Overall NFL Fantasy Projections/Rankings Updated – 2011
Published August 9, 2011 | 
About The Rankings
Well the lockout is over, and players are back to work. Most all of the top free agents have signed, so most of the important fantasy ranks have been calculated.
Our rankings are based upon team projections for the coming year. The projections are based upon last years performance coupled with offseason improvements. Each game’s statistics is then calculated based on each matchup. Each player is then assigned a percentage for various passing, rushing, & receiving categories, that shows how often they will be getting the ball.
Current depth charts are used to determine the top QBs, RBs & WRs for each team and the amount of the team’s passing plays, rushes/YDs, and catches/TDs each player will receive.
Return To The Mean
Why is Michael Vick only projected to have as many fantasy points as he did last year, in three less games? There is no calculation to return a player’s stats closer to the mean. But the way the NFL schedules it’s games is to have the division winners play the toughest schedules, by far. So the best performers every year naturally return to the mean, as better team usually equal better defenses. The parody in the NFL naturally returns players to the mean.
Where To Go From Here
There are specific pages for each player category showing each player’s full season projections. These pages automatically update after each week to combine each players earned statistics, and the players projected stats, totaling a full season projection each week of the season. Links to the pages can be found on the home page, in the navigation bar up top, and below:
- Overall Fantasy Projections & Rankings
- Full Season Quarterback (QB) Projections & Rankings
- Full Season Running Back (RB) Projections & Rankings
- Full Season Wide Receiver (WR) Projections & Rankings
- Full Season Tight End (TE) Projections & Rankings
Who REALLY Has the Easiest Bracket? By the Numbers
Published March 16, 2011 | Every year when March rolls around people start frantically absorbing information and filling out their brackets. A lot of people base which #1 seeds are a lock to advance to the Elite 8 and Final Four on who has the easiest bracket.
So who really does have the easiest bracket?
Fans Opinion on Twitter’
Before we take a look at actual statistics and numbers, let’s look at the oblivious fan to see where their heads are. A simple search for “Easiest Bracket” on the twitter search provides some quick and interesting results.
On a relatively small sample size of 50, the results are pretty surprising. It was pretty obvious that everyone thinks either Duke (West) or Pitt (Southeast) have the easiest bracket. The term “Easiest bracket of all time” was used on at least half of all tweets involving those two teams.
The “Duke has the easiest bracket” tweets almost all involved saying they have the easiest bracket every year, or littered with some sort of NCAA conspiracy theory. Typical Duke haters, which probably mean they KNEW Duke had the easiest road before ever looking at a bracket.
That probably just shows that the bias of the sample due to Duke haters (probably 55% of America) makes this data irrelevant and with very little thought involved. Either way, here’s the data:
| Duke | Pitt | OSU | Kansas |
|---|---|---|---|
| West | Southeast | East | Southwest |
| 21 | 24 | 1 | 4 |
Now The Data
There are a few ways to look at the strength of each bracket. I decided to look at the total strength of all 16 seeds, and then to look at the overall strength of the top 5 seeds. Continue reading
2011 NFL Combine Results and Stats
Published March 16, 2011 | 
The NFL Combine is over and all the football there is to look forward to is the draft. All the results are now up for every player’s 40-yard dash, broad jump, cone drills, shuttle times, vertical jump and bench press reps.
You can view all of the players on one page and sort the table for each category to see leaders. Also you can filter for school, name, position, etc.
Complete 2011 NFL combine results (all positions)
Or go to the individual positions for easier browsing: QB | RB | WR | TE | OL | DL | LB | DB
Best of the NFL Combine:
40-Yard Dash: Demarcus Van Dyke, CB, Miami – 4.28 s
Vertical Jump: Virgil Green, TE, Nevada, 42.5″
Broad Jump: Julio Jones, WR, Alabama – 11′ 3″ (Best by 4″)
20-Yard Shuttle: Austin Pettis, WR, Boise St. – 3.88 s
3-Cone Drill: Jeffrey Maehl, WR, Oregon – 6.42
Bench Press Reps (225lbs): Stephen Paea, DT, Oregon St. – 49 (NFL Combine record)
Thursday Night Pick: Panthers at Steelers (Week 16)
Published December 23, 2010 | Worst game of the week? No. Worst game of the season.
Luckily it’s a Thursday night game on NFL Network, on the eve of Christmas Eve, so no one is watching anyways.
The Panthers have been running the ball well of late and they just beat the worst team in football (Cardinals) at home last week, but the Steelers jsut don’t give upa ny rushing yards, it’s their thing. The only way to beat or even compete with the Steelers is to throw the ball well. And Jimmy Clausen isn’t going to win any games in the air.
This one shouldn’t be close. The line is Steelers by -14. Projections say Steelers by 20. Pick is Steelers -14.
For full game stats projections and predictions see the Panthers Vs. Steelers Matchup.
Thursday Night Pick: Texans at Eagles (Week 13)
Published December 2, 2010 | The game that no one will be watching tonight on NFL Network is the Texans at the Eagles.
The Eagles are coming off a brutal loss to the Bears where Michael Vick finally looked human. The Houston Texans defense may be just what the doctor ordered for Vick and the Eagles. The Texans defense is second to last to New England in pass yards per game at 286 yds/gm and second to last to the Jaguars in yards per attempt at 8.1 yards/pass.
The projection for this game shows Vick and the eagles putting up 308 yards passing at 8.3 per attempt and 3 TDs. Then when you factor in Michael Vick’s legs and Houston, may have a problem.
The Thursday night game gives another advantage to the home team, that didn’t have to travel this week.
The Vegas line is set at -8 for the Eagles.
As you can see from the graphic, I have Philly as a 88% favorite and a nearly -10 favorite in the spread. So the pick for tonight is the Eagles (-8).
Houston is lucky they still have Andre Johnson (Goodell/NFL Network Conspiracy), but it doesn’t seem to be enough and Andy Reid should have some fun with the Texans defense.
But who cares anyways? No one, and I mean no one, will miss at least the beginning of the return of Lebron James to Cleveland on ESPN, especially those without NFL Network (Sorry).