It happens every week: you take a look at your lineup and you’re left with the question, “Who do I start with?” We all have our star players who anchor our team, players should start no questions asked. However, there is a second tier of players on every fantasy football team whose presence in the weekly lineup is determined by how they match up with the opposing defense. After defense and kicker, the players whose fate lies in the matchup will vary depending on the fantasy coaches’ draft strategy. This article will explore goals per game as an additional metric to be used in conjunction with matchup research as a tool to optimize fantasy football lineups.
Goals per game is simply defined as the number of looks per game a player receives. In the receiving game, sacks are simply not an accurate measure of the receivers’ involvement in the game of football. It’s quite possible for a receiver to have the ball thrown to him more than ten times during the course of a game and then walk away with zero catches at the end of the day. Looking at the scoring chart, you would completely miss the fact that the player was heavily involved in the offense and therefore has high potential to generate statistically significant results if he can convert his goals into receptions, yards, and points. fancy. On the other hand, a rookie who never gets into the game and ends up with zero sacks and zero targets, having essentially no upside, would appear on paper similar to the highly targeted player if he used only sacks as a metric to evaluate the player. potential. It is for this reason that we recommend using the goals per game metric to assess your player’s advantages.
Please note that goals per game do not apply to quarterbacks or running backs. The beauty of this is that there is no layer of information hidden in quick or quick tries. As Rodger Clemens said, “It is, what it is.” What you see is what you get, the number of times a quarterback throws the ball is mostly his potential for fantasy football. Likewise, the number of carries a running back gets is a pretty accurate indicator of his advantage.
Let’s take a look at this in action. In week 8, Wes Welker was off my fantasy football team. He was deciding between starting Devin Hester, who was paired with Cleveland, and Mario Manningham, who was going against the Eagles. On paper, I promised to start with Hester because I liked the match better. Looking at the goals per game served to solidify my decision. Hester was involved in 13.6% of his team’s snaps and saw 6.8% of the team’s red zone action. Manningham was involved in 10% of the action on his team and 5% of the plays inside the Giants’ red zone. So not only was there a better match for Hester, but he’s a bigger, more consistent part of the offense. In the end, Manningham opted out of Week 8 with a shoulder injury, so he made my decision that much easier!
You can find a breakdown of player utilization called utilization percentage on various fantasy football sites on the web. This metric tells you the percentage of offensive plays that are run through an individual player. Essentially, this puts all positions on a comparable level and allows you to compare utilization between positions. In addition, they introduce a stat called red zone utilization, which is the percentage of a team’s plays in which a player participates inside the red zone. It may make sense to target red zone specialists who have a significant standard deviation above the mean for red zone utilization. In other words, if there is a player whose percentage of use of the red zone is very high, it may be worth an automatic exit.
Utilization metrics such as goal per game, utilization percentage, and red zone utilization percentage are very useful for evaluating fantasy football players. Never take the ratings you read on the Internet at face value. Always question the validity and seek alternative sources of information before finalizing your decision. If you’re deciding between two ranked players within 5 slots of each other, take a look at the utilization stats to optimize your lineup!