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I don't even look at weekly rankings anymore. (1 Viewer)

R

rickyg

Footballguy
The more I mature as a fantasy player, the less I pay attention to weekly rankings.  We are 2 weeks into the season and I realize that I have not even once looked at anyone's weekly rankings to determine who I want to start on my squads.  

I just look at my guys, look at who is performing and underperforming, look at their matchups, and start/bench accordingly.  It works for me.   

Any of you have the same experience?

 
Same here, however rankings can be very helpful if you have 2-3 players with similar matchups and cant decide. 

 
Well, you've got your stud players.  Those are the 3-4 guys (or more, hopefully) that you drafted and will start every week regardless of matchup.  

After that it's anyone's guess who will have a big week and who won't.  You're better off looking at matchups and reading rich rhibar's weekly matchup breakdown and deciding on which players to start than just looking at   A list of players that some expert ranked based on imaginary projections.  And if a wr is ranked 23 and the other one you're contemplating is ranked 24 or 25 is that really a big difference?  

 
I don't pay much attention any longer either. Especially before the season starts. I will check for Team Defense streaming, but that's it. Or if I can't decide between two players, then I will usually use that as a potential tie breaker, but that's even usually just projections not rankings. 

But yes, I agree, I find that my own weekly rankings are likely just as good than anyone else's and I only care about my guys when it comes down to it, so I really just play the matchup game on my own roster. 

Like this week... I am rolling out the GB defense. I initially picked up Miami but am going GB just because I feel a pick 6 for GB this weekend... Miami is on the road. But Miami is ranked #1 def for the week. GB 6 or something. 

 
Drezden said:
Same here, however rankings can be very helpful if you have 2-3 players with similar matchups and cant decide. 
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how is it helpful?  have you tracked the success rate every time you default to rankings?  I bet they are wrong more than they are right.

just wondering what criteria you used to determine that they are "helpful".

 
I use rankings to formulate my own thoughts, forcing me to rethink/dig in to my own decisions if I see something way out of wack...

 
Drezden said:
Same here, however rankings can be very helpful if you have 2-3 players with similar matchups and cant decide. 
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Sorry to be contrite, but are they a big help ? In the situation you've just described, using rankings to decide between close players has led me to be wrong just as much as right. 

I mean, I'm guessing that nobody really uses rankings at all unless it's a close situation like you described above. 

I liked all the posts mentioning Rich Hribars worksheet. That's my favourite article to read every week 

 
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Worksheet is great.  Silva's Matchups article provides similar insights.  Basically, I like to read data and trends over "I think this is the #18 RB this week." 

Rotoviz is excellent for this, too, but I can never bring myself to pay for a whole season subscription.

 
rickyg said:
The more I mature as a fantasy player, the less I pay attention to weekly rankings.  We are 2 weeks into the season and I realize that I have not even once looked at anyone's weekly rankings to determine who I want to start on my squads.  

I just look at my guys, look at who is performing and underperforming, look at their matchups, and start/bench accordingly.  It works for me.   

Any of you have the same experience?
Click to expand...
If you rely on outside “experts” your performance will only be as good as their opinions.  99% of the people who sell themselves as fantasy experts aren’t experts.  They might be good at business or internet marketing or entertainment but they aren’t the real experts in making fantasy football decisions.  The real experts in that don’t share their info or insights because it’s a lot more valuable to use it themselves. 

Of course you should value your own takes and opinions over the opinions of non-experts.  Fantasy football at its heart is a gambling game and to beat a gambling game you need to get an overlay.  Having better, more carefully created player valuations / rankings is the best and most direct way to get an overlay.

I agree that Rich Hribar’s worksheet has value.  You have to be careful though, Rotoworld is to fantasy football what a fish is a poker game.  Their player news feature is great but only for the facts, their takes and opinions are generally soft.  They have the kind of staff who can watch Kareem Hunt go off for 200 yards in week 1 and write “Kareem Hunt is really good,” but they don’t have the kind of staff that can watch, for example, Marshawn Lynch in his first few games in Seattle and recognize how well he was playing even before the stats started coming in (instead they wrote over and over again that he sucks).  To become an actual fantasy football expert you need that second skill and good luck getting that from someone like Evan Silva or Matthew Berry.

 
We Tigers said:
Worksheet is great.  Silva's Matchups article provides similar insights.  Basically, I like to read data and trends over "I think this is the #18 RB this week." 

Rotoviz is excellent for this, too, but I can never bring myself to pay for a whole season subscription.
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Fantasy Feast is one of the podcasts I listen to. Good way to get a general and quick overview of matches from Silva in a condensed form. At least gets the brain beginning to churn over and start thinking about the coming weeks matches. It's not the best podcast but I like it for the above reasons, and I like Ross Tuckers thoughts on teams O lines as I feel they are very important in fantasy football. 

On a weekly basis I probably use a combination of On The Couch/Audible, Fantasy Feast, Chris Harris Football, The Worksheet article and The Shark Pool to help me consolidate or reject some initial thoughts of my own. And any article Waldman writes is worth a read. Generally each podcast has its own strengths that you can take out of them, and ignore some of the other stuff. 

I like Fantasy Footballers podcast as well but not really for taking opinions from. More so because it's well produced and they make quite a good trio in terms of some general light hearted chatter. 

In seasons gone by I would spend time looking up rankings and pouring over them in fine detail, but have honestly found in the last 1-2 years I barely use them. 

 
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LordHusker said:
Listening to podcasts is more fun.
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Agreed.  At least on podcast they give you their in depth rationale and analysis on why they feel strongly about a player doing well or busting in that particular game. I appreciate hearing other people's rationales. But just looking at a rankings list is useless. 

 
zoonation said:
how is it helpful?  have you tracked the success rate every time you default to rankings?  I bet they are wrong more than they are right.

just wondering what criteria you used to determine that they are "helpful".
Click to expand...
You really want to make that bet?  Ill wager up to $1000 that over 19 weeks dodds wins a head to head series versus you. 

 
BassNBrew said:
Gurley and Hyde were high. 
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But, if they end up being lower (even slightly) than another guy that goes off, but you didn't start this guy than whoopi fack.  The ranking turned out to be flat wrong.  Even if Gurley posted great stats. 

That is why they have no utility.  Not a useable or reliable predictive source.  

 
BassNBrew said:
You really want to make that bet?  Ill wager up to $1000 that over 19 weeks dodds wins a head to head series versus you. 
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Pardon?  I think you are conflating two different things. 

I agree dodds  is better at ff than me.  So what?  

I'm talking about the efficacy of rankings and projections generally. 

Hint: where owners choose to start one player over another, it is not like horseshoes and hand grenades.   

 
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