Remember to Think "Fantasy" Football - It's as True as Ever

The following is a reprint of an StatLeader article by Mister2 from last November. It brings up an extremely valuable point for the Fantasy Football team owner.

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When deciding who to start and who to sit, "strength of the opposing defense" will be a key consideration. Obviously, you want to start players with strengths pitted against defensive weakness. That formula should produce fantasy points. Knowing that "key to winning match-ups" isn't enough however.

Why? Because it is almost impossible to find out how defenses perform where it counts. If you are looking at NFL.com or ESPN.com, etc. - the sad fact is that you don't know which defense will be weakest against your player.

Let's go over the FACTS:

1. If you are in a league that gives points to defensive teams or players, their performance is rated against the leagues scoring system. In order to know how a defense will score - you have to apply the defensive statistics to the league scoring system. Duh, right?
2. The opposite is also true! If you want to know how your player will score AGAINST a defense, you will need to apply "what the defense gives-up" against the scoring system of your offensive player.

As usual - It Is All About League-Specific Scoring Systems! StatLeader.com uses defensive strengths and weakness in our statistical calculations for our individual player point projections over 13 (26 for '05) different leagues, including Yahoo, ESPN, CBS, FOX, Sporting News, Sportsline, and even Best Buy Fantasy Football Challenge.

Here are some examples:

The top three defenses against the "rush" from NFL.COM:

1. San Diego
2. Washington
3. Pittsburgh

The top three defenses against the "rush" in Fantasy Football from StatLeader.com:

Yahoo Default League:

1. Washington
2. Carolina
3. Baltimore

Surprise - Surprise. Do you realize that, if it weren't for the Bengals, Carolina is the "worst" defense against the rush according to NFL.COM? If you had your RB going against Carolina, you would be pretty happy - unless you knew the truth. Carolina is the second best defense in the NFL in keeping "Yahoo running backs" from scoring FANTASY POINTS. Remember the title of this article - Remember to think "fantasy" football.

What that means is, if you want to know how your running back will score against a defense - you have to look at how, and how many, FANTASY POINTS that defense gives up against YOUR specific league's scoring system. (Our proprietary - copyright Defensive Fantasy Points Allowed method)

We use this tool as an aid in projecting how players will SCORE on game-day. Where are you getting YOUR point projections this season?

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Nicely said, errr ... written 2. As he points out, this is one of the components that we incorporate into our point projection determinations. One of the reasons why we can help you win.