Alright, so I wanted to get a better handle on my fantasy football league this year. You know, actually try and win instead of ending up in the consolation bracket again. So, I decided to dive deep into some FF football rankings. Here’s how I did it, and what happened!
First, I grabbed my laptop and opened up my browser. I’m a hands-on kinda guy, so I needed to see the stuff, play with it, move things around. No use just reading articles; I wanted the raw data!
My DIY Ranking Process
- Started with the usual suspects. You know the big name sites. I didn’t write down or track them.
- Opened each one in a separate tab. Yeah, my browser was a mess, but hey, that’s how I roll.
- Looked for their “printable cheat sheets” or downloadable rankings. Some had Excel files, others just had tables on the page. I was looking for something I could copy and paste.
- Created a brand-new spreadsheet. Blank canvas, baby! This is where the magic happens.
- Started copying and pasting. Player names, positions, projected points… all that good stuff. This took a while, no lie. It was tedious, but I wanted to have all the info in one place.
- Added my own columns. Because, why not? I wanted to track things like “Bye Week,” “Injury Risk” (based on my expert opinion, of course), and “Gut Feeling” (a highly scientific metric).
After I got all the data into my spreadsheet, it was a huge mess. Different sites used different scoring systems, some players were ranked way higher on one site than another… it was chaos. So I spent a good chunk of time just cleaning things up.
I standardized the scoring projections as best I could. I’m no statistician, but I tried to average things out and make it all make sense. This involved a lot of eyeballing and some questionable math, I’ll admit.
Then, I started playing with the sorting. I sorted by position, by projected points, by my “Gut Feeling”… you name it. I wanted to see who the consensus top picks were, and where there was major disagreement between the different sites.
The Results (So Far)
Honestly, it was kind of overwhelming at first. But after messing around with it for a few hours, I started to get a feel for things. I identified some players that I thought were being undervalued, and some that were probably being overhyped.
I created some custom rankings based on all this. Are they perfect? Absolutely not. But they’re mine. And they’re based on more than just one website’s opinion. I feel way more prepared for my draft now. I’ve got my targets, my sleepers, and my “do not draft under any circumstances” list.
Will this actually help me win my league? Who knows! But at least I feel like I’ve done my homework. And it was kind of fun, in a nerdy, spreadsheet-loving kind of way. Now, I’m off to dominate my draft! Wish me luck (I’ll probably need it).