Quarterbacks to Target and Avoid, Projection Pal Files Available

August 17, 2016 By Mike MacGregor Leave a Comment

I’m not saying make a habit of drafting a quarterback early, but if you are going to take the plunge, Russell Wilson offers the best potential ROI of the top passers.

In case you missed it … What? You haven’t liked our Facebook page or don’t follow us on Twitter yet?… here is a bit of an update on what I’ve kept myself busy doing the last week.

Mostly, answering emails from Draft Buddy customers. It is mid-August and we are in the thick of drafting season. NFL regular season will be here before we know it. If you haven’t re-upped Draft Buddy yet then please get on it. Don’t wait until the last minute in case you do need some help getting ready for your draft.

I also updated my own rankings here on the website. The last update included some icons to show players to target and avoid. I will add a few sentences below explaining why I picked some of the quarterbacks who received the target or the avoid tags.

Today I added three Projection Pal files to the Draft Buddy download page, which include projections from each of CBS, ESPN and FantasyPros you can import into Buddy. These projections are as of yesterday, as it took a little while to put these together.

Quarterbacks to Target

Russell Wilson, SEA
I have him ranked 4th at QB. He usually goes QB4. The point here is, if you are going to take one of these top quarterbacks, grab the guy near the end of that tier and only IF he is at a value. In some drafts, Wilson is falling far enough he is worth it over stockpiling more middling RB and WR. Would it surprise me if Wilson ends the season as the number one QB? Not at all.

Kirk Cousins, WAS
Fantasy players don’t believe in Cousins’ talent. Fair enough. Under pressure, a do-or-die playoff game, I probably don’t have Cousins high on my list either. However I do believe in the offense run by coach Jay Gruden and Cousins has excellent receiving talent around him. Running game could look better. Cousins finished QB9 last season and is usually getting drafted outside the top twelve. When I wait at QB, which is most of the time, I’ve ended up taking Cousins a fair bit.

Quarterbacks to Avoid

Andy Dalton, CIN
A.J. Green is great but Tyler Eifert is banged up and I am not confident he is going to start the season. While I’m getting slightly intrigued by rookie Tyler Boyd because of the opportunity in front of him, Brandon LaFell is LaForgettable. Short of Giovani Bernard catching 100 passes there isn’t enough receiving talent here to propel Dalton to be any more reliable than Alex Smith, and everyone is already avoiding him, right?

Marcus Mariota, TEN
Admittedly my avoid picks at quarterback are, on average, not usually ranked or drafted very high, but I’ve seen a reach or three for Mariota in the last month. I think it is his youth, draft pedigree and good old fashioned optimism getting some fantasy players ahead of themselves on Mariota. Maybe he will be the next breakout Blake Bortles, but not this year. The receivers aren’t good enough and head coach Mike Mularkey has a spotty offensive record even though that is supposed to be his forte.

Dynasty League Football Rankings Now Available in Draft Buddy

July 27, 2015 By Mike MacGregor Leave a Comment

I am pleased to announce a big boost to our Draft Buddy fantasy football software customers! I received permission from Dynasty League Football – the premiere dynasty content fantasy football resource – to make their dynasty rankings more readily available for inclusion in Draft Buddy.

While the DLF rankings are freely available on their website, and our customers could always therefore import them into Draft Buddy via our optional Projection Pal add-on tool, now things are much easier. I’ve done the work for you. Yes, I hear a huge sigh of relief!

Available from the Buddy download page are two new files you can download. One is Projection Pal preloaded with DLF rankings. The other is Draft Buddy preloaded with DLF rankings.

Positions included are QB, RB, WR, TE, DL, LB and DB. The rankings are updated as of July 26, and I will update them periodically to the start of the season.

If you want to add the DLF rankings to your current copy of Draft Buddy for your dynasty league, download Projection Pal, adjust the Buddy filename specified on the setup tab and hit the Copy to Compiler button on each of the position Raw tabs. The rankings get copied to Custom 1 in your copy of Buddy.

If you just want to start from scratch prepping for your dynasty league draft, or want to review how I adjust Buddy options to make the DLF rankings the default cheatsheet rankings in Buddy, then download the DLF copy of Draft Buddy.

Thanks very much to the DLF crew for agreeing to share their rankings to our Draft Buddy customers! Feel free to post your own thank you in the comments or on social media. Please post or direct any questions about adding DLF rankings to Draft Buddy to me and I’ll help out as quickly as possible.

Draft Buddy Update and Optional Projection Pal Available

July 2, 2015 By Mike MacGregor Leave a Comment

Use Projection Pal to add alternate sets of projections to your copy of Draft Buddy. Download a copy of Pal pre-loaded with projections from draftbuddy.com.

Today there is a full projections, depth chart and ADP update available for the fantasy football version of Draft Buddy, our custom cheatsheet and draft tracking software.

If you want to mark these on your calendar, the remaining regularly scheduled updates are July 9, 16, 23, 30, August 6, 13, 20, September 3 and 8. Generally, once a week on Thursdays so Draft Buddy is up to date for you prior to the weekend’s prime drafting times.

The above noted updates are projections from FF Today, included in Draft Buddy by default. Today I also uploaded a copy of Projection Pal to our member download page including the official DraftBuddy.com projections (updated today), so you can add them to your copy of Draft Buddy as a second set of projections. To add them and make them the primary projections for your cheatsheets, follow these steps:

Download Projection Pal, the one that includes the Draft Buddy projections, and open it in Excel.
Open your copy of Draft Buddy in Excel.
On the setup tab in Pal, check that the filename matches the filename for your copy of Draft Buddy. It should unless you changed it. Everyone should be using version 1.2!
In Pal, go to the QB Raw tab, press the Copy to Compiler button, and wait for Pal to copy over the projections to Buddy. Repeat for each of the RB Raw, WR Raw and TE Raw tabs.
In Buddy, go to the options tab and change the default allocation key to 100% Site B.
Go to the action tab and click Compile Cheatsheets.

Use the Average Projections / Allocations Keys box to change the percentage of each set of projections reflected in the cheatsheets, if desired.

Now the cheatsheets reflect the new set of projections. You can use the Average Projections / Allocations Keys box to change the percentage of each set of projections reflected in the cheatsheets, if desired. Just remember each time you change anything on rules, scoring, options, or projections (anything that would cause the cheatsheets to change), then you need to click Compile Cheatsheets again to see the impact of that change.

Since we don’t have projections for kickers, defense or IDP, then you may wish to simply stick with projections from FF Today for each of those. You can change the default allocation key in Draft Buddy by position. To do that, go to each of the position tabs (QB, RB, etc.) and find the two “+” signs near the top of each tab. Click the first plus sign to open up some hidden columns. You’ll notice at the top the allocation key for the tab, which you can change by inputting a different number (from the options tab box), or you can change the key by player in the yellow highlighted column.

Fire away in the comments if you have any questions. Thanks!