2012 Fantasy Football: Quarterbacks That Provided The Worst Value

Since the 2012 fantasy season ended, you’ve had time to reflect upon how your seasons unfolded. Yet, many of you have already started planning your next drafts. This column will help you evaluate which QBs provided the worst value for their owners during 2012. And it will also deliver the jump start that you need toward creating your 2013 draft plan, that will include a large number of legitimate options for your QB1.

First, let’s rewind to last August or early September, when your fantasy drafts occurred. Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Drew Brees were almost universally the initial three QBs selected. Then, Matthew Stafford and Cam Newton departed the draft boards before the end of Round 2. After that? There was an assemblage of signal callers that consisted of Michael Vick, Eli Manning, Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers, Tony Romoand Peyton Manning. Then an additional tier of Robert Griffin III, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck, Jay Cutler and Matt Schaub.

Of these QBs, some performed extremely well, others produced satisfactorily, and others were complete disappointments. This article will provide an in-depth look at five whose overall production failed to match their average draft positions. That conclusion will be based upon the numbers that each signal caller generated, using a scoring system of six points per TD, one point per 20 passing yards, and one point per 10 rushing/receiving yards in a 12-team league. After conducting an overall assessment of their ADP from six primary fantasy sites, those results will be combined with their overall production to determine their value to fantasy owners.

Read More

Running Back Physical Analysis

At the end of every February, hundreds of coaches, scouts, doctors, and staff members flock to Indianapolis. At the same time, die hard football fans start to show the effects of rookie fever and flock to their TVs to set their DVRs for the NFL Combine.

When you stop to think about it, it really is a strange phenomenon.

We watch these young men run, jump, and lift over and over again. They get measured like prize cattle and prodded by team doctors to see if they fit the bill. The only issue is that no one really knows exactly what to look for in these measurements. Some NFL teams are known to have a strong affinity for one measurement over the others (for example, Oakland and 40 yard dash times) and there are a ton of commonly held beliefs such as quarterbacks needing to be 6’2” or taller to succeed. What exactly does the combine mean to us, the dynasty fantasy footballer? Sure, faster and bigger is better. But the question that I’ve always had is exactly how fast is fast enough? Is it just a fast 40 or do I need to look at cone, shuttle, 10 yard splits and everything else too?

Read More

2013 Quarterback Sleepers

The quarterback class is looking very deep for 2013. So deep that players who used to be starting fantasy quarterbacks are being pushed out of the top 12 by the promising young quarterbacks that lit up the league in 2012. Some of the players that are being pushed down out of the starter tier this year are some big names like Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, and Michael Vick.

This is being written before free agency, the draft and training camp so things could change but as of January 4th, 2013 this is my quarterback sleepers list. I am going to assume that things are as they are today. Also note that when I say "sleeper" I mean undervalued players (according to the "experts"). That means that these quarterbacks don't necessarily have to be picked in the late rounds although, most of them still are.

Read More

Post 2012 Value Based Drafting Numbers

Note:Post 2013 Value Based Drafting Numbers found here

I was crunching some numbers this weekend for myself so I thought I'd post up some value based drafting numbers from the 2012 season to help you get ready for the 2013 season. These numbers were compiled with standard scoring settings.
Using value based drafting numbers is a way of judging a positions relative value to the rest of the field. I typically don't use it for specific players because injuries happen, situations change, players age, and ultimately it all depends on where they are being drafted by everyone else on whether or not you should draft someone but its a great metric for gauging positions.

Let's Get to the Data

The value based drafting numbers for a specific player are calculated by subtracting the point total of the baseline player from the players point total. I'm doing these numbers for 12 team ESPN standard leagues and I'm going to use the same rankings as Karabell does in this VBD article (go to it for more explanation about value based drafting). Thus I will use the 17th ranked QB as the baseline, 43rd ranked RB, 40th ranked WR, and the 12th ranked TE. (If the 6th defense and 2nd kicker are used then these are the usual positions drafted in the first 120 picks according to Karabell, I neglected the defense and kicker positions).

Read More

Fantasy Football Aftermath

Welcome to the final edition of this season’s Dynasty Aftermath. This Tuesday staple has long been one of our signature pieces as we have a little fun after a tough week at the Dynasty League Football office. You’ll find this article will review the week’s happenings in a variety of ways. Fantasy seasons are over, but that just means we’re starting all over with a new year’s worth of content. Thanks for making the aftermath one of most viewed articles each and every week this year.

Let’s take our final weekly spin around the league and look at the best scoring lineups for this week and for the entire season

Read More