It’s not just who you draft, it’s when you draft them. You’ve probably heard this or some variation 100 times, but it’s definitely true. Fantasy owners really need to be on their toes to guess when their competitors will take a certain player. There are a lot of things that can affect the general perception of a specific player. For instance, if every single “expert” is raving about the same guy as a great target in the middle round, you’re going to have to be very aggressive to pick him up.
Ben Roethlisberger ADP: Why Yahoo! fantasy football ranks him higher than ESPN
There is quite the difference in ranking for Ben Roethlisberger for the two main fantasy football platforms. That will likely change his ADP for each site, but who’s right here?
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Additionally, the platform for your draft is going to affect the average draft position. Not all sites feel exactly the same, so there will be some discrepancy on the ADP. For instance, if Yahoo! ranks Player X at 25 and ESPN ranks him at 75, his ADP on Yahoo! will be much higher than on ESPN. If some sneaky commish wanted to, he could choose his platform based on the rankings alone. If ESPN has his favorite guys higher than Yahoo!, he would want to do it on Yahoo!.
With that in mind, we'll be taking a look at some players with bigger differences and their ADPs on other sites, too. For this time around, we'll take a look at Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
ESPN rank: 69Yahoo! rank: 42Fantasy Football Calculator (FFC) ADP: 53
Among players in a top-50 ranking, Big Ben may have the biggest difference. That is nearly 1.5 rounds of value in a 12-team league. Based on the FFC ADP of 53, the public seems to have an affinity to the Yahoo! rank, which makes sense.
The Steelers have all the pieces of the puzzle to be a powerhouse passing offense: their defense is awful, they have two explosive receivers, a pass-catching running back, their offensive coordinator loves to pass and a fairly solid offensive line. Ben ranked second in the NFL in passing yards last season and the Steelers are bringing back most of their key pieces.
If you’re in a Yahoo! league, you are probably going to have to pounce around that 42 mark and really anything before that is just too much. For ESPN, you might be able to pick him up around 55-60 or maybe a tad later.
