Different IDP Scoring Systems and How to Pick One

You want to start an IDP (Individual Defensive Player) League, but you are not sure how to set up the scoring system for this league. You can go Balanced Offense/Defense. How about Big Play Scoring, or maybe you want it to just be a simple Tackle Premium League? Here are some different scoring systems along with a possible industry standard IDP scoring system we should all start with.

When you are looking at a league setup, you need to answer questions that might come up and then provide the best fit for what the Commissioner is looking for. Some of the questions might be... What are the scoring systems for IDP? Do we want balanced scoring between the offensive players and the defensive players? How do you balance IDP scoring? How are Individual Defensive Players scored in fantasy football? Finally, what are IDP rankings and where can we find them?

How is IDP scored in Fantasy Football?

How are individual defensive players scored in fantasy football? There are actually many different settings you can set for scoring on IDP Rosters. The basics are tackles, assists, sacks, interceptions, and fumble recoveries. More areas can be added though with tackles for a loss, forced fumbles, defended passes, safeties, and QB hits. The other thing that needs to be considered in IDP leagues is to set individual special team scoring. This would be punt returns and kickoff returns. More categories can be added with punt block, field goal block, return touchdowns, and long kickoff and punt returns.

Now that the scoring categories have been decided on, the next step will be how many points to assign to these categories. This will depend on what type of scoring system is decided on. As mentioned above, BOD is a balanced system of scoring where the offense and defense score similar points. A good percentage of IDP players will be represented in the Top 100 overall league scoring.

What is Balanced Offensive and Defensive (BOD) Scoring?

BOD would have a starting point of 1.5 points per tackle, 1 point per assist, 5 points per sack, 6 points per interception, 4 points per fumble recovery, and 6 points per touchdown. In the optional categories, you would do 1 point each for tackles for a loss and QB hits. You can also do 4 points for a forced fumble, 2 points for a safety, and 1.5 points for a pass defended. For each category eliminated from scoring, add .25-.5 points to the other categories to make up the difference.

With BOD, positional scoring will need to be looked at also. For example, LBs will rule the scoring with no positional adjustments. For example, DTs will have about half the tackles and assists that a LB will have. To account for this, DTs should get an extra point per tackle and assist. CBs should get extra per tackle. LBs might get an extra .25 for a sack. By doing this, all positions are relevant in the IDP scoring. This will also help in setting the BOD correctly.

One last point in setting up scoring is to remember that the scoring is added together. For instance, if you set tackles at 1.5 points, tackle for a loss at 2.5 points, and sacks at 5 points, the player will get 9 points for that sack. If you want sacks at 5 points, you will need to have tackles at 1.5, tackle for a loss at 1, and sacks at 2 points as a sack is also a tackle and a tackle for a loss.

What is Tackle Premium?

As in TE Premium, Tackle Premium rewards more points for tackles as compared to turnovers or sacks. In this type of scoring, you might award 2.25 points for tackles, 1.5-2 points for assists, and 4.25 points for a tackle for a loss. With this setting, you would decrease the points for turnovers and sacks by one point. Again, you would adjust scoring by position in this setting also. There were over 50 players that had 100 or more tackles last season. Most of them were LBs, but there were some Safeties and CBs also. These 50 players would be premium in this type of league. This also shows why you would increase tackle points for DEs, DTs, CBs, and Safeties.

What is Big Play Premium?

Big play premium is going to reward more points for turnovers, sacks, and TDs. It will reward less points for tackles and assists. In this type of league, you will increase tackles for a loss to 2 points, sacks to 6 points, turnovers to 8 points, safeties to 5 points, and TDs to 7 points. Tackles and assists will drop to 1.25 points and .75 points respectively. 24 players had double-digit sacks. They were all either DT or DE, so you would double the scoring here on LB, CB, and Safety. What a different draft order this scoring system would create. 62 players had double-digit tackles for a loss.

What are IDP Rankings?

IDP rankings are set the same way as offensive rankings. Based on what type of scoring system your league has set up, you can then pull the rankings from a few different sites. We, at IDP+ have rankings and you can sort on league scoring setup. You can also look at the history of the league hosting service, which will rank the players according to last year using your particular scoring system. You can also sort accordingly based on the category you want to see results from.

The IDP+ proposal for a Universal Base Scoring System would be...

Here is what the base scoring would be in a Balanced Offensive and Defensive Universal System that could then be adjusted to Individual Positions, Tackle Premium, and Big Play Premium systems. We would suggest the following for the base-
Solo Tackles-1.7
Assisted Tackles-1.3
Tackles for a Loss-1
QB Hits-1
Sacks-5
Interceptions-6
Forced Fumbles-4
Fumble Recoveries-4
Defensive TDs-6
Safeties-2
Passes Defended-1.5

Thank you for checking out my IDP Scoring Systems article! You can read all of my articles on my IDP Guys author page. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @OldMan_FF and @IDPGuys (we have offense, too), and please consider becoming a subscriber!