If penalties on defensive backs continues to be out-of-hand during the regular season.....

[stonewall 647]

We have all been sickened by the ridiculous amount of penalties called during the pre-season, particularly for PI and defensive holding. It has been off the scale. Perhaps this is just a pre-season trend......or perhaps it is the new future for NFL football as decided by the genius Goodell.

 

If the latter is correct, what is the fantasy impact? I have seen most assume that this would translate into higher pass yards for QB's (more 5,000 yard passers, for instance) and, thus, more yardage totals for Wr's and TE's. I'm not so sure. This assumes that defensive backs will just start giving up on coverage. I don't think it is in their DNA to do so...at least not in year one of this silliness.

 

What it will possibly to translate into, imho, is potentially less yards for QB's, TE's, WR's and RB's.....with more TD's and FG's. Yes, that could mean an extra drive or two per game, but not necessarily. The only time differential would be from the clock being stopped for the penalty, but the penalty yards enforced are yards that would have theoretically been eaten up by the fantasy players.

 

The NFL wants more scoring, and they will get it if they keep up the nonsense penalties. However, it seems like the beneficiaries will be QB's in 6-point TD leagues, red zone/goal line RB's, kickers with more FG opportunities, and WR's/TE's who are "designated" red zone weapons.

 

Any thoughts?

[tanatastic 2,061]

I'm pretty sure they have said aloud that the penalties were being called tighter just for preseason and come regular it will lighten up. Pretty sure that's a thing. I opined out loud that this was a cheap trick to extend games thus increasing ad revenue for commercial breaks. But that might be paranoia.

[Vikings4ever 496]

I don't think it would really negatively affect yardage, as most of the penalties would be the 5 yard variety.

 

I think the biggest winners could be the athletic TEs, since LBs tend to be poorer pass defenders, and may be more likely to give up trying to bump the TE near the LOS.

[weepaws 2,457]

It's sad to see the NFL move away from my favorite part of the game defense . It's interesting that after the Seahawks beat up Manning and the Seahawks play a very physical game on defense ,that now the NFL wants to take some of that away .

[tigeru 65]

I figure the penalty yardage doesn't add up in the passing or receiving yardage. Offense moves upfield they don't care how they get the yards.