Tick
Footballguy
I have four Zealots teams (53 man roster, 8-man IDP lineup, balanced scoring, no PPR). I do other leagues here and there, but have been backing off to the point where these are the only four teams I consistently field each year.
FBG has a million tools, and everyone probably uses different tools, and in different ways. I think it's worth discussion to see if we can find some killer uses that we're overlooking.
We all have a finite amount of time available, so I know I'm skipping valuable resources... FBG has more available than I can use with the amount of time I've allocated to FF. Anyway, this is the list of stuff I've ended up relying on:
Offseason
Rate My Team is awesome. It uses the projections that have already been done by the staff to generate a bunch of info about your team, including chances to make the playoffs, scoring projections, and suggested free agent pickups. I think that in the offseason, it's one of the best tools to get a snapshot of your team, and I've been using it on every team of mine since it first came out. Since it's automated based on all the data in the FBG databases, it often ends up working before it's announced. This season, I noticed it's working already if you use the link above. I plugged in my Zealots teams as always, and based on this, I've picked up a couple of end-of-roster upside offensive players. Here's my annual plea to include IDP in Rate My Team. I know everything is always harder than it looks, but it seems like it would be relatively simple to integrate Norton and Rudnicki's projections into RMT and give a full picture of a team's chances and free agents available.
MyFBG page is mainly an in-season spot, but is also useful in the offseason. Zealots uses MFL for its league management software. I link up my teams (I find this a bit clunky for some reason - I must be doing something wrong) and specify the scoring, which is pretty close to the defaults anyway. Since IDPs aren't covered with Rate My Team, where else can I figure out quickly which IDPs the staff recommends that I pick up? VIEW PRESEASON PROJECTIONS (BY POSITION) is where I go, which is accessible from the MyFBG page. I tell it to show me John Norton's projections at LB for one of my leagues, and it shows them with my scoring system, and highlights my players and also free agents. Repeat with DL and DB, re-run with Rucnicki's projections, then move on to the next league, and you've got a great look at the available IDPs that could improve your team this season. Naturally I don't always agree, but it's a great starting point to catch guys you assumed were already on a roster. CREATE CUSTOMIZED DRAFT LIST (PRESEASON) can do the same thing if you prefer that presentation.
Articles are more common now in the offseason. They're not on the weekly predictable schedule created by the regular season, but the content is solid. I tend to focus on the IDP articles, which are pretty much all by Jene Bramel. His positional tier articles are a smart approach since we know very little at the beginning of the offseason, then learn more and more as free agency, the draft, and OTAs develop.
Twitter is the other tool I use - not really FBG-specific, though following @SigmundBloom gives a good overview of what's going on in FF. Following @NFL_ATL fills in with general football news and articles. It can get cluttered if you follow every draftnik out there, but if you follow only those two, you'll be aware of what's happening.
Rookie Draft Pick Calculator is perfect during dynasty rookie drafts... very simple tool that helps as a sanity check when trade offers are flying fast during drafts.
Rookie rankings are a nice thing to read before a rookie draft, or even during one. I use this kind of strangely, I think - as a draft gets later, I'll look for the highest a player is ranked rather than his average. If I see something like Jeff Haseley ranking Jarvis Landry 14th overall, that intrigues me more than Andre Williams being everyone's 25th-ranked rookie.
Dynasty rankings have gotten much more attention than in previous years, but for some reason I don't use them that much. Probably a failing on my part... When I did use them more, I focused only on rankings within a position. To me, that translates well across scoring systems and lineup requirements. Ranking between positions requires much more league-specific information than a ranking list can give.
I'll do in-season later... time to mow the lawn.
FBG has a million tools, and everyone probably uses different tools, and in different ways. I think it's worth discussion to see if we can find some killer uses that we're overlooking.
We all have a finite amount of time available, so I know I'm skipping valuable resources... FBG has more available than I can use with the amount of time I've allocated to FF. Anyway, this is the list of stuff I've ended up relying on:
Offseason
Rate My Team is awesome. It uses the projections that have already been done by the staff to generate a bunch of info about your team, including chances to make the playoffs, scoring projections, and suggested free agent pickups. I think that in the offseason, it's one of the best tools to get a snapshot of your team, and I've been using it on every team of mine since it first came out. Since it's automated based on all the data in the FBG databases, it often ends up working before it's announced. This season, I noticed it's working already if you use the link above. I plugged in my Zealots teams as always, and based on this, I've picked up a couple of end-of-roster upside offensive players. Here's my annual plea to include IDP in Rate My Team. I know everything is always harder than it looks, but it seems like it would be relatively simple to integrate Norton and Rudnicki's projections into RMT and give a full picture of a team's chances and free agents available.
MyFBG page is mainly an in-season spot, but is also useful in the offseason. Zealots uses MFL for its league management software. I link up my teams (I find this a bit clunky for some reason - I must be doing something wrong) and specify the scoring, which is pretty close to the defaults anyway. Since IDPs aren't covered with Rate My Team, where else can I figure out quickly which IDPs the staff recommends that I pick up? VIEW PRESEASON PROJECTIONS (BY POSITION) is where I go, which is accessible from the MyFBG page. I tell it to show me John Norton's projections at LB for one of my leagues, and it shows them with my scoring system, and highlights my players and also free agents. Repeat with DL and DB, re-run with Rucnicki's projections, then move on to the next league, and you've got a great look at the available IDPs that could improve your team this season. Naturally I don't always agree, but it's a great starting point to catch guys you assumed were already on a roster. CREATE CUSTOMIZED DRAFT LIST (PRESEASON) can do the same thing if you prefer that presentation.
Articles are more common now in the offseason. They're not on the weekly predictable schedule created by the regular season, but the content is solid. I tend to focus on the IDP articles, which are pretty much all by Jene Bramel. His positional tier articles are a smart approach since we know very little at the beginning of the offseason, then learn more and more as free agency, the draft, and OTAs develop.
Twitter is the other tool I use - not really FBG-specific, though following @SigmundBloom gives a good overview of what's going on in FF. Following @NFL_ATL fills in with general football news and articles. It can get cluttered if you follow every draftnik out there, but if you follow only those two, you'll be aware of what's happening.
Rookie Draft Pick Calculator is perfect during dynasty rookie drafts... very simple tool that helps as a sanity check when trade offers are flying fast during drafts.
Rookie rankings are a nice thing to read before a rookie draft, or even during one. I use this kind of strangely, I think - as a draft gets later, I'll look for the highest a player is ranked rather than his average. If I see something like Jeff Haseley ranking Jarvis Landry 14th overall, that intrigues me more than Andre Williams being everyone's 25th-ranked rookie.
Dynasty rankings have gotten much more attention than in previous years, but for some reason I don't use them that much. Probably a failing on my part... When I did use them more, I focused only on rankings within a position. To me, that translates well across scoring systems and lineup requirements. Ranking between positions requires much more league-specific information than a ranking list can give.
I'll do in-season later... time to mow the lawn.
Last edited by a moderator:
