2015 Rankings: Running Backs

2015 Rankings: Defensive Linemen

by: Kevin Kumpf

Jay’s 2015 Rankings: Top-200 | Top-200 (PPR) | Top-200 (Half-PPR) | QB | RB | RB (PPR)| WR | WR (PPR) | TE | TE (PPR) | K | DST | Rookies |

Kevin’s 2015 IDP Rankings: Top-100 | DL | DB | LB

For the last few weeks, Jay has been unveiling his 2015 rankings on the offensive side of the ball, and now it’s time for IDPs to join the party. If you’re new to IDP leagues, or thinking about joining one, I encourage you to read my annual case for using IDPs in fantasy football. Assuming you’ve already taken the leap into the IDP world, you know that positional rankings are not quite one-size-fits-all. Depending on your league’s roster requirements and scoring system, my DL20 could be your DL5, and potentially even your LB50. I try to cover the most “standard” settings with the rankings below, but if you have questions about a particularly customized league, feel free to post in the Comments section. One of the many beauties of IDP leagues is the level with which they can be customized, and I love hearing about the more exotic options out there.

Without further ado, here are the Razzball 2015 Defensive Linemen rankings, as well as a brief take on each of my tiers below:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Dase’s Digest: Teddy Bridgewater

June 26, 2015 | 2015 Buy/Sell, 2015 Fantasy Football | 8 Comments

by: Fantasy with Dase or Days

With the NFL going to more and more of a passing league, the ability to find a signal caller that can provide you not just serviceable production at your quarterback spot, but the ability to give you quality production is ever so easy to spot and find later in the draft. With the quarterback position being littered with so many quality arms, a popular avenue to go with this position is the (Razzball approved) quarterback by committee (QBBC) approach. This is where you wait until at least the 10th round (heck, even later) of your draft and you grab one-to-three quarterbacks (depending on format) that you will play match-ups with each week.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2015 Rankings: Wide Receivers

June 24, 2015 | 2015 Fantasy Football, 2015 Fantasy Football Rankings | 8 Comments

by: Jay

Jay’s 2015 Rankings: Top-200 | Top-200 (PPR) | Top-200 (Half-PPR) | QB | RB | RB (PPR)| WR | WR (PPR) | TE | TE (PPR) | K | DST | Rookies |

Kevin’s 2015 IDP Rankings: Top-100 | DL | DB | LB

It’s wide receiver ranking time folks, and perhaps more than running backs, I find this position the hardest to work with. Not because it has a boner (though I have no idea how to verify this), but because of the sheer amount of names. There is no dearthness here my friends. And the process involves a lot of research and time, I mean, did you know there’s something called a Boykins in the NFL? I thought Boykins was what the Three Stooges did to each other all those years. Also, I was quite surprised that New Orleans did, in fact, have wide receivers on their depth chart. I had just assumed they were going to line-up 10 blockers and have Drew Brees throw to himself. (This is an annointed power given on high to the Breesus, as prophecy states.) Boy was I off. That’s actually going to be Buffalo’s strategy with EJ Manuel. But that’s not all I learned. Yes, you might be surprised by this… completely astounded I tell ya, but I also have some fantasy knowledge to drop. CRAZY, I know. So let’s get fantasy relevant… (That’s what she said. Uh, wait, that doesn’t really work here. I mean, it does, but it’s not really the strongest joke I could have put out there. Not sure why this is still a thing…)

Please, blog, may I have some more?

All We are Saying is, Give IDPs a Chance

June 22, 2015 | 2015 Draft Strategy, 2015 Fantasy Football, IDP Report | 4 Comments

by: Kevin Kumpf

Every year ESPN has it’s Draft Day Manifesto, which is an entertaining read, but always rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it’s because that article assumes little to no fantasy football experience. It’s 2015, even my grandmother knows the basics of our beautiful game. It also could be the word “Manifesto” which just comes off as un-American to me, and conjures images of Marx and Lenin. So rather than rip off our well-funded competitor, I named my annual “post the same article but update it to reflect the league’s current landscape” column after a song by a different Lennon, albeit one who was still not a resident of the 50 states and may have also been a Communist. Hey, nobody’s perfect! Without further ado, here is my annual case for including IDPs in your fantasy football leagues:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Podcast: The Game of Thrones Finale

June 19, 2015 | 2015 Fantasy Football, 2015 Podcast, Fantasy Football Podcast | 7 Comments

by: Jay

Well, we did it! That’s right, a Game of Thrones only podcast. Obviously, we won’t be turning into a Game of Thrones website (though, this might actually be a good idea the more I think about it), but with the lack of any relevant football news, Tehol and I figured, why not? Especially with the finale airing this past Sunday, it seemed time. We were joined by Kevin, your IDP specialist and we went over the few episodes we hadn’t talked about yet, and then the big finale. Enjoy it, as we’ll have to wait like 8,000 days until the next season starts, and I’m just talking about football…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2015 Rankings: Tight Ends

June 17, 2015 | 2015 Fantasy Football, 2015 Fantasy Football Rankings | 17 Comments

by: Jay

Jay’s 2015 Rankings: Top-200 | Top-200 (PPR) | Top-200 (Half-PPR) | QB | RB | RB (PPR)| WR | WR (PPR) | TE | TE (PPR) | K | DST | Rookies |

Kevin’s 2015 IDP Rankings: Top-100 | DL | DB | LB

Now we’re getting to the meat and potatoes of the fantasy rankings, perfect for the protein-starch diet which has netted me zero results. While last week’s ranking extravaganza with an opening salvo of kickers and defense was such a memorable experience, in that, it wasn’t, this week, we start getting serious. But not too serious, because we are talking about tight ends, more specifically, our tight ends, which probably needs less pants. Why? Because everything needs less pants. Think about it.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

IDP Scheme Changes, 2015: Rex On The Hunt For Wings

June 15, 2015 | 2015 Draft Strategy, 2015 Fantasy Football, IDP Report | 4 Comments

by: Kevin Kumpf

We’ve already tackled the draft and free agency, but there is one more facet of the IDP offseason that could potentially play the biggest role in altering a player’s value: scheme changes. When a team brings in a new Head Coach or coordinator, it’s a good bet that the new guy will want to imprint his own style on the team he’s inheriting. And while only seven teams changed their Head Coach since the 2014 season, a whopping 12 changed their Defensive Coordinators. Not all of these personnel changes will result in a true scheme change, but they all figure to have an effect on the opportunities presented to IDPs. It may take until training camp and the preseason to get a read on some situations, but there are other teams where we can already sense how things will look in Week One.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2015 Rankings: Defense and Special Teams

June 12, 2015 | 2015 Fantasy Football, 2015 Fantasy Football Rankings | 6 Comments

by: Jay

Jay’s 2015 Rankings: Top-200 | Top-200 (PPR) | Top-200 (Half-PPR) | QB | RB | RB (PPR)| WR | WR (PPR) | TE | TE (PPR) | K | DST | Rookies |

Kevin’s 2015 IDP Rankings: Top-100 | DL | DB | LB

When planning the rankings release schedule, getting rid of the Kickers and DST rankings as fast as possible was a priority for me. They are just soooo the opposite of what you really need to care about, that even implementing a strategy seems like a waste. Trust me, that time and energy is better spent elsewhere. Like Redtube. Or volunteering at your local shelter. Both scholarly pursuits in my honest opinion. Regardless, DEF is still a category, and leaving it off the rankings would seem like a missing tooth. Pittsburgh knows what’s up.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2015 Rankings: Kickers

June 10, 2015 | 2015 Fantasy Football, 2015 Fantasy Football Rankings | 8 Comments

by: Jay

Jay’s 2015 Rankings: Top-200 | Top-200 (PPR) | Top-200 (Half-PPR) | QB | RB | RB (PPR)| WR | WR (PPR) | TE | TE (PPR) | K | DST | Rookies |

Kevin’s 2015 IDP Rankings: Top-100 | DL | DB | LB

A lot of people come to me and ask “How should I go about drafting a kicker?”. And I respond, “Really bro, that’s what you want to talk about?” Actually, not really. None of that ever happens, and there’s a good reason for that. First, I’m always in my mom’s basement, so no one really comes up to me to ask about anything. Secondly, no one actually cares about kickers. Okay, okay, there are *some* people who draft kickers for one reason or another, but all those reasons are wrong. The Razzball approved strategy here is: Don’t be that guy you know. Which I guess is the opposite of Velveeta’s slogan. We aim high here folks. Look, they are what they are, and that’s a low-tier position on the totem pole of fantasy football. And that’s no joke, because the totem pole exists. Somewhere in New Mexico, with the face of Roger Goodell and Cobra Commander. Hail HYDRA!, amiright? Anyhow, let’s go over a few things about this position (that’s what she said), and then rank-o-rama starts. Prepare your alcoholic beverages…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The 2015 Fantasy Football Rankings are Coming

June 8, 2015 | 2015 Fantasy Football, 2015 Fantasy Football Rankings | 8 Comments

by: Jay

We all know winter is coming. What this post presupposes is, what if we aren’t Game of Thrones? Actually, based on Hardhome, winter is actually here. Wow. Only took about five years. What kind of seasons do they have? Regardless, as has been stated in the title, the time to release rankings for the 2015 Fantasy Football season is among us. Here’s how it’ll all play out, just so you plan your life accordingly! (If you’d like to get a head start, we do have our Way-Too-Early Rankings…)

June 10th – Kickers

June 12th – Defense and Special Teams

June 17th – Tight Ends

June 19th – Tight Ends (PPR)

June 22nd – Wide Receivers

June 24th – Wide Receivers (PPR)

June 29th – Running Backs

July 1st – Running Backs (PPR)

July 6th – Quarterbacks

July 8th – Top-200

July 13th – Top-200 (Half-PPR)

July 15th – Top-200 (PPR)

And don’t worry, we’ll still be covering league news, IDP Rankings, and Draft Strategy in or around those dates above. (Also, projections sometime in July, and auction values as well, if that’s your thing. It’s okay if that’s your thing. Everyone has a “thing”. Boy, you could infer so many things there…) Basically, we’re making another Draft Kit after a great response from last year’s first ever Razzball Kit. The RazzKit if you will. And I guess I could have just told you about the kit earlier and saved all this typing, but them’s the way it goes sometimes. But not really, because I have no idea what I’m saying at this point. The more important question is, do I ever? No. Not really.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Dase’s Digest: Jonathan Stewart

June 5, 2015 | 2015 Buy/Sell, 2015 Fantasy Football | 9 Comments

by: Fantasy with Dase or Days

There once was a time that I was a believer in drafting running backs early and often. In fact, I wanted to draft a running back with my first, second, and third pick, even in points per reception (PPR) formats. My goal was to always come away with at least three running backs after my fifth pick. However, as I was prepping for draft season (last spring), I noticed a consistent trend … Once the fourth round came around, I found myself seeing a nice size group of running backs just sitting there. The ability to load up on a more consistent and higher scoring position like wide receiver and the added ability to get a huge advantage at tight end with the likes of Jimmy Graham or Julius Thomas starting looking attractive. All while, you could wait and pluck between two-to-three running backs in the fourth through eight round of any draft. I had a lot of fun (outside the box drafting), and it didn’t hurt to mix in some success with this game plan.

Please, blog, may I have some more?