He finally won a Super Bowl in 2006, but was Manning the #1 Quality QB?

The Head-to-Head (H2H) format in Fantasy Football leads to the need for consistency.  If you have been playing fantasy sports for any length of time, you know how frustrating it can be to win by 30 points one week and then lose by two points the next.  How many times have you been one of the highest scoring teams in the league, but you miss the playoffs by one or two games? 

Many will call it “bad luck” and that’s partially true.  Injuries to key players, bad weather, etc. are situations that affect our fantasy teams, but are uncontrollable.  However, there is one aspect of fantasy football that you can control.  The consistency of your team!  If you’re scratching your head and asking, “How can you control consistency”, you’re not alone.  The topic and its application are new to fantasy football. 

Reasoning and Methodology

It’s called the Quality Game Scores.  Basically, it is the awarding of a Quality Game to a player each week when they exceed the average points scored in your league for that position.  The more Quality Games a player is awarded each year, the more consistent that player is and the more beneficial they are to your fantasy team. 

It is very similar to the Quality Starts concept used for pitchers in fantasy baseball.  A pitcher earns a Quality Start every time they pitch more than 6 innings and give up less than three earned runs in a game.  The more Quality Starts a pitcher has in a year, the more consistent and more valuable they are to their team.  However, Quality Starts do not affect a fantasy baseball team as much, since its roto-style with accumulative stats.  However, in a H2H fantasy baseball format, it can be very important.

So, during the 2002 season, I started to research the concept of consistency in fantasy football.  I knew that just taking the average points (total points/number of games) for each player wasn't really valid.  Because if two players each rushed for 1,280 yards, they both averaged 80 yards per game.  There appears to be no difference between the 2 players for valuation purposes.  BUT, if Player A rushes for exactly 80 yards every week and Player B rushes for 120 yards one week and 40 yards the next week, Player A will probably win you more Fantasy games in the long run.  Therefore, I knew that I had to use a game-by-game basis for my valuations.