The trends to know to dominate your fantasy football drafts
You know what's better than making a birdie? Making a bunch of birdies.
Anything beat watching a couple of episodes of your favorite show? Binging a whole season.
Certainly there is nothing better than drafting a handful of fantasy teams. Except drafting dozens of fantasy teams!
More is often better. Maybe, perhaps, greed is good?
Consider the Fantasy Madman a card-carrying, flag-waving member of Gang Greed, at least when it comes to fantasy football.
Yes, we prefer to draft a bunch of teams, but more importantly, this season we expanded of database of fantasy stats to create an even better Draft Value Quotient (DVQ).
And a deeper dive gave us clearer insights into some trends, be it coaching, age and beyond.
Nico Collins during training camp.
Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
Movin' on up
Whether it's coaching tendencies, depth chart uncertainty or age, three players are higher on our board than they are on most others.
With Tank Dell expected to miss all of this season after his devastating knee injury last year, and Stefon Diggs now playing for the Patriots, top Texans WR Nico Collins gets a usage bump, and it shows in the rankings.
Jaguars WR Brian Thomas Jr. had a great rookie season, and our formula expects him to rise even higher under a new coach in Year 2.
Same with the Chargers' Ladd McConkey.
Our model prefers younger RBs, and Bucky Irving is one of the biggest beneficiaries, with expectations for him to take a larger share of the Buccaneers' backfield workload.
Fantasy Football DVQ: The only draft rankings you need
The latest incarnation of the Fantasy Madman's football rating system has arrived. The nuts and bolts have been tweaked and strengthened, the breadth of the database was expanded, some ingredients were added to the soup, and some that were souring the stew were removed. So we're leaner and more flavorful. Now allow us to serve you the latest helping of the Draft Value Quotient (DVQ).
The DVQ is a system that rates players across the board, balancing value based on positional depth. A player's DVQ rating represents the point in the draft where projected production meets draft value. Each draft slot is assigned a value for expected production, which descends at a constant rate (same amount of expected points substracted from each descending pick). However, a player's real-world production forms an arc (steep fall at top, then flattening out), therefore there are gaps in the ratings. Example: The top player might have a 1.0 DVQ, but the second-ranked player might have a DVQ of 13.3. Deeper in the draft pool, instead of big gaps, players will only be separated by percentage points.
So saddle up, study up, then queue up a draft, and take a ride with the DVQ.
Pass the test
Compared to seasons past, quarterbacks are higher — particularly running QBs.
Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels and Jalen Hurts all rate in the top 40.
For traditional pocket passers, only Joe Burrow does.
Bear in mind, injuries/games played has higher impact than in the past, and a lot of the top running QBs haven't missed significant time of late, so we feel like there is a correction coming at some point, but our math loves these guys this season.
Old & grumpy
The trend for older, high-mileage or oft-injured RBs is exactly what you would expect, and the projections reflect that.
Derrick Henry, Christian McCaffrey and Joe Mixon are projected to have falloffs.
Jalen Hurts is ranked high in DVQ.
AP
Top story
The first few picks of the draft are normally the easiest, and this season is no exception.
Ja'Marr Chase should be No. 1. After that, you can't go wrong with Bijan Robinson, Justin Jefferson or Jahmyr Gibbs.
But remember that thing about oft-injured RBs? Well, that is why Saquon Barkley is not in our top five.
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