I have played fantasy football for over 25 years. As the popularity, technology, and data accessibility within the fantasy sports space increased over the years, so has the desire to create something both new and practical. As new fantasy platforms appeared, so did the ability to configure unique scoring and roster requirements in leagues.
Today, it’s widely accepted to have a reception worth half a point, a rushing or receiving yard worth a tenth of a point, and a passing yard worth four-hundredths of a point. With each added variable comes added work because ultimately, more points = more fun!
But sometimes it’s rewarding, and maybe even humbling, to look back at some old-school scoring formats. One format that I occasionally reminisce about, and admittedly still fantasize about taking part in, is one that only awards points for touchdowns. I know they’re still out there and I know many of you are out there having the time of your lives counting only by fours, sixes, or sevens in these leagues.
Therefore, I wanted to pay homage to the late-but-never-forgotten touchdown-only leagues by sharing some of my favorite draft targets for the format using Dwain McFarland’s Utilization Report, advanced fantasy football stats, and award-winning fantasy football rankings on FantasyLife+ to highlight them.
The Detroit Lions
Since Lions OC Ben Johnson joined the team in 2022, the Lions have been an offensive juggernaut. In 2023, the Lions trailed only the Browns in plays per game, averaging 66.76 plays. They finished 2nd in drives that resulted in a touchdown (31%), and 6th in time of possession (31.12 minutes). Of those drives, the Lions would see balanced success scoring touchdowns, with 51% being scored through the air and 49% on the ground.
Despite below-average rates for passing touchdown-scoring drives in 2022 and 2023, the balanced play-calling approach of Johnson along with upward trends of plays per game, drives with a touchdown, and time of possession show promise for all players involved.
Jared Goff is an ideal late-round quarterback choice for touchdown-only leagues. He finished as the QB8 in 2023 and is currently being drafted as the QB16. Goff has averaged a touchdown on 5% of his pass attempts in back-to-back seasons and finished 6th in pass plays with 35.6 in 2023.
The Lions led the league in red zone rush attempts in 2023, with David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs splitting the work. Montgomery saw 60% of that work while Gibbs cleaned up the other 40%. Both players saw success scoring on the ground, with Montgomery logging 13 touchdowns to Gibbs’ 10 from within the 20-yard line.
In 2023, Montgomery led all players in rushes within the 5-yard line with 27 attempts, 11 of those going for touchdowns. Gibbs would see most of the passing work, accounting for 21% of the targets per route run.
Montgomery appears to be the better value in drafts, going off in the 6th round as the RB18 while Gibbs is seeing a very early 2nd round ADP as the RB4.
On Monday, it was announced that Gibbs suffered a hamstring injury, so we may see Montgomery trend up until there is more clarity on the situation.
Lions pass-catchers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta are the focal points for Goff, and each is an ideal premium-value player in touchdown-only leagues. St. Brown and LaPorta were 1-2 in red zone targets for the Lions in 2023, seeing 31 and 22 targets within the 20, respectively, with each catching 70% of them. LaPorta would score on nine of those while St. Brown scored on seven.
It’s also worth noting that former Lions WR Josh Reynolds saw a 20% red zone target share in 2023 and scored five times off those targets. St. Brown and LaPorta are likely beneficiaries of those vacated looks.
It will be challenging to draft either player at ADP this season, with St. Brown going off boards in the 1st round as the WR5 and LaPorta in the 3rd as the TE1, but benefits are to be reaped if you can land either.
If your league requires starting a TE, I strongly consider using an early-round pick on LaPorta.
The San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers ranked in the bottom 20% in plays per game since 2022, but they have been efficient at scoring touchdowns on their drives, leading the league with a 34% touchdown rate in 2023 and finishing 6th in 2022 with 27%.
From 2022 to 2023, the 49ers saw a 7% increase in drives that resulted in a touchdown, a sign that Brock Purdy continues to play efficient football. This is especially true when you acknowledge his 8.47% increase in fantasy points per dropback.
Like most league formats, if you can draft Christian McCaffrey, you draft him. The 49ers ranked 2nd in rush attempts within the 5-yard line in 2023, with McCaffrey accounting for 60% of them. Validating McCaffrey’s dominance in a touchdown-only league further, McCaffrey led all players in red zone rushing attempts last season with 72 and scored on 15 of them while finishing 16th in red zone targets (18) and scoring on five of them.
If you can’t afford McCaffrey’s first overall draft pick ADP 1.3, I like Elijah Mitchell and his 16th-round, RB59 ADP. The 49ers have had a lot of success scoring touchdowns on the ground, scoring 43% of their drives that way in 2023, up from 37% the previous year.
It’s yet to be seen how the Brandon Aiyuk trade/contact/social media saga plays out, but if I’m looking for core players to fill out my roster in a touchdown-only league, I’m eyeballing all 49ers pass-catchers. If Aiyuk is playing for a different team before Week 1, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle are premium assets, with Samuel worthy of a late first-round choice and Kittle flirting with looks leading up to the 5th round.
Of the 49ers lead-leaguing 34% drive touchdown rate in 2023, a league-middling 57% of those touchdowns came through the air. The team saw similar metrics in 2022, with a passing touchdown coming on 62% of their 27% touchdown-finishing drives.
For the ADP deep-diving crowd, I think Jauan Jennings is a great addition, especially if Aiyuk is out. There’s a very realistic chance that he sees more work than Ricky Pearsall, and with three seasons of familiarity in the offense, can grow on his 55% route share and 9% target share. Jennings is practically free in the 18th round while Pearsall can be seen lingering around the 13th on a good day.
The Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys have always had a knack for scoring touchdowns. In 2023, they finished 3rd in plays per game (66) and 3rd in touchdown-finishing drives (30%), both improvements from their already decent 2022 numbers. They would score 72% of their offensive touchdowns via the arm of Dak Prescott, and it’s entirely possible that 2024 could return similar numbers.
Prescott has seen a steady 6% touchdown per dropback rate since 2021, and when he can put in a full season of work, puts up top-5 numbers. He led the league in passing touchdowns in 2023 with 36 and finished 4th in 2021 with 37. Prescott is being drafted as the QB9 in the late 8th round.
The projected backfield timeshare between Ezekiel Elliott and Rico Dowdle makes it challenging to target either in drafts, but when your offensive line is as good as the Cowboys, it’s hard to avoid either. Tony Pollard is now with the Titans and leaves behind a 57% rushing share and a 60% share specifically on short down and distance attempts.
I expect Elliott to assume most of what Pollard leaves behind, which could pay dividends at his RB38 price tag, but it’s essential that the Cowboys find more success finishing their drives on the ground. Dwain is projecting 9.7 rushing touchdowns between Elliott and Dowdle.
If Prescott and the Cowboys continue their trend of firing on all cylinders through the air, it will be CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks putting in most of the work. Each player should benefit slightly from Michael Gallup’s retirement, with Cooks likely seeing the biggest increase in target share.
Lamb is currently the WR1 in ADP (2.2) this season and rightfully so based on the Cowboys' play-calling efficiency. Cooks appears to be of considerable value in the 9th round as the WR56 as well.
Other QB Targets for TD-Only Fantasy Football Leagues
Jordan Love showed great promise in his first full season with the Packers, ranking 12th in pass plays per game, 10th in ADOT, and 6th in touchdown percentage. The Packers saw a 3% increase in touchdown-finishing drives since 2022, finishing 7th in the league in 2023 with three of every four of them courtesy of Love’s arm. Love is currently being drafted as the QB10 in round 8. Dwain is projecting at least 89 targets and 5.7 touchdowns for each of the three Packers receivers.
Baker Mayfield introduced himself to the Buccaneers properly, throwing a touchdown on 5% of his dropbacks while riding to career highs in dropbacks (37.6), pass plays (33.3), and passing yards (237.9) per game. The Buccaneers have scored a significant amount of their drives through the air (72% in 2023, 83% in 2024). With Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and promising upside players like Cade Otton, Trey Palmer and Jalen McMillan in the mix, I have a tough time passing on Mayfield in the 14th round at his QB23 price tag.
Other RB Targets for TD-Only Fantasy Football Leagues
Derrick Henry is the outlier, and “once you’re an outlier, you’re an outlier.” He's seen double-digit touchdowns in the last six years and now joins a Ravens team that has seen half of all of their drives end with a rushing touchdown since 2022. OC Todd Monken will surely try to protect Lamar Jackson by letting Henry do what he does best—scoring touchdowns. He is currently being drafted in the 3rd round as the RB9. Dwain projects 9.3 rushing touchdowns for Henry this season.
Right behind Henry in ADP is Kyren Williams, who outproduced Henry in touchdowns in five fewer games last season. Williams had stunning metrics across the board that season, a result of seeing 71% of the Rams rushing attempts while logging 90% of all attempts within the 10-yard line. He’s currently being drafted in the 3rd round as the RB8, but with lingering uncertainty on if he will see a similar workload in 2024 looming overhead. ESPN Staff Writer Sarah Barshop reports how the Rams are prioritizing keeping Williams fresh this season and while the team did use their third-round selection on Blake Corum, I expect Williams to still run hot in the touchdown department.
Saquon Barkley also finds himself on a new team this season, running as the Eagles' bona fide workhorse. I expect Barkley to take some of the pressure off Jalen Hurts in the red zone, and hopefully find paydirt more times than not. The Eagles have been above average in offensive touchdowns over the past two seasons, with a notable amount of them coming from on the ground (43% in 2023, 51% in 2022). Barkley is being drafted in the 2nd round as the RB6 with a projection of nine total touchdowns.
Other WR Targets for TD-Only Fantasy Football Leagues
Since HC Mike McDaniel took the reins in 2022, the Dolphins have done nothing but churn out touchdowns. 2023 saw the team score a touchdown on 30% of their drives, up from 25% in 2022. Additionally, the Dolphins have seen a steady increase in plays per game (+2.65) and time of possession (0.86) since McDaniel’s first season.
While it was Raheem Mostert who took home the title with 18 rushing touchdowns last season (De’Von Achane added another eight), it’s the Dolphins receivers that I want to invest in for touchdowns, as it’s apparent that McDaniel has systematically focused on creating schemes that align with the skill and speed of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.
The Dolphins saw a big dip in passing and touchdowns in 2023, thanks to the dominance of Mostert and Achane, but there is reason to believe that those rushing touchdowns will regress to the mean and further opportunities on those targets to Hill and Waddle.
Hill is an expensive commodity in the first round, as the WR2 behind Lamb, so if you want a share of this passing offense, I would pinpoint Waddle in the early second round. He is being drafted as the WR14.
If you miss out on Waddle, Chris Olave is another ideal 2nd round WR target who excels at touchdowns and touchdown-scoring opportunities.
He has seen 83% of the Saints offensive snaps in each of his first two seasons and commanded at least 24% of the teams’ targets with a 23-27% target share within the end zone. If Derek Carr can continue ending drives with a passing touchdown (66% in 2023), Olave should eat. Dwain projects 5.4 touchdowns on 134 targets for Olave while projecting teammate Rashid Shaheed for 4.7 touchdowns on 80 opportunities. Shaheed’s ADP sits at WR53 at the end of the 9th round.
Other TE Targets for TD-Only Fantasy Football Leagues
While LaPorta is my favorite TE option for scoring touchdowns, I understand it’s not easy to lock in the top player at a position according to ADP. Therefore, a couple of other tight ends at varying costs that I expect to excel in touchdown-only leagues include Dalton Kincaid (Round 5, TE5), and Dalton Schultz (Round 12, TE14).
Kincaid should benefit from the departure of Stefon Diggs, especially if the Bills continue to end more than half of their touchdown-finishing drives (28%) with a passing touchdown. He’s still been splitting work with Dawson Knox, and Knox out-targeted Kincaid in the red zone last season. I expect that trend to end as Kincaid begins his breakout campaign journey.
Whereas Diggs' departure helps Kincaid, I think it opens the door for Schultz—Diggs’ new teammate in Houston. In his first season as the Texans OC, and with a lot of help from then-rookie C.J. Stroud, Bobby Slowik improved the team’s ability to score touchdowns.
The Texans would finish 20% of their drives with a touchdown in 2023, with 68% of those coming through the air. Additionally, the Texans logged 63.24 plays per game that season, a 4.18 play increase from the 2022 season. If Slownik and Stroud can continue the upward trend, Schultz will benefit while opposing defenses figure out what to do with Diggs, Nico Collins, and Tank Dell.
Looking for more players to fill out your touchdown-only league roster? FantasyLife+ members get full access to the entire suite of premium tools and data that can help you find that winning edge. You can even generate a custom cheat sheet to reflect your league’s unique touchdown-only scoring format (shown below).
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