The Guide

[horrorfan]

Just wondering why there are no 'team defense' projections as it's a standard position in many leagues. Is it because they are so many changes from year to year that it can be difficult to project from a team perspective? Another reason?

[Dyv]

Just wondering why there are no 'team defense' projections as it's a standard position in many leagues. Is it because they are so many changes from year to year that it can be difficult to project from a team perspective? Another reason?

We decided to project them in terms of rankings - you'll see them ranked in the cheat sheet, but actually projecting it was a TON of time to do it right. Most sites take last year's #'s and repeat them or take last year's 2nd half and double them and call them 'projections' but we felt uncomfortable with that. So we evaluated how we felt their defenses had changed (additions, improvements, growth of young players, subtractions) then WHO they were playing this year (vs. Aaron Rodgers x2 is a LOT different than vs. Blaine Gabbert x2 - and made our predictions of how they'd finish.

I'm open to doing more specific projections (yards allowed, interceptions, Special Teams TD's, etc.) if it would be a benefit to folks, but our take was that most gamers didn't care to that level of detail.

Let me know what you think - we're open to expanding and improving, for sure!

[Bomm Bastic]

Question: The ramblings on 8/18 indicate an update to the guide, yet when I re-downloaded it I see no bold blue updates. Am I missing something?

Thanks

[Dyv]

Question: The ramblings on 8/18 indicate an update to the guide, yet when I re-downloaded it I see no bold blue updates. Am I missing something?

Thanks

We added/updated the cheatsheets, Team Defense Sleepers, Rookie of the Year articles

The update tonight will include the stats & projection updates through yesterday's preseason games.

[horrorfan]

We decided to project them in terms of rankings - you'll see them ranked in the cheat sheet, but actually projecting it was a TON of time to do it right. Most sites take last year's #'s and repeat them or take last year's 2nd half and double them and call them 'projections' but we felt uncomfortable with that. So we evaluated how we felt their defenses had changed (additions, improvements, growth of young players, subtractions) then WHO they were playing this year (vs. Aaron Rodgers x2 is a LOT different than vs. Blaine Gabbert x2 - and made our predictions of how they'd finish.

I'm open to doing more specific projections (yards allowed, interceptions, Special Teams TD's, etc.) if it would be a benefit to folks, but our take was that most gamers didn't care to that level of detail.

Let me know what you think - we're open to expanding and improving, for sure!

Thanks - I haven't looked at the cheatsheet yet so probably why I hadn't noticed! As for specifics, nah your reasoning for not going into too much detail is sound.

[Bomm Bastic]

We added/updated the cheatsheets, Team Defense Sleepers, Rookie of the Year articles

The update tonight will include the stats & projection updates through yesterday's preseason games.

Gotcha...thanks

[letangerang58]

I wish I had known about the coupon in the hockey guide... I literally bought it one day and the next day I read the hockey ramblings and Dobber was like "Oh btw, there's a coupon for 60% off the football guide in the hockey guide."

[hockeyrobot]

Just getting into the guide tonight and I have to say it's fantastic as usual. Very helpful keeper rankings that will come in use for my first ever NFL keeper.

[Bomm Bastic]

Has the guide been updated since its first release? I am still not seeing any blue font - indicating updated material.

[Dyv]

Has the guide been updated since its first release? I am still not seeing any blue font - indicating updated material.

It's been updated 4 times now - the most recent one was put in late Wednesday evening and should be blue all over. One thing to do is when you go to the downloads screen, hit F5 - that's a 'hard refresh' to make sure you have the most recent download link. Sometimes your computer will actually cache the older version just for speed depending on your settings. If you can't get the right guide PM me here or post here and I'll email you directly if needed. Should work with the old F5 trick, though!

More updates will be out this weekend. I also heard that somehow I left Fitzgerald off the top 200 draft list. An obvious oversight, although just about everyone likes him more than I do so no real harm done as letting others take him in the 2nd round is the best move IMO. Nonetheless, wasn't intended and will be fixed in the next release!

[Bomm Bastic]

It's been updated 4 times now - the most recent one was put in late Wednesday evening and should be blue all over. One thing to do is when you go to the downloads screen, hit F5 - that's a 'hard refresh' to make sure you have the most recent download link. Sometimes your computer will actually cache the older version just for speed depending on your settings. If you can't get the right guide PM me here or post here and I'll email you directly if needed. Should work with the old F5 trick, though!

More updates will be out this weekend. I also heard that somehow I left Fitzgerald off the top 200 draft list. An obvious oversight, although just about everyone likes him more than I do so no real harm done as letting others take him in the 2nd round is the best move IMO. Nonetheless, wasn't intended and will be fixed in the next release!

Ok cool, thanks for the helpful hints.

[ynotzz]

1. I think you could have split up the Running backs and Wide Receivers into two separate pages.

2. Could you add total overal rank in the positions rankings? The number 1, 2, 3, 4 etc next to the name doesnt really help me much. I can see that a name is lower on the page than the other, so it would be more useful to know what overall ranking the currently highest undrafted TE/WR/RB etc has. Either replace the 1, 2, 3 with overall ranking or simply add it ( 3 /4 - LeSean McCoy )

3. The ranking in those first 62 pages of the playbook doesnt match up with your overall ranking. If we look at the WR's you have ranked in round 5:

Welker, Bryant, White, Harvin, Austin, Colston, Nelson, Wallace, Smith, Vjax, Bowe, Brown

Compare it to the positional ranking:

Welker, Wallace, Vjax, Bryant, Smith, Colston, Maclin, Lloyd, Decker, Bowe, Stevie J, Garcon

Why are these different? And that was just one example. If we look at the overall ranking for both.

Round 5:

Welker, Vick, Gore, Bryant, Sproles, Bush, Greene, White, Harvin, Austin, Colston, McGahee, Redman, Wells, Spiller, GreenEllis, Ingram, Stewart

Overall rank:

This is a mess...here Welker is #45, Vick #24, Gore #63, Bryant #52, Sproles #59, Bush #41 etc.

What is correct? I like the idea, but it probably needs some updates.

4. Could you add a few more WR's to round 4 and 5 in the playbook? All those listed in round 5 were gone before I made my round 4 selection in tonights mock draft.

[Dyv]

1. I think you could have split up the Running backs and Wide Receivers into two separate pages.

2. Could you add total overal rank in the positions rankings? The number 1, 2, 3, 4 etc next to the name doesnt really help me much. I can see that a name is lower on the page than the other, so it would be more useful to know what overall ranking the currently highest undrafted TE/WR/RB etc has. Either replace the 1, 2, 3 with overall ranking or simply add it ( 3 /4 - LeSean McCoy )

3. The ranking in those first 62 pages of the playbook doesnt match up with your overall ranking. If we look at the WR's you have ranked in round 5:

Welker, Bryant, White, Harvin, Austin, Colston, Nelson, Wallace, Smith, Vjax, Bowe, Brown

Compare it to the positional ranking:

Welker, Wallace, Vjax, Bryant, Smith, Colston, Maclin, Lloyd, Decker, Bowe, Stevie J, Garcon

Why are these different? And that was just one example. If we look at the overall ranking for both.

Round 5:

Welker, Vick, Gore, Bryant, Sproles, Bush, Greene, White, Harvin, Austin, Colston, McGahee, Redman, Wells, Spiller, GreenEllis, Ingram, Stewart

Overall rank:

This is a mess...here Welker is #45, Vick #24, Gore #63, Bryant #52, Sproles #59, Bush #41 etc.

What is correct? I like the idea, but it probably needs some updates.

4. Could you add a few more WR's to round 4 and 5 in the playbook? All those listed in round 5 were gone before I made my round 4 selection in tonights mock draft.

Thanks a TON for this great feedback - I've been waiting for more of this - some of it needs explanation, but clearly (regardless) it needs help with formatting and cleaning up.

Quick answers:

1. I think you could have split up the Running backs and Wide Receivers into two separate pages.

I agree - the formatting on it is a bit odd, but ramming in that many names in that small of a place is rough to do. I tried separating it and putting it in a number of different wants but settled on this so that it was (at least) only 2 sheets of paper. Do you think it would be cool to put it in 2, 3 and single page formats and just include them all in the guide? I almost did this - placed it in multiple formats so folks could print and use whichever type (tight print, low pages or big print, more pages) they chose.

2. Could you add total overal rank in the positions rankings?

Absolutely - I'll work on how to do that more neatly - but I like the idea for sure. I also wanted to put ADP data in there so we could see where (in general) people looked at a certain player in the draft.

3. The ranking in those first 62 pages of the playbook doesnt match up with your overall ranking.

The simple answer is different people did different sections - so it's a slightly different opinion. Both are 'right' - but I hear what you're saying, the overall consistency and presentation of rankings from Dobber Football should be consistent. There is also a ranking (with the yellow formatted headers) that is specifically for keepers whereas the other rankings are for THIS year only. At a bare minimum, this needs to be formatted and labelled more clearly and if there is a discrepancy between 1 ranking and another it should be noted WHY in a better way. Thanks for that.

4. Could you add a few more WR's to round 4 and 5 in the playbook? All those listed in round 5 were gone before I made my round 4 selection in tonights mock draft.

I'm surprised to hear there weren't enough, but to answer your question: Absolutely. I've got a new playbook update coming out for the final week of drafts and I will definitely add another handful of players to each tier.

THANKS for the awesome feedback - I need this kind of stuff to improve the current guide and make sure next year has better and more of what everyone wants.

VERY much appreciate that you took the time to do this.

Dave

[ynotzz]

Great! My league has 14 teams, so that is probably why the list needs a few more names.

I love the idea of just adding individual position rankings etc as an appendix or something. It is a pdf so why not just include it?

How do I know when the guide has been updated?

[Dyv]

Great! My league has 14 teams, so that is probably why the list needs a few more names.

I love the idea of just adding individual position rankings etc as an appendix or something. It is a pdf so why not just include it?

How do I know when the guide has been updated?

Yep, different leagues - but I thought I had enough to cover 14's anyway. Nonetheless, yes I'll add to it and next year we'll have a more dynamic way of doing the guide, too.

Guide updates will be posted in the daily ramblings at the top 'guide updated' or something to that effect.