RADIO
Whenever we are either making our draft plans, or are in the middle of the draft itself, there will always be tight decisions to sweat out. Most of us would like to be in the same environment as a real NFL Draft room, where you could get an expert take from a team executive or coach to help you finalize a draft decision.
What you really want and need in the fantasy football online draft room, or in person with a laptop or tablet in front of you, is an assistant general manager. RotoBaller.com knows that you desire reassurance and confirmation on many of your 2022 draft picks.
So get ready to meet your new fantasy football assistant general manager: Welcome, to your fantasy football front office, The RotoBaller “Who Should I Draft?” Tool.
Editor's Note: Our incredible team of writers won two writing awards and received 12 award nominations by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. A big congrats to our very own Byron Lindeque (Golf) and Jordan McAbee (NASCAR) for both winning Writer Of The Year awards! Be sure to follow RotoBaller's analysis and advice all year long, and win more. Win More With RotoBaller!
The RotoBaller “Who Should I Draft?” Tool: Easy and Important
The tool is easy to use for any fantasy player, which is essential when you are in the flow of a live draft. There are only so many seconds on the clock, and instant comparison in rapid time is paramount. Up to four players can be instantly compared before you hit the “select” button.
First, you simply choose your scoring format, between PPR, Half-PPR, and Standard Scoring, and then can compare players side-by-side based on RotoBaller’s composite expert rankings. If it is early in the draft process, then use the “top-ranked players” menu to quickly browse and select two to four guys to compare. All skill positions are available, plus kickers and defense/special teams. You can also view the potential selections by rookie status only.
You can also type the names of players in the selection fields above the four-player headshot boxes. There is also a menu of the most popular players that have been searched for and compared. Those pairs of players do demonstrate which guys are creating some of the toughest “on the clock” decisions in 2022 fantasy football drafts.
Optimum Use Of The Tool
How you should ideally use the tool depends on what stage of the preseason you are in and the draft mode. You should get comfortable with the tool first for pre-draft preparation. As you compile personal rankings and consult expert ranks, the tool serves as a great “second opinion” to help finalize pre-draft targets and optimize your own cheat sheets.
In a live draft, you should always be queueing up players in every round, starting with the first pick. For instance, if you draft sixth, queue up the top six players that are desired and simply pick the top player available when the time to make a selection comes up. This exercise should be repeated after every pick in preparation for the next round. When deciding which players to queue up, or for final advice on a pick, quickly consult the tool to finalize the order in which players should be queued up or to help you make the actual selection.
In the earlier rounds, you will be comparing players from the overall perspectives. As the draft moves on, positional needs must be addressed, and then the tool can be utilized to quickly compare players by position. The tool also goes deep when it’s needed. Later in the draft, you can get a call on which possible sleepers or depth players you should target to fill out the end of the roster.
Slow drafts are a lot of fun because you always have something to look forward to during an extended period. The tool becomes very helpful during a slow draft, as you can compare many players between picks. After every selection in a slow draft, I will carefully weigh players against each other. As the other drafters can take a few hours to make their picks, it is possible to consider many various drafting scenarios while using the tool.
Using the tool, we compared some polarizing and interesting players against each other. When the results are generated, there are additional factors for context that are included, such as the Strength of Schedule and Projections. The latest RotoBaller player news is also readily available.
Two-Player Comparisons
Christian McCaffrey vs. Derrick Henry: This was a very close one, as it is between many fantasy analysts such as myself and Mike Florio, my co-host on the Saturday edition of RotoBaller Radio on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio. Mike is a McCaffrey backer, and the tool agreed with him, taking McCaffrey over Henry. The Panthers RB has an overall rank of third in PPR scoring, and Henry is fourth. McCaffrey is projected to score 322.5 points, and Henry is projected to score 308 points.
If I wanted to compare a third player with those two RBs, there is no need to start the process over. You can easily add third and fourth players in the player selection fields above the headshot boxes, and then click the “Who to Draft” button to quickly generate a new three-player comparison result.
Michael Pittman Jr. vs. Courtland Sutton: Here are two rising WRs with new quarterbacks that I have ranked inside my top 20. The tool clearly gave Pittman the edge, as he is projected to score 30 more PPR points than Sutton, at a total of 241.5. Pittman won’t likely have to share as many targets with a No. 2 WR in his team’s offense as Sutton will.
Three-Player Comparisons
Aaron Rodgers vs. Derek Carr vs. Trey Lance: This was a tight one with Rodgers ranking 12th at his position, Carr at 13th, and Lance at 15th. These are three of the top guy on the QB1/QB2 border. If you pass on Rodgers, Carr and Lance, who are upside plays for 2022, will be available not too long thereafter in many drafts. The tool not only compares players outright, but also gives you a feel for how tightly ranked they are against each other. So if you also get “sniped” on one of the three picks, it’s simply on to the next-highest ranked player without much of a fuss.
Zach Ertz vs. Dawson Knox vs. Pat Freiermuth: I have these three players ranked very closely together in the top 9-12 range. The tool advises to go with Ertz first, as he is ranked ninth at TE, Dawson is 10th and Freiermuth is 12th. I have the exact same ranks on the first two and Freiermuth at 11. So the tool confirms my takes on where these starting type TEs should be ranked. We want confirmation on where players should be rated, and the tool provides the ultimate second opinion,
Four-Player Comparisons
Josh Jacobs vs. Rashaad Penny vs. Chase Edmonds vs. AJ Dillon: When I want to start queueing and targeting RB2/RB3 types, the tool advised me to go with Jacobs, who ranks just outside the RB2 range at 25th at his position. Dillon was one spot behind. Penny ranks 30th and Edmonds 32nd. The ranking is an optimistic one for Dillon and indicates he could come close to outperforming Jacobs, who should now be the lead back in a committee.
Edmonds has significant potential, but by far has the lowest ADP of 83.5, whereas Jacobs is at 42.7, Dillon at 55.4, and Penny is at 67.1. Edmonds being ranked seven spots behind Jacobs while the ADP is so far off indicates that the Miami RB is a potential value target.
Chris Olave vs. Garrett Wilson vs. Skyy Moore vs. Christian Watson: I wanted to see how the tool ranked four rookies, and while I was not surprised to see Olave ranked first at a positional ranking of 46, it was close across the board when comparing the first three. Wilson was at 49 at WR, and Moore was at 51. Watson was at 61. The tool indicates that even though the QB situation is better for the latter two over Wilson, the Jets WR could potentially still outperform the Kansas City and Green Bay rookies, who are similarly viewed. It is worth noting that Moore has a healthy ranking separation from Watson.
Download Our Free News & Alerts Mobile App
Like what you see? Download our updated fantasy football app for iPhone and Android with 24x7 player news, injury alerts, rankings, starts/sits & more. All free!
Win More With RotoBaller
Be sure to also check out all of our other daily fantasy football articles and analysis to help you set those winning lineups, including this new RotoBaller YouTube video:
More Fantasy Football Analysis
