Mike Rodriguez of Gridiron Experts.com






Every year you see fantasy owners follow the same poor drafting strategies that usually include a love and reach for the NFL’s newest rookies. But my amazement really comes with the logic in which people assume an NFL player can’t bounce back from a bad season. Everyone is so quick to point out fantasy stats of an unproductive season. It’s a new year, and realistically these stats are from a season ago and are pointless. Nobody wants to improve more than a NFL star that had an off year, so why not give them a chance?

While everyone is reaching for the new fantasy rookie, I’m drafting players like Greg Jennings and Jason Witten, who are undervalued from a season ago. Are these guys that much older? Did their teams take a step back in the offseason? No. They simply didn’t find the end zone enough and are in the fantasy football doghouse.

Value is a word that people love to throw around this time of year, but it is important. My advice is to draft a team that produces, not a team that looks good on paper.

Read more from Mike Rodriguez at www.GridironExperts.com

I truly believe that over-analyzing Strength of Schedule is an absolute waste of time. There are way too many factors that could affect those rankings once the season begins. Injuries, depth chart moves, weather and more change those defenses that could be ranked a certain number back in August.

Not drafting a WR because of a tough Week 15 matchup is ludicrous. What if that top-end cover-corner goes down with injury? That guy you passed on four months prior could be the guy who gets your opponent into the Fantasy Finals. Imagine drafting a running back who has a “soft” schedule” late in the season, but a few of those teams that RB will see employ upstart rookies, or guys who are playing above their August advertised values? 

The point is, Strength of Schedule is over-rated and doesn’t need to be a tiebreaker or any other metric for fantasy success. Defenses change, they under-achieve and over-achieve. When selecting players, look at them, their team, and their situations around them…next to over-worrying about Bye Weeks, SOS is simply useless...IMO.