So obviously scoring is way up this year, but I wanted to take a look at exactly how ridiculous it has been. I decided to look at my money dynasty league, which is a pretty consistent .5 PPR and 4 point QB touchdown league with normal starters (1QB/2RB/2WR/1TE/1FLEX/1K) plus 3 IDP starters. Ten teams.
Three seasons ago, the 2016 season was our inaugural year for this league. The league existed before that, but that was the year we switched from redraft to dynasty.
2016:
League High Score - 140.19 PPG
League Low Score - 113.24 PPG
League Average - 131.88 PPG
The top six teams in the league in scoring this year were all within a seven point range of each other, and from there you saw a gradual drop off until the bottom two teams.
2017:
League High Score - 148.98 PPG
League Low Score - 117.4 PPG
League Average - 127.79 PPG
So, not entirely dissimilar at the top and bottom, but scoring was down across the board overall. Less than twelve points separated the third-highest scoring team in the league from the lowest-scoring team. League average was slightly down from the previous year (makes sense with all the QB injuries plus injuries to star players like DJ and OBJ).
2018 (so far):
League High Score - 178.09 PPG
League Low Score - 119.11 PPG
League Average - 139.37
I mean, holy shit. I'm second in scoring and I am outscoring the highest team from last year by thirteen points, and the highest-scoring team is besting his previous record (he was first last year too) by thirty. Average score is up almost twelve PPG from last year.
I imagine this scoring boom is even more noticeable in non-dynasty formats, as in dynasty the best couple of teams tend to have a lot of the top players in the league rather than having them somewhat evenly dispersed like in re-draft, which means a lot of scoring gets left on their benches.
Just as an example, on a weekly basis I have to choose between the following for my flex spot: David Johnson, Tyler Boyd, Keenan Allen, Nick Chubb, Tyler Lockett, and a couple of others. Pretty much all of those guys would be starting for someone in redraft.