Fantasy football data explanation

Fantasy football data explanation

Explanation of fantasy football stats as provided by www.football-reference.com

The scoring system used is as follows:

Fantasy Points = (Pass Yards)/25 + (Rush Yd + Rec Yd)/10 + (Pass TDs + Rush TDs + Rec TDs)*6 - INTs*3

Now, in order to meaninfgully compare players of different positions and players from different eras, we need some way of normalizing. The method I'm using is called VBD, which stands for "Value Based Drafting" and was first written up by Joe Bryant of footballguys.com.

Essentially, the idea is this: the value of a player is the difference between his fantasy points and a baseline, with the baseline being defined as the number of fantasy points that a relatively cheap replacement would get. I've defined the baselines as the fantasy point totals of the #12 QB, the #24 RB, the #30 WR, and the #12 TE for each season. I won't go into detail on why I chose these numbers, but if you are a fantasy footballer, you probably have some idea.

Anyway, here's an example. In 1975, O.J. Simpson had 362 fantasy points. The #24 ranked running back that year was John Brockington who had 116 fantasy points. Thus, O.J.'s value for 1975 is defined to be 362 - 116, which is 246. But wait, there's just one more thing. Since the NFL schedule was only 14 games long back in those days, I'll multiply that 246 by 16/14 to get 281 (I've also adjusted the values for the strike-shortened seasons of 1982 and 1987 in this way). Simpson's 1975, by the way, is by far the best season of the period 1970-2001. Also note that any player who is below the baseline will be counted as having zero value.

The other two columns are "Pos. Rank" and "Overall Rank." Pos. Rank denotes the players rank among all those at his position for the given year (with 1 being the best) and Overall Rank denotes the players rank among all positions.

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