Fantasy Football: Summarizing Website Rankings Before Pre-Season Games
By Jason Lisk
For today’s list, I used the players ranked by four major sites: CBS Sports (Jamey Eisenberg’s rankings), ESPN’s Top 300, NFL.com rankings, and Yahoo composite rankings. In addition, I added two other sites that offer free Top 200 lists: FFToolbox and KFFL.com. I then looked at the rankings on each of those sites. It’s good to get a wide variety of looks at rankings. Yahoo’s composite rankings, for example, are by four different guys, but tended to be highly correlated–all four had Michael Turner higher (6th position on average) than any other of the five separate sites, for example.
I then took each player’s group of rankings, kicked out the lowest (worst) ranking, and double weighted the highest. The reason I did this is because looking at an average ranking across groups of sites will not represent average draft position. Draft position is driven primarily by the opinion of the top 25% that like a certain player, and barely at all by the bottom 25% that dislike him. Players with high variance in their ranking will tend to go higher on average, because those that like that player will take him where they have him ranked. I’m down on Michael Turner, but whether I have him 20th or 80th doesn’t matter (though it would pull his average down)–he’s not getting to me where I would select him either way.
The opposite is true as well. Vincent Jackson is ranked between 26th and 32nd in every list. He appears at #33 below. Why? Because each of the 6 websites have different guys in front of him, and if they follow their lists, he slips slightly because everyone disagrees on who should be taken in front of him.
With that in mind, here are the composite of the rankings, kicking out the worst ranking and double weighting the best for each player. I also bolded two players in each group of ten where there was the most disagreement in the six lists:
- Arian Foster, RB1, Houston
- Adrian Peterson, RB2, Minnesota
- Chris Johnson, RB3, Tennessee
- Jamaal Charles, RB4, Kansas City
- Ray Rice, RB5, Baltimore
- LeSean McCoy, RB6, Philadelphia
- Maurice Jones-Drew, RB7, Jacksonville
- Andre Johnson, WR1, Houston
- Rashard Mendenhall, RB8, Pittsburgh
- Aaron Rodgers, QB1, Green Bay
- Darren McFadden, RB9, Oakland
- Michael Vick, QB2, Philadelphia
- Michael Turner, RB10, Atlanta
- Frank Gore, RB11, San Francisco
- Roddy White, WR2, Atlanta
- Calvin Johnson, WR3, Detroit
- Steven Jackson, RB12, St. Louis
- Matt Forte, RB13, Chicago
- Hakeem Nicks, WR4, NY Giants
- Larry Fitzgerald, WR5, Arizona
- Greg Jennings, WR6, Green Bay
- Tom Brady, QB3, New England
- Drew Brees, QB4, New Orleans
- Peyton Manning, QB5, Indianapolis
- Miles Austin, WR7, Dallas
- Peyton Hillis, RB14, Cleveland
- Philip Rivers, QB6, San Diego
- Mike Wallace, WR8, Pittsburgh
- Ahmad Bradshaw, RB15, NY Giants
- Reggie Wayne, WR9, Indianapolis
- LeGarrette Blount, RB16, Tampa Bay
- Shonne Greene, RB17, NY Jets
- Vincent Jackson, WR10, San Diego
- DeAngelo Williams, RB18, Carolina
- DeSean Jackson, WR11, Philadelphia
- Antonio Gates, TE1, San Diego
- Jahvid Best, RB19, Detroit
- Tony Romo, QB7, Dallas
- Ryan Mathews, RB20, San Diego
- Knowshown Moreno, RB21, Denver
- Dwayne Bowe, WR12, Kansas City
- Mike Williams, WR13, Tampa Bay
- Daniel Thomas, RB22, Miami
- Brandon Marshall, WR14, Miami
- Dez Bryant, WR15, Dallas
- Jeremy Maclin, WR16, Philadelphia
- Marques Colston, WR17, New Orleans
- Brandon Lloyd, WR18, Denver
- Santonio Holmes, WR19, NY Jets
- Mark Ingram, RB23, New Orleans
- Stevie Johnson, WR20, Buffalo
- Matt Schaub, QB8, Houston
- Wes Welker, WR21, New England
- Ben Roethlisberger, QB9, Pittsburgh
- Ryan Grant, RB24, Green Bay
- Cedric Benson, RB25, Cincinnati
- Dallas Clark, TE2, Indianapolis
- Matt Ryan, QB10, Atlanta
- Kenny Britt, WR22, Tennessee
- Jermichael Finley, TE3, Green Bay
- Anquan Boldin, WR23, Baltimore
- Percy Harvin, WR24, Minnesota
- Johnathan Stewart, RB26, Carolina
- Jason Witten, TE4, Dallas
- Joseph Addai, RB27, Indianapolis
- Felix Jones, RB28, Dallas
- Vernon Davis, TE5, San Francisco
- Benjarvus Green-Ellis, RB29, New England
- Marshawn Lynch, RB30, Seattle
- Sidney Rice, WR25, Seattle
- Beanie Wells, RB31, Arizona
- Fred Jackson, RB32, Buffalo
- Josh Freeman, QB11, Tampa Bay
- Austin Collie, WR26, Indianapolis
- Mario Manningham, WR27, NY Giants
- Chad Ochocinco, WR28, New England
- Mike Tolbert, RB33, San Diego
- Eli Manning, QB12, NY Giants
- Pierre Garcon, WR29, Indianapolis
- Santana Moss, WR30, Washington
- Owen Daniels, TE6, Houston
- Joe Flacco, QB13, Baltimore
- Steve Smith, WR31, Carolina
- Johnny Knox, WR32, Chicago
- C.J. Spiller, RB34, Buffalo
- Matthew Stafford, QB14, Detroit
- Michael Bush, RB35, Oakland
- Ryan Torain, RB36, Washington
- Ryan Williams, RB37, Arizona
- Jimmy Graham, TE7, New Orleans
- Brandon Jacobs, RB38, NY Giants
- Jay Cutler, QB15, Chicago
- Michael Crabtree, WR33, San Francisco
- Mike Thomas, WR34, Jacksonville
- Pierre Thomas, RB39, New Orleans
- A.J. Green, WR35, Cincinnati
- Braylon Edwards, WR36, San Francisco
- Chris Cooley, TE8, Washington
- Sam Bradford, QB16, St. Louis
- Jacoby Ford, WR37, Oakland
[photo via Getty]