DataForce Fantasy Football

Read Fantasy Sports Writer Matthew Hill's take on the strength of the 2025 draft class: Running backs.

From Ashton Jeanty (1) to Tahj Brooks (20), Matthew breaks down the strengths and weaknesses of what he calls the "ridiculous" depth of this year's cast.

Have you had a chance yet to peek at our off-season survey results? The poll showed satisfaction with most rules, but we'll be changing a few things. Here are the highlights:

New Changes From The Survey

1. Legacy league trading rules: There is about a 2-to-1 consensus that SOMETHING needs to be done to tighten up trading in legacy leagues. Unfortunately, there's no agreement on what. The most popular choice was to restrict trading of future-year picks to just one year out.
   
   So here's what we plan to do. Going forward (leagues beginning in 2025) you will only be able to trade one year out. 2026 picks, not 2027. Unless the legacy league is also a Supertrader league, in which case trading will stay at two years out.
   
   If you're in an existing legacy league and want to restrict future-pick trading to just one year, write me and I'll poll your league.
   
   
2. Special teams individual player scoring: Should an offensive player get 6 points for a TD that he scored on special teams? "Yes" votes edged "No" votes. We think this is now the more common rule in the fantasy universe, so while we usually don't adopt a rule change unless the vote is a bit more overwhelming, we plan to adopt this rule. Score a touchdown on a punt or kick return and you get 6 points.
   
   
3. No-drop list: We're going to be doing something to help prevent player drops of significant players from impacting the league by distorting waivers and team balance, but we're unsure what. Voters can't decide. We've love to hear more of your thoughts on this topic, too.
   
   
4. Bestball roster violations: We are going to go with the top vote-getter on this topic, which reads "To bring each team into compliance, automatically drop the player(s) who have the lowest player ranking, being sure to keep at least one player per position."
   
   

Several suggestions got shot down in the survey, and will not be implemented:

1. We're keeping the bad beat as-is. And the inaccuracy of the name "bad beat" only annoys a few of you, so it won't be changing. We hope you can live with it!
2. No change to trading limits or trade review rules, except in legacy leagues above.
3. No change to salary cap inflation.
4. No change to the potential points calculation.
5. And no home field advantage in the playoffs. This radical rule idea got shot down pretty strongly!
   
   

Other Notes From the Survey

1. Roughly one quarter of the survey results indicated they would like to play in leagues with a 1.5-point-per-reception score for tight ends. That's significant, though other scoring options were not as popular. This might be the year to introduce this scoring option, since it doesn't look to me like any tight end will truly dominate. Maybe these guys need a boost, we're looking hard at introducing these leagues.
2. Multiple people wrote to say "stop playing with potential points during the toilet bowl." We're not going to change anything this year, but we'll revisit this in the 2026 off-season poll. I have to confess, this recent change to make toilet bowls more fun and meaningful is one of my favorite rule changes, but having tried it now for a couple years, we'll see where the winds blow next year - whether we keep it or drop it.
3. Every year, lots of people write in "add more bench spots", "take away some bench spots", "add more I/R spots", "you have too many I/R spots". All I can say is, we seem to have hit the sweet spot that an equal amount of people complain in both directions, and roster sizes are not likely to change anytime soon.
4. One person wrote to suggest "flex only rosters", where you just have a number of flex and superflex roster spots. Several arguments were presented for this format. Anybody else have any thoughts on this idea? Not gonna happen this year, but I'm curious what others think.

It's that time of year when the quickest, funnest, and exciting--est way to get in on all the action is to adopt a team. Can you find a diamond in the rough on our orphan marketplace?

Some of these teams are in rebuilding mode (can you transform it into a winner?), some of them are high-percentage winners that the seller hopes can net a top price (can you negotiate a profitable purchase?) and many in the middle are just teams that an owner is ready to move on from, for whatever reason. From bargains to truly nut-worthy prices to heck-I-don't-care-what-it-sells-for giveaways, it's all there to be discovered.

Get in on the fun! By purchasing a for-sale-by-owner team "used," you avoid having to pay a deposit. You pay the owner the asking price (or negotiate a better one) and take over the deposit on the team.

Hint: Upon first arrival at the marketplace page, be sure to click open the short Orphan Buyer's Guide--that little blue box near the top right of the page.

Now, with recent enhancements to the marketplace, it's easier than ever to find the perfect orphan. Look for the section of the page pictured to the right.

With this new tool, you can order the teams however you wish, and you can select just those teams that appeal to you. And now we've added a second player selection to your query!

Looking for Davante Adams on a team with one of the top 3 picks? Easy! Maybe you want a Mahomes-to-Kelce stack? Piece of cake! Or a team with either Gibbs or Barkley? Sure thing!

Hint: Upon first arrival at the marketplace page, be sure to click open the short Orphan Buyer's Guide--that little blue box near the top right of the page.

Want to get in on a new Tin Baby or Dynasty league? Check out the leagues that are filling now!

Several leagues are nearly full and will begin drafting as soon as they're filled.

(Tin babies are cheap $22 leagues to help scratch the off-season draft itch, or just to get in a little cheap draft practice.)

That'll do it for this edition! Thank you so much for letting us provide your fantasy football entertainment.

Lee & Leslie

DataForce, LLC