As we get ready to kick off Week 6, I thought it’d be a good time to check in with everyone to see what they are thinking about the changes this year. Mainly, the defensive scoring.
To recap, we took solo tackles from 20 down to 15, and assisted tackles from 10 to 5. This was done with the interest of balancing DBs and DLs with LBs – putting more focus on big plays, and lessening the importance of pile-on assisted tackles. The previous system rewarded a lot of linebackers and safeties who weren’t really any good but racked up a lot of post-first down tackles. Guys like Tae Crowder, Alex Singleton, and Denzel Perryman wound up near the top of the leaderboards with Bobby Wagner, Roquan Smith, and Jordyn Brooks, despite no sacks and very few splash plays.
The thought was that dropping the tackle numbers, and increasing stuff like Sacks, INTS, Forced Fumbles, TFL and Pass Denfends would give a better representation of the player’s impact on the game. I will admit the overall scoring has dropped more than I anticipated, and I’m still on the fence about if its working or not. We only have 5 weeks worth of sample size, but let’s take a look at some numbers and see how it’s panning out.
LINEBACKERS
So to start, let’s look at the LBs and see how scoring has affected them. For a quick snapshot, I took the Mean Average of the Top 10 guys at the position. For this year, I took out TJ Watt since he only played one game, and scored 330 points in said game, so I felt like he was TOO much of an outlier.
The rank column is based on total points, though I used the per-game averages.
| Rank | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| 1 | 187 | 220 | 194 |
| 2 | 183 | 154 | 177 |
| 3 | 165 | 157 | 173 |
| 4 | 146 | 153 | 169 |
| 5 | 146 | 143 | 166 |
| 6 | 143 | 151 | 165 |
| 7 | 164 | 142 | 162 |
| 8 | 142 | 148 | 162 |
| 9 | 141 | 154 | 161 |
| 10 | 139 | 140 | 156 |
| 153.75 | 150.25 | 166.87 |
Ok, so that’s not what I expected. We know overall scoring is down, and we know this is the position group that should be most affected. So what I think this means is that the cream is rising to the top. While the LB depth is probably scoring less, the guys at the top are actually excelling more.
Guys in the Top 10 this season, who were also there last year include Foye Oluokun, Brooks, Parsons, Roquan and if he were healthy, TJ Watt. Additionally, after a down-2021, Devin White is back to 2020 form near the top so far this year. Some of the dudes that are now missing include Leonard – who is hurt, and then D. Campbell and Kendricks. New to the Top Ten are rookie Devin Lloyd and then Mykal Walker and Alex Highsmith – who are both filling in for dudes that previously finished up there.
Of the current Top 10, eight players have at least one sack in the first five games, and the other two; Lloyd (2 INTs) and Luvu (INT, FF, Def TD) are making an impact in other areas. So is it just sacks that are pumping these guys up? Let’s look…
- 2020 – Sacks Per Game: .381
- 2021 – Sacks Per Game: .422
- 2022 – Sacks Per Game: .459
Pretty impressive, and keep in mind you had TJ Watt factored into the ’20 and ’21 numbers. This would seem to indicate that the LBs at the top really are more impact guys vs. just tackle-monsters – though I should point out, these guys are still tackle-monsters as well.
So what about the other defenders? The idea was to make DLs and DBs more valuable – so how is that going?
DEFENSIVE LINEMEN
So this is where we wanted to take the “Tight End of the Defense” – DL, and make it playable in the IDP spot of you were so inclined. By eliminating the top and bottom numbers to get the Mean, we eliminate that “mediocre defender” Maxx Crosby who is averaging over 200 a game this year (and 260 ppg since the trade), and still we see the numbers are for sure up.
| Rank | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| 1 | 120 | 138 | 208 |
| 2 | 137 | 135 | 145 |
| 3 | 121 | 134 | 141 |
| 4 | 119 | 132 | 139 |
| 5 | 110 | 127 | 138 |
| 6 | 107 | 127 | 131 |
| 7 | 104 | 113 | 131 |
| 8 | 111 | 111 | 129 |
| 9 | 111 | 99 | 127 |
| 10 | 98 | 106 | 126 |
| 112.87 | 123.12 | 135.12 |
This year the points for a SACK went from 50 to 70, and TFL went from 10 to 15. These changes were made with the DL in mind, and it does appear they’ve made the kind of increase we were hoping for. Every player in the top ten is averaging at least 0.5 a sack per game.
DEFENSIVE BACKS
The main changes aimed at DBs were the increases for INTS (60 to 70) and Pass Defends (20 to 30). This is done with the intention of making CBs more valuable and giving some of the non-safeties some value.
| Rank | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| 1 | 150 | 143 | 208 |
| 2 | 133 | 130 | 194 |
| 3 | 140 | 129 | 190 |
| 4 | 131 | 127 | 181 |
| 5 | 130 | 135 | 177 |
| 6 | 129 | 125 | 170 |
| 7 | 126 | 132 | 163 |
| 8 | 134 | 115 | 160 |
| 9 | 176 | 114 | 159 |
| 10 | 123 | 110 | 156 |
| 134.125 | 125.875 | 174.25 |
So here we see a much bigger jump for the guys at the top. While the LBs have jumped 10-15 points on average, and the DL went up about 12 points each of the last two seasons, we see here that the top-tier DBs (to this point at least) jumped a whopping 40+ points over the average of the previous two years.
OVERALL
The average score per game last year was 2037, with the Skippers setting the high mark at 2241 per game. This season our average, though 30 games is 1896, with the Skippers again leading the way at 2139 a game. So while Jon is down about 102 a game, the league average has dropped 141 (Thanks Tim, Dave and Kronner).
Here’s 2021
| TEAM | REG SEASON | AVERAGE |
| Jones | 31243 | 2232 |
| Chris | 30799 | 2200 |
| Josh | 29875 | 2134 |
| Kaiser | 29758 | 2126 |
| Kronner | 29148 | 2082 |
| Kyle | 28540 | 2039 |
| Timbo | 28409 | 2029 |
| Matt | 28300 | 2021 |
| Ryan | 28230 | 2016 |
| Sanchez | 28149 | 2011 |
| Trigger | 27802 | 1986 |
| Davers | 24505 | 1750 |
And 2022…
| TEAM | REG SEASON | AVERAGE |
| Jones | 10697 | 2139 |
| Chris | 10669 | 2134 |
| Sanchez | 10223 | 2045 |
| Matt | 10178 | 2036 |
| Trigger | 9796 | 1959 |
| Josh | 9781 | 1956 |
| Ryan | 9720 | 1944 |
| Kaiser | 9050 | 1810 |
| Kyle | 9002 | 1800 |
| Kronner | 8609 | 1722 |
| Davers | 8388 | 1678 |
| Timbo | 7724 | 1545 |
As we can see, last year 10/12 teams averaged 2011 or better, and so far this year, only four teams are hitting that mark. And to take it further, Dave’s historic run of dumps last season put him in 12th, at 1750 a game, this year that’d beat three different teams (way to regress there Dave).
CONCLUSION?
So what does this all mean? Well, I think it means that it’s doing what Chris designed it to, and what was voted on. However, this is a very rudimentary look at it, and only focuses on the top players. Considering overall scoring is down, it tells us that while the guys at the top are better, the 2nd and 3rd tier IDPs have to be scoring less – and isn’t that what we wanted? Put them more on par with mediocre TEs and RBs?
I will say, I loved the old scoring, and we only did this to address concerns voiced the last few years. The changes now have spurned another (predictable) voice, and this is all meant to be a trial run. We can always choose to go back to the old ways next year should we choose, but this does harken back to a time when 2000 was a real milestone, and almost always signaled a win.
SC League Forever 