In Week 1 of 2015, a 49ers team that went onto finish 5-11 and fire their head coach (RIP Tomsula) mopped the floor with a Vikings team that would finish 11-5 and make the playoffs. The Jeff Fischer-led Rams somehow beat the mighty Seahawks multiple times. Things don’t always go according to plan in the NFL. Situational factors such as weather, bye weeks, divisional opponents, travel distance, and time of the game are often cited as an explanation for why those things don’t go according to plan. In the article below, I explore whether any of these factors have been statistically associated with wins, points, and offensive efficiency. These factors by themselves should not be the sole driver of decision making for picking fantasy football lineups, making bets, or predicting wins, but they do serve as a piece to the puzzle and should not be ignored. They can certainly highlight situations that should be avoided (such as starting QBs playing in 20+ MPH winds), as well as situations that should be targeted (such as the under on Thursday Night Football). Many of the factors covered below are included in our NFL models and serve as contributing factors to our win, spread, total predictions, and ELO ratings, which we will be publishing every week of the upcoming NFL season.
Continue reading The Impact of Situational Factors on NFL Games →

An underrated aspect of Fantasy Football is a player’s consistency (or weekly reliability). Amari Cooper and Demaryius Thomas have both averaged 9.14 fantasy points per game over their past thirty games. However, they took different paths to get there, with Demaryius performing more consistently, but Cooper having higher weekly upside. Understanding your player’s consistency is important when weighing your lineup’s overall safety and upside. If you can afford to take on the risk of a more volatile player, Cooper is a better choice, but if you simply need 8-10 points to secure a win, plug in Demaryius. With this framework, we looked at the top ranked fantasy players’ prior 30 games to paint a picture of their recent fantasy production and consistency. In the article below, we look at the Tight End position. We already covered Running Backs here.

Continue reading Tight End Consistency in Fantasy Football →

An underrated aspect of Fantasy Football is a player’s consistency (or weekly reliability). Amari Cooper and Demaryius Thomas have both averaged 9.14 fantasy points per game over their past thirty games. However, they took different paths to get there, with Demaryius performing more consistently, but Cooper having higher weekly upside. Understanding your player’s consistency is important when weighing your lineup’s overall safety and upside. If you can afford to take on the risk of a more volatile player, Cooper is a better choice, but if you simply need 8-10 points to secure a win, plug in Demaryius. With this framework, we looked at the top ranked fantasy players’ prior 30 games to paint a picture of their recent fantasy production and consistency. In the article below, we look at the Running Back position.

Continue reading Running Back Consistency in Fantasy Football →

I can’t recall where I first heard it, but my favorite fantasy draft quote is “you can’t win your league with your first pick, but you can lose it.” Drafting a stud in the 1st round does not guarantee a championship. In most cases, the league champ hit on a sleeper in the later rounds and picked up important pieces on the waiver wire. On the other hand, when your 1st round pick is a complete bust, it can be a crippling blow. This is why I have always prioritized safe, conservative picks in the 1st round over players who might carry more risk. In the article below, I examine the fantasy football value and risk between quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers using preseason rankings from ESPN.com and season-long scoring totals from pro-football-reference.com.

Continue reading Fantasy Football Value and Risk by Position →

Fantasy Points Above Expectation (FPAE) is a metric we created to better capture how much fantasy production each team is giving up. FPAE measures how many fantasy points a team gives up to a certain position, relative to what they were expected to give up. For example, Miami’s FPAE against QBs in 2016 was 6.1, meaning that they gave up an average of 6.1 points more than expected to QBs. In this context, “expected” is referring to their opponents’ average fantasy points. As a further example, let’s say Sam Bradford is averaging 15 fantasy points going into a Week 6 game against Detroit, and he scores 22 points in that game. Detroit would get a +7 FPAE vs. QBs for Week 6, since Bradford scored 7 points more than his average. Detroit’s +7 FPAE for Week 6 would be combined with their QB FPAE values from Weeks 1-5 to get their average QB FPAE. This process is repeated for each team against each position to calculate our FPAE values. Negative FPAE values indicate that a team is holding players they face below their average production.
Continue reading Fantasy Points Above Expectation →