Making your own rankings & projections doesn’t need to be difficult. It might sound like there is alot involved in pulling them together- and there can be. You could spend a long time putting something together that helps you get some projections for your players, but you could struggle knowing where to start.
However, we have something that will get you creating them in no time and we explain how to use the file here.
Making Your Own Rankings & Projections: Our Workbook
Our workbook has been pulled together to try and make it as easy as possible to create your projections.
When you order the workbook you’ll get an email instantly, that has two files to download. An Excel workbook and a pdf outlining step by step how to get the best from it.
Making Your Own Rankings & Projections: League Settings
Before you even get into the first split of backfield carries or looking at who the coach is you need to enter your league settings. If you get these right, then you’ll be off to a great start in your final ranks.
Scoring Settings
The scoring settings are the most important, as they are what is going to help you win your league! We know there are a million ways that scoring can change. TE premium, points for rushing attempts, you name it there’ll be a scoring variation for it.
Our sheet is built to help you get you the best points projection, regardless of what your league uses to score.
League Variables
In filling in this section, you’ll get a Value-Based drafting (VBD) score for players. This helps you understand the value of players over the replacement level for each position (calculation is based on the positions required, teams in the league and rounds in the draft)
Making Your Own Rankings & Projections: Starting from the Top
Before we can start looking at splits of targets and rushes and all of the fun stuff, we need to try and work out how many plays an offense is going to run in a season. Equally, we need to know the split between rushing and passing plays.
We do that by looking at the coaches that are in place (well, Head Coach and Offensive Co-ordinator). Then, look at how they have split the plays in the past. If they haven’t coached in the league, then we apply the league average.
It’s also important to realize that the league has changed (even in the past three years), so we take a weighted average to put more emphasis on the past season. With that information, we can move onto the next step in creating projections.
Making Your Own Rankings & Projections: Team Tabs
Now we know how many plays each team is expected to run. We can draw our attention to each team’s situation. Each team has a seperate tab set in the same way.
General Information
Each team’s situation is outlined. At the top, we show the coaching situation, and highlight any changes from last season. That then gives the expectation of the plays that are going to be played (you can also customize that by over-typing it if you want).
Player Information
There is also a section for player information. It shows information that is going to help make your projections. The season stats show how they have previously performed, and the shares of the rushes/ targets are the splits they had in games they played in only.
If you want to change a player, then you simply type over their name and it’ll pull the new information to view.
Rushing & Receiving Projections
Once you know how many plays are going to be run, you can work out how they are going to be split between players and how effective they will be with what they are given.
You can use their previous seasons performances to gauge what they have done in the past, and how you feel they will perform for this season. Repeat this process for each team.
Making Your Own Rankings & Projections: Ranks Tab
Once you’ve gone through all of your team tabs, now it’s time to see how that shakes out across the league. That’s what the ranks tab is for. It pulls everything together.
Using the projections that you have entered, it will apply your league settings to get a fantasy points finish. It will also help you with a basic VBD score. Sort by that and you are golden!
Recommendations
But you don’t need to just take our word for it. I shared it with a few people that have made great projections in the past, and they liked it. Have a look below
Any questions? Let us know, you can find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Image Credit: Thomas J. Russo – USA TODAY Sports
