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It is an interesting feeling being on this side of the fantasy football wall. The data domination article had a productive week 2, but the Dede Westbrook “must play” landmine was a tough pill to swallow. It is always the goal to hit 100%, but this is obviously not realistic. Within the constant refinement process hopefully I can avoid such significant misses in the future. WE ARE ON TO WEEK 3.

Last week, we discussed a week 2 approach centered around overreactions. As we move forward in the early half of the season one of my favorite approaches is to compare pre-season beliefs versus the present situation and for any gaps have the opponents up until this point forced those changes in the way the players/team is viewed. Incorporating that difference with an outlook moving forward can often lead us to fantasy championships. This idea will bleed into many of my data points in the next few weeks to great context to how we can use the information.

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The week 2 slate is my favorite of every season. It offers the best chance for sharp minds to jump on bounce backs players and teams. The public often overvalues a single game sample. Using data to attack these angles involves looking back at 2018, evaluating changes to personnel/coaches, and combining those facts with the week 1 data we have available.

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Folks… We made it. We have NFL Sunday from this weekend until January 25th. I can hardly wait for the kickoff octo-box and the soothing sounds of Scott Hanson’s voice to touch my ear drums. In preparation for this glorious moment, I give to you the second part of our week 1 NFL data evaluation. If you are just starting your week 1 prep, I recommend going back to the first article to review the Thursday night and early slate games.

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For my weekly article during the 2019 season I’ll be presenting statistics, data, and charting information that I’ve extracted that is relevant for the upcoming slate of games. My goal is that this information gives readers a new piece of the puzzle for the week that they may have been missing. I was excited to present the idea to our glorious leader MB for many reasons, but the greatest being that it is universally useful information. Readers who play season long fantasy, DFS, simply bets games, or play in office pools should be able to use the information to confirm plays that they were already considering, use it as an opportunity to dig deeper, or challenge my evaluation of the information. During the season I will present a top 10, but for week 1 I thought it would be a good chance to provide a piece for every game, and honestly, I just can’t stop thinking about football being back. Today we dive into opening night and the early Sunday slate.

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As the start of the regular season approaches fantasy football ADP becomes tight to the actual market. Everyone has had as much time to digest information and review preseason data as they will possibly get. The next two weekends will see a majority of the fantasy football drafts for the entire 2019 season completed. It’s the time of year for proclamations, flag planting, decisions, “my guys”, whatever your buzzword may be. In the months leading up to now a lot of the focus is on the idea of finding a few rounds of value prior to the ADP stabilization mentioned above for early drafts and best balls. Now it is about identifying the players that just you want to commit your season to. The following are the players that I am trying to come away with at least a piece of in nearly every standard roster PPR draft.

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Razzbowl 2019 is in the books and it provides a great opportunity to delve into how a strategy can change throughout a single draft. I’m hoping this breakdown can stir up your thought process in your own drafts as everyone is unique. In my mind, the biggest mistake people who play in a single home league or just for fun make is to just draft to rankings/ADP. I spend so little time ranking players. I spend far more time: placing players into tiers, reviewing what I believe the actual NFL teams offenses will look like, how the seasons will go for those teams, coming up with an initial strategy for each individual draft, pinpointing my favorite players to start off the draft from each chunk of draft positions (early/middle/late), and finally matching player value to rounds in the draft. Hopefully that makes sense. To put this idea into simper terms: Many people spend an excessive amount of time worrying about the order in which players like Josh Jacobs, Mark Ingram, and Chris Carson should be picked. I tend to not worry about the actual order, and try to spend more time coming up with what I believe is most likely going to happen with those teams, what could happen with that team, who I’ve drafted before that choice comes up, and just as important… what my plan is the rest of the way if I were to pick each of those players.

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In a time long, long ago (2 months) BEFORE writing at Razzball I thought I knew more than all of the fantasy experts. This wasn’t out of disrespect. It’s just who I am, and I would argue that is who most of us who play fantasy sports are. We think we know everything. We have the game figured out. We have a natural competitive spirit. Well once again it is time for all our readers to congregate to Razzball Commenter Leagues (RCLs) and prove that you know more than at least me, maybe the rest of the staff, and 200+ other competitors.

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Training camp is upon us and the NFL beat writers are heating up the twitter sphere with news. This article is an attempt to cut through the noise and figure out what if anything is most important. One vital component that needs to be pointed out is that we should never be relying on beat reporters, or on-lookers to evaluate the actual talent, or what is happening during practice. Writers do just that for a living, write. A few examples of opinions/misconceptions coming into play that were grossly misguided I’ve already seen in week 1:

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Choices. It is what we as fantasy owners deal with leading up to the draft, as we make our selections, and throughout the actual season. Every season we have particularly polarizing athletes that offer a wide range of outcomes. This leaves their ADPs with wide high-to-low pick margins and make it difficult to get a grasp on what the true projection of the player, because the floor/ceiling combination is different than all of the similar players around them. My aim is to present one player who can make or break your season from each of rounds 1-4 that fits this criteria and follow up with my personal view on that player.

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That’s my McDonald’s order. I fully expect my guy Vance McDonald to produce as much happiness for my fantasy football season in 2019 as that order does for my stomach. Although I previously touched on my tight end philosophy in my draft strategy article a few weeks ago I’ll repeat it here because I probably wouldn’t click the link either:

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With everything we know about valuing players in fantasy football the following series of statements does not make any sense. Corey Davis is drafted as PPR WR27 in 2018 (Per Fantasy Football Calculator). Corey Davis finishes the 2018 season as PPR WR28. Corey Davis turns 24 years old. Corey Davis is drafted at WR38 for the 2019 season (Per Fantasy Football Calculator).

Obviously, there are more factors that go into a successful or failed season than what is highlighted in such a simplistic form. Here are some quick hits that will help dig into this claim a little deeper:

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Everyone loves a feel good story. Last season we watched Damien Williams, a career backup, burst onto the scene in the fantasy playoffs to average 24.76 PPR fantasy points per game in weeks 14-16. He continued the success in the real football playoffs with 4 touchdowns combined in the divisional round and conference championships. Williams parlayed all of this into a new two year contract.

The fantasy community took notice, and Williams is currently the 21st player off the board in drafts per Fantasy Football Calculator. This valuation is supported by the high octane nature of the Chiefs offense and Williams potential fit into the scheme. However, when other factors are brought in to project Williams 2019 season the picture isn’t so clear.

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