Beginner's Guide to Fantasy Football, Part 7: Analyzing Your Team

Photo: USA Today Sports

You’ve done it! Your draft was a huge success. Pop the cork, your job is done.

There is a certain temptation to do just that. It’s human nature to want to sit back and admire your own work. It’s also human nature to be attached to it. Often we come away from drafts unwilling to make changes to our starting lineups or rosters until it’s too late.

By all means, there is nothing wrong about taking pride in how well you feel you drafted. Gloat to your significant other, post your roster on Twitter, even do a little trash talking. Simply make it a fleeting feeling. There is much work to do yet.

Let’s take a look at a fictional team. For argument’s sake, let’s pretend this is a 12-team, PPR league with a flex starter.

Did Week 11 jump out at you immediately? That should be a big concern for this squad with the sheer number of byes it faces. Of course, it may not matter if the team is good enough to romp through the league. So let’s see how this team stacks up.

Quarterbacks - 9/10

Russell Wilson is as steady as they come, and Tom Brady may finally find Ponce de Leon's fountain of youth in Tampa.

Running Back - 6/10

Kenyan Drake was released from fantasy purgatory when the Dolphins traded him to Arizona last season, and the Cardinals sent his competition to Houston. The second starting slot and depth at the running back position may be a bit of a white-knuckle experience, though Raheem Mostert could have a big season if he stays on the field.

Wide Receiver - 8.5/10

A solid start with Julio Jones and Adam Thielen, and A.J. Green could win a lot of fantasy leagues if he can return to form with Joe Burrow slinging him the ball. CeeDee Lamb was a fantastic late-round steal that should not have been available.

Tight End - 7/10

Evan Engram should see a ton of targets, and Daniel Jones should be a vast improvement over late-stage Eli Manning and his own rookie season. Engram should post top-10 numbers at his position if he can stay healthy. Austin Hooper is a solid backup plan.

Defense - 7/10

This fantasy owner did the right thing and waited for the end of the draft to take a good defense. You will note it wasn’t the penultimate round, rather the third from last. This was a solid strategy because it was likely most of the top-10 ranked defenses would likely be gone by the time 15.11 came around.

Kicker - 8/10

An indoor kicker in the last round works just fine.

The Rate My Team App

You can do some good self-reflection after your draft. But, as always, there is a Footballguys tool to make things easier and more comprehensive. Perhaps one of the more famous tools on the site, the Rate My Team tool takes all the pertinent information -- roster, scoring system, starting lineup, byes, etc. -- and automates a massive analysis on your squad. Just take a look at what it had to say about the fake team we drafted above.

Overview:

We'll start by complimenting you on your strength at quarterback and receiver. As you know, it's very difficult in a competitive league to assemble a team that is strong at QB, RB, and WR, so just about every team will have a weakness. As you probably suspect, we perceive yours to be at running back.

In 2020, that's not an instant fantasy team killer like it might have been ten years ago. And in this particular case, we absolutely think you're strong enough elsewhere to overcome it. You've definitely got a good team here, but we'd feel better if we knew you were committed to keeping an eye out for the 2020 version of last season's Raheem Mostert or 2018's Phillip Lindsay or James Conner.

Players we particularly like on this team include Tom Brady, Julio Jones, DeVante Parker, Cam Akers, Adam Thielen, and Wil Lutz. We have all these guys ranked ahead of where they are typically being drafted.

Bottom line:

• With great inseason management, we think you have about a 80 percent chance of making the playoffs.
• With good inseason management, we think you have about a 70 percent chance of making the playoffs.
• With average inseason management, we think you have a 56 percent chance of making the playoffs.

In any event, we wish you the best of luck.

You may note the analysis agrees with the snap judgment that running back is a weak spot. There is much more than that in that analysis, and it can give you a great idea of where you will struggle and how you might be able to fix potential issues on your squad. It will also highlight potential positional gluts on your team. If you have too many good receivers, for example, they may be good trade bait. One of the better aspects of the Draft Dominator is the ability to see the projected total scoring for each of the franchises in your league. You can compare your draft to the others in your league using this feature and can target teams with strong running games, great quarterback play, and questionable receiver ability just by clicking a button. It is a fabulous tool that helps you truly break down your fantasy draft.