How to ‘catch’ PPR wave
Breaking down the best WRs for specialized fantasy format
THE QUESTION of whether a fantasy football league should use standard or PPR (point-per-reception) as the scoring format has been a hot topic of debate within the fantasy community. There are pros and cons to each side and, at this point, it is simply a matter of preference. Unless you’re the commissioner taking heat from leaguemates regarding the scoring, you just need to know one thing heading into your draft: Is this a PPR league or not?
Obviously, if your league uses PPR scoring, your passcatching running backs and highly targeted tight ends see a significant bump in value. They are not difficult to identify. On the whole, the wide receiver position gets a significant bump, but a deeper look into the player pool allows you to see which receivers see an actual increase in value versus ones who stay relatively the same.
Last season, in standard-scoring formats, Jordy Nelson, Mike Evans and Antonio Brown were the top- three scoring receivers. In PPR formats, while the order changed to Brown, Nelson and then Evans, it remained the same t hree high- scorers. More points are awarded in the PPR format, but the overall value of these three doesn’t change within the position. Are they more valuable than some plodding running backs? Sure. But when comparing apples to apples, these three remain just as valuable regardless of format.
Looking deeper into the top-20 scoring wide receivers in both formats, however, you will see a few names stand out a little more. Larry Fitzgerald and Golden Tate each jump up the overall rankings by at least six spots in a PPR format. They are the more heavily targeted receivers on their respective teams and will see an immediate bump in scoring regardless of whether they rack up touchdowns or not. Of course we want all of our players to do a little end-zone dancing, but thanks to PPR scoring, you can find a number of receivers who will outscore their contemporaries on sheer volume alone, independent of touchdowns.
Everyone may be eager to draft Brown, Nelson and Evans, but you can really enhance your draft value by using those mid-round picks on receivers with high target rates. Stefon Diggs, for example, sees the lion’s share of targets for the Vikings, but doesn’t rack up the scoring opportunities one of the aforementioned studs might see. Still, going from a standard to PPR format, Diggs saw an increase of 6.5 points per game last year, which ranks him ahead of both Evans and Nelson. Fitzgerald saw a similar increase as well.
If your league is using a PPR format, other receivers of interest include Michael Crabtree, Jarvis Landry, Cameron Meredith and Eric Decker. All of them ranked in the top 20 of point increases going from standard scoring to PPR. This knowledge is huge for your draft as you know you can grab high-end running backs first and not lose a step in your wide receiver scoring.