Yards Per Fantasy University: Terminology

Fantasy football is littered with words, phrases and acronyms that are thrown around like you should know what they mean. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

This is the terminology page, your go-to resource for interpreting fantasy football vernacular. And if you don’t see it below, use our Ask the Expert feature to ask a member of the team directly.

• 3RR: Third Round Reversal – At the end of the third round the draft order will reverse, this is to make the value more even at the back end of the draft
• Agility Score: A measure of athleticism used with college rookie prospects. Calculation = 20 yard shuttle time + 3 cone drill time
• ADOT: Average Depth of Target/Average Target Distance
• ADP: Average Draft Position
• Air Yards: How many yards thrown, regardless of if the ball was caught or not
• Air Yards Market Share: The portion of the team’s total Air Yards that a player receives
• Auction Draft: Also known as Salary Cap Draft. Each team will still have 1.01 and be in Linear or Snake format but instead of selecting a player to draft you will place a bid on that player and each team can counter until the timer ends and whoever has the highest bid at the end will then acquire that player
• Best Ball: A form of the game where you do not set weekly lineups, with the best performing players automatically selected each week
• BOA: Breakout Age – When a player first received a dominator of 20% or higher
• BOY: Breakout Year – Same as BOA but what year of college vs age
• Burst Score: Vertical and Broad jump to measure explosiveness. Calculation = (0.5 x Broad Jump (inches))+(1.7 x Vertical Jump (inches))
• Campus to Canton: A form of dynasty league where you have a second team full of college players in addition to your normal dynasty roster
• Catch Radius: Accounts for lateral and vertical movement
• (True) Catch Rate: How often a player catches the ball (receptions/targets); True: Discounts targets outside of the catchable range
• Catchable Target Rate: The rate at which a ball was in the range of catchable
• Completed Air Yards (CAY): Yards thrown that were caught, not counting YAC
• Contested Catch Rate: Catch rate when the defender is within the catchable range
• Draft Capital (DC): Round selected in the NFL Draft
• Depth of Roster: How many roster spots do you have
• Depth of Starting Line Up: How many players must you start each week
• DEVY: Developmental players – this refers to players in college that you can roster if in a DEVY league
• DFS: Daily Fantasy Sports – a form of fantasy football where you enter one-off contests with a new line-up every time, usually based on the value of players within a set budget. DFS contents usually require an entry fee with the top scorers winning certain cash prizes
• DNR: Did Not Report – Hold out
• Dominator: For wide receivers and tight ends, the dominator rating is Percentage of team’s yards and touchdowns. For running backs, it is the percentage of total offensive production.
• Doubtful: The odds are the player will not play that week, but monitor this until kick off
• DST: Defense / Special Teams
• Dynasty: A long form of fantasy football where you manage your team for many years, drafting college rookies each year and keeping players until they are traded, dropped or retire
• ECR: Expert Consensus Rankings. A collaboration of expert player rankings that combine to give a consensus order
• Empire: A unique form of dynasty league that holds a portion of each season’s entry fees aside until a manager wins for consecutive seasons. At that point, they win the ‘Empire’ and take the accumulated winnings
• Extra Game: This can be played versus the league median each week or you may play against two teams each week
• FAAB: Free Agent Acquisition Budget – Amount of money available to bid on a player, highest bid wins and defaults to seeding/waiver priority if tied
• Flex: A position on your roster that allows you start players from different positions, usually Wide Receiver, Running Back or Tight End. See also Superflex
• FPP (Any Stat): Fantasy Points Per (Any Stat)
• Free Agent: When a player is not on a Waiver designation, they will be a Free Agent and be free to claim immediately
• Game Script: Whether a team is behind (negative game script), ahead (positive game script), or in between (neutral game script)
• GPP: Guaranteed Prize Pool. Refers to a form of DFS contest in which the winnings are set and paid out to a specific number of entrants regardless of the number of entries (e.g. top 10 get paid whether there are 20 or 100 entries). Also referred to as Tournaments
• Handcuff: Often used in reference to running backs, a Handcuff is a backup player that would be expected to receive significant a workload if the starter gets injured
• IAY (/A): Intended Air Yards (per Attempt) representing Air Yards thrown from a Quarterback’s perspective
• IDP: Individual Defensive Position. A form of fantasy football in which you also have individual defensive players such as linebackers or defensive lineman
• In the Box: The number of defenders lined up close to the line of scrimmage, primarily to stop the rushing attack
• Injured Reserve: Depending on the league settings players can be placed here if on IR designation or other possible designations such as COVID/DNR/Holdout/Opt-out/Out
• Keeper: A form of fantasy football in which you keep a set number of players for the following season, sometimes multiple seasons
• Linear Draft: 1.01 will have the 2.01 and 1.12 will have 2.12
• Opportunity Share: Percentage of total team running back carries + targets for a certain RB
• OTC: On The Clock. Usually used in slow drafts to let a manager know it’s their turn to pick, they’re on the clock
• Out: The player is not designated to play that week, but monitor this until kick off
• Pace of play: The speed at which a team starts their next play, whether they are slow and use most of the game clock in between plays, or are quick to snap the ball in between plays
• (Any Stat) PG: (Any Stat) Per Game
• Placeholders: Anytime a player is used to signify another player or draft pick. Kickers are normally used for this purpose
• PPC: Points per carry, normally .25
• PPG: Points Per Game
• PPR: Points Per Reception
• (Position) Premium: When any position has increased points for something, normally increasing the number of points per reception for tight ends
• PUP: Physically Unable to Perform. A form of Injured Reserve, if a player is placed on the PUP during the season then they are required to sit out for a minimum of six weeks. It is therefore reserved for longer-term injuries and not for any player that may return sooner.
• QBR: Quarterback Rating – Combination of completions, attempts, yards, touchdowns, and interceptions
• Questionable: The odds are the player will play that week, but monitor this until kick off
• Reach: Drafting a player higher than their average draft position or ranking
• Redraft: The original and main type of fantasy football in which you draft a new team from scratch every season
• Regression: The return of a statistical category towards the expected mean. For example, if a player scores an unusually high number of touchdowns, the probability is that they’ll regress towards the league average the next season (not necessarily all the way, but partly at least). Note that regression also applies to unusually low statistical production regressing positively towards the mean.
• Rookie Draft: A draft normally held after the NFL draft where you will draft rookies in a linear (opposite to snake) format
• Route Participation: Routes run for each pass attempt (excludes run play WR snaps)
• Salary Cap Draft: See Auction Draft
• Superflex (SF): Flex spot with QB normally meaning the roster includes the option to start 1QB and a Super Flex
• Snake Draft: 1.01 will have the 2.12 and 1.12 will have 2.01
• Snap Share: Percentage of snaps a player was on the field vs their team’s total offensive snaps
• SPARQ-x: Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction, Quickness rating
• Speed Score: Height and Weight incorporated into Speed. Calculation = (Weight*200)/(40 time^4) for Running Backs; (Weight*200)/(40 time^4)*(Height/73) for Wide Receivers; and (Weight*200)/(40 time^4)*(Height/76.4) for Tight Ends
• Standard Scoring: Sometimes used to refer to non-PPR scoring
• Start Up Draft: The initial draft to begin a league that normally consist of veterans and rookies but can be just veterans with rookies being drafted later or as placeholders
• Target Separation: How many yards a player was from their defender when targeted (On average)
• Target Share: Percentage the player was targeted out of his team’s total targets
• Taxi Squad: A place you can place younger players (Normally rookies) who may need to develop, but still on your roster. A player can normally be placed here until the season starts but once removed during the season, they cannot be placed there again
• Tiers: Groups of players that are predicted to perform similarly. Allows drafting decisions based on how many players are available in a tier
• Total Opportunities: Total rush attempts plus total targets
• Trade Deadline: Normally around Week 12, at this point all trades will be turned off until off-season
• Unrealized Air Yards: Yards thrown that were not caught/penalty on the play
• Vacated Targets: A term defining how many targets that a RB/WR/TE who left the team had the year prior and is used to account for how many targets that could be available to a RB/WR/TE who was lower on the depth chart last year, is a rookie, or was brought on the team through Free Agency/Trade
• VORP: Value over Replacement Player. Refers to how much more valuable a player is than a replacement player available on waivers
• Waivers: Where the players who are not rostered reside
• Waiver Claim: The act of placing a bid or a claim on a player whether it be with FAAB or Waiver Priority
• Waiver Period: When a claim will process, normally on Tuesday or Wednesday during the season to account for the time after Monday night games
• Waiver Priority: The order of which each team will win a claim on a player, often puts the most recent winner at the bottom
• Wonderlic: A test to determine the football IQ of a player
• WOPR: Weight Opportunity Rating = 1.5 x Target Market Share + 0.7 x Air Yards Market Share
• YAC: Yards After Catch (Receiving) or Yards After Contact (Rushing)
• Yards per team pass attempt: A player’s receiving yards divided by the team’s total pass attempts
• YBC: Yards Before Catch (Receiving) or Yards Before Contact (Rushing)
• YPA: Yards Per Attempt (Pass)
• (T) YPC: (True) Yards Per Carry
• YPR: Yards Per Reception
• YPRR: Yards Per Route Run
• YPT: Yards Per Target

Don’t see the word or phrase you’re looking for? You can always ask the Yards Per Fantasy team any time with our Ask The Expert feature.

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