“When Odysseus heard the thunder of Zeus, he was pleased and knew that the day of punishment had come” -Homer Earlier this summer I wrote about how perception of the Rams offense was so negative that every player was a value at their ADP. Through Labor Day, the Chiefs offense can’t seem to shed a similar negative perception, causing all of their weapons to be…...

What strategy should I use in shallow standard leagues? Can you use Zero RB in standard? These are the two questions I see most frequently on our message boards. As the fantasy industry moves toward deeper PPR formats, these types of leagues can get short shrift. This is unfortunate since standard is still the format for a huge number of fantasy players, and also because…...

Tyrod Taylor From Syracuse.com: Cleveland — Rex Ryan had heard enough quarterback questions. He’s been answering them for weeks in Buffalo and did the same for years in New York. So after the Buffalo Bills‘ 11-10 preseason win over the Cleveland Browns, Ryan confirmed what he’s been hinting at: He won’t announce a starting quarterback until the team takes the field to play the Indianapolis…...

There’s no question that staying healthy is a key to fantasy success, and that timely free agent pickups can occasionally be worth as much or more than a first round pick. But consistent fantasy champions have one characteristic in common. They dominate their leaguemates in Rounds 6 through 10. To win these all-important stanzas, you must have the courage to take swings at Breakout RBs…...

This is a continuation of a series covering the top scoring PPR finishes of the past 15 years. The Quarterback position is the easiest to predict year after year; the same QBs have dominated the top spots. There are patterns in positional ranking which makes it an interesting metric for predicting future success. The Quick stats From 2000-2014, 15 NFL seasons: PPR scoring (Passing TD 4 pts,…...

I don’t think I published anything about Emmanuel Sanders last offseason, but trust me when I say I talked a lot of crap about him. Most of that revolved around him being worse than Eric Decker, never having a game with more than 100 receiving yards or multiple touchdowns, and generally not being very efficient despite playing with a quality quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger. Then he finished the…...

As an analyst one of the things that happens every year is that you talk yourself into a player – maybe you say that Martavis Bryant should be on every team – and then you don’t ever end up drafting that player. It’s not willful. You’re not writing pieces pumping up players and then avoiding them because screw the readers. It’s more accidental and also because…...

IDP 2014 was the year of the season-ending injury to three-down linebackers. During the offseason I’ve been analyzing how to play all of these LB injuries in redrafts. At first I thought fading all of the injured players could be the strategy, but when the ADP data started to roll in I took a step back and realized some incredible injury discounts were being created…....

Roy Helu has always been an interesting name in fantasy football drafts due to his physical tools and fantastic rate stats, but he’s been mired in a secondary role behind Alfred Morris for the last few seasons. Heath Krueger makes a very compelling argument for why he’s preferable to Latavius Murray at their respective prices, and his piece is definitely worth a read. He has…...

From The Editors: We recently hired Josh Klein to write a weekly Friday column which was light on statistics, medium on advice, heavy on nonsense, and heavier on terrible jokes which would make our incredibly smart and easily cajoled readers roll their collective eyes. So far, he’s wasted almost three thousand words over two columns and recommended one player; we are pretty sure it’s Titans QB…...

From Sports World Report: Meanwhile, the run game looked as unimpressive as the quarterback game. The Browns continue to deal with uncertainty in Isaiah Crowell and Terrance West who have yet to capitalize off the momentum of last year. Both second-year pros are struggling to make an impact which is leading the Browns to consider free agent options. According to West, he would welcome Ray…...

We finally made it to the fourth — and final[1]Maybe — article in this visually stimulating efficiency vs. opportunity journey. Today, I’m focusing on the tight end position — you know, the position otherwise known as Rob Gronkowski and then the rest of “the guys.” Never before have we seen so much talent and athleticism at the position and I, for one, am excited to watch…...

“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned” -W. Congreve This article is part of an ongoing series that explores ideas related to exploiting recency bias. The first concept, “chasing the dragon,” applies to Rob Gronkowski and Andrew Luck and can be found here. If players outperform their ADPs significantly, it creates a situation where they are drafted near their ceilings in the following year because everyone…...

Over at Pro Football Focus, they recently simplified their grading system in an attempt to determine how good a player is right now,[1]That is, recent performance is weighted more heavily. on a scale of 1-100. Going into the 2015 season, they evaluate Anquan Boldin as the ninth best wide receiver in the NFL. To be clear, this is not a fantasy football ranking system; their ranks…...

Last year a number of the writers on the site were proponents of Kelvin Benjamin even though he didn’t pass certain metric thresholds that we typically like. But in trying to sort the signal out from the noise I think several of us focused on the opportunity in Carolina and Benjamin’s touchdown upside as factors that could make him very valuable. But each season brings…...

With fantasy football drafts in full swing, let’s use the ADP Arbitrage App to find some wide receiver bargains. I’ll use some simple screens – weight, targets, and yards per target – to identify cheaper options to higher-drafted players. Rueben Randle / Cecil Shorts If you just search RotoViz for Rueben Randle, you’ll find all our love letters. I’m on board again this year. He finished last year…...