This article is part of our Fantasy Football Draft Strategy series.
The yearly release of the new Scott Fish Bowl scoring system has become an annual holiday for anyone at all interested in the fantasy football landscape. "The world's most famous fantasy football tournament" might sound hyperbolic, but the nearly 44,000 entries with 4,000 competitors getting the exclusive invite to join last season says it all. With just about every fantasy expert you could have possibly heard of participating, and the legitimate difficulty of finishing top overall in such a massive redraft contest, there's no better marriage between the competitive side of fantasy sports and the fun side, given this is ultimately for charity. With the first of 38 live drafts kicking off Saturday, and then a tidal wave of online drafts taking place in the beginning of July, the spectacle of the Scott Fish Bowl also in a way acts as the unofficial kickoff to fantasy football season.
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One of the unique aspects of the Scott Fish Bowl is the scoring-system overall that is meant to be both a challenge, and I think more importantly, a leveling out of sorts across all levels of competitors in this massive tournament. Last year's emphasis on return yardage deviated from traditional fantasy scoring significantly, but thankfully I'm not sure the 2025 settings will impact things too much. Of course, nothing is stopping me from drafting a horrendously bad team like I did last year, but plugging in the new formula in the RotoWire MyLeagues tab churns out some custom rankings that feel relatively appropriate.
For those unaware, the 2025 Scott Fishbowl scoring system is as follows:
"Ultraflex" Lineup - 11 starters, 11 bench
- Start 0-2 Superflex
- Start 0-9 RB/WR/TE
Scoring Basics
- 6 points for all TD
- 2 points for all 2-point conversions
- 25 passing yards = 1 point
- 10 rushing/receiving yard = 1 point
- 1 point per 1st down
- TEP - 1 extra point per TE reception
Volume Stats
- 0.5 points per carry
- 1 point per target (MFL Leagues Only)
- 1 point per reception (MFL Leagues Only)
- 2.5 points per reception (Sleeper Leagues Only)
There's also some consequential defensive stats, but for the sake of simplicity, I'm making the executive decision not to emphasis it. Travis Hunter will likely get a bump and it's possible that in this scoring system, and this scoring system exclusively, he'll actually be worth his current ADP, but I'm going to let some other manager capitalize on that windfall if that's the case. Below are some of the total projected points for many of the relevant players under this scoring system.
| Top-15 TE Production | Top-15 QB Production | ||
| Brock Bowers (LV) | 548.18 | Jayden Daniels (WAS) | 538.8589 |
| Trey McBride (ARI) | 532.559 | Lamar Jackson (BAL) | 534.8403 |
| Sam LaPorta (DET) | 417.8316 | Jalen Hurts (PHI) | 525.5881 |
| George Kittle (SF) | 416.5357 | Josh Allen (BUF) | 517.4713 |
| Jonnu Smith (MIA) | 401.0622 | Bo Nix (DEN) | 458.5853 |
| Travis Kelce (KC) | 394.4874 | Justin Fields (NYJ) | 455.2586 |
| T.J. Hockenson (MIN) | 385.7813 | Joe Burrow (CIN) | 449.6262 |
| Mark Andrews (BAL) | 332.076 | Patrick Mahomes (KC) | 439.9188 |
| Colston Loveland (CHI) | 324.066 | Baker Mayfield (TB) | 436.924 |
| Jake Ferguson (DAL) | 323.5905 | Brock Purdy (SF) | 434.0661 |
| Evan Engram (DEN) | 321.4334 | Drake Maye (NE) | 422.6892 |
| Dalton Kincaid (BUF) | 314.0346 | Kyler Murray (ARI) | 422.2452 |
| Pat Freiermuth (PIT) | 313.9447 | Anthony Richardson (IND) | 411.5893 |
| David Njoku (CLE) | 313.2867 | Caleb Williams (CHI) | 411.047 |
| Hunter Henry (NE) | 308.4444 | Jared Goff (DET) | 404.8673 |
| Top-30 RB Production | Top-30 WR Production | ||
| Bijan Robinson (ATL) | 563.6531 | Ja'Marr Chase (CIN) | 549.916 |
| Saquon Barkley (PHI) | 555.2266 | Justin Jefferson (MIN) | 523.0801 |
| Jahmyr Gibbs (DET) | 537.6706 | CeeDee Lamb (DAL) | 516.1421 |
| Bucky Irving (TB) | 492.8997 | Amon-Ra St. Brown (DET) | 497.428 |
| Derrick Henry (BAL) | 488.7655 | Malik Nabers (NYG) | 479.7456 |
| Josh Jacobs (GB) | 482.6292 | Brian Thomas (JAX) | 472.9899 |
| Ashton Jeanty (LV) | 482.106 | Puka Nacua (LAR) | 465.4079 |
| De'Von Achane (MIA) | 480.5826 | Drake London (ATL) | 453.0628 |
| Christian McCaffrey (SF) | 479.799 | Nico Collins (HOU) | 439.6117 |
| Jonathan Taylor (IND) | 477.9553 | Ladd McConkey (LAC) | 436.5532 |
| Breece Hall (NYJ) | 446.4896 | A.J. Brown (PHI) | 424.162 |
| Kyren Williams (LAR) | 445.9609 | Tyreek Hill (MIA) | 423.4013 |
| Chuba Hubbard (CAR) | 434.7473 | Terry McLaurin (WAS) | 412.6146 |
| Joe Mixon (HOU) | 434.7237 | Jaxon Smith-Njigba (SEA) | 410.9197 |
| Chase Brown (CIN) | 433.5028 | DJ Moore (CHI) | 404.8195 |
| James Cook (BUF) | 419.1906 | Garrett Wilson (NYJ) | 398.721 |
| Omarion Hampton (LAC) | 418.4535 | Mike Evans (TB ) | 375.9441 |
| Alvin Kamara (NO) | 411.1359 | Davante Adams (LAR) | 372.0995 |
| James Conner (ARI) | 406.1807 | Tee Higgins (CIN) | 370.604 |
| Kenneth Walker (SEA) | 392.6435 | DeVonta Smith (PHI) | 370.3433 |
| Aaron Jones (MIN) | 381.8689 | Travis Hunter (JAX) | 369.5706 |
| Quinshon Judkins (CLE) | 379.848 | George Pickens (DAL) | 366.5071 |
| TreVeyon Henderson (NE ) | 376.8449 | Marvin Harrison (ARI) | 366.0474 |
| Tony Pollard (TEN) | 371.2672 | Courtland Sutton (DEN) | 365.1101 |
| Jaylen Warren (PIT) | 367.6472 | Xavier Worthy (KC ) | 363.4782 |
| D'Andre Swift (CHI) | 364.6938 | Jordan Addison (MIN) | 362.9171 |
| RJ Harvey (DEN) | 357.7824 | Tetairoa McMillan (CAR) | 362.9092 |
| Isiah Pacheco (KC) | 350.8507 | Zay Flowers (BAL) | 356.2245 |
| Tyrone Tracy (NYG) | 343.0979 | DK Metcalf (PIT) | 351.2741 |
| David Montgomery (DET) | 338.8841 | Jakobi Meyers (LV ) | 350.4691 |
If this feels like a lot to process, I promise I'm right there with you. I thought it might be easier to grapple with everything if I talked it out with my colleague Steve Bulanda, who also happened to do really well in the Scott Fish Bowl league that we were both in last year. Let's dive into it.
JB - Obviously we have all the numbers laid out visually in the article, but when you first saw the initial rule release, what did you think the scoring system would favor? I was a bit taken a back after the number crunchers did their thing
SB - Obviously, scoring for defensive stats (or the "Travis Hunter" rule) stood out, but I'm with you; I'll let someone else take their shot at him. I agree that he is being overrated as an offensive fantasy player and adding in defensive stats will surely trigger someone else's interest, which could make him a first or second rounder in SFB15. I think it's more likely to play out like last year's inflation for kick and punt return yards, where guys like Marvin Mims and Khalil Shakir got a boost in draft position but didn't return consistent value.
After that, my next thought was: I need to plug these numbers into our Custom Rankings tool at RotoWire because I can't do the mental math to calculate how these unique settings are going to affect fantasy value! I figured the scoring for rushing attempts and first downs would help push mobile quarterbacks up, yet I'm still a bit surprised to see Bo Nix and Justin Fields this high. What do you think of the "Ultraflex" lineup? Even with the volume bonuses, do you anticipate that drafters will default to drafting quarterbacks early, like you typically would in a Superflex draft?
JB - That's the part I can't quantify at all. Or at least I couldn't doing napkin math. Looking at the "Ultraflex" lineup setting might have accidentally triggered what I can only describe as existential dread because I'm so used to drafting within the confines of position groups. Even your purposely excessive drafts like the double-TE premium that we did for the RotoWire Draft Symposium or your traditional superflex leagues have specific positional groups as guard rails (or bumpers - to borrow a metaphor from your favorite sport). That those are effectively removed in this format quite possibly broke something in my brain. I did not realize how much I valued my hand being held to that degree, and this is coming from someone who absolutely geeks out about draft strategy conversation
SB - I get it. But frankly, if we can get beyond that I think we'll be able to use it to our advantage. In every draft there will probably be a couple people who overvalue quarterbacks because normal Superflex leagues tell you to draft quarterbacks, and there will be people who overvalue tight ends because it's technically a tight end premium league. But this TE premium shouldn't be viewed the same as normal TE premium leagues. The extra bonus of points per target in MFL leagues or 2.5 PPR in Sleeper leagues for all pass catchers, makes the one-point premium for tight ends less valuable overall.
JB - Thank you, I needed to hear that. Fundamentally it should be the easiest math equation possible, right? Because we don't need to value positional scarcity in these equations, it really should just be "who will score me the most points every week." I understand no matter what fantasy league, people try to answer that question every time, but there's a much larger pool of players to pull from in this setting than anything a typical fantasy manager may be accustomed to.
There's absolutely still value in having "X" amount of quarterbacks on your roster and getting a guaranteed floor production relative to other positions, but as you can see with the data, there's a leveling out that occurs after the top few QB options. Ok, if we shouldn't overvalue QB and TE, by nature that should mean we prioritize drafting RBs and WRs, right?
SB - Good point about the guaranteed floor production at quarterback. With that in mind, we'll likely still want to have two QBs in our starting lineups each week. The volume bonuses just close the gap between quarterback and every other position. Ideally, I'd like to draft one of the top four quarterbacks and then focus on high volume position players until the draft dictates that I need to take my second passer. In theory, this should be the easiest, least strategic draft of our lives if we just trust the projections - with slight adjustments to get "our guys," of course.
JB - Let's say hypothetically you have the No. 2 overall pick. Again, hypothetically. Don't look at my draft order in the #SFB15 Sleeper league. Knowing it's not third-round reversal, would you go with someone like Brock Bowers, who simply is going to score a ton of points in this league, or do you take a QB for the reasons we mentioned above? And no, I'm not allowing you to say, "you can't go wrong with either pick."
SB - Regardless of the scoring format, I tend to make "safe" picks in the first three rounds of fantasy drafts. I think one of those top QBs is going to be the safest pick while still having the upside that you need. My preference is Lamar Jackson, who hasn't missed a game due to injury the past two years, or Josh Allen, who literally never misses games.
I understand the strategy of taking riskier, high-upside picks in a tournament format like this, but the first round is not the spot to try to outsmart everyone. If you're tempted to make a splashy pick that early, just remember how drafting Anthony Richardson in the first round last year worked out for you!
Do YOU want an invite to SFB15? We're giving away several entries over the next eight days. The first spot will go to a randomly selected RotoWire subscriber who simply leaves a comment below. Who is a player who you are targeting in SFB15?
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