Aside from the big 5 has it gotten a little light?
IDP Matchup Spreadsheet - Thomas
Reading the Defense - Bramel
Eyes of the Guru - Norton
IDP Matchups to Exploit and Avoid - Larkin
IDP Upgrades/Downgrades
Didn't there used to be a buy low/sell high and a few more? Also, will there be in season tier rankings, rest of season rankings, priority waiver adds, stuff like I'm seeing on the offensive end? The snap counts look good though. Also, is there anyway to gauge accuracy in Norton's IDP projections?
I have mixed feelings about it. I do think the content feels a little on the light side this year and the most useful stuff for me came from John and Jene in preseason (I still refer back sometimes to the Eyes of the Guru preseason columns), but I'm always mindful that these guys have other lives and their track record with content is very good. One thing to remember too is that there is so much information out there now, and a lot of groupthink, that it's hard for any of the FBG subscriber content (or anywhere else) to feel 'exclusive' or necessary.
I guess I do have a couple of criticisms this year though - Jene's columns for the past few weeks have felt a bit slighter than usual. The IDP Roundtable podcast is still very late in the week, which makes it useless for waivers and limits its use if you are looking at trades earlier in the week. The podcast also tends to mainly rehash a lot of what is in the columns, particularly the Eyes of the Guru column, so once you've read the columns, while it's nice to hear the guys talk about this stuff, it feels a bit redundant. On the other hand, I think the IDP Upgrades/Downgrades column is an improvement on last year.
As for John's accuracy, I have no idea. I don't go back and check whether any of his matchup recommendations are accurate or not. That part of the podcast is actually the least interesting to me. Most of the matchup recommendations aren't tied to a depth of analysis - it's mostly just taking trends in tackle numbers (or sacks for DLs), and applying them to this week's games. It doesn't seem to take into account much other than raw tackle numbers or get into why it is that these numbers have occurred and what makes it likely that they will keep occurring for the next LB or DB or whoever to matchup against that team.
Overall I like the content though despite those criticisms. I actually feel like IDP content across the web seems weaker this year (maybe that's just me), so it's nice to have a bit of content here that you can rely on, and I put more weight on the FBG analysis of IDP than anywhere else. I do think that it would be good to revisit tiers midseason or have some more forward looking content that isn't just based on what happened in the last round of games and what might happen in the next matchup (maybe a rookie update as well). It would also be good to have Jene answering specific reader questions in his column ,which I know he has done in the past.
Edit: One thing I do miss in the IDP content is Jene's Sunday notes. I used to find that really useful for last minute lineup decisions, particularly when it wasn't clear whether a starter would be active until just before gametime. There was some good content in there about expectations for players filling in for injured players and whether they were worth a plug and play.
