The Big Lead

Fantasy Football: Summarizing Website Rankings Before Pre-Season Games

By Jason Lisk

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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:

  1. Arian Foster, RB1, Houston
  2. Adrian Peterson, RB2, Minnesota
  3. Chris Johnson, RB3, Tennessee
  4. Jamaal Charles, RB4, Kansas City
  5. Ray Rice, RB5, Baltimore
  6. LeSean McCoy, RB6, Philadelphia
  7. Maurice Jones-Drew, RB7, Jacksonville
  8. Andre Johnson, WR1, Houston
  9. Rashard Mendenhall, RB8, Pittsburgh
  10. Aaron Rodgers, QB1, Green Bay
  11. Darren McFadden, RB9, Oakland
  12. Michael Vick, QB2, Philadelphia
  13. Michael Turner, RB10, Atlanta
  14. Frank Gore, RB11, San Francisco
  15. Roddy White, WR2, Atlanta
  16. Calvin Johnson, WR3, Detroit
  17. Steven Jackson, RB12, St. Louis
  18. Matt Forte, RB13, Chicago
  19. Hakeem Nicks, WR4, NY Giants
  20. Larry Fitzgerald, WR5, Arizona
  21. Greg Jennings, WR6, Green Bay
  22. Tom Brady, QB3, New England
  23. Drew Brees, QB4, New Orleans
  24. Peyton Manning, QB5, Indianapolis
  25. Miles Austin, WR7, Dallas
  26. Peyton Hillis, RB14, Cleveland
  27. Philip Rivers, QB6, San Diego
  28. Mike Wallace, WR8, Pittsburgh
  29. Ahmad Bradshaw, RB15, NY Giants
  30. Reggie Wayne, WR9, Indianapolis
  31. LeGarrette Blount, RB16, Tampa Bay
  32. Shonne Greene, RB17, NY Jets
  33. Vincent Jackson, WR10, San Diego
  34. DeAngelo Williams, RB18, Carolina
  35. DeSean Jackson, WR11, Philadelphia
  36. Antonio Gates, TE1, San Diego
  37. Jahvid Best, RB19, Detroit
  38. Tony Romo, QB7, Dallas
  39. Ryan Mathews, RB20, San Diego
  40. Knowshown Moreno, RB21, Denver
  41. Dwayne Bowe, WR12, Kansas City
  42. Mike Williams, WR13, Tampa Bay
  43. Daniel Thomas, RB22, Miami
  44. Brandon Marshall, WR14, Miami
  45. Dez Bryant, WR15, Dallas
  46. Jeremy Maclin, WR16, Philadelphia
  47. Marques Colston, WR17, New Orleans
  48. Brandon Lloyd, WR18, Denver
  49. Santonio Holmes, WR19, NY Jets
  50. Mark Ingram, RB23, New Orleans
  51. Stevie Johnson, WR20, Buffalo
  52. Matt Schaub, QB8, Houston
  53. Wes Welker, WR21, New England
  54. Ben Roethlisberger, QB9, Pittsburgh
  55. Ryan Grant, RB24, Green Bay
  56. Cedric Benson, RB25, Cincinnati
  57. Dallas Clark, TE2, Indianapolis
  58. Matt Ryan, QB10, Atlanta
  59. Kenny Britt, WR22, Tennessee
  60. Jermichael Finley, TE3, Green Bay
  61. Anquan Boldin, WR23, Baltimore
  62. Percy Harvin, WR24, Minnesota
  63. Johnathan Stewart, RB26, Carolina
  64. Jason Witten, TE4, Dallas
  65. Joseph Addai, RB27, Indianapolis
  66. Felix Jones, RB28, Dallas
  67. Vernon Davis, TE5, San Francisco
  68. Benjarvus Green-Ellis, RB29, New England
  69. Marshawn Lynch, RB30, Seattle
  70. Sidney Rice, WR25, Seattle
  71. Beanie Wells, RB31, Arizona
  72. Fred Jackson, RB32, Buffalo
  73. Josh Freeman, QB11, Tampa Bay
  74. Austin Collie, WR26, Indianapolis
  75. Mario Manningham, WR27, NY Giants
  76. Chad Ochocinco, WR28, New England
  77. Mike Tolbert, RB33, San Diego
  78. Eli Manning, QB12, NY Giants
  79. Pierre Garcon, WR29, Indianapolis
  80. Santana Moss, WR30, Washington
  81. Owen Daniels, TE6, Houston
  82. Joe Flacco, QB13, Baltimore
  83. Steve Smith, WR31, Carolina
  84. Johnny Knox, WR32, Chicago
  85. C.J. Spiller, RB34, Buffalo
  86. Matthew Stafford, QB14, Detroit
  87. Michael Bush, RB35, Oakland
  88. Ryan Torain, RB36, Washington
  89. Ryan Williams, RB37, Arizona
  90. Jimmy Graham, TE7, New Orleans
  91. Brandon Jacobs, RB38, NY Giants
  92. Jay Cutler, QB15, Chicago
  93. Michael Crabtree, WR33, San Francisco
  94. Mike Thomas, WR34, Jacksonville
  95. Pierre Thomas, RB39, New Orleans
  96. A.J. Green, WR35, Cincinnati
  97. Braylon Edwards, WR36, San Francisco
  98. Chris Cooley, TE8, Washington
  99. Sam Bradford, QB16, St. Louis
  100. Jacoby Ford, WR37, Oakland

[photo via Getty]