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FBG IDP Content (1 Viewer)

Gally

Footballguy
I have been very disappointed in most of the IDP content this  year on FBG.  The "Sleeper" article each week very rarely had any sleeper type content and was flat out wrong at times (for instance this week it mentioned that David Irving saved his day last week with a sack against Indy when he was actually inactive and didn't play). 

Anybody else disappointed with the way of the IDP content?  If not for this board and IOTG it would be fairly worthless. 

 
Once Jene turned his attention exclusively to injuries I (along with others here) saw this coming. I did not re-up my membership this past year because the writing was on the wall. I just turn to these boards and the podcast (although too late in the week) as my IDP filler as I am starting to find decent IDP content elsewhere. Honestly, though, I have found nothing out there that is as solid in pre- and early season as these boards. 

 
Once Jene turned his attention exclusively to injuries I (along with others here) saw this coming. I did not re-up my membership this past year because the writing was on the wall. I just turn to these boards and the podcast (although too late in the week) as my IDP filler as I am starting to find decent IDP content elsewhere. Honestly, though, I have found nothing out there that is as solid in pre- and early season as these boards. 
Where are you finding decent IDP content (besides these boards)?

 
IDP Guru is okay. He doesn’t update at the end of the week. He needs to have like a Sunday morning update on his home page, sometimes it’s nice to get another’s opinion when, say a guys out and your trying to snag the backup and there’s a couple options. 

 
It's pretty shocking how poor it is now. No IDP dynasty rankings for the past three months from a single staff member. And the weekly "cheatsheet" rankings have been very disappointing, with frequent omissions of quality players and inclusions of players who have lost their starting job. As well as just outright head-scratchers. Last week I actually burst out laughing when I saw Olivier Vernon penciled in as the TOP-ranked LB for the week.

 
Was alerted that our site got linked here. Very appreciative of the recognition.

we’d like to get better, what kind of content are you guys looking for in the offseason?

please feel free to email me directly. Nathan@idpguys.org
Just by this post will make me visit your site. Some things I like to see will involve coaching changes that can lead to better or worse situations for players. I feel that’s good info and one of my leagues has open  waivers after the season up to the rookie draft. So I am able to add/drop when I want. 

The draft being another good topic. Opinions/predictions on rookies, maybe before and after the draft. Sometimes a lesser talent goes to the perfect situation and out produces guys ranked and drafter higher than him. See Darius Leonard 

 
Was alerted that our site got linked here. Very appreciative of the recognition.

we’d like to get better, what kind of content are you guys looking for in the offseason?

please feel free to email me directly. Nathan@idpguys.org
Just went there based on these posts and checked out the first item (idp rankings for week 16).

You only go 10 deep, which isn’t very helpful at all.  I don’t need to be told to start Khalil Mack and Darius Leonard this week.  You need to take this down to 48-60 to give actionable (and testable) fantasy advice.  

 
Was alerted that our site got linked here. Very appreciative of the recognition.

we’d like to get better, what kind of content are you guys looking for in the offseason?

please feel free to email me directly. Nathan@idpguys.org


The Claymaker said:
Just by this post will make me visit your site. Some things I like to see will involve coaching changes that can lead to better or worse situations for players. I feel that’s good info and one of my leagues has open  waivers after the season up to the rookie draft. So I am able to add/drop when I want. 

The draft being another good topic. Opinions/predictions on rookies, maybe before and after the draft. Sometimes a lesser talent goes to the perfect situation and out produces guys ranked and drafter higher than him. See Darius Leonard 
@IDPGuys

I would expand a bit to include scheme changes that may increase or reduce a players value or projecting players that may be changing positions/schemes or where they would be best suited. 

Also, sortable projections that go beyond standard tackles, sacks, interceptions.   Include QB Hits, Hurries, Pass defensed, TFL.  I see many leagues expanding to use these items to try and smooth out IDP performance and knowing which players generate these type of stats would be helpful. 

 
I think y'all should tag JB or contact him.

That said the percent a team plays a D seems important like 55 percent in nickel.

 
IDP stuff I like at FBG:

  • The infrastructure is just great.  Leave out the quality of the projections and look at how you can use them.  MyFBG or the Lineup Dominator app are exactly what I want... weight different projections, customize to my scoring for multiple leagues, project every player, tell me which guys to start, tell me who's better on the waiver wire.  Everywhere the player is mentioned, it's a link to find more information.  I haven't seen anything half as good as this anywhere else.
  • Weekly Top 200 rankings - these are massive for waivers.  It's really valuable to be able to compare weekly vs. rest of season value.  Do I pick up the CB projected with top-10 numbers this week?  Oh, he's ranked 60th for the rest of the season... probably not.  Do I drop my SS who's projected to score only 4 points this week?  Oh, he's ranked 19th for the rest of the season... probably not.
  • @Aaron Rudnicki's Upgrades/Downgrades article is a great resource.  A quick summary of the top performers and whether they're a fluke or not, and it comes out before waivers run in my leagues.  I get more value from this article than anything else in the IDP world.
  • @John Norton's EOTG is still great.
  • The depth of the projections - they basically project every player's stats every week.  That's such a huge thing to do, and has to take so much more effort than ranking players based on just one scoring system.  Does anyone else on the internet actually project IDP players weekly?  I don't think I've seen more than rankings elsewhere.
Stuff I'd like to see improved:

  • Dynasty tiers or rankings in January.  Dynasty leagues are all in their offseasons right now and thinking about waivers and free agency periods.  We're coming off a season where we had tunnel vision for our own players, and might not realize who shined late in the season and is positioned for a better role next year.  We haven't thought about contract situations or the impact of coaching/scheme changes.  I'd like to see what FBG's experts think.  If it's a fool's errand to rank, do tiers like @Jene Bramel used to do - that seems to be a good compromise to allow an expert to express to us that it's hard to compare a player with a 50% chance to be in a great situation vs. a player with a 90% chance to be in an okay situation... and to tell us which guys are replacement-level that shouldn't clog our rosters in the offseason.
  • More weekly projections.  If nobody outside of FBG is doing projections, is that because they don't have the infrastructure?  If FBG hired someone like Tom Kislingbury, with FBG's tools would he be able to add another set of weekly projections?
  • Integration of Rudnicki's Upgrades/Downgrades into MyFBG the same as Bloom's offense version.
  • A focused look at dynasty stashes around week 11 of every season.  Bramel used to do this over about 3 weeks, and it was great.
In my opinion, it's a lot more likely that FBG could add a few voices/features to make the perfect IDP site than it is for any other site to add all the infrastructure to make the perfect IDP site.  I guess my ideal situation would be for more great IDP writers to join FBG's staff.  I understand it has to make business sense, but I'm just describing what I would want.

@Sigmund Bloom @Joe Bryant

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Tick said:
IDP stuff I like at FBG:

  • The infrastructure is just great.  Leave out the quality of the projections and look at how you can use them.  MyFBG or the Lineup Dominator app are exactly what I want... weight different projections, customize to my scoring for multiple leagues, project every player, tell me which guys to start, tell me who's better on the waiver wire.  Everywhere the player is mentioned, it's a link to find more information.  I haven't seen anything half as good as this anywhere else.
  • Weekly Top 200 rankings - these are massive for waivers.  It's really valuable to be able to compare weekly vs. rest of season value.  Do I pick up the CB projected with top-10 numbers this week?  Oh, he's ranked 60th for the rest of the season... probably not.  Do I drop my SS who's projected to score only 4 points this week?  Oh, he's ranked 19th for the rest of the season... probably not.
  • @Aaron Rudnicki's Upgrades/Downgrades article is a great resource.  A quick summary of the top performers and whether they're a fluke or not, and it comes out before waivers run in my leagues.  I get more value from this article than anything else in the IDP world.
  • @John Norton's EOTG is still great.
  • The depth of the projections - they basically project every player's stats every week.  That's such a huge thing to do, and has to take so much more effort than ranking players based on just one scoring system.  Does anyone else on the internet actually project IDP players weekly?  I don't think I've seen more than rankings elsewhere.
Stuff I'd like to see improved:

  • Dynasty tiers or rankings in January.  Dynasty leagues are all in their offseasons right now and thinking about waivers and free agency periods.  We're coming off a season where we had tunnel vision for our own players, and might not realize who shined late in the season and is positioned for a better role next year.  We haven't thought about contract situations or the impact of coaching/scheme changes.  I'd like to see what FBG's experts think.  If it's a fool's errand to rank, do tiers like @Jene Bramel used to do - that seems to be a good compromise to allow an expert to express to us that it's hard to compare a player with a 50% chance to be in a great situation vs. a player with a 90% chance to be in an okay situation... and to tell us which guys are replacement-level that shouldn't clog our rosters in the offseason.
  • More weekly projections.  If nobody outside of FBG is doing projections, is that because they don't have the infrastructure?  If FBG hired someone like Tom Kislingbury, with FBG's tools would he be able to add another set of weekly projections?
  • Integration of Rudnicki's Upgrades/Downgrades into MyFBG the same as Bloom's offense version.
  • A focused look at dynasty stashes around week 11 of every season.  Bramel used to do this over about 3 weeks, and it was great.
In my opinion, it's a lot more likely that FBG could add a few voices/features to make the perfect IDP site than it is for any other site to add all the infrastructure to make the perfect IDP site.  I guess my ideal situation would be for more great IDP writers to join FBG's staff.  I understand it has to make business sense, but I'm just describing what I would want.

@Sigmund Bloom @Joe Bryant
Thanks a lot @Tick  I appreciate the detailed feedback. That's helpful for sure.

We're in the process of evaluating how our 2018 went and going through feedback from the survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YYJHZBL .  About 10,000 people have filled it out so far so that's a lot of info. 

For IDP writers or people you follow and like out there, any people in particular you like that aren't working for another site?

 
For IDP writers or people you follow and like out there, any people in particular you like that aren't working for another site?
Not really - I'm following @IDP_Dude, @IDPSharks, @TheReadAndReact, @DFF_IDP, and @TomDegenerate on Twitter, but most of the content from them is in the form of links to articles on their sites.  @TomDegenerate (Tom Kislingbury) posts a lot of Twitter-only content, often with cool visuals to go along with it, but he also has articles on other sites.  I'm pretty ignorant of who's a staff member somewhere or a freelancer, though.

10,000 responses is great - you're already flooded with ideas and feedback.

 
Thanks a lot @Tick  I appreciate the detailed feedback. That's helpful for sure.

We're in the process of evaluating how our 2018 went and going through feedback from the survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YYJHZBL .  About 10,000 people have filled it out so far so that's a lot of info. 

For IDP writers or people you follow and like out there, any people in particular you like that aren't working for another site?
Put me on record as pretty much agreeing with everything Tick said.  All solid suggestions, and his list of "what you do well" pretty much captures why I'm here.

There is a woeful shortage of good IDP content out there across the web...just the sort of niche FBGs could really target and monopolize.

There are a few podcasts...Read and React, IDP Edge Crushers, The Individual Defensive Podcast.  None of them really outperform FBG's own IDP Roundtable, except in being released more frequently and earlier in the weekly free agency cycle.  That's a specific action point FBGs could act on too.

FBGs does many things very well...IDP is one that it feels like could be done better, and would be worth the added investment.  (Responsiveness to customers has also been something of a strength at FBGs too.  Just the fact that the owner is in here acknowledging feedback is a big plus!)

 
I'm glad there is a post here addressing this issue.  I made my thoughts known in the survey but it cannot hurt to mention it here too.  I don't really have much to add that Tick didn't say with his post.  I'm in more leagues that are using IDPs than ever and I haven't specifically sought them out.  Small sample size for sure but I hope it's a trend and there are more people like us seeking IDP information.

 
  • A focused look at dynasty stashes around week 11 of every season.  Bramel used to do this over about 3 weeks, and it was great.
Not sure what you mean by a "focused look", but there is currently a weekly dynasty sleeper piece that involves a quite a bit of research/work.  

Are you looking for "super deep" stashes or the kind you can typically find on 12-16 team leagues with standard sizes of rosters/taxi squads?

In case you can't figure it out, I produce said piece and would love feedback as to how to make the piece more useful.

Thanks.

 
I think part of the issue is us who do play IDP.  Look at this board.   The bottom threads of page one were last posted on in September.  On gameday, the bottom threads of page one have postings that are only about an hour old.  I think we owe it to ourselves to be more active.  Could we start and maintain threads like:

Weekly waiver pickups
Weekly injury tidbits
A weekly thread that folks can post stuff they see while watching games, like Sean Lee is late to the tackle.  (I noticed it during the Carolina game)
An offseason news and notes similar to what Faust does.  Who's moving up/down?  What are we picking up on Twitter and other sources.

As far as content, Norton's EOTG is gold to me.  I pay the subscription mostly for that article alone- but there are other sites I visit for stuff.  And, as mentioned above, IDPGuys did a pretty solid job this year.  But I would like to see more in the pre-season.  I'd like to see:

A guide on how to play IDP and what to look for.  This is especially useful for beginners who are timid about IDP's or have no real idea of how to set it up.
More in depth coverage during the training camp weeks.  Norton posted after week's 1 and 3- and I drafted before week 3 was published.  It seems that there are about 75 articles focused on offensive players to 1 IDP article.
A weekly waiver wire focused article besides EOTG.  Brammel used to post one and it was great to see a different person's opinions.  Right now, I go to about four other sites for that kind of info.  It would be great to just stay here. 

Anyway, just my two cents....

 
More in depth coverage during the training camp weeks.  Norton posted after week's 1 and 3- and I drafted before week 3 was published.  It seems that there are about 75 articles focused on offensive players to 1 IDP article.
A weekly waiver wire focused article besides EOTG.  Brammel used to post one and it was great to see a different person's opinions.  Right now, I go to about four other sites for that kind of info.  It would be great to just stay here. 
:goodposting:

 
Not sure what you mean by a "focused look", but there is currently a weekly dynasty sleeper piece that involves a quite a bit of research/work.  

Are you looking for "super deep" stashes or the kind you can typically find on 12-16 team leagues with standard sizes of rosters/taxi squads?

In case you can't figure it out, I produce said piece and would love feedback as to how to make the piece more useful.

Thanks.
I might just be a turd, but I really liked a deeper list of names right around the time when teams know whether they're playoff contenders or not.  https://subscribers.footballguys.com/apps/article.php?article=16bramel_rtd_11 was a Bramel article in week 12, it lists 11 DE, 16 LB, 6 S.

I'll pay closer attention to your article next season - I can see the value in a weekly look at fewer names as well.  It might not be exactly what I was thinking of, but I'm not the only audience here.  (I was the reader who nagged Jene that he mentions at the top of the article).

 
One other thing I'd love is the ability to reclassify player positions in MyFBG.  I'm trying to remember who it was this season, but there was a player FBG had as an LB and MFL had as a DE.  Since my leagues have position-specific scoring, it was annoying to have to translate his stats and recalculate the projections... particularly early in the season when multiple IDP projections were being blended by MyFBG.  Alternately, maybe find a way to list some players in both positions - as a LB, this guy blows, but as a DE, start him this week.

 
My main Dynasty league currently has 334 IDP's rostered and we haven'r even had off season roster expansion yet. I see a lot of "not worth rostering" comments by FBG IDP writers and some board posters and I shake my head. Yeah, many leagues aren't that deep but every league is different. Another is big play leagues where any DE or LB who can sack the quarterback is worth rostering depending on how deep rosters and starters go. The more IDP content the better. And imo the more starting players the better. 

 
I think part of the issue is us who do play IDP.  Look at this board.   The bottom threads of page one were last posted on in September.  On gameday, the bottom threads of page one have postings that are only about an hour old.  I think we owe it to ourselves to be more active.  Could we start and maintain threads like:

Weekly waiver pickups
Weekly injury tidbits
A weekly thread that folks can post stuff they see while watching games, like Sean Lee is late to the tackle.  (I noticed it during the Carolina game)
An offseason news and notes similar to what Faust does.  Who's moving up/down?  What are we picking up on Twitter and other sources.

As far as content, Norton's EOTG is gold to me.  I pay the subscription mostly for that article alone- but there are other sites I visit for stuff.  And, as mentioned above, IDPGuys did a pretty solid job this year.  But I would like to see more in the pre-season.  I'd like to see:

A guide on how to play IDP and what to look for.  This is especially useful for beginners who are timid about IDP's or have no real idea of how to set it up.
More in depth coverage during the training camp weeks.  Norton posted after week's 1 and 3- and I drafted before week 3 was published.  It seems that there are about 75 articles focused on offensive players to 1 IDP article.
A weekly waiver wire focused article besides EOTG.  Brammel used to post one and it was great to see a different person's opinions.  Right now, I go to about four other sites for that kind of info.  It would be great to just stay here. 

Anyway, just my two cents....
Sounds like the kind of things that people could produce to generate some income...

 
My main Dynasty league currently has 334 IDP's rostered and we haven'r even had off season roster expansion yet. I see a lot of "not worth rostering" comments by FBG IDP writers and some board posters and I shake my head. Yeah, many leagues aren't that deep but every league is different. Another is big play leagues where any DE or LB who can sack the quarterback is worth rostering depending on how deep rosters and starters go. The more IDP content the better. And imo the more starting players the better. 
This.  We run 54 man rosters with a 1 DT/2 DE/4 LB/2 S/2 CB being the most popular defensive lineup.  Most of the guys listed in the defensive sleeper articles are already rostered and many are already someone's starting LB.  It would be nice to see some speculation on young guys getting a chance due to injury or who have seen their minutes progressing upwards on these lists as well.  Definitely need this to go a bit deeper. 

 
Are you sure?  He has Jerome Baker as the 96th LB for Week #1.  That seems problematic going against Baltimore who will run the ball 1,458 times against Miami.
Raekwon McMillan at #22, Sam Eguavoen not in the top 148...Denzel Perryman #39, Kyzir White #103...Deone Bucannon #44 (while having both Devin White #16, Lavonte David #29)...Some of these are tough calls based on the injury status of players. But Oren Burks at #65 (???) When you include someone like Burks, who's been known to be out for weeks, it just casts suspicion on the whole list, unfortunately.

 
TBH, I'd rather have no rankings over rankings that have no connection with reality.  I've seen some bad rankings here before and the contributors were quick to come in and defend themselves and the picks.  Hopefully Tietgen will do the same.

 
Even the Guru has some slippage, "The Chiefs stayed with their nickel base scheme for the entire game, which had Hitchens and Damien Williams at linebacker"

Larkin thinks JBC still in Detroit:" One would assume Jim Bob Cooter will not have the same leeway when it comes to timeouts this week, and likely going forward."

 
It seems like the "IDP Sleepers" article is more of a list who did well the previous week than any real insight.  He seems to be chasing points in his recommendations. 
Correct.  The IDP equivalent of a 'Will Dissly stock up after scoring 2 TDs' note.  Not especially useful.

 
More disappointing content this week in the IDP Dynasty Sleeper content.  The recommendation was Blake Cashman (which isn't necessarily a bad idea) however the reasons cited were because Neville Hewitt was benched with the return of Mosely.  This is not the case.  Hewitt was injured and not active because of it.  He also mentioned that he outsnapped the "stud Mosely" as if his play was the reason.  Actually Mosely re-aggravated his injury and was on a snap count. 

Things like this just make you completely question the rest of the content since his reasoning was so blatantly incorrect.  Frustrating that this is the content being provided.

 
More disappointing content this week in the IDP Dynasty Sleeper content.  The recommendation was Blake Cashman (which isn't necessarily a bad idea) however the reasons cited were because Neville Hewitt was benched with the return of Mosely.  This is not the case.  Hewitt was injured and not active because of it.  He also mentioned that he outsnapped the "stud Mosely" as if his play was the reason.  Actually Mosely re-aggravated his injury and was on a snap count. 

Things like this just make you completely question the rest of the content since his reasoning was so blatantly incorrect.  Frustrating that this is the content being provided.
Disappointing.  IDP at FBG never really recovered from Brammel's departure to focus on medical updates.

I've said before and it's still true though...I get my best IDP info anywhere from the handful of regulars on this forum, yourself included.  This quiet little corner of the forums is always my first stop when I see new posts.  Wish I had time enough to contribute more original work.  Can't express enough gratitude to those doing the snap count updates, game scouting, and preemptive sleeper alerts in here!

 
Not necessarily limited to IDP content, but I noticed in the Gameday Morning edition that LB Matt Milano was listed as INACTIVE vs Philly.....not sure how many snaps he played but finished with 10 tkl, 3 assists.....not bad for an inactive 😕

 
Not necessarily limited to IDP content, but I noticed in the Gameday Morning edition that LB Matt Milano was listed as INACTIVE vs Philly.....not sure how many snaps he played but finished with 10 tkl, 3 assists.....not bad for an inactive 😕
These are the types of errors that are the most frustrating.  It makes it hard to trust anything that is being put out. 

 
Not necessarily limited to IDP content, but I noticed in the Gameday Morning edition that LB Matt Milano was listed as INACTIVE vs Philly.....not sure how many snaps he played but finished with 10 tkl, 3 assists.....not bad for an inactive 😕
what is  Gameday Morning edition?

 
I think twice now in the past two weeks in the Eyes of the Guru article John has used "patients" in place of "patience." That is really bothersome.

 
When I was a kid my Gramma got mad at me and was shaking a wooden spoon at me telling me how she "lost her patience" with me. In typical, wisearse-kid fashion, I replied "I didn't even know you were a Doctor!"

Needless to say, I earned the whack I got with that spoon. 

Not to take this thread off topic...

 
"Roderic Teamer now has six games under his belt at strong safety and has produced good numbers in four of them. The two contests he did not show up well in were against the Dolphins and Steelers who have been poor matchups for safeties most of the season. Teamer is coming off his best production of the year with eight tackles and a pass breakup against Chicago. A look at the schedule is another good reason to think about adding Teamer. The Chargers' remaining schedule features a pair of games against Oakland who is a strong matchup, including week 16. Other matchups include the Chiefs, Jaguars, Vikings, and Broncos. All those teams have been plus matchups for safeties."

Top 200 Forward DB rank: 162.

 

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