted in every league and 33 were drafted in the vast majority of those leagues. So by having Team Kicker the same amount of kickers will be drafted in most of our DC leagues, usually with the same kicker from those teams being used.

A total of 37 individual kickers were drafted in more than half of those leagues. Robert Aguayo was drafted in 69 of those leagues and his ADP was 38. The last 12 kickers on my list weren't drafted in more than 10 percent of DC leagues, but the last 15 kickers were drafted between once and 26 times. I would say on average, 38-40 kickers were drafted in a normal DC league.

So Team Kicker may save between 6-10 picks, less than the 22 in my original post. But it will allow owners to feel more secure with those second and third kicker picks in February, March and April.

My question with this rule change is: Will the Top kickers be drafted any differently? I don't see Justin Tucker going any lower just because you are now drafting Baltimore's kicker, right? Same with Gostkowski, Lutz or Zuerlein because you're drafting the kicker of that offense to gain an edge. Nothing should change for the top 12-18 kickers as there's still that strategy in a DC that you are drafting the kicker of the offense you are investing in to gain an edge. The difference is in the secondary offenses that could break out with the kicker you are investing in. And that kicker could change based on the NFL Draft or an injury or an unforeseen cut. But the strategy of when to take that top kicker still remains.

Why did we make this executive decision to change to Team Kicker just for Draft Champions leagues? Because the DCs are the only contest that fill in February, March and April before the NFL Draft (heck, throw in May and June too), so we are giving owners some insurance to the unpredictability of this position to draft early. This takes out some risk to this position, which people feel occurs too often at this position. Heck, MFL10s took the position out entirely to entice people to draft in February and later, but we won't go that far. We think that by changing to Team Kicker it makes it easier to draft earlier in the season. That's our reasoning.

And if I look at last year's ADP, how would this have changed last year's results? Well, the top kicker was Greg Zuerlein, who missed Weeks 2-6 with an injury and his/her owners would have been covered for those points with his backup. Dan Bailey, the 15th kicker on our ADP, was cut by Dallas and later picked up by Minnesota. Both Dallas and Minnesota kickers changed teams, as their ADPs were 15 and 19. Maybe only one other kicker affected in the Top 24 by an off-season change.

Hope this helps.

[BigBlueNation]

Nothing anybody has said has convinced me the reason behind changing to "Team Kicker". There's a strategy to drafting kickers.

[RedRyder]

Nothing anybody has said has convinced me the reason behind changing to "Team Kicker". There's a strategy to drafting kickers.

Exactly, just like there is a strategy to drafting QBs and DST in DCs.

I'm not down with this dumbing down of DCs with Team Kickers.

Greg, will your live Vegas high stakes DCs also have Team Kickers?

[COZ]

Great Job on the rule tweaks I love all of them! I appreciate you guys listening to the players and their voices. Agree with all the changes!

+1. Well-thought out & reasoned tweaks while ignoring the radical ideas. Kudos on the Team Kicker for DC's decision while ignoring the call to eliminate Kickers. Great job!

[Coltsfan]

Greg,

There is no chance kickers go anywhere near where they were going before. You took kickers early partly for the points but mostly for the job security. That’s why dc kicker# go well before kickers in redraft leagues. I don’t understand why you guys caved on this. There was not some huge majority out there wanting this.


Wayne

[Don Draper]

Greg,

There is no chance kickers go anywhere near where they were going before. You took kickers early partly for the points but mostly for the job security. That’s why dc kicker# go well before kickers in redraft leagues. I don’t understand why you guys caved on this. There was not some huge majority out there wanting this.


Wayne

From reading all of the posts, it sounds like NFFC feels they can generate more early DC signups if the uncertainty surrounding the kicker position was removed. While it may increase for some, there may be some owners who simply walk away from DCs because of it.

For me, I would never consider doing a feb - may DC draft. Just too much guess work (contracts, injuries, etc) involved FOR ALL positions.

As to the kicker position, I am a fan of individual kickers. Team kickers “dumb down” the contest. This change is clearly a welcome boost to the “dummy” owner and a kick to the gut to the more “astute” owner.

And yes, Wayne is correct on his points above. the Adp of team kickers will drop (go later).