Tonight’s opening of the fantasy football season not only brings with it a ton of agonizing over whether Santana Moss and Brandon Jacobs can stay healthy, it also formally reintroduces us to a growing subculture that has developed its own language.I mean, what do you think of the ADP of LT and AP, and does PPR get you interested in LJ? How will the spread of RBBCs affect your strategy in the WCOFF or the NFFC?
In case you’re not in middle management for a Fortune 500 company and have trouble tracking abbreviations, acronyms and buzzwords, here’s a little glossary of some fantasy football terms to help you understand what the other folks at the bar are talking about. (Note: Many terms are not limited to fantasy football.)
Please pass along your favorite fantasy terms that have not been mentioned here.
Auction – In most cases this will probably not involve some fast-talking guy at the front of the room and a bunch of folks raising numbered ping pong paddles (unless that’s how your league drafts down at the country club). In an auction draft, every team must adhere to a salary cap (in imaginary dollars … like my paycheck) while bidding on players to fill the roster. Owners generally take turns putting players up for bid.
Average Draft Position (ADP) – This refers to a calculation of where each player is coming off the board, on average, in fantasy drafts. Owners review it to get an idea of how late they might be able to get some of the players they like and when they might have to target certain positions.
Bust — (Must skip Dolly Parton joke … must skip Dolly Parton joke …) This is a player who will be drafted relatively high and ultimately disappoint fantasy owners with a weak performance. Common synonyms include “Ronnie Brown,” “Cedric Benson” and almost any receiver who went to Michigan.
DST (or D/ST) — This refers to a fantasy team defense, which in most cases includes special teams. In the case of the Bears, it’s merely shorthand for Devin HeSTer.
Dynasty — If this term automatically makes you think of a primetime soap from the ’80s, you are too old. In fantasy parlance, it’s a league format in which entire rosters are rolled over from season to season. Drafts in dynasty leagues tend to be for NFL rookies, though some also include lower-tier veteran free agents.
DVOA (defense-adjusted Value Over Average) — This isn’t common in fantasy at this point, but DVOA — and it’s parent stat VOA — is a new-age measure for football success developed by Aaron Schatz and the Football Outsiders. It compares the relative success of individuals with the average performance in similar circumstances. You can dismiss it now, but it wasn’t too long ago when baseball fans had never heard of “WHIP.”
FF — This is simply a common abbreviation for fantasy football, developed by folks who enjoy typing on message boards all day but are too lazy to spell out their words. (omg) If you see the abbreviation in reference to quarterback Jared Lorenzen, however, it probably stands for french fries … lots of ‘em.
Flex — Although it could refer to the most common sack celebration, “flex” is actually a starting position that can usually be filled by a running back or wide receiver. Other permutations can include quarterbacks and tight ends among the choices.
Handcuffs — These are backup players (almost always running backs) who fantasy owners draft as insurance for their starters, in case of injury. (Warning: Reading a fantasy column with this term in the headline can lead to trouble with a quick-glancing spouse.)
IDP – This stands for “individual defensive players,” which some fantasy leagues use in place of (or even in addition to) team defenses. Some weirdos even write about this stuff (… phenomenally).
Keeper — Along the lines of dynasty, this style of league just rolls over less than the full roster. Keeper leagues can allow owners to hang onto any number of players under various sets of rules.
Looks — When mentioned among a group of fantasy sports players, you know that this has to refer to something in the game, rather than physical attractiveness. It’s how ofted a quarterback goes to his individual receivers. “Targets” are generally the same thing.
PPR — “Point per reception” means just that within a fantasy scoring system. It’s meant to balance the impact of receivers and running backs, though in my experience, it only skews point totals more if left at a full point.
Points leagues — This fantasy football setup determines a season winner by total points rather than head-to-head matchups. It’s also known as “boring.”
RBBC – “Running back by committee”
Running Back by Committee — Thought you’d never ask. A growing presence throughout the NFL, the committee is an approach in which no single runner gets the overwhelming majority of carries. Real football teams use it to limit the wear on their players. For fantasy teams … well, let’s just say that I think it’s more than a coincidence it’s commonly shortened to a four-letter term.
Serpentine/snake — Although this could refer to the practices of other owners within your league, it commonly refers to the fantasy draft style that reverses order in each round. 1-12>12-1>1-12, etc. Greg Ambrosius, creator of the NFFC, recently introduced the wrinkle of third-round reversal (3RR), in which the order in Round 2 is repeated in Round 3 before the draft returns to the snake format. This is meant to balance the value of draft position.
Sleeper — It’s not a sofa or your teenage son or Nate Burleson. (Actually, it can refer to the first two.) This is a player whose anticipated production will exceed his draft position. The pursuit of sleepers can make or break a fantasy season.
Stud – This is a player you know will not disappoint. LaDainian Tomlinson.
TD vulture — A touchdown vulture is a running back who lets a teammate get the bulk of the carries and yardage before coming in to steal goal-line carries that more often lead to touchdowns. Jerome Bettis joined this category toward the end of his career, and T.J. Duckett was once a card-carrying member. This term is not to be confused with “luggage vulture,” which is reserved for Tatum Bell.
VBD (Value-based drafting) — This method compares players with the lowest-scoring starters at their position on the basis of projected points for the season ahead. Players are then ranked by the number of points that are expected to separate them from the bottom of their category. Although proponents poo-poo the “cheatsheet” method, this ultimately seems to use a more complicated set of equations to arrive at a draft cheatsheet.
The big-money outlets
WCOFF — World Championship of Fantasy Football
NFFC – National Fantasy Football Championship
FFOC — Fantasy Football Open Championship
– Nando Di Fino profiles the family that created and now mass produces the fantasy draft board.
