Alright, I thought it might be time to dive into this and just see how inflated things have gotten – and it’s basically exactly what I thought it was. Over the years we’ve made several changes to the scoring for sacks, he’s a rundown;
| Year | Tackle | TFL | Sack | Total |
| 2001 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 15 |
| 2002 | 15 | 0 | 75 | 90 |
| 2003 | 15 | 0 | 40 | 55 |
| 2004 | 10 | 0 | 50 | 60 |
| 2005 | 15 | 0 | 50 | 65 |
| 2006 | 15 | 0 | 50 | 65 |
| 2007 | 15 | 0 | 50 | 65 |
| 2008 | 15 | 0 | 50 | 65 |
| 2009 | 15 | 0 | 50 | 65 |
| 2010 | 20 | 0 | 50 | 70 |
| 2011 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 80 |
| 2012 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 80 |
| 2013 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 80 |
| 2014 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 80 |
| 2015 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 80 |
| 2016 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 80 |
| 2017 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 80 |
| 2018 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 80 |
| 2019 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 80 |
| 2020 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 80 |
| 2021 | 20 | 10 | 50 | 80 |
| 2022 | 15 | 15 | 70 | 100 |
| 2023 | 15 | 15 | 70 | 100 |
| 2024 | 17 | 15 | 60 | 92 |
| 2025 | 17 | 15 | 60 | 92 |
| AVERAGE | 16.88 | 6.8 | 51.48 | 75.16 |
WHY we made these changes in the past…
Initially you can see it took a few years to figure things out. The IDPs on a whole were mostly useless in 2001. In 2002, we swung the pendulum a bit too far before balancing it out in 2003. What we have always tried to is balance the positions. You may or may not remember, but in the early years of the league, Yahoo counted any player in the front seven as a DL – meaning you could play a LB in the DL spot, so for the most spot, no one started any actual defensive linemen. This changed in 2009, the first year you were required to actually play a defensive linemen. Here is the roster chart, and how many DL you were required to start;
| Year | DL Roster |
| 2001-08 | n/a |
| 2009 | DT, DE |
| 2010-12 | DL |
| 2013-14 | DL, DL |
| 2015-25 | DL |
It only took us a year to figure out he DT position was a waste of space. Starting in 2010 we upped the sack numbers to cushion the blow of having to start a d-lineman. The next year TFL became a useable stat, and the further inflated the sack numbers. But even now with sacks worth what they are, most DE’s average under 100 points a game.
From 2011-2021 sacks stayed steady at 80 points. It was then voted on (11-1) to adjust the scoring again to emphasize ‘splash plays’ over tackles, as we were seeing mediocre linebackers on bad teams [Shoutout Paris Lenon!] outscore top-tier pro-bowlers. So sacks and interceptions got a bump and tackles and assists went down. After two years of this, it was determined we adjusted too far, and before last season we split the difference.
We can look at scoring again at the end of the year, but the more we nerf sacks, the less valuable the DL spot becomes. And the less valuable the DL spot is the more if affects draft strategy.
SC League Forever 