8/22/03
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Mike
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As most fantasy football participants (and NFL fans in general)
are aware, the NFL does an admirable job of maintaining parity among
the teams in the league, partly by awarding "soft" schedules
to teams that are struggling. However, between free agency (which
allows franchises to shoot from worst to first-or vice versa-in
a single season) and the league's 8-division structure (which results
in 14 out of 16 match-ups being identical for all the teams in any
division), soft schedules are no longer as easy to come by as they
used to be.
Based on our projections (which have taken personnel changes
into account), it is clear to us here at FantasyFootballExperts.com
that several of last year's least successful teams have ended
up with much more challenging schedules in 2003 than many playoff
teams. For instance, we rank the Cowboys (who finished 2002 at
5-11) as having the 8th-hardest schedule in 2003, whereas the
AFC Champion Raiders (who finished the regular season with the
inverse record of 11-5) will have this year's 6th-easiest schedule.
Because so many defenses were shaken up around the league during
the offseason, only four defenses are generally considered close
to being "sure things" in 2003: the Buccaneers, Dolphins,
Eagles, and Panthers. Because Dallas plays Philadelphia twice
and each of the other teams once, the beleaguered Cowboy offense
is in the untenable position of having to play five of the top
four defenses in the league-not to mention such up-and-coming
units as Buffalo and the New York Jets. The Raiders, on the other
hand, will not face a single one of the top four defenses in the
NFL; instead, Oakland returns from a trip to the Super Bowl to
face four of the league's worst five defenses (Minnesota, Cleveland,
Cincinnati, and Detroit) in addition to two games each against
the underachieving Chargers and Broncos. We probably do not have
to persuade you that Charlie Garner is a more talented running
back than Troy Hambrick, but our data indicate that conditions
are right for Garner to outperform himself and for Hambrick to
come up shy of even modest expectations.
As I hope the examples of Dallas and Oakland make clear, it is
extremely important to consider strength of schedule when it comes
to projecting player performances over the year, and we have made
such projections in nine categories: 1) total yardage, 2) total
points, 3) rushing yards, 4) rushing points, 5) passing yards,
6) passing points, 7) kicking points, 8) sacks, and 9) turnovers.
As I explained in last season's article concerning strength of
schedule, these projections have already been factored into our
player rankings. We currently rank Garner 13th partly because
of his soft schedule, so if you move him even higher because of
Oakland's schedule, you will be factoring the same information
into the equation twice. The full version of this article is far
too long to post here, but it is available at our website (www.fantasyfootballexperts.com);
this abbreviated version deals only with the first four categories.
For the following tables, we have focused not on what offenses
are expected to do, but on what the defenses around the league
have done in the past and are capable of doing in 2003. Of course,
we do not assume that the team with the most favorable schedule
will be the one to win the most games. To return to the example
of Garner and Hambrick, we would not expect a simple swapping
of the two teams' schedules to result in the Cowboy outperforming
the Raider. But these tables do give us valuable insight when
it comes to those players who could easily go either way. Is Detroit's
James Stewart poised to have a better-than-average or a worse-than-average
year? Will poor David Carr (of the Texans) have to face teams
that are particularly effective at registering sacks? If these
questions interest you, you will want to review these projections.
TOTAL YARDAGE YIELDED BY OPPONNENTS : |
RANK |
TEAM |
TYYO |
1 |
St. Louis |
5728.5 |
2 |
Seattle |
5707.3 |
3 |
Chicago |
5705.7 |
4 |
Green Bay |
5674.6 |
5 |
Denver |
5673.8 |
6 |
Oakland |
5666.6 |
7 |
Minnesota |
5660.1 |
8 |
Pittsburgh |
5632 |
9 |
Cleveland |
5599.6 |
10 |
San Francisco |
5590.2 |
11 |
Baltimore |
5585 |
12 |
Arizona |
5581.7 |
13 |
Cincinnati |
5576.2 |
14 |
Detroit |
5564.3 |
15 |
Kansas City |
5555.8 |
16 |
San Deigo |
5517.6 |
17 |
Carolina |
5471.2 |
18 |
Tampa Bay |
5428.5 |
19 |
Houston |
5359.6 |
20 |
Miami |
5355.6 |
21 |
Jacksonville |
5321.1 |
22 |
Tennessee |
5310.9 |
23 |
Indianapolis |
5304.7 |
24 |
Atlanta |
5300.5 |
25 |
Dallas |
5287.9 |
26 |
Buffalo |
5287.7 |
27 |
New Orleans |
5256.7 |
28 |
Washington |
5235.4 |
29 |
NY Giants |
5216 |
30 |
Philadelphia |
5211.8 |
31 |
New England |
5201.2 |
32 |
NY Jets |
5169.8 |
|
One point that this chart makes dramatically plain is that the most
challenging schedules have gone overwhelmingly to the teams of the
NFC East, with all four teams from that division ranked in the bottom
ten. Three of the four teams of the AFC East also made their way
into the bottom ten (with Miami being the lone exception because,
of course, Miami does not have to play Miami).
At the other end of the spectrum, we see that in the NFC West,
only Arizona failed to make the top ten (though the Cardinals
did rank a promising 12th). Although it is true that there are
no stellar defenses in the NFC West, the high rankings for these
teams have more to do with extra-divisional opponents, as the
NFC West is matched up this year against both the NFC North (with
three of the bottom ten defenses in the league: the Vikings, Lions,
and Bears) and the AFC North (with two of the bottom ten defenses
in the league: the Bengals and Browns). Weak defenses in the AFC
and NFC North and mediocre-to-poor competition within the NFC
West give St. Louis, Seattle, and San Francisco very bright prospects
indeed.
Those of you in scoring-only leagues will want to consult the
following chart (which has to do with points-rather than yardage-yielded
by opponents), but the results are extremely similar to those
obtained in the yardage chart (and for almost identical reasons).
TOTAL POINTS YIELDED BY OPPONNENTS : |
RANK |
TEAM |
TPYO |
1 |
Seattle |
387.3 |
2 |
St. Louis |
380.4 |
3 |
Chicago |
373 |
4 |
Pittsburgh |
369.3 |
5 |
Arizona |
366.8 |
6 |
Cleveland |
365.8 |
7 |
San Francisco |
365.2 |
8 |
Green Bay |
364.5 |
9 |
Oakland |
363.2 |
10 |
Denver |
362.5 |
11 |
Baltimore |
362.4 |
12 |
Minnesota |
360.7 |
13 |
Detroit |
358.5 |
14 |
Cincinnati |
356.2 |
15 |
Kansas City |
356.1 |
16 |
San Deigo |
350.7 |
17 |
Carolina |
336.4 |
18 |
Tampa Bay |
333 |
19 |
Miami |
326.9 |
20 |
Houston |
325.5 |
21 |
Atlanta |
323.1 |
22 |
Buffalo |
322.7 |
23 |
Jacksonville |
320.5 |
24 |
Indianapolis |
320.3 |
25 |
Dallas |
318.2 |
26 |
Philadelphia |
317.2 |
27 |
Tennessee |
316.3 |
28 |
NY Giants |
315.7 |
29 |
New Orleans |
315 |
30 |
New England |
311.9 |
31 |
NY Jets |
311.7 |
32 |
Washington |
304.6 |
|
Perhaps the most important difference between yardage and points
concerns the Cardinals, who vault from 12th-most-desirable-schedule
in yardage to 5th-most-desirable-schedule in points, giving the
skill players of the NFC West (whose teams are ranked 1st, 2nd,
5th, and 7th) the most favorable schedules this season, hands down.
Unfortunately, shifting the focus from yardage to points does nothing
to improve the prospects for skill players in the NFC East, whose
teams still rank in the bottom ten in terms of facing the most difficult
defensive squads in the league.
The Running Game
For many reasons, 2003 does not appear to be the year of the running
back. Chicago's Anthony Thomas suffered a sophomore slump last season;
the years have taken their toll on the Jets' Curtis Martin, the
Bengals' Corey Dillon, and the Titans' Eddie George; the perennial
Emmitt Smith is now behind an unfamiliar o-line in Arizona; Duce
Staley's training camp holdout has the Philadelphia front office
considering a one-two punch of Correll Buckhalter and Brian Westbrook;
"Fragile" Fred Taylor is nursing a bone bruise; Marshall Faulk and
Ahman Green both fell back to earth in 2002; Edgerrin James has
yet to prove that he is back to 100%; Cleveland's William Green
still needs to convince most of us that he can start this year the
way finished last year; etc., etc. With tested, durable running
backs in short supply, it is imperative to weigh strength of schedule
along with such factors as injury-risk and surrounding cast. To
that end, please consult the following two tables (the first concerning
yardage and the second concerning points).
RUSHING
YARDAGE
YIELDED BY OPPONNENTS : |
|
RUSHING
POINTS
YIELDED BY OPPONNENTS : |
Rank |
Team |
RYYO |
|
Rank |
Team |
RPYO |
1 |
St. Louis |
1937.1 |
|
1 |
Seattle |
92.8 |
2 |
Minnesota |
1922.9 |
|
2 |
Cleveland |
92.3 |
3 |
Seattle |
1914.4 |
|
3 |
Pittsburgh |
90.6 |
4 |
Chicago |
1904 |
|
4 |
St. Louis |
90.4 |
5 |
Denver |
1886.3 |
|
5 |
Chicago |
90.1 |
6 |
Pittsburgh |
1885.1 |
|
6 |
Cincinnati |
89.6 |
7 |
San Francisco |
1883.3 |
|
7 |
Oakland |
89.3 |
8 |
Detroit |
1873 |
|
8 |
Denver |
89.2 |
9 |
Green Bay |
1869.9 |
|
9 |
Minnesota |
88.7 |
10 |
Arizona |
1854.2 |
|
10 |
Baltimore |
88.1 |
11 |
Carolina |
1853.6 |
|
11 |
Kansas City |
87.5 |
12 |
Oakland |
1850.9 |
|
12 |
Arizona |
87.1 |
13 |
Tampa Bay |
1843.5 |
|
13 |
San Deigo |
86.6 |
14 |
Cleveland |
1841.1 |
|
14 |
San Francisco |
85.7 |
15 |
Baltimore |
1840.5 |
|
15 |
Green Bay |
85.4 |
16 |
Cincinnati |
1836.6 |
|
16 |
Detroit |
84.8 |
17 |
Miami |
1836.1 |
|
17 |
Miami |
80.9 |
18 |
San Deigo |
1832.7 |
|
18 |
Tampa Bay |
80.3 |
19 |
Buffalo |
1821.6 |
|
19 |
Houston |
80.2 |
20 |
Kansas City |
1820.2 |
|
20 |
Carolina |
80.1 |
21 |
Houston |
1815.9 |
|
21 |
Tennessee |
79 |
22 |
Tennessee |
1806.4 |
|
22 |
Jacksonville |
78.1 |
23 |
Indianapolis |
1802.5 |
|
23 |
Indianapolis |
77.7 |
24 |
Jacksonville |
1785 |
|
24 |
Buffalo |
76.4 |
25 |
Dallas |
1784.5 |
|
25 |
Atlanta |
75.2 |
26 |
New Orleans |
1774.4 |
|
26 |
NY Jets |
74.8 |
27 |
Washington |
1772.5 |
|
27 |
Philadelphia |
74.5 |
28 |
Philadelphia |
1768.6 |
|
28 |
New England |
74.5 |
29 |
New England |
1764.4 |
|
29 |
Dallas |
73.9 |
30 |
NY Giants |
1754.4 |
|
30 |
New Orleans |
72.1 |
31 |
NY Jets |
1751.9 |
|
31 |
NY Giants |
71.6 |
32 |
Atlanta |
1750.9 |
|
32 |
Washington |
70.9 |
|
According to these charts, the Browns face a much more favorable
schedule for rushing scores (2nd) than for rushing yardage (14th).
Whether William Green will take advantage of opposing defenses
who yield points on the ground or not remains to be seen, but
if the sophomore back fails to deliver on points, the explanation
will have to be Butch Davis' offense or Green's own lack of talent-not
the quality of his opposition. On the other hand, if Green is
limited to mediocre in terms of yardage, then he could very easily
point to the opposing defenses and say that they are the kind
of defenses that only allow mediocre success.
Backs whose schedules set them up for success in both categories
(yardage and scoring) are Marshall Faulk, Shaun Alexander, and
Clinton Portis. Faulk and Alexander should do particularly well,
as the Rams and Seahawks face only one defense (Pittsburgh) likely
to hold opponents to less than 100 yards. Between Michael Bennett's
injury in Minnesota and rumors of the Chicago Bears' interest
in acquiring Duce Staley, it is difficult to say who will emerge
as the most consistent ball carrier for the Vikings and Bears,
but what is certain is that both teams face very favorable schedules
in terms of rushing games. If Duce Staley were to be traded to
Chicago, then he would go from facing the fifth-hardest schedule
in the league (in terms of rushing yardage) to the fourth-easiest.
This difference would presumably go a long way toward mitigating
the fall-off that we might expect in his receiving game.
Other points worth considering: 1) Buffalo's Travis Henry should
have an easier time taking advantage of opponents in terms of
yardage than in terms of scores; 2) Curtis Martin does not face
a favorable schedule for a comeback year; and 3) Tiki Barber's
productivity is almost certain to fall off because of personnel
changes in the Giants' o-line-and even more certain to falter
because of his schedule.
:: comments to mike
davis
Readers who are relatively new to fantasy football or who need
to recruit FF rookies into their leagues may want to check out Mike's
instructional audio CD, Getting to Know Fantasy Football, available
at the following URL: https://www.drive2learn.com/store/
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