Top 250 - PPR Rankings and Tiers (July)

Welcome to our 2017 fantasy football rankings here at RotoBaller. This will be the first look at the overall 2017 fantasy football PPR rankings, including our rankings tiers. More in-depth breakdowns by position will follow for both standard and PPR formats, so don’t touch that dial after this episode ends! First order of business - for […]

10 Fantasy Football Predictions That Will Make Your Head Explode!

Fantasy football can be very unpredictable. In that way, it is a great metaphor for life. I found out this past week that a short story collection I wrote 13 years ago was politely mocked on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon this past May. Jovial Jimmy mentioned my book, Ten Tales To Make Your […]

Let the Kids Play - Why You Should Pick Rookie RBs Over Vets in 2017

The 2017 NFL Draft’s running back class was one of the most highly touted in recent memory. With eight players being drafted in the first three rounds, this class has a robust investment and is very likely to generate a number of immediate impact players. My aim in this article is to convince you that […]

Nick Mariano's Early-Round Overvalued List (Premium Content)

All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the premium dashboard. Everyone loves to talk about sleepers and which late-round fliers are going to deliver them to the promised land, but those picks can only blossom when overvalued land mines are left for others to step on. Here we'll be looking at two players per […]

Ranking The Top Fantasy Receiving Corps - NFC West

At last we have reached the final division in our fantasy receiving corps series. I wish I could tell you we saved the most potent division for last, but that would be a lie. The NFC West may very well be the weakest division, not just based on wide receivers, but on overall talent. That being […]

Deshaun Watson (QB, HOU) - 2017 NFL Rookie Profile

Position, Team, NFL Draft Spot: QB, Houston Texans, 1.12 Dynasty Positional Rank: 23 Redraft Target Round: 12-15 Analysis: Watson was the most successful college quarterback in the NFL Draft, as he led Clemson to the National Championship game in two consecutive years, including a victory in 2016. In two years as a starter, Watson threw for 8,702 yards and […]

Why Zero RB Didn't Work in 2016

Zero-running back as a strategy and theory is nothing new. However, it has come into vogue over the past few seasons and hit a fever pitch heading into the 2016 season thanks to a disastrous 2015 for some of the top-drafted running backs such as Todd Gurley and Doug Martin. The strategy didn’t pay off, […]

Hunter Henry vs. 2017 Rookie Tight End Class

Los Angeles Chargers tight end Hunter Henry was easily the best rookie tight end in the NFL and in fantasy football last year, but will he be better than all of the league’s new rookies this year? This year's crop of tight ends features some of the best high-end talent the draft has seen for […]

Rookie Tight Ends in the Best Fantasy Situations

2016 was a bad year for tight ends, and even worse for rookie tight ends. Thanks to a lackluster crop that had no tight ends worthy of a first-round pick, nobody at the position had 500 receiving yards on the season, and only San Diego’s Hunter Henry posted anything fantasy-wise as he hauled in eight […]

Do Wide Receivers Need a Top QB to Have a Dominant Fantasy Season?

Wide receiver is the premiere fantasy football position, so figuring out which WR are likely to produce at a high level is an important endeavor. One factor that could affect WR performance is quarterback play. Should we worry about receivers who are stuck with weak QBs? What if the WR or QB changes teams? Should we […]

Dynasty Stock Watch for 2017 - RB (Part 1)

April is a fantastic month for dynasty gamers, as the 2017 NFL Draft is upon us.  While we wait for perhaps the NFL's most significant offseason event, there are plenty of current NFL players to talk about, namely running backs. Here is a look at the running backs who saw a significant change in their dynasty […]

Fantasy Implications - Marshawn Lynch to Raiders

What once seemed like a far-fetched rumor or the kind of thing you'd pull off in Madden '18, the reality is that Marshawn Lynch may very well be wearing silver and black next season. The once-retired, Skittles-loving running back is bringing the rainbow to his hometown of Oakland. That is, once he gets officially reinstated […]

Fantasy Spin - Eddie Lacy to the Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks may not have Marshawn Lynch any more, but they will have someone in their backfield who runs almost as hard in 2017. Eddie Lacy signed a one-year contract with Seattle last week. My Green Bay Packers-loving cheesehead wife is mourning the loss of Lacy, and she is probably not alone. Fantasy owners […]

2017 Rankings Analysis - Wide Receivers in PPR Leagues

If you caught our earlier pieces on either quarterback, running back, or tight end, you're privy to our early fantasy ranking analysis for 2017. I firmly believe in the philosophy that fantasy should be as fun as humanly possible so what better way than to start preparing early? It's time to take a look at RotoBaller's early […]

2017 Rankings Analysis - Quarterbacks

Those of us who have been playing fantasy football for a long time know that quarterbacks can be fairly polarizing. Some folks tend to lean toward the "wait on QB" methodology while others are more in the "get yourself a stud" camp. Neither strategy is objectively wrong but each has its pros and cons. Here […]

2017 Rankings Analysis - Tight Ends in PPR Leagues

Just because the 2016 season was a downer for tight ends it does not mean that 2017 is destined to be a repeat. There are several wild cards at tight end because there is a bumper crop of young up-and-comers just entering their primes who showed flashes of great promise this past season. This coupled […]

Way Too Early Dynasty Mock Draft Analysis - Rounds 7-10

We continue our look at RotoBaller's Way Too Early Dynasty Mock Draft with a recap of rounds 7-10. We gathered 12 dynasty league experts and RotoBaller writers to conduct a week-long, email draft, MFL10-style, in order to evaluate early ADP values for dynasty leagues. If you didn't catch it earlier, start here with our first round […]

Way Too Early Dynasty Mock Draft Analysis - Rounds 2-3

The Rotoballer fantasy football crew got together recently to run a mock dynasty startup draft. Here, I'll give some analysis of the second and third round selections. Make sure to check out yesterday's first-round recap as well. The second and third rounds are, for me, the sweet spot where player values aren't quite as well defined as […]

2017 Rankings Analysis - Tight Ends in Standard Leagues

Stop me if you've heard this before: 2016 was not a great year for tight ends. Nobody at the position scored double-digit touchdowns and only two had 1,000 receiving yards. Thanks to serious injuries to major players at the position, fantasy owners were scrambling like Tyrod Taylor to find tight end help throughout the season. But […]

The Wide Receiver Height Argument Needs To Be Left For Dead

Right before the NFL draft, the same old schtick about player heights will come up. It's not even just height. It's hand size, weight, and every other cockamamie measurable they can come up with. When it comes to wide receivers, height ends up being the one the talking heads focus on most. It makes sense in […]

Way Too Early Breakout Candidates For 2017 - Quarterback

A stud fantasy quarterback can make a fantasy team the same way a dud can break an owner's heart. 2016 saw the emergence of guys like Derek Carr and Marcus Mariota, while proven commodities Cam Newton and Russell Wilson squandered. The rest of your team can be average but since you only have one shot at a […]

Sophomore Slumps - Third-Year NFL Players Who Will Rebound in 2017

NFL rookies have it easy. OK, well, maybe not easy. But their first-season struggles are typically chalked up to the difficult transition from the college ranks to the pros. There's no such mercy in Year No. 2, when the struggles get labeled as the dreaded sophomore slump. Sophomore slumps extend beyond just the player's on-field […]

Sophomore Slumps - Breakout Rookies Who Will Underperform in Year Two

Rookies are the ultimate unknown in the NFL. Teams review hours and hours of game film, analyze enough numbers to make most banks jealous, and scout players at individual workouts, but there's still an unknown quality to rookies. It is difficult to predict how they'll perform as professionals. When they do perform well, general managers and coaches […]

Way Too Early Fantasy Football Mock Re-Draft Analysis - Rounds 10-16

The later rounds of a draft are typically marred by a lack of attention. Your core team is in place, so the remaining rounds are filled with kickers, defenses, rookies, and sleepers. In a re-draft league, you need to make sure your backups are somewhat reliable, but there's always the temptation to grab that lottery […]

Way Too Early Fantasy Football Mock Re-Draft Analysis - Rounds 3-5

While the first and second rounds of any fantasy draft are often quite straightforward, as the biggest studs make their way off the board in a predictable order, as the early-middle rounds approach, things can get quite wild in a hurry. This trend was as clear as ever in our RotoBaller Way Too Early Mock […]

Biggest Risers and Fallers of 2016: Tight Ends

We're a few days out from the Super Bowl, which means it's not long until the NFL combine. From there it's a hop, skip, and a jump to the NFL draft, and before you know it, we'll be in fantasy football draft season. To make the best plans for 2017, it helps to understand what […]

Biggest Surprises of 2016 - Running Back

Going into 2016, I wrote an article where I went over how zero-WR is dumb and zero-RB is a ray of sunlight and truth. I was half right. 2016 was not the year to do the "Zero RB" game and hope to win your fantasy league. (OK Jordan Howard and Jay Ajayi owners, stop tweeting […]

Early Sleepers for 2017 - Quarterbacks

Everyone seems to have a different definition for what makes a fantasy football "sleeper." For some, it's simply a player they expect to greatly exceed expectations based on their draft position. For others, sleepers are more like unknown commodities - deeper under the radar than mere value picks. For example, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson currently […]

Biggest Busts and Disappointments of 2016 - Running Back

Welcome back to our RotoBaller offseason review series! Where we, your beloved RotoBaller fantasy football gurus/experts/shamans/soothsayers/yogis help you come to terms with the past season and slowly lull your inner football fan back into his or her offseason slumber once again. To do my part in helping guide this process along, I wanna talk running […]

Biggest Busts and Disappointments of 2016 - Quarterbacks

What a difference a year can make. Players that are viewed one year as safe bets can be viewed the very next year as shaky propositions. It's the beauty -- or, depending on how you look at it, the curse -- of fantasy football. No position is immune. Every season, there are a handful of […]