Tim Williams - AccuScore Analyst
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Too much of the good stuff is usually a bad thing.

One of my most amazing, and most useless skills, is my ability to take two double stuffed Oreo cookies, twist one end of the cookie off of each, and combine them to make a perfect quadruple stuffed cookie.  I once had an idea, what if I expanded that quadruple stuffed cookie?  What if I continued to pile on the good stuff, no pun intended, and work to add more layers to the cookie?

I decided to pursue this idea, and somehow I was able to work up to a number that can only be described as 16 stuffed.  I was on such a roll that you could have called me the LaDainian Tomlinson of Oreo cookies.  The logic behind this was simple.  I was bored at the time, and I wanted to get as much Oreo stuffing in to one cookie as possible.  Unfortunately the experience was similar to watching a Gilbert Gottfried stand up: it was great at first, but five minutes in I had a headache and couldn’t take anymore.

That pretty much sums up how I feel about touchdown leagues.  It sounds like a great concept.  Let’s remove yardage and receptions, and just focus on the good stuff.  The problem I have with these leagues is that I feel you need the cookie in order to fully enjoy the good stuff.  In touchdown leagues a guy can run for 150 yards and a touchdown, and have the same effect on your team as a guy who ran for five yards and a touchdown.

Touchdown leagues do provide a challenge.  You can avoid drafting running backs in the higher rounds and try to find the next Jerome Bettis goal line vulture later in the draft.  The question I ask is, how much skill is involved in finding guys who score touchdowns?  Is it the “I drafted Adrian Peterson last year” type of skill, or is it the “I can flawlessly make quadruple stuffed cookies” variation?  Regardless of what you believe, there are people who eat quadruple stuffed Oreos, and there are people who play in touchdown leagues, and for the latter group, here are some tips for your draft.

Quarterbacks are the best

In a standard league I would take a quarterback in the later rounds, unless you had a fixation on Tom Brady or one of the other stud options.  In a touchdown league I would take a quarterback with my first three picks.  The reason is simple, no one is a part of more touchdowns than the quarterback.

The guys I would target, most likely in the first round, are guys in heavy passing offenses.  AccuScore ranks Tom Brady way ahead of the pack, with 42 touchdowns in season simulations.  Considering the Patriots are returning a similar offense to last season, minus Donte Stallworth, I would take Brady first overall in a touchdown league draft.  The touchdowns may only be four points, but a guy like LaDainian Tomlinson is only projected for 20 total touchdowns, leaving him 48 points shy of Brady’s numbers.

Other top quarterbacks are guys like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tony Romo and Matt Hasselbeck, who play in heavy passing offenses.  I would take any of these guys throughout the top rounds.  Unlike standard and PPR leagues, in a touchdown league the quarterback position turns in to a top priority.

Running backs are a different monster

Willie Parker may be a fourth round pick in standard leagues, but in a touchdown league his value takes a dip due to the presence of Rashard Mendenhall.  The running backs to target early are the guys with no competition, and that is something that is growing rare in the NFL.  LaDainian Tomlinson, Marion Barber, Larry Johnson, Ryan Grant, and Joseph Addai are the top five touchdown scorers in AccuScore simulations of runningbacks, and all are the primary runner for their offense this season.

Guys who see a value increase in touchdown leagues are the backups who can play a Jerome Bettis role.  Deuce McAllister, Jonathan Stewart, Maurice Morris, Ray Rice, and even Ricky Williams could be potential touchdown vultures this season, giving them a big boost in this format than any other format you may find.

Despite the increased value of quarterbacks, you can’t ignore running backs.  However, you can dedicate one pick towards a sleeper in the above vulture list, freeing up an earlier pick for a quarterback or a wide receiver.

Split situations mean split touchdowns

Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin are two solid receiving options playing on the same team in real life.  This works in a standard league, because they both get the yardage to help your team, but in a touchdown league, you have to hope it’s your guy who is getting the yards that take him to the end zone.

Last year Fitzgerald scored ten touchdowns, while Boldin scored nine in a shorter season.  There were only two weeks in the whole season where both players scored a touchdown on the same day.  There were also two weeks where both played and neither scored a touchdown.  The only way to guarantee a touchdown each week is to draft both players.

In split star situations like Fitzgerald/Boldin, Johnson/Houshmandzadeh, or Wayne/Harrison you run a risk.  Which player is getting the touchdown that week?  I say if you are going to invest in a top wide receiver, go with a guy who is the best bet to get the touchdowns, like Braylon Edwards, Terrell Owens, or Plaxico Burress, rather than one of the above coin flip situations.  AccuScore simulations have Edwards, Owens, and Burress catching the most touchdowns this season outside of the New England duo.

A few sleepers to keep an eye on are Reggie Williams, Roddy White, and Bernard Berrian.  All three stand out on weak receiving teams.  Williams is a guy I would target for my number two receiver after putting up ten touchdowns last season

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