Fantasy Football Research

[elvis14]

I'm just wondering which web sites DBR's fantasy football players use to do their fantasy football research. I've used footballguys.com for a few years. They do 2 things that I like: send daily email with player news and updates, give you a tool to enter your scoring system and create custom cheat sheets (I think that second one is for paid members only). I've also started to check fantasypros.com because they give rankings that come from the consensus of many 'experts'.

My subscription to footballguys has expired and trying to decide if I want to re-enroll or use other resources.

On another note, both of the leagues in which I play are hosted on Yahoo! I have found that over the years that the Yahoo! rankings have gotten pretty decent.

What do you use (or avoid) and why?

[gurufrisbee]

I like Football Guys.

I also try to listen to a few different podcasts. I get better information from them than from magazines, usually.

Yahoo rankings are alright (unless you do IDP). Better than ESPN, imo

[AIRFORCEDUKIE]

If you are talking just for prepping for draft day, I usually mix it up. I only do free sites and adjust for my leagues rules. Yahoo is my go to usually for draft day cheat sheets. I've found that if I take an average of CBS, ESPN, and Yahoo, or maybe put NFL.com or something like that into the mix that I get pretty good draft day results. I'm in a keeper league so we already have 3 keepers, we also do a live in person draft so you can't rely on a laptop really.

I always try to keep it as simple as possible, and not overthink it. Overthinking your picks is what gets most people into trouble. I don't get cute with my pics either, stick to your rankings and don't have last second change of heart.

wait til the end to get a freaking kicker, I literally hate people who draft kickers before the last round. ugh

[luburch]

As noted above Kicker/Defense should always be the last two picks of the draft.

[Reisen]

Fantasy pros and CBS sports. I especially like Jamie Eisenberg, and have found his rankings better than most.

I think one key is to try to vary your players floors and ceilings. You have some older guys or guys on bad teams who are probably going to get a fair amount of targets/carries, but are never going to put up huge numbers either due to: health, bad QBs, or constantly playing from behind (in the case of RBs).

On the flip side are young players who might not be assured of as much action (so they have a lower floor), but either have a lot of potential, could break out with an injury in front of them, or play in great offenses that are going to put up a ton of points.

A lot of people naturally tend toward the second category, but I think you need to have a mix. You need to have a couple of sure bets to mix in with the high risk / high reward guys. But if every one of your players is a Steve Smith / Marques Colston / Larry Fitzgerald / Brandon Marshall / Anquan Boldin, you have a pretty low potential points ceiling for the season.

[elvis14]

I like Football Guys.

I also try to listen to a few different podcasts. I get better information from them than from magazines, usually.

Yahoo rankings are alright (unless you do IDP). Better than ESPN, imo

I hadn't thought out listening to podcasts. That's something I could do while I work. Where do you access podcasts?

If you are talking just for prepping for draft day, I usually mix it up. I only do free sites and adjust for my leagues rules. Yahoo is my go to usually for draft day cheat sheets. I've found that if I take an average of CBS, ESPN, and Yahoo, or maybe put NFL.com or something like that into the mix that I get pretty good draft day results. I'm in a keeper league so we already have 3 keepers, we also do a live in person draft so you can't rely on a laptop really.

I always try to keep it as simple as possible, and not overthink it. Overthinking your picks is what gets most people into trouble. I don't get cute with my pics either, stick to your rankings and don't have last second change of heart.

wait til the end to get a freaking kicker, I literally hate people who draft kickers before the last round. ugh

If you like to take averages, you might want to check out Fantasy Pros because that site will do it for you. In fact, it'll let you choose which experts to include in the averages. I agree about waiting on a kicker. It's almost always my last pick. With defenses, if I can't get one of the top ranked defenses, I'll wait until very late in the draft to draft a defense as well.

As noted above Kicker/Defense should always be the last two picks of the draft.

I agree, kickers are just not worth the tradeoff of building decent depth. One of the things that I've noticed about defenses is that outside of the top couple of defenses, the rankings don't hold true for defenses too much. Often top defenses are picked late or are free agent pickups because a defense that wasn't ranked very high will step up.

Fantasy pros and CBS sports. I especially like Jamie Eisenberg, and have found his rankings better than most.

I think one key is to try to vary your players floors and ceilings. You have some older guys or guys on bad teams who are probably going to get a fair amount of targets/carries, but are never going to put up huge numbers either due to: health, bad QBs, or constantly playing from behind (in the case of RBs).

On the flip side are young players who might not be assured of as much action (so they have a lower floor), but either have a lot of potential, could break out with an injury in front of them, or play in great offenses that are going to put up a ton of points.

A lot of people naturally tend toward the second category, but I think you need to have a mix. You need to have a couple of sure bets to mix in with the high risk / high reward guys. But if every one of your players is a Steve Smith / Marques Colston / Larry Fitzgerald / Brandon Marshall / Anquan Boldin, you have a pretty low potential points ceiling for the season.

Last year, I think I had too many of the Steve Smith/Colston/etc. type players and it did not pay out. I've been playing fantasy football for a very long time (back to the days when we used to add our points by hand out of the Monday morning newspaper) and have had decent success. But the last couple of years, the league I care most about I haven't done very well. So I figured I'd ask some questions on here to see people have some resources I have not tapped into yet (like the podcasts mentioned by gurufrisbee). I really hope to have a good draft this year and want to try to do a better job of keeping up during the season as well.

A couple of interesting rules we are doing in our league this year. First, for draft order we picked names out of a hat to get a random order of the 12 teams. If you are the #1 team picked, you get to pick where you want to draft (1-12). If you were picked second, you send in your top two choices. I was picked 5th. I prefer to be at the top of the draft so my 5 choices were 3,4,2,1,5. So depending on the guys in front of me, I'll get one of those 5 spots. I know one player preferred one of the ends and sent in 1,2,11,12. The second rule change we made had to do with keepers. We usually keep two players (usually our 2 best players). This year, you can't keep your keepers from last year (your top 2 picks). For the players you do keep you lose the draft pick one better than where they were drafted. For example, last year I drafted Mark Ingram in the 8th round. I'm keeping him and he will be my 7th round draft choice. My other keeper is Eli Manning who I picked up as a free agent, so he'll be my last, 15th round pick. I was going to keep Jordy Nelson and not Eli but...

[AIRFORCEDUKIE]

I dont mind grabbing a top 5 Defense in mid range rounds. If I can get a top D instead of a 4th WR or 2nd TE or whatever I will go for it no problem.

[JNort]

First of let me say if you haven't switch from traditional snake draft to Auction then you are missing out. As for snakes I got a few rules I follow in a 12 tm league.

First and obviously never draft a K or D before the last 2 rounds. People will give you reasons why they will take a d early but ignore them, no matter how many are being scooped up just wait.

Second unless the top 2 qbs (This year Rodgers and Luck) are still around after round 2 never draft a qb before rd 6. Grab 6 in total quality rbs and wrs. Doesn't matter if it's 2 rbs and 4 wrs or reverse or even at 3 of one and 3 of the other. This will set you up for peace if mind with injuries and also great trade bait. The difference in the 3rd qb overall and the 4th isn't that bad compared to other positions

Third don't be set on just one strategy. If you got the 8th pick and really wanted to go with a rb in the first two rounds but 7 are off the board already in round one you must adapt. Go for the top WR and or in this year's case Gronk at TE. Everyone value players different. I think there are only 5 or 6 1st rd worthy rbs this year. If I can't get them then I go for 1 of the top wrs.

[JNort]

A new thing I'm trying this year deal with drafting cuffs. I for one don't believe in drafting a cuff for your starter. Ex people who draft Jamal Charles like drafting Knile Davis later on.

This year after I get my top 3 or 4 rbs I will draft the cuff guys for other peoples top backs. That way if an injury occurs to Jamal Charles or Mark Ingram their owners will be looking to me for help because I got Davis and Robinson on my bench (also got Ryan Matthews). Increases my potential trade power plus you suddenly gained another starting rb.

[elvis14]

First of let me say if you haven't switch from traditional snake draft to Auction then you are missing out. As for snakes I got a few rules I follow in a 12 tm league.

First and obviously never draft a K or D before the last 2 rounds. People will give you reasons why they will take a d early but ignore them, no matter how many are being scooped up just wait.

Second unless the top 2 qbs (This year Rodgers and Luck) are still around after round 2 never draft a qb before rd 6. Grab 6 in total quality rbs and wrs. Doesn't matter if it's 2 rbs and 4 wrs or reverse or even at 3 of one and 3 of the other. This will set you up for peace if mind with injuries and also great trade bait. The difference in the 3rd qb overall and the 4th isn't that bad compared to other positions

Third don't be set on just one strategy. If you got the 8th pick and really wanted to go with a rb in the first two rounds but 7 are off the board already in round one you must adapt. Go for the top WR and or in this year's case Gronk at TE. Everyone value players different. I think there are only 5 or 6 1st rd worthy rbs this year. If I can't get them then I go for 1 of the top wrs.

That's good advice JNort. I haven't done an Auction yet. One thing that affects me is that I play in 2 leagues with different scoring systems. One league uses both PPR and QB points (1 pt. per completion -1 per incompletion). The other league doesn't do either. I prefer the PPR and QB points. In my second league with the standard scoring system, your rules all apply. With my league with QB scoring, however, you can help yourself greatly by grabbing a QB early (and not just the top 2).

[JNort]

That's good advice JNort. I haven't done an Auction yet. One thing that affects me is that I play in 2 leagues with different scoring systems. One league uses both PPR and QB points (1 pt. per completion -1 per incompletion). The other league doesn't do either. I prefer the PPR and QB points. In my second league with the standard scoring system, your rules all apply. With my league with QB scoring, however, you can help yourself greatly by grabbing a QB early (and not just the top 2).

O for sure. That strategy I posted was for standard. I avoid ppr and idp leagues, I just don't enjoy then as much. Auction leagues just got so much more going on as far as strategy involved I like the challenge plus you arn't help captive by your draft spot. Everyone is available to you if you want to use all your money.