Superflex league, is a 4 man bench to small? (1 Viewer)

[Kanaka]

Hey Guys, starting up a Superflex league this year and wondering what you guys think of a 4 man bench?  Is it to small?  Thanks for any guidance you can provide!

12 Team League, 14 man roster, 10 starters. Must start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Superflex (QB, RB, WR, TE), 2 Flex (RB, WR, TE)

No Kickers, No Defense.

I have a 3 QB max on draft night, but no restrictions on any position once we get into the season.  Some of my friends think there will be some QB hoarding, I think the 4 man bench will take care of that.  How do short bench leagues normally turn out?  Thanks again for any help!

 

[FF Ninja]

Hey Guys, starting up a Superflex league this year and wondering what you guys think of a 4 man bench?  Is it to small?  Thanks for any guidance you can provide!

12 Team League, 14 man roster, 10 starters. Must start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Superflex (QB, RB, WR, TE), 2 Flex (RB, WR, TE)

No Kickers, No Defense.

I have a 3 QB max on draft night, but no restrictions on any position once we get into the season.  Some of my friends think there will be some QB hoarding, I think the 4 man bench will take care of that.  How do short bench leagues normally turn out?  Thanks again for any help!

Depends on what you're looking for. In general, short benches are a parity mechanism so they're good for noobie leagues. Keeps good teams from stockpiling talent and allows bad teams to find talent on the waiver wire each week to fill holes.

But generally speaking 4 man benches are way too small. I'd suggest making it at least 5 if this is the first league ever for many of the teams. If everyone is a fantasy veteran then I'd say 6-10 would be better.

 

[Gally]

Like the previous poster alluded to.....it depends on what you are going for.  If you want a deep free agent pool with lots of transactions then a short bench is good.  If you want people to do draft prep and have minimal talent on waivers then go large bench.  There is no right or wrong answer.  It is all about the preference you want for your league.  Both are fun and have advantages.  For example, Short benches usually tend to limit trades because there is so much talent on the waiver wire.  Deep benches seems to lead to more trades because that is the only way to change things up with your roster.

You just have to figure out what the majority of the people want.

 

[Kanaka]

awesome feedback guys, thank you very much.

the league is 12 coworkers that have been together for a number of years. The core 8 probably about 8 years now.  The league has had many different forms over the years. The members all agreed on shaking up the format this year.  The last several years it has been a pretty deep league, 24+ man roster, IDP, etc.  The majority are excited about trying the Superflex format and dropping defense and kickers.  The league in general has been famous for hoarding skill players in the past.  Typically, there are always a couple owners that aren't as prepared as others on Draft night. FF Ninja, good point about bad teams finding talent on the waiver wire to fill holes.

A couple owners think there may be a problem with not enough QB's for the Superflex.  From what I have read, 12 teams is perfect.  If I go to a 5 man bench, should I limit QB's in some fashion to prevent hoarding or drafting to trade QB's?

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Gally]

awesome feedback guys, thank you very much.

the league is 12 coworkers that have been together for a number of years. The core 8 probably about 8 years now.  The league has had many different forms over the years. The members all agreed on shaking up the format this year.  The last several years it has been a pretty deep league, 24+ man roster, IDP, etc.  The majority are excited about trying the Superflex format and dropping defense and kickers.  The league in general has been famous for hoarding skill players in the past.  Typically, there are always a couple owners that aren't as prepared as others on Draft night. FF Ninja, good point about bad teams finding talent on the waiver wire to fill holes.

A couple owners think there may be a problem with not enough QB's for the Superflex.  From what I have read, 12 teams is perfect.  If I go to a 5 man bench, should I limit QB's in some fashion to prevent hoarding or drafting to trade QB's?

Thanks for the help guys!

This is totally dependent upon your scoring system.  If you are able to get a balanced scoring system that doesn't favor one position over another it won't make a difference.  If QB scoring is way above everyone else then a superflex turns into a 2 QB league because the advantage is too big.  Personally, we have tried to balance the scoring across all positions so that a tier 1 QB = tier 1 RB = tier 1 WR = tier 1 TE.     It is difficult to do but if you can get relatively close it allows each owner to come up with a game plan to craft a winning team and makes everything balanced.  If QB's outscore every other position by a wide margin and TE's barely score at all then it makes everyone have to go QB heavy early to compete and nobody will care about TE's. 

I recommend trying to balance the scoring.  This will alleviate the issue of not having enough QB's for a super flex because you won't be boxed into having to have 2 QB's to compete.   

 

[Kanaka]

Hey Gally, thanks for your advice!

I've been working on my scoring for a few weeks now.  Trying to get it as close as possible. You're right, it's tough.

I have QB passing at 1 point for 30 yards, -2 int, TD's 4 pts, 1 pt passing 2 pointer, 2 pt rushing 2 pointer. Currently have QB's with .3 point per completion, -.5 per incompletion, -1 per sack.  I'm also trying First Downs this year, no passing for QB but .5 for rushing and receiving 1st downs. (RB, WR, TE all .5 on passing, rushing, receiving first downs)

This might be to low as I have Rodgers at #7 overall with 309 for the 2016 year with a 20.60 average.  Brees is next at #10 overall with a 20.03 average.  Top 4 spots are RB's with a 27.86 to 21.94 weekly average.  AB is the top WR at #5 overall and a 20.88 average. The next 30 spots average from 20 to 16 a week.

Tight Ends are rough, I've tried different points per catch but the highest I've been able to  get them is #18 overall with Kelce at a 19.35 average( 1.5 points per catch), Reed 3 spots behind him averaging 18.69.  I didn't try 2 points a catch thinking that looked strange compared to a RB at .5 and a WR at .75

 

[FF Ninja]

A couple owners think there may be a problem with not enough QB's for the Superflex.  From what I have read, 12 teams is perfect.  If I go to a 5 man bench, should I limit QB's in some fashion to prevent hoarding or drafting to trade QB's?

For a 12 team league, superflex should be fine. 2QB would not work well, but that's why it's superflex and not 2QB. Everyone should be able to nab 2 decent QBs in the draft and can play a WR/RB in the superflex during the two QB bye weeks if they don't have a 3rd QB. It's not the end of the world to fill the superflex with a RB/WR twice. I would not reduce the bench size in the hope that it somehow increases QB3 availability - it won't, but you'll still be stuck with short benches. By making it a superflex instead of 2QB, you've already solved the problem of QB scarcity. So I'd still recommend a larger bench.

 

[Gally]

Hey Gally, thanks for your advice!

I've been working on my scoring for a few weeks now.  Trying to get it as close as possible. You're right, it's tough.

I have QB passing at 1 point for 30 yards, -2 int, TD's 4 pts, 1 pt passing 2 pointer, 2 pt rushing 2 pointer. Currently have QB's with .3 point per completion, -.5 per incompletion, -1 per sack.  I'm also trying First Downs this year, no passing for QB but .5 for rushing and receiving 1st downs. (RB, WR, TE all .5 on passing, rushing, receiving first downs)

This might be to low as I have Rodgers at #7 overall with 309 for the 2016 year with a 20.60 average.  Brees is next at #10 overall with a 20.03 average.  Top 4 spots are RB's with a 27.86 to 21.94 weekly average.  AB is the top WR at #5 overall and a 20.88 average. The next 30 spots average from 20 to 16 a week.

Tight Ends are rough, I've tried different points per catch but the highest I've been able to  get them is #18 overall with Kelce at a 19.35 average( 1.5 points per catch), Reed 3 spots behind him averaging 18.69.  I didn't try 2 points a catch thinking that looked strange compared to a RB at .5 and a WR at .75

I don't worry so much about having one player at each position in the top 5.  I look more at a snap shot of top 25, top 50, and top 100 and make sure there is a nice distribution of positions across each section.  Basically I want similar quantities of each position in starter roles.