Kelly L. Cox-USA TODAY Sports
At first there was just the offense. Then flex players were added to fantasy football. Two quarterback leagues followed. Individual defensive players added another dimension. Leagues are always looking for the next trend in fantasy football. I have an idea. This may sound crazy, but I wanted to float this idea out to the general population. NFL, ESPN, Yahoo! leagues take notice; I want you to allow for punters to be drafted in fantasy football starting next season.
In the NFL punters are an integral part of the game, and they should be added to make the fantasy football experience more complete. They can pin a team back against the end zone, they set up the field position chess match. So let’s see if this idea has any legs. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
The scoring system I purpose can and should be altered to fit the league as all leagues score differently, but just to get the ball rolling on this I’ll establish the settings for right now. Each team will draft a punter for their fantasy team, just as they would draft a quarterback, running back, wide receiver, etc.
The league average for punting is around 45-46 yards, so to get the idea moving, I propose that we just use 45 yards as a baseline. A 45 yard punt would get you zero points. Anything less would be negative points, negative one point for every 10 yards. A 35 yard punt would be negative one point, 25 yards would negative two, etc. To be clear, I am only referring to the punt itself, not the net, although that could be factored in as well. Points would be awarded the other way as well, adding a point for 55-65 yard punts, maybe two points for 65-75, and so forth.
We could also factor in field position; maybe award bonus points for pinning a team inside their five yard line. We could also factor in return yards allowed against in some sort of negative scoring capacity. Something along the lines of maybe one negative point per 10 return yards allowed.
I am very interested to see what the world thinks about this. Sound off in the comments section below, on my Facebook page or tweet me @DustinManko using the hashtag #fantasypunter.
As always, I welcome your comments. If you think I’m wrong, I’m willing to listen. Just back it up with some facts and solid evidence. Thanks for reading and good luck this season.
Dustin Manko is an author at Rant Sports.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustinManko, ”Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
