We gave a grade, out of 100, to each site based on the score they received using our scoring system. The highest scoring site in each category
received a grade of one hundred, and the lowest received a zero. Here is the honor roll from our competition:
Given that so many sites are coming out with fantasy football player projections, and there are a relatively small number of well-funded
corporate websites devoted to fantasy sports (out of 23 projection sets evaluated from 20 different sites, only really Yahoo's, ESPN's, and CBS Sportsline's sites really
fell into this cateorgy), we fully expected a smaller website would carry away the top ranking. It was to our surprise therefore that at the
end of the day it was the CBS Sportsline projection that won out, by some margin over its closest competitors.
CBS just had a good projection all around. The TE and WR projections were solid, but the 2nd best QB projection and the best RB projection set in the
competition were tough to compete with. CBS did a good job at projecting some breakouts (relatively strong Romo and Cutler projections stood out), but it
really performed best in correctly predicting poorer performances than generally expected. I'm sure that people who relied on CBS' advice and didn't draft
Laurence Maroney, Reggie Bush, Ronnie Brown, Jerious Norwood and Rudi Johnson at their average draft positions were glad that they did.
Best of all, CBS provided its projections totally free of charge.
The second strongest projection set in the competition, turned in by Football Docs, was carried by a sparkling RB projection which came in just behind the CBS projection.
Combined with a pretty good WR projection, it turned in a downright strong overall score. A good job overall, and worthy
of congratulations.
Like CBS, these guys also did a good job of predicting low on guys that other projections were sold on (Carnell Williams, Deuce McAllister and Ahman Green stood out here),
but Football Docs also did a nice job on predicting good performances by some veterans, like Kitna and Terrell Owens. Also, these guys had the best Braylon Edwards
prediction in the whole competition.
The top three projection sets also had the top three RB projections, which shows the importance of doing a good job with valuing your RBs. Fantasy
Football Sharks had the second strongest TE projection, which helped to balance out a middling WR projection and a forgettable QB projection, but that
RB projection really launched the projection set into a very enviable position.
Like all of the strongest RB projections, the Sharks did a good job of not getting suckered into overprojecting risky running backs. Low projections on Cedric Benson,
Julius Jones, and Tatum Bell really made this projection work.
Dominate Your League found itself in roughly the same position it did last year - with a top five finish. This time they did it with a good-not-great RB
projection complemented by solid QB and TE projections and a very strong WR projection. Nothing fancy here - just good, reliable projecting across the board.
This site just about nailed many of the top WRs in 2007, with some of the most aggressive projections for Randy Moss and Marques COlston that anybody turned in. In
2007 those guys were clearly bets that paid off in spades.
Much as in 2006, the Football Outsiders had a very good RB projection (fourth in the competition), pretty good WR and TE projections and a mediocre QB projection pulling down the total.
Some of this set's individual projections were right on the money, but a couple of other major misses pulled down the totals. Overall, a very strong score for the second year in a row -
worthy of recognition of their skill in putting together a quality projection.
This projection set just about got Brian Westbrook and Marshawn Lynch exactly right, and was good at projecting a lot of the top RBs. It just about nailed Shaun Alexander's down season,
alone among all of the sets we received. It missed pretty badly on Ladell Betts and Frank Gore though, and low projections of Cutler, Romo and Brees kept it from making a run at the title.
Football Guys offered four distinct projections, one from each of four staff members. Because people could use one or more of them, we scored them
all so that people could see which ones were best. Two of them were pretty good (#6 and #7 in the contest), and the other two were two of the very worst
(#19 and #21). David Dodds turned in the best projection set of the group - a totally solid effort that came in sixth overall. A good RB projection, decent WR
and TE projections, and a somewhat forgettable QB projection put this score just behind the top projection sets.
David Dodds' Football Guys projection had a nice, high projection for Reggie Wayne and a spot-on Clinton Portis projection to push it forward in the rankings,
but picks like a strong Steve Smith and a weak Randy Moss kept it from reaching that top tier of projection sets.
The other Football Guys projection set that made the top ten was the one turned in by Bob Henry. This one was had an OK RB projection and middling TE and QB projections,
but was carried by one of the strongest WR projection sets in the top 10.
This projection set got crushed by unusually strong Larry Johnson and Stephen Jackson projections, but made up for those with a good Adrian Peterson projection and strong
WR projections like for Santonio Holmes and Reggie Brown. A perfectly respectable effort.
| Website |
Overall |
QB |
RB |
WR |
TE |
| #8. Rotoworld |
86 |
100 |
59 |
94 |
91 |
Rotoworld had a pretty good overall score, but it got there through an unusual route - very strong WR and TE projections, the strongest QB projection
in the contest, and a really lousy RB projection. In sum it was not a bad job, but if that RB projection had been even passable the set would have been
a real contender for the top three or so.
This projection set just had QB after QB right on the money. It projected Romo, Palmer, Hasselbeck, Kitna, Eli Manning and Rivers all high, which was appropriate.
Of course, it also projected high on Parker, Jacobs, Johnson and a host of others that ended up underperforming.
The projection provided by Yahoo in their application, put together by Fantasyguru, was another funny projection set. This set had the number one projection
for both wide receivers and tight ends, and a decent QB projection, but a pretty bad RB projection sunk it down to 9th. Still a passable score overall, but this
one was another one that could easily have been a contender with even just a solid RB projection.
Fantasyguru did a good job on most of the receivers, with modest projections of guys like Mark Clayton and Donte Stallworth, and they just about nailed
Jerry Porter. These guys had crushingly high projections on a bunch of running backs that ended up having no value though - guys like Ahman Green,
Tatum Bell, Carnell Williams, Rudi Johnson and Deuce McAllister.
In something of a surprise, last year's first place finisher ended up in 10th, with solid but uninspired scores in virtually every category. They were better
at QBs and WRs than they were at RBs and TEs, but none of their scores was better than just pretty good. Still, the fact that they scored 10th out of a field of 23
shows that last year wasn't a complete fluke. This still was a perfectly reasonable projection overall, but should probably be considered as one good
source of projections among many good sources.
This set had a few nice projections, with a nice job on DeShaun Foster, a nice job on Reggie Wayne, several others, but had some bid misses too.
Overall this was a decent projection. |
