Last week, I was pressured into being the 12th member of a fantasy football league. Full disclosure, I know enough about football to enjoy a game without having to constantly look things up. I enjoy a good game of Madden, a few Panthers games, and casual watching, but I was never into football as much as my peers. I don't know enough about all the players out there to really make informed decisions about my picks for my fantasy team.
Being the data science major that I am, I decided to build my entire team algorithmically. Kaggle has a dataset on a ton of NFL statistics, and ESPN published its scoring formats for how you win at fantasy. All that was left was ranking players based on these metrics so I could be prepared for the draft.
My draft has been scheduled for next week, so I ranked the top 12 players in each field since there's 12 people in my league. I didn't account for FLEX or anything else unique to fantasy.
You can view my algorithms here
- Baltimore Ravens - Tucker, Justin
- New England Patriots - Gostkowski, Stephen
- New Orleans Saints - Lutz, Wil
- Dallas Cowboys - Bailey, Dan
- Washington Redskins - Hopkins, Dustin
- Pittsburgh Steelers - Boswell, Chris
- Seattle Seahawks - Walsh, Blair
- Green Bay Packers - Crosby, Mason
- Kansas City Chiefs - Santos, Cairo
- Philadelphia Eagles - Sturgis, Caleb
- Carolina Panthers - Gano, Graham
- Cleveland Browns - Parkey, Cody
- New York Giants - Beckham Jr., Odell
- Atlanta Falcons - Jones, Julio
- Cincinnati Bengals - Green, AJ
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Evans, Mike
- Pittsburgh Steelers - Brown, Antonio
- New Orleans Saints - Thomas, Michael
- Dallas Cowboys - Bryant, Dez
- Denver Broncos - Thomas, Demaryius
- Pittsburgh Steelers - Bryant, Martavis
- Arizona Cardinals - Fitzgerald, Larry
- New York Giants - Marshall, Brandon
- Jacksonville Jaguars - Robinson, Allen
- New England Patriots - Gronkowski, Rob
- Seattle Seahawks - Graham, Jimmy
- Los Angeles Chargers - Gates, Antonio
- Washington Redskins - Reed, Jordan
- Kansas City Chiefs - Kelce, Travis
- Cincinnati Bengals - Eifert, Tyler
- Dallas Cowboys - Witten, Jason
- Miami Dolphins - Thomas, Julius
- Carolina Panthers - Olsen, Greg
- Los Angeles Chargers - Henry, Hunter
- Washington Redskins - Davis, Vernon
- Philadelphia Eagles - Ertz, Zach
- Dallas Cowboys - Elliott, Ezekiel
- New Orleans Saints - Peterson, Adrian
- Pittsburgh Steelers - Bell, Le'Veon
- Chicago Bears - Howard, Jordan
- Tennessee Titans - Murray, DeMarco
- Buffalo Bills - McCoy, LeSean
- Oakland Raiders - Lynch, Marshawn
- Arizona Cardinals - Johnson, David
- Los Angeles Rams - Gurley, Todd
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Martin, Doug
- Indianapolis Colts - Gore, Frank
- Cincinnati Bengals - Hill, Jeremy
- Washington Redskins - Hall, DeAngelo
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Smith, Jacquies
- Cleveland Browns - Boddy-Calhoun, Briean
- New York Giants - Jenkins, Janoris
- Philadelphia Eagles - Wentz, Carson
- Seattle Seahawks - Sherman, Richard
- New York Giants - Rodgers-Cromartie, Dominique
- Miami Dolphins - Jones, Reshad
- Arizona Cardinals - Peterson, Patrick
- Washington Redskins - Brown, Zach
- Arizona Cardinals - Dansby, Karlos
- Baltimore Ravens - Mosley, C.J.
- New Orleans Saints - Brees, Drew
- Atlanta Falcons - Ryan, Matt
- Washington Redskins - Cousins, Kirk
- Detroit Lions - Stafford, Matthew
- Pittsburgh Steelers - Roethlisberger, Ben
- Indianapolis Colts - Luck, Andrew
- Dallas Cowboys - Prescott, Dak
- New England Patriots - Brady, Tom
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Winston, Jameis
- Miami Dolphins - Tannehill, Ryan
- Green Bay Packers - Rodgers, Aaro
- Cincinnati Bengals - Dalton, Andy
Here's to a great season! Hit me with a star if you found this helpful :)