Three Takeaways From Thursday

It was a dominant and efficient performance by the Seattle Seahawks in the opener.

Percy Harvin was explosive and versatile… he looked like Percy Harvin. His projected fantasy numbers going forward will be inflated. Seattle is too efficient and diverse on offense for Harvin to consistenly put up great fantasy numbers. The Seattle defense also hurts his value due to the fact that the Hawks will rarely trail in the fourth quarter. I’m still taking Emmanuel Sanders over Harvin as wide outs that were taken in the WR2/WR3 portion of drafts.

The Green Bay defense isn’t awful. Julius Peppers was a top 20 defensive end last year according to all the advanced stats. Clay Matthews looks healthy and the Green Bay D will perform better than last year- 25th in yards allowed, 24th in points against. They have the Jets at home next week and that should be a great stream opportunity.

Russell Wilson finished 2013 as the 8th best fantasy quarterback despite throwing the 22nd most passing attempts among all NFL QBs. He does get it done with his legs but it is surprising that he was the 14th QB on average taken off the board in drafts.

Fantasy Football Updates & Other News

The last site update was back in June and so much as happened since then.   Hard to believe opening day for NFL Season just a day away.  In any case, there have been a ton of updates this past summer.  This post will highlight some of the major ones.

The following updates are specific to the fantasy assistant.

Now for the rest of the updates.

  • Trade Analyzer & Start/Sit tool support NFL IDP
  • Mobile NFL Trade Analyzer improved
  • IDP Player pages improved
  • Improvements to the ADP tools, added
  • Players have their own ADP information and section on their player pages
  • Plenty of behind the scenes geeky optimizations and tweaks to make sure things are speedy
  • Improved fantasy league updating speed and efficiency
  • Misc fantasy league sync fixes for accuracy

Expect a big announcement later this month or next about a major new feature to the site.  You won’t be disappointed.

Welker Alternatives

Not only is Wes Welker battling concussion issues but he is also suspended(MDMA) for the first four games of the NFL season. If you drafted wisely the answer is already on your roster, but if not… who are the fantasy alternatives?

Analysis: Brandin Cooks is available in 15-25% of fantasy leagues. He is the fastest player Drew Brees has ever played with and he is the most polished rookie of the 2014 draft class. The Saints finished 2nd in passing yards last year and 4th in passing attempts. Cooks is a fine Wes Welker alternative.

James Jones is the number one wide out for the Raiders(for now). Oakland should be trailing in the second half of most games this year which means tons of fourth quarter junk yards for James Jones. Jones is available in 60% of fantasy leagues.

I don’t understand the Brian Hartline fantasy aversion. He has now compiled back to back 70 plus reception, 1,000 plus yard seasons. He isn’t a touchdown machine but expect a career high from Hartline as Ryan Tannehill breaks out this season with an improved offensive line. Hartline is available in 45-85% of fantasy leagues.

Streaming Defenses- Week 1

There are always good defenses available each week and week one is no exception.

Analysis: The Philly defense should be mediocre this season but they have a great matchup with the Jags in week one. Chad Henne will get the start for Jacksonville on the road. Henne recorded a 76.5 passer rating last year with a 13 to 14 TD to INT ratio. Philly will score often and force the Jags to pass a ton in the second half which means sacks and picks. The Eagles D/ST is available in 90% of fantasy leagues.

A secondary option to consider this week is the Steelers at home against the Browns. We don’t know what we are going to get with Brian Hoyer and as a “streaming specialist” that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Hoyer looked serviceable last season but had a pedestrian 82.6 passer rating with 3 interceptions and 6 sacks in 3 games. The Browns are without Josh Gordon and the Steelers are more athletic on the defensive side of the ball this season with the additions of Ryan Shazier and free agent Mike Mitchell. The Steelers D/ST is available in 85% of fantasy leagues.

Improve Your Fantasy Outlook

The Fantasy Assistant offers many different ways to analyze your team and how you fit into your fantasy league.  Today we are releasing a drastically improved roster analysis tool.  You will find much more information about each player: roster trends, your fantasy outlook, and more trending stats.

Roster Analysis
Roster Analysis

Brand new in this update are the own and start bar graphs to the left side of each player.  Along with the start and own graphs will be trending information and arrows indicating fluctuations in these numbers.  Some players will have green or red arrows to indicate significant movement in start or sit trends.  These trends are extremely important when setting lineups and making roster moves.

A relatively new addition that were redesigned are the red and green backgrounds surrounding certain player ratings.  These colors indicate if a player is overachieving or underachieving and are also an important factor of expected performance.  These can play an important role in formulating trades and putting player importance into better perspective. You’ll notice that each player has their complete player information shown with position, team, and injury status.

Perhaps the biggest change to roster analysis is the addition of Fantasy Outlook indicators at the top right.  The fantasy outlook indicates how well the team is set up for success.  The ideal number is 80%+.  In the screenshot above, it shows a green outlook bar but other colors include yellow and red.  Your team’s outlook is updated once per day, or any time you make roster moves.

The team Outlook should be looked at in conjunction with other factors to gauge how well your team is performing.  These include: Season Projections, Weekly Projections, Daily Team Ratings & Rankings, and Daily Position Based Rankings & Ratings.

A lot of factors contribute to your team’s outlook, such as the health of your team, performance, and trends.  If you have a bad record, but a good outlook, then you are doing your job as a team manager by trying your best to improve them.  Alternatively, if you have a good record but a bad outlook then expect things to take a turn for the worse.

Sign up and take full advantage of this roster analysis.