Fantasy scoring formats explained: PPR, half PPR, standard, superflex, TE premium

Formats are prices

A scoring format is a rule about what a stat is worth. That sounds dull until you notice that the draft market prices the same player differently under each rule, and not by a little. On Sep 3, Derrick Henry went at an average pick of 16 in PPR drafts, 10 in half PPR and 7 in standard. Trey McBride went at 29, 38 and 50. Nothing about either player changed. The rule changed, and thousands of drafters repriced them.

So this guide explains each format twice: what the rule says, and what the market does about it. The ADP page keeps a separate column for each format because each is a separate pool of drafts, not one number relabelled, and that is the only honest way to show it.

The base scoring most leagues share

Before the formats diverge, they agree on most of the sheet. The Parlae scoring model, which prices market lines into fantasy points, uses the values most leagues run: 0.04 points per passing yard, so 25 yards is a point; 4 points per passing touchdown; minus 2 per interception; 0.1 per rushing or receiving yard; 6 per rushing, receiving or anytime touchdown; 3 per field goal and 1 per kicking point. Your league can change any of these, and some do, so read your settings once. But the fights are almost all about one line: the reception.

PPR, half PPR and standard

PPR means a point per reception. Half PPR means half a point. Standard means none. That one line reorders the whole board because it changes who gets paid for volume.

Source: Parlae ADP page, Sep 3 2026, separate draft pools per format.

Read down the Henry row and you see what a reception is worth. Henry is a high touch, low target back, and standard drafters pay a first round price for him. PPR drafters make him a mid second rounder, because the receptions that make a pass catching back valuable are worth nothing to him. Garrett Wilson runs the other way: a target heavy receiver goes 14 picks earlier in PPR than in standard. Gibbs barely moves, because he does everything, and a player who does everything is format proof.

The practical rule: in PPR, pay for targets. In standard, pay for touches and touchdowns. In half PPR, you are allowed to like both, and the market shows it by putting most players between their two neighbours.

Superflex and two quarterback

A superflex slot is a flex that accepts a quarterback. A two quarterback league requires two. Both do the same thing to the draft: they make quarterbacks scarce, and scarcity is the biggest repricing in fantasy.

Josh Allen went at pick 34 in PPR drafts on Sep 3 and pick 2 in two quarterback drafts. Drake Maye went at 52 and 8. The reason is arithmetic. In a one quarterback league with twelve teams, there are twelve starting quarterbacks and more than twelve teams' worth of decent ones, so the twelfth best is nearly free and the best is only worth the gap above him. In a two quarterback league there are twenty four starting slots and not twenty four good quarterbacks, so the gap between having one and not having one becomes the largest gap on the board.

Parlae detects this from the league's own lineup settings, and it lets superflex outrank the reception split on purpose: pricing a superflex league off a one quarterback board misvalues every quarterback by rounds, while PPR against half PPR moves players a few spots. If you play superflex and draft off a one quarterback ranking, you will get the quarterbacks wrong by more than any other mistake in this guide.

TE premium

TE premium gives tight ends extra points per reception, usually half a point on top of the league's normal reception value, so a tight end in a PPR TE premium league earns 1.5 per catch. On Sleeper it is set as a reception bonus by position, the bonus follows the player's official NFL position rather than the slot you start him in, and it stacks with the standard reception value.

The effect is to close the gap between the top tight ends and the receivers around them. McBride and Bowers already move 21 and 13 picks between PPR and standard on the base rule alone. Add half a point per catch and the argument for taking one of them at the end of round two, rather than waiting on the position, gets much stronger. The market for TE premium drafts is too small for a separate consensus column, so the honest way to price it is to start from the PPR column and lean the top tight ends earlier.

How to find your format in thirty seconds

Open your league's scoring settings and read three lines: the reception value, the number of quarterback slots, and any position specific reception bonus. Reception at 1 is PPR, at 0.5 is half, at 0 is standard. A superflex or second QB slot makes it a two quarterback league regardless of the reception value. A tight end reception bonus makes it TE premium on top of whichever base you found. Then use that column on the ADP page and nothing else.

What to do with this

1. Read your league's reception value and quarterback slots today, before the draft, and write the format on the top of your cheat sheet. Then use only that column on the ADP page.
2. If you play superflex, take the quarterback column seriously: Allen at 2 and Maye at 8 are not typos, they are the price of scarcity. Draft a quarterback in the first two rounds or plan to start a backup all year.
3. If you play PPR, sort the rankings by the PPR column and look at where the target heavy receivers and pass catching backs sit against the standard column. The gap is the number of picks the reception is worth in your league.