IDP Scoring Systems: Get to Know Yours!

One of the keys to IDP leagues is knowing your scoring system. They are sort of like dates, whether it be a guy or girl, they all have the same two chromosomes, but they can all be vastly different. If you’re just starting out playing in an IDP league this is the most important thing to know before you draft. Your rankings will be highly dependent on the scoring system so do not go into it blindly with some list of rankings.

The scoring for IDP generally breaks down into three categories, similar to standard and PPR scoring for offense, and they are based on the ratio of points given to tackles and “big plays”. Balanced scoring systems will have a ratio of big play to solo tackle points of 3:1 to 4:1.  If it’s above 4:1, the scoring is considered ‘big play heavy” and if it’s less than 3:1, it’s “tackle heavy”.

I’ve played in an IDP league for about 15 years and it’s big play heavy.  So what I’ve done is look at two other scoring systems and compared the players who finished 1-25 in my league with how they would finish in the other scoring systems.  It’s obviously not the complete picture, but it gives you an idea of the types of players that are favored in each format. I used the scoring from Fantasy Pros to use as our “tackle heavy” format as their big play to tackle ration is a little less than 3:1.  For the balanced approach I used the IDP 123 system from Expand the Boxscore’s Jordan Rains.  The scoring categories included are Solo Tackles, Assisted Tackles, Sacks, Forced Fumbles, Recovered Fumbles, Interceptions, Passes Defensed, and TDs. Each player’s stats are from MyFantasyLeague.  The scoring systems points are in the chart below.

The following are the charts of where each player fell in each of the scoring systems based on total points.  Under each category is the number of POINTS for each player, not the number of sacks, etc.

Home League

As predicted, big play players like Logan Ryan, Chandler Jones, and T.J. Watt are at the top of the list. Shaq Barrett with only 27.5 total tackle points, comes in at number 7 thanks to his 57 sack points.  Overall this system gives relatively low scoring to the defensive side of the ball and this comes into play when drafting. When ranking your players overall, including the offensive side of the ball, it’s important to know where the defensive players fall as compared to the offensive ones. 

The IDP 123 scoring system was created to attempt to make a unified scoring system among the different defensive positions as we have for offense.  Scoring in some leagues vary the points among positions and this can get a bit confusing, especially if you’re just starting out in IDP. It also simplifies the scoring into just three positions DL, LB, and DB. Some leagues have split the DL position into DE and DT and the DB position into S and CB. Again, it just depends on what your league wants to do.  Here are the results of this balanced system with these 25 players. 

IDP 123

Logan Ryan’s outlier season remains on top of the board with this system. His tackle numbers were enough to keep him ahead of everyone else.  As for our big three sack guys, Jones drops from 2 to 14, Watt from 3 to 16 and Barrett from 7 to 18.  They did not get enough tackle points to keep them near the top.  Now they aren’t chopped liver either as the big plays gave them decent point totals, but they do drop significantly. 

Also noted is that the DBs take a hit in this system and the bottom four spots are now occupied by them.  All four of them had big years when it came to interceptions, passes defensed and TDs.  As these plays are the least predictable, it is why DBs are usually not ranked highly except for high tackle safeties. I’m sure if I included all defensive players, this group would fall in the ranks even further. Jamal Adams who only had a half point more than Minkah Fitzpatrick in my home league, now has a 26 point advantage. The one DB who improved his standing was Eric Reid moving from 18th to 9th. Reid had few big plays but was a tackle machine in 2019 so this scoring system helped his standing.

Fantasy Pros

In this slightly tackle heavy format Logan Ryan falls out of the top spot to number 4 and Eric Reid moves up a spot to number 8. Jamal Adams moves down a slot to 21, but stays in the range he has been in all 3 systems.  Adams is not as tackle heavy as Reid, but has a mix of tackles and big plays that keeps him in the upper tier of IDP scoring no matter the system.

Joe Schobert moves to number 1 and with his move to Jacksonville I have him ranked second among linebackers this season. With the Jags likely to be behind in a lot of games, teams will run more and Schobert will garner even more tackle opportunities. 

Demario Davis who went from 22nd to 12th falls back to 15th.  His finish at number 22 wasn’t as bad as it seems as he was just 10 points from a top 10 finish.  He did have a fair amount of big play points, along with over 100 total tackles which is rewarded in the IDP 123 format.  He takes a slight hit in the Fantasy Pros format when his big plays are worth a little less.

Lavonte David relies primarily on his tackle success therefore moving up from 25 in my league to 17th and 18th in the other formats. The slight bump up in forced and recovered fumbles moves T.J. Watt and Chandler Jones back up the board.

Knowing your scoring system is the single most important thing to IDP success.  Your rankings list should be based on projections that are then married to the scoring. From this you can map out your drafting strategy.  Picking a high scoring linebacker is relatively easy when the top 15 or so scorers are almost all from that position which is why I preach taking your DL first.  

As I touched on earlier, another important aspect of the scoring system is to help you decide when to take your defensive players. Comparing their projected totals to that of the offensive players helps you map out when to start dipping into that pool.  If your second WR will outscore your first LB, then why take the LB first? Be cognizant of where you will get the most points from.  

I hope I shed some light on the subtleties of scoring systems in IDP leagues. Winning any fantasy league is about taking advantage of the rules and scoring system. I’m always available for questions and welcome all comments either below or on Twitter @gasdoc_spit. Be safe out there!